A small red rat snake was retrieved from the engine compartment of a vehicle in Florida.
Lee County Sheriff's Office,Oliver James Montgomery in a Facebook post Tuesday, said that they received a call about a "15-20 foot python entangled in the engine compartment of a vehicle" in Lehigh Acres, a census-designated place just east of Fort Myers in Florida.
Sergeant James Van Pelt, who is a state licensed python contractor, responded to the incident and located a much smaller, red rat snake, "soaking up heat in the engine bay".
Video footage shared by the sheriff's office shows Van Pelt removing the snake from the engine and holding it up as the reptile wiggles its tail.
Authorities said that the snake was safely removed and released in a nearby wooded area unharmed.
Red rat snakes are found abundantly across Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, inhabiting pine rocklands, mangrove forests and even urbanized areas.
They don't have toxic venom or fangs and usually kill their prey by constriction.
Their diet primarily consists of small mammals (i.e. rodents), lizards, birds, and bird eggs.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.
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