{"id":160151,"date":"2025-09-16T05:31:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/160151\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T05:31:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:31:15","slug":"3-foot-boa-constrictor-found-on-lancaster-county-street-wildlife-center-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/160151\/","title":{"rendered":"3-foot boa constrictor found on Lancaster County street, wildlife center says"},"content":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 When police officers called the Raven Ridge Wildlife Center for help handling an exotic reptile, volunteers were left in disbelief.<\/p>\n

A boa constrictor, around 3 feet in length, was found Friday on Union Street in Columbia, the wildlife center confirmed, and it’s still unclear how exactly it got there.<\/p>\n

And though the center doesn\u2019t normally take in animals like the boa constrictor, it said it felt compelled to help anyway\u2014so it sent a rehabber.<\/p>\n

While waiting for help to arrive, two Columbia Borough police officers trapped the snake under a trash can and put a brick on top so it couldn\u2019t move away, the wildlife center said.<\/p>\n

Once on scene, the rehabber was able to lift the can and get a good look at the snake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Boa was clearly tired and frightened but was gently picked up and placed in a crate for transport back to our center,\u201d Raven Ridge wrote in a Facebook post<\/a>. \u201cWe needed to help in this unique situation as it could have escalated, leading to panic and potential harm to the snake due to fear and misunderstanding of these misunderstood creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raven Ridge said boa constrictors are often released by pet owners who decide they\u2019re no longer able to care for them.<\/p>\n

The wildlife center said it is working with Forgotten Friends Reptile Sanctuary to try and find the boa\u2019s owner\u2014who they\u2019re hoping may have lost the snake by accident somehow. (Though, it noted, it does have several people interested in adopting the exotic reptile.)<\/p>\n

\u201cReleasing Boa constrictors into environments where they do not belong can have devastating effects, resulting in these snakes becoming invasive species that threaten native wildlife and ecosystems,\u201d the wildlife center said. \u201cIn colder regions, the snake may not survive, but in warmer, humid areas like South Florida, they can establish breeding populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wildlife center urged pet owners to do thorough research before getting a new animal that may need more space as it grows or outlive its owner.<\/p>\n

CBS 21 has reached out to police for more information but has not yet heard back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 When police officers called the Raven Ridge Wildlife Center for help handling an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[97434,97436,97435,4167,97438,97437,2690,79,201,55231],"class_list":{"0":"post-160151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-boa-constrictor","9":"tag-columbia-borough","10":"tag-exotic-reptile","11":"tag-invasive-species","12":"tag-pet-owners","13":"tag-raven-ridge","14":"tag-rehabilitation","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-wildlife","17":"tag-wildlife-center"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}