There is evidence that humans have been moving the large snakes around for at least two millennia. Strabo’s encyclopedic work Geography is a description of the ancient Greco-Roman world. In this 2000 year old text the author reports seeing a snake in Egypt that was 9 cubits long (about 13 feet or about 4 m) that had been brought from India. The same appears true for the African Python complex (Python sebae). Bodson (2004) described, what she considers, the first herpetological expedition to capture a large African Python organized under Ptolemy II (290 to 246 BC). The expedition captured a large specimen in the area known as the Island of Meroe, which is not really an island but the area between the White Nile, the Blue Nile and the Atbara River (14-16°N latitude). This area is within the known range of Python sebae. There are no firsthand accounts of the 3rd century BC effort and Bodson's account is based on information in a ms from the 1st century BC, at least 200 years after the event. Therefore it is not surprising that the size and abilities of the snake were exaggerated. Accounts from the turn of the 19th century suggest people in the Philippines were using Reticulated Pythons (Broghammerus reticulatus) to control rodents, keeping them in their houses and places of business. This may have lead Brown and Acala (1970) to concluded that the presence of reticulatus on virtually all Philippine islands were the result of human transport. It is therefore not surprising that 15 foot Burmese Python (P. bivittatus) was found in Riverside, California's Lake Evan over the week end (April 9) and an 11 ft python of an unstated species was found in Cornwell, England on April 11. Of course people keep giant snakes as pets or for commercial breeding projects today. Human fascination with snakes is ancient and undeniable.Labels: invasive snakes, natural history