A venomous snake from Ecuador turned up in a bunch of bananas at a New Hampshire grocery store on Saturday, according to state wildlife officials.
A lone ornate cat-eye snake, a mildly venomous species native to Ecuador, hitchhiked its way to the colder climates of the Northeast on an unexpected vacation.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department wrote on Facebook that its conservation officers responded to a call at a grocery store reporting a reptile sighting in a shipment of bananas. The snake was safely recovered and rehoused with the Rainforest Reptile Shows in Massachusetts.
Also known as the Leptodeira ornata, the snake is one of the most common species in western Ecuador and thrives in the dry forest ecosystem. Sightings are reported nearly every night along popular forest trails, according to Reptiles of Ecuador.
Bananas, however, are likely even more populous in Ecuador than any type of snake. The South American country is the top exporter of the fruit in the entire world, pushing out 6.7 million tons in 2023 alone — equal to a staggering $4.51B worth of bananas, according to the Observatory for Economic Complexity.
Slippery snakes manage to squeeze into just about every nook and cranny.
One family in the United Kingdom had their own hitchhiker — a snake native to Florida — emerge from their couch cushions while watching television. It was thankfully not venomous but gave them a good scare before it was rehomed.
An Australian man wasn’t quite as fortunate and was greeted by a python twice as it slithered out of his toilet. Pythons, while also being non-venomous, are most known for their ability to constrict and swallow their prey whole.
One unlucky homeowner discovered more than 100 venomous snakes that had emerged and started giving birth right in his backyard. In the whole batch, there were only five adult snakes and 97 newly-born juveniles.
