Rotterdam

A Schenectady couple enjoying a Memorial Day hike with their two young children at the Plotter Kill preserve in Rotterdam stumbled upon what animal and wildlife experts identified as a ball python snake.

"Often what we find is that people will release pet snakes into the wild when they get too big to keep at home," said Lisa King, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, where wildlife experts determined the animal is an exotic ball python that is not native to the area.

The Times Union obtained two photos Dylan Hall took of the speckled reptile that he told his neighbor his son nearly stepped on. The newspaper forwarded the photos on Tuesday to the DEC, a pet store and snake specialists, all of whom independently confirmed that it appeared to be a ball python.

Alvin Breisch, a retired DEC amphibian and reptile specialist, estimated that the snake is between 30 and 40 inches long. "People get these things and they get bigger and bigger, and oftentimes they say 'Let's put it in a nature preserve,'" said Breisch. They can survive several weeks without eating or ground nesting for birds. "They wouldn't be able to hibernate like our native species do," he said. The ball pythons are constrictors, which means they wrap themselves around their prey, suffocate it and eat it whole, Breisch said.

Allie Eastman, who works at Benson's Pet Center in Albany, identified the animal as a ball python snake because of the pattern of the markings on its body.

Eastman, who once had a pet ball python, said they make good "beginner pets" because they are inexpensive and docile. She said ball pythons get their names because they coil into a ball when they get scared. She noted that the snake, indigenous to Africa, may survive the summer if it catches enough to eat, but cannot survive Capital Region winters.

"When they let them go, they're killing them," she said.

Ball pythons are relatively small and native to Togo, Benin and Ghana in west and central Africa, according to information online. Rotterdam Deputy Police Chief Bill Manikas said Tuesday that his department had not received any complaints about the loose snake.

King said wild animals in New York, including poisonous snakes, do not approach humans unless they are cornered.

pnelson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5347 • @apaulnelson