There is a python loose on the Dartmouth College campus in Hanover, N.H., and after days of searching, police still have no idea where it is, the Union Leader reports.
The 3-foot-long ball python first went missing from the Tabard House, a coed fraternity, on Thursday. It escaped from a tank in the house, according to police Capt. Francis Moran. Police warned the public to be on the lookout Saturday morning.
Although police do not believe the python is a mortal threat to humans, it may eat more common, cuddly pets like kittens or small dogs, according to Dr. Sarah Curry of All Creatures Mobile Vet of Kingston, N.H. However, both Curry and Christine Pinello, a veterinarian at River Road Veterinary Clinic, say it's more likely to eat rodents.
"A 3-foot python really isn’t big," Pinello told the Valley News of West Lebanon, N.H. "The python is probably scared."
Another scary aspect is the snake could hide in someone's house for "quite a while," Pinello said. Meaning someone could unexpectedly come across the python after everybody forgets there is a snake on the lam at Dartmouth.
The police department is urging people to use caution if they run into the python.
UPDATE July. 24 -- The Dartmouth, a student newspaper, reports the python was found by a small dog:
The 3-foot ball python lost at the Tabard coed fraternity last week was found by a member’s dog just after 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
The dog retrieved the snake, named Lyude, in a hole beside the fraternity’s porch, said Tabard president Connie Gong '15, who is looking after the python this summer. A plank of wood was covering the hole, obscuring the snake from view.
"I got back three minutes after the dog found it," Gong said. "It was yapping really loudly."
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