No Longer on a Plane: Snakes Spotted in Dartmouth

DARTMOUTH — SouthCoast residents might want to check their backyards after two Dartmouth residents in different parts of town found large, colorful snakes near their homes this past June.

North Dartmouth resident Dan Tisdelle said he found the orange snake pictured above near his house on June 13.

After posting a photo of it to social media, he said, the consensus is that it's a corn snake that could be an escaped pet. The animals are not native to Massachusetts.

"I did not contact animal control as it wasn't a danger or bothering me," Tisdelle noted in mid-June, adding with a laugh, "My wife has a different opinion."

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He said more recently that the snake has been popping up in various places around Songbird Acres off Reed Road in the past two weeks.

On Wednesday, Tisdelle said that he contacted Animal Control but "it being a harmless wild reptile there was nothing they could do."

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Padanaram-area resident Kimberley Estes saw what she said seems to be a native Eastern milk snake in her backyard.

"The new dog in the back yard was leashed up barking like crazy prompting us to look," she noted. "It was about 30 inches."

Estes said the reptile is probably living in a patch of woods behind her house.

She added, "I’d prefer to have snakes stay out of my yard!"

Massachusetts has fourteen native species of snakes, two of which could be potentially deadly to humans: copperheads and the timber rattlesnake.

Luckily for both residents, the snakes in their photos appear to be harmless.