RESIDENTS of Harare’s usually sleepy and serene Borrowdale suburb yesterday woke to a horrifying sight of a two-metre-long dead python dumped by the roadside in their neighbourhood.
EVERSON MUSHAVA
Conspiracy theories always accompany such incidents in a highly superstitious society like Zimbabwe, but these were dismissed by wildlife experts.
Unsubstantiated reports from some residents claimed the reptile was dropped along Borrowdale Road by an unidentified woman who was driving a white Land Rover Discovery. She allegedly pointed out the sack containing the python to a newspaper vendor.
“She then stopped and told the newspaper vendor that she was looking for her husband whom she suspected had been murdered,” said a resident, Sabelo Sangulukani, who claimed to have witnessed the early morning drama.
“She then asked the vendor if he had seen a snake that was in the grass close to the maize field beside the road. The vendor rushed to check and saw the python in a sack. When he went back to the intersection, the woman had driven off.”
However, NewsDay failed to track down the vendor and could not establish his identity with other vendors at the scene saying he just vanished after the incident.
Several motorists, among them commuter omnibus drivers, driving along the road briefly stopped over to catch a glimpse of the mysterious reptile and in the process caused a traffic jam.
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Officials from the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) only arrived three about hours later and took the dead python away.
Zimparks spokesperson Caroline Washaya-Moyo said the reptile would be taken to a private wildlife trust, Veterinarians for Animal Welfare in Zimbabwe, to establish the cause of its death.
Melanie Hood, an animal welfare officer at the organisation, said they had failed to ascertain what killed the python, but suspected it could have succumbed to head injuries.
She, however, warned that if caught the culprit who killed the reptile could be charged with contravening the Parks and Wildlife Act since pythons are classified as an endangered species.
The offence attracts a jail term or $2 000 fine.
“Pythons are a tourist attraction species. People should report to Parks so that they can be recovered. It is a criminal offence to kill one,” Washaya-Moyo said.
She said last year alone, Zimparks captured 100 stray pythons between Lake Chivero and Darwendale wildlife conservancies.
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