SINGAPORE - Melvin Yap was asleep in his home in Jalan Loyang Besar on Monday (Oct 30) morning when he was awakened by the sound of his wife screaming.

Rushing out, he found a snake curled up on top of their family pet bird's cage. It may have been trying to eat the bird, he said.

"It happened around 6.30am," the 46-year-old project manager told The Straits Times on Monday. "My wife just came back from her night shift and our domestic worker realised there was a snake wrapped around the bird cage."

He used a stick and a plastic bag to capture the snake, which was about 1.5m long.

"When I saw it, I knew it was a python. I used a stick and a plastic bag at arm's length and nudged it into the bag," he said. "It was quite docile, quite shy."

However, the pet bird was "petrified" and hid in a corner of the cage.

"Usually when someone comes in through the gate, it will make a lot of noise," said Mr Yap. "But when my wife came back there was no sound from it. It's fine now. Saved by the cage."

The family kept the reptile in a fish tank and handed it over to the Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (Acres) on Monday afternoon.

Acres confirmed with ST that it has received the snake.

Mr Yap said he has heard of neighbours finding snakes in their homes, but they were smaller.

Jalan Loyang Besar is near a forested area and Pasir Ris Park.

There have been several reports about snakes found in urban areas recently.

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Last Monday, a snake was found coiled around a lamp post in a housing estate in Bukit Batok, and was removed by pest control.

Earlier this month, videos of an Acres officer and volunteer wresting large snakes out of a drain and from a construction site went viral.

Last month, a snake was spotted in a toilet bowl at a motor parts store in Upper Thomson.

All those snakes were reticulated pythons, which are common in Singapore and are 2.3m long on average. They are very rarely longer than 4m.

Snakes may end up in urban areas while tracking their prey.

According to a joint advisory by the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore, National Parks Board and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, people who encounter snakes are advised not to handle the snake.

Instead, they can call the Acres wildlife-rescue hotline on 9783-7782 or AVA's number on 1800-476-1600.