Burmese Ambush

People don't think of Hong Kong as a place to go hiking, yet the territory's terrain makes for numerous opportunities to get away from the crowds and the concrete.

But even hiking isn't without its dangers.

Walkers are being warned to beware of a Burmese python that squeezed the life out of a large pet dog in front of its horrified owner close to a popular family walk and barbecue area.

Better that than a child.

A related article mentioned other large snake attacks:

Growing up to 6-metres long and weighing up to 90kg, the Burmese python is easily recognised by its pattern of beige blotches on dark brown and its large head with hinged jaws.

It is reckoned to eat its own bodyweight in food a year. It is a good swimmer and climber, and will often ambush prey by hanging from branches, or lie in wait by a water source or in bushes.

In Hong Kong, its favourite habitat is the dense countryside. Occasionally, snake-catchers are called in to remove them when they have strayed to more urban areas in search of food.

A two-metre python was discovered bloated and sleepy after having swallowed a large tomcat in a Sai Kung Country Park village in 2004, not far from the most recent python sighting.

In 1974, a 70-year-old Yuen Long farmer and his wife wrestled a 4.5-metre Burmese python in a desperate effort to prevent it eating their chickens.

Hong Kong's most unusual python tale dates back to colonial times when - as the story goes - a group of villagers reported seeing an angry horned dragon by a stream. When police investigated, the beast turned out to be a huge python attempting to make a meal out of cow and with its horns sticking out of its body.

So far the only snakes I've seen have been road-kill.

I'm glad not to have encountered any cobras, kraits or vipers during solo trips into the bush.

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