A driver near Toulouse in southern France found what appeared to be a 1.5-meter royal boa constrictor under the hood of his car while changing the battery.
The boa, which can grow to more than 3 meters in length, actually lives in South America, where it is found from Colombia to Argentina.
The discovery was made when the driver was about to change the battery of the car, which had not been driven for a month, according to the Haute-Garonne fire brigade’s Facebook page.
Five firefighters, two of whom were from the RAN (animal rescue fire brigade) specialist unit for incidents involving animals, managed to carefully transfer the buoy from the car into a glass container.
The fire brigade also shared the operation on social media in an attempt to find out where the creature came from.
The animal was surrendered to a local veterinary school.
Boas like warm conditions. Therefore, the recent consecutive heat waves in France have likely made it easier for escaped exotic boas to survive in the wild.