A series of attacks on pet dogs by a large python on a popular Hong Kong

walking trail has led to calls for action by countryside officials - and triggered

fears that the next victim could be a child. Simon Parry reports.

When a four-meter-long Burmese python coiled itself around his pet dog Phoebe and tried to squeezed the life out of her on a popular Hong Kong walking trail, school teacher Robert Stearns only had two weapons at his disposal: A HK$10 IKEA umbrella and his bare hands.

"The first thing I did was try to uncoil the python which was absolutely useless," said Stearns, a 60-year-old grandfather. "The second thing I did was try to prize the top jaw of the python off my dog's head so she could get her head out of its mouth. That didn't work either and I ended up slicing my thumb.

"The third thing I tried was to take the metal tip of my umbrella and see if I could pierce the snake or irritate it enough to make it let go. I ended up bending the tip of the umbrella."

By now, the 15 kg cross-breed pet may have been only seconds from death. "The poor dog couldn't breathe anymore," he said. "So my next, desperate move was to grab the python by the tail and drag it - and that worked. It started to uncoil. I couldn't believe my eyes."

Phoebe wriggled free, aiming a snap of her jaws at the giant snake as she struggled back to her feet and retreated. "When I dropped the tail, the snake recomposed itself and turned to face us," Stearns said. "We left pretty quickly at that point. We weren't going to hang around."

Phoebe's brush with death on a May morning in Pak Tam Chung near the entrance to Sai Kung Country Park might at first appear no more than a reminder of the little-known wild side of Hong Kong, one of the world's most modern and densely-populated cities.

After all, everyone who lives away from the high rises in the rural New Territories knows the hillsides and footpaths that thread through it are crawling with a variety of venomous and non-venomous snakes and jumping with civet cats, barking deer, wild boar and porcupines.

What made the python attack in May unusually worrying, however, is that it is the third such attack along the same family walk in the space of four years. There are concerns that one particularly aggressive snake may be behind the attacks and that it might be tempted to try human prey next.

Burmese pythons crush their prey to death and then eat them whole. One large mammal can give it sufficient food to last it weeks. In July 2006, along the same stretch of path, a python grabbed and killed a 22 kg husky dog called Paro. Owner Esther Leenders said afterwards: "Paro was light on his feet and the size of a small child and I felt the snake could have taken on me if it had wanted to."

A year later, dog owner Catherine Leonard freed her 20 kg mongrel from the grip of a similar python by kicking and punching the snake. Convinced the same python had struck twice, she warned: "That snake meant business.

"These two attacks have both been close to the family walking trail and people do go out hiking with young children. A small child would weigh less than my dog."

The government body responsible for wildlife management, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) is now under pressure to take action to capture and relocate the python before it strikes again.

Guy Shirra, chairman of the Friends of Sai Kung, has had email exchanges with AFCD officials calling for action to capture the python but said nothing had been done. "People come to live in Sai Kung which is a rural area and they should realise there is wildlife around and accommodate the wildlife," he conceded.

"But as far as the python is concerned my view was if this is the same one which is most likely and it is guilty of attacking three dogs, then they should make some attempt to capture it and move it to another location where it is not likely to attack any more dogs."

The Pak Tam Chung python had to be treated as an exceptional case, Shirra argued. "It is unusual and given the history, it is quite likely to happen again. If they are not going to do anything about it, they need to make sure people are fully aware of the fact that there is a python in the area."

After the first attack in 2006, warning signs were put up at the beginning of the trail in Pak Tam Chung. No attempts have been made to trace or relocate it, however, and the AFCD's only action in response to the most recent attack was to place an educational article on snakes in an online Sai Kung community newsletter.

The article by AFCD senior information officer Sally Kong makes no mention of the Pak Tam Chung attacks and described Burmese pythons as "timid creatures", saying: "They normally flee when they find themselves being threatened. Snakes are unlikely to attack or bite unless provoked."

The article advises people to stand still or move slowly away to give the snake a chance to escape without harming anyone and to dial 999 if a snake poses an instant threat or enters your home. However, it concluded: "Snakes are part of our natural environment. By adopting proper measures and attitude, we can always live in harmony with snakes."

It is a sentiment that snake catcher David Willott, who captures six to seven pythons a year since taking up his role 13 years ago, would fully endorse. However, he too feels the case of the Pak Tam Chung python is an exceptional one that calls for a unique approach.

"Normally I would say leave snakes where they are and live with them," Willott said. "However, in this case, the AFCD is going to have to admit there is a problem and tackle the problem."

The potential dangers should not be overlooked, Willott said, conceding it was possible the python could attack a human. "I think it's unlikely but I can't say it will not happen," he said. "There is a possibility that it could happen, although I have never heard of a case in Hong Kong where a python has tried to attack a person. But it is quite a large snake and you have to be careful.

"Ideally it should be left where it is but this snake could be responsible for attacking three dogs so it would be fair enough to try to translocate this one somewhere else and tag it. It should be taken to somewhere in the middle of a country park - somewhere where there are not many houses but lots of food."

Willott sees the Pak Tam Chung python as an opportunity to study Hong Kong's python population and develop a policy for dealing with the city's python population. No official study has ever been conducted into the python population and there are no estimates as to their numbers, although anecdotal evidence suggests their numbers are growing.

Their movements and habits are a mystery. The only attempt to track a python was made 20 years ago by amateur snake watchers who tagged and radio-tracked a female python on Lantau island and found she covered 30 hectares over a period of 24 days, suggesting pythons roam but are broadly territorial.

"There is an opportunity here to tackle the python problem in a positive way," Willott said. "And I would like to get involved in catching it. It would be quite a challenge."

Phoebe's owner Stearns, a Canadian who is head of secondary at the English Schools Foundation Renaissance College in Ma On Shan, wishes no harm on the python that nearly killed his pet dog but said: "I think David Willott's idea is a good one.

"It's an aggressive python and this is the same thing that we do with black bears in Canada. We coexist with black bears but occasionally we get aggressive ones and they have to be dealt with because they have a preference to go after people. In the end sometimes they have to destroy them because they start to kill people.

"In this case I'd say the same thing. If we have a python that is being particularly aggressive and that poses a risk, obviously humans do come first. I don't think that python needs to be destroyed but if we can put it somewhere where it is less of a risk, that would be a good move and the scientific research aspect of it would be very valuable too."

The AFCD has not yet responded in detail to the request from the Friends of Sai Kung to capture and relocate the python and declined to directly answer questions from China Daily about whether it would take any further action.

In a written statement, however, Kong indicated the AFCD was disinclined to track the snake down, saying: "The AFCD will continue to promote public awareness of wild snakes among the public ... In recent years, no captured Burmese python has been relocated to the local countryside environment."

In the meantime, Stearns and other pet owners are altering their walking routes to avoid potentially deadly encounters with a reptile that has provided a dramatic reminder of just how close the jungle is to the urban jungle in one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities.

(HK Edition 08/27/2010 page4)