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A snake skin found in Maine belonged to an Anaconda.

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Authorities confirmed Tuesday that a snake skin found along the Presumpscot River in Westbrook, Maine, earlier this month came from an anaconda. “One hundred percent,” said Westbrook Police Captain Sean Lally, who had a portion of the skin DNA-tested by a herpetologist at a lab in Texas.

The skin, which was found Aug. 20 and was about 12 feet long, had further fueled speculation and rumors that a mysterious reptile was living along the stream near Riverbank Park, feasting on mammals. Since June, there have been several reported sightings of a large snake near the park. One witness claimed the creature had a head as big as a basketball, and a body as long as a truck.

“It could be a hoax, I don’t know. It’s certainly interesting,” Lally said of the results of the DNA test. “But I don’t know where you find a 10- or 12-foot anaconda skin.”

Experts said the skin found by the river likely belongs to a juvenile green anaconda, the bigger of the species, that’s roughly 8-to-9-feet long. Snake skin can be longer than the animal’s actual body once it’s shed.

Lally said various witness statements about snake sightings, including reports from two officers in his department and a public services employee for the city, seem consistent with the behavior of an anaconda.

Police plan to work with specialists to try and locate, capture, and possibly euthanize the snake, whether or not it’s an anaconda, according to a statement from the department that was posted on Facebook. Derek Yorks, a wildlife biologist for the state’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said it’s illegal to own an anaconda in Maine. But he said it’s feasible someone may have kept one as a pet, and then released it into the wild when it grew to a massive size. Yorks said it’s also “totally possible” that someone in another state, or even in Maine, who has an anaconda illegally, could have brought the skin to Westbrook and placed it out in the woods along the Presumpscot River.

Placyk said the question still remains whether the skin was put there “to mess with people” as interest in Wessie has grown this summer. He said it seemed “odd” that the skin was so well intact, since anacondas are known to shed in smaller pieces that can rub off on nearby branches.

But if the snake is an anaconda, or other tropical or subtropical species, people won’t need to worry about it for much longer. “The winter will kill it,” said Placyk. “Once [temperatures] start floating around 50 for a sustained period, it will most likely die in short order.”

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Anacondas usually shed in the water. A lot of people believe this has been planted by HSUS and PETA to tighten restrictions on exotic pets in Maine.
 
Anacondas usually shed in the water. A lot of people believe this has been planted by HSUS and PETA to tighten restrictions on exotic pets in Maine.
Nah a government agency headed by the illuminati released a genetically modified anaconda that withstands cold temperatures onto the general public.
 
But if the snake is an anaconda, or other tropical or subtropical species, people won’t need to worry about it for much longer. “The winter will kill it,” said Placyk. “Once [temperatures] start floating around 50 for a sustained period, it will most likely die in short order.”

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