Venomous snake found in batch of bananas at New Hampshire grocery store
A mildly venomous snake was found in a shipment of bananas at a grocery store in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officer Griffin McKeown told sister station WMUR that on Valentine's Day, he spoke to an employee at a Manchester Market Basket who found a snake in a box of bananas.
"Luckily for us, he seemed to be pretty familiar with snakes," McKeown said.
The snake was a two-foot-long Ornate Cat-eye, a mildly venomous snake species that is native to Ecuador, officials said.
"In New Hampshire, any venomous snake aside from the hog-nosed snake is illegal to possess," McKeown said. "We've had a few calls about pet surrenders of ball pythons and stuff like that, but never, never a venomous snake. That's definitely a first for me."
The snake was not harmed and given to Rainforest Reptiles Shows. For Mack Ralbovsky, vice president of Rainforest Reptiles, this was not a first.
"We get something like this maybe three or four times a year," Ralbovsky said. "A lot of the invasive species we see come from situations like this where an animal might be shipped in produce."
He said while the Ornate Cat-eye is venomous, its venom is not that impactful to humans.
"They're actually really adapted to eating things like lizards and amphibians," Ralbovsky said.
WMUR spoke with customers at the store, who said they were shocked to hear a snake made its way into a box of bananas.
"I'd be running out of here screaming," said one customer.
"I have two snakes at home, that's enough snakes for me," said another customer.
"That does not look like a friendly fella, that's for sure," said another customer.
Rainforest Reptile Shows said anyone interested in donating to their organization and its Reptile Refuge and Sanctuary so they can better care for this snake and the hundreds of other reptiles they have, can visit their website