14-foot-long python belonging to the world's longest snake species found dead on side of the road on Long Island
New York officials said last week that they recently made a surprising discovery on New York's Long Island. On Valentine's Day, the Department of Environmental Conservation received a report of a massive snake along the side of a road.
When they arrived on the scene, officers found the dead snake "curled up in a ball." And when they were able to lay it flat, they discovered just how big it really was. The snake, which the agency said was found deceased and was originally thought to be about 12 feet long, actually measured out to be 14 feet – a length that's roughly the same height as a single-story home.
The snake was on the side of a road in Medford, a town just a short drive west of the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. The agency said that the snake has since been removed from the road to be "appropriately" disposed of.
The animal was identified as a reticulated python, which according to London's Natural History Museum is the "longest snake in the world." Animals of this species are native to Southern Asia, the history museum said, and can grow to be more than 20 feet long. In the wild, the snakes are known to eat birds and mammals, "including large species such as deer or boar," according to Zoo Atlanta.
The longest reticulated python ever found in the wild was discovered in 1912, according to the museum, and was measured to be nearly 33 feet long – "more than half the length of a bowling lane and makes this snake longer than a giraffe is tall."
"It is illegal to keep these types of snakes as pets in New York and they may only be possessed by holders of a Dangerous Animal License," the New York Department of Environmental Conservation said. "An investigation into the owner of the snake is ongoing."