SYDNEY, Australia -- As if sharks were not already enough to worry about, an Australian surfer has been seen paddling out with a python coiled around his neck.
SYDNEY, Australia -- As if sharks were not already enough to worry about, an Australian surfer has been seen paddling out with a python coiled around his neck.
The intrepid surfer caused a stir on Australia's Gold Coast after footage emerged of him carving through the azure waves while carrying his pet carpet python. But authorities said he did not possess a permit to have the reptile in public, and fined the man 2,322 Australian dollars . "To take an animal out in public or display it requires a separate permit," Queensland's Department of Environment and Science said Monday in a statement."The python would have found the water to be extremely cold, and the only snakes that should be in the ocean are sea snakes."
Carpet pythons are non-venomous snakes that can grow up to three metres long, and wrap around their prey and squeeze it until it suffocates.