Deers, hares, foxes, an array of birdlife and even alpacas are known to frequent the peninsula but it is not every day an African Python rocks up.

Builders at a construction site in Brantham came across this dozing African Rock Python, enjoying a nap today and decided to leave well alone.

Councillor Alastair McCraw has appealed for the owner to come forward, in the believe it is an escaped pet, or has been left abandoned.

There is no virtually no dangers to humans because like all pythons, this snake is non-venomous. It kills by constriction, ambushing and coiling around its prey, and tightening its coils every time the victim breathes out.

Death happens by cardiac arrest, rather than by asphyxiation or crushing.

African rock pythons feed on everything from birds and bats to medium-sized mammals. The larger python captures warthogs, bushbucks and even crocodiles, swallowing them whole. Poultry, dogs and goats are also at risk of attack. A huge meal takes months to digest.

African rock pythons lay 20–100 hard-shelled, elongated eggs in an old animal burrow, termite mound or cave. The female coils around her clutch, protecting them from predators and possibly helping to incubate them, and guards the babies for up to two weeks after hatching.

Pythons are among the most primitive of snakes in evolutionary terms. With two functioning lungs (more advanced snakes have only one) and small thorn-like projections on the lower body. These are known as pelvic spurs, which are presumed to be the vestiges of hind limbs.

Scientists recognize two subspecies of the African rock python: Python sebae sebae (African rock python) and the slightly smaller Python sebae natalensis (Southern African rock python). The smaller Python sebae natalensis, is found in southern Tanzania and further southward, and is believed to be a completely separate species: Python natalensis.

Contact [email protected] if you would like to claim this python, who has been nicknamed Monty.