Ornate cat-eyed snake is native to Ecuador, a top exporter of bananas to US
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A slithery surprise discovered in a banana shipment sent a scare through a southern New Hampshire grocery store.
A conservation officer with the state New Hampshire Fish and Game Department responded Saturday to a report of an "unwanted hitchhiker" at the Market Basket in Manchester, according to WMUR and a statement posted to Facebook.
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The slithering stowaway was determined to be an ornate cat-eyed snake, a mildly venomous reptile native to Ecuador, which is one of the largest exporters of bananas to the U.S.
Conservation officer Griffin McKeown told WMUR that in responding to the incident, he spoke with an employee who "seemed to be pretty familiar with snakes."
A snake was found in a banana shipment at a Manchester, N.H., grocery store. (New Hampshire Fish and Game | iStock)
The call was "a first" for McKeown, he continued. "We've had a few calls about pet surrenders of ball pythons and stuff like that, but never, never [a] venomous snake."
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McKeown also noted that possession of any venomous snake, aside from the hog-nosed snake, is illegal in New Hampshire.
After it was determined the snake was unharmed, it was re-homed to northern Massachusetts-based Rainforest Reptile Shows Inc. for proper care.
Market Basket and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Kyle Schmidbauer is a production assistant for Fox News Digital. A graduate of Montclair State University in New Jersey, he joined Fox in 2022.
