Snake has balls removed

[MA-Caver]

No, seriously it did... watch the video. (may have to bear with an ad first)
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=5806522&ch=4226726&src=news

Snake saved by surgery in Australia after mistaking golf balls for eggs
Jan 2 09:35 AM US/Eastern
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=cp_flg7et2as38&show_article=1&catnum=9
BRISBANE, Australia - A veterinary surgeon has saved the life of a snake that mistook some golf balls for chicken eggs and ate four of them.

The Australian Associated Press says a couple in New South Wales placed the golf balls in a chicken coup to encourage their hen to lay.

The balls disappeared.

But all the couple could find was a lumpy-looking carpet python nearby.

They took the almost metre-long, non-venomous snake to the nearby Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. There, senior veterinarian Michael Pyne operated to remove the balls from the snake's intestine.

Pyne says the snake is now making a speedy recovery.

"Those golf balls weren't moving any further. They were stuck where they were," Pyne said.

"If it hadn't been found, it would have died for sure," he said of the snake.

 

[Whitebelt]

I'm glad of those peoples' sense of responsibility. I think most people would have become scared and killed the snake at fist sight.

 

[donna]

It is actually illegal to kill snakes here in Australia.

 

[Rich Parsons]

It is actually illegal to kill snakes here in Australia.

Knowing that snakes eat eggs and having them around could this be why the chickens were not laying eggs? The humans were just not getting there in time to beat the snake from getting to the eggs?

 

[donna]

Putting a false egg in a nest box (in this case , golf balls) is a common practice . It encourages the chooks to lay in the place you want them to, instead of making their own nests all over the place. The chook sees the "egg" and thinks "hmm, this must be a good place to lay, as someone else has already layed here".

 

[exile]

'Chook' ?

What an endearing expression! I love it...

I'm very fond of snakes---they're an important part of why the earth isn't over-run with rodents---and I'm glad the people in the news story went out of their way to save this creature.

 

[MA-Caver]

'Chook' ?

What an endearing expression! I love it...

I'm very fond of snakes---they're an important part of why the earth isn't over-run with rodents---and I'm glad the people in the news story went out of their way to save this creature.

Me too. They could've just as easily killed it but didn't. So kudos to them.