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Fri 8 Aug, 2008 05:14 pm
GALVESTON ?- Moody Gardens today asked Galveston police to investigate the second disappearance of a venomous snake within a month after finding that someone may have tampered with a lock to the snake enclosure.
The entire rain forest pyramid, which contains the snake exhibit and dozens of other exhibits, was closed after a bush viper was discovered missing from its enclosure between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. today, spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek said.
She said carpenters who installed a lock on the exhibit door after the same snake went missing for two days in July found that the angle of a screw appeared to have changed and that paint appeared to be cracked in one part of the lock.
The 10-inch bush viper, which is kept with two other bush vipers and three larger Gaboon vipers in the exhibit, was found after its first escape, lying atop a metal screen that seals the top of the enclosure.
Moody Gardens officials had no explanation for how the snake got outside the enclosure and settled on top of the screen, next to a light fixture.
Hamachek said the screen was reinforced and the lock put on the enclosure after that incident.
She said the bush viper normally was found in two spots within the enclosure and had shown no tendency to move around during the year it's been in the exhibit.
"At this point, we're seeing a pattern," Hamachek said. "We are not ruling out that (the lock) has been tampered with."
The snake was inside the exhibit when a biologist checked at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Hamachek said.
Biologists have scoured the enclosure and removed all of its parts, she said.
"They have gone above the ceiling to explore all possibilities," Hamachek said. "They haven't found a snake and they haven't found a breach."
The three Gaboon vipers, the largest of which is 6 feet long and 8 inches in diameter, were sent to a veterinarian to be X-rayed in case one of them swallowed the smaller snake, she said.
While that scenario is very unlikely, Hamachek said, officials want to examine every possibility.
Although the bush viper's venom is highly poisonous, healthy adults rarely die from its bite.
Moody Gardens
This bush viper, which was missing for almost two days in July, has disappeared again from its exhibit at Moody Gardens in Galveston.
BuzzGALVESTON ?- Moody Gardens reopened its rain forest pyramid today after closing it all day Friday because a poisonous snake, which police now suspect was stolen, was discovered missing from its enclosure.
Officials decided to reopen the pyramid after an exhaustive search of the exhibit all day Friday and far into the evening, Moody spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek said.
"They feel comfortable that the snake is not there," Hamachek said.
She had no explanation on why someone would steal a venomous snake. "It's hard to know why anybody would do anything like that," she said. "But it looks like that's what they did."
The 10-inch bush viper was last seen in its enclosure at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and was discovered missing shortly after 8:30 a.m. Friday when the cage was checked.
Moody managers called police when they discovered that the hasp holding the padlock to the snake exhibit appeared to have been tampered with.
Galveston Police Detective Michelle Sollenberger said she began a theft investigation after confirming that the lock appeared to have been tampered with and she was unable to find a breach through which the snake could have escaped.
Sollenberger said, however, that she has not ruled out the possibility that someone carelessly left the enclosure door open. She planned to interview Moody Gardens employees over the weekend.
The same snake was missing for two days four weeks ago.The bush viper, which is kept with two other bush vipers and three larger Gaboon vipers in the exhibit, was found lying on top of a metal screen that seals the top of the enclosure.
Moody Gardens officials had no explanation on how the snake could have left the enclosure, climbed on top of the screen and settled next to a light fixture.
Hamachek said evidence of lock-tampering has raised suspicions that the snake may not have escaped unaided the first time.
GALVESTON " A venomous snake missing for more than a week from Moody Gardens was found outside the entrance to its visitor center, where it apparently had been left, a Moody Gardens spokeswoman said today.
The 10-inch bush viper was found resting against a full-length window next to the door of the visitor center about 10 p.m. Friday after Moody Gardens had closed, spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek said.
The snake was discovered missing Aug. 8 from the exhibit it shared with five other vipers in the rain forest pyramid, a structure that is separate from the visitor center.
Galveston police began an investigation that included lie-detector examinations of Moody Gardens employees after discovering that someone appeared to have tampered with the lock to the enclosure.
No further information was immediately available.
Oops, sorry. I thought this was a thread about George.
@Intrepid,
George Gobel? George Elliot?
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