Kingsnake captured in Swiss garden

Aargau cantonal police capture a king snake in Veltheim AG Keystone-SDA

A snake almost one-and-a-half metres long was discovered on Saturday in a garden in Veltheim, northern Switzerland. It was a red, black and white kingsnake, which is not native to Europe.

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A police patrol captured the animal, the Aargau cantonal police reported on Monday.

On Tuesday the police said the snake’s owner had contacted them. He was not at home at the weekend and discovered on his return on Monday evening that the snake was no longer there.

Kingsnakes are native to North America, where they are found all over the United States and into Mexico. They are not venomous.

+ Venomous snakes bit more than 40 people last year

Switzerland is home to eight native snake species, two of which are venomous: the asp viper and the common European adder. In Switzerland no one has died after being bitten by one of the two native venomous species since 1961.

Call 145, Tox Info Suisse’s emergency hotline, in the case of poisoning.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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