shazzbat wrote:
"Sandy" wrote in message
It's too cold for /any/ snake, other than our native species, to survive
for long periods in the wild in the UK. Possibly why the guy in the news
article found the snake on his allotment as it would most likely be living
in a compost heap somewhere close by.



But with milder winters, almost frost-free in the south, and a nice warm
compost heap, and a ready supply of food, like the rabbits to be found on
many allotments, who knows? Come to think of it, at least two cats have
gone missing from neighbouring houses recently......

Steve



Well yes, it certainly isn't /impossible/ and during the cold winter
months they would hibernate anyway, probably in a compost heap or
similar. Indeed I have successfully hibernated a number of snakes in an
unheated garage without any ill effect.

The problem it would face wouldn't so much be the cold, but lack of heat
as we don't have sufficiently high temperatures for long enough periods
to enable it to thermoregulate and digest food efficiently.

A snake the size of the python that was found wouldn't even need a
regular supply of food. It could quite adequately survive on 3-4 meals a
year, assuming it could obtain prey of a decent size i.e. large rabbit
or cat, even a small dog or lamb etc would suffice.

I don't think we could ever know whether a snake would actually survive
long term in the UK as almost all reported sightings of an "escapee"
result in them being captured. Certainly in the USA they survive quite
happily, where they also have a huge problem of people "letting them go
in the wild" to the extent they are actually becoming a problem in
certain areas as they're not an indigenous species.