Postman finds 4-foot snakeskin on route

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., June 17 (UPI) -- Experts said a 4-foot snakeskin found by a North Carolina postal worker probably belongs to a boa constrictor or a python.

Chapel Hill mail carrier Neal Carroll said he found the shed skin in a grassy area Monday and worried that it might belong to "a huge, huge copperhead" on the loose, the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer reported Thursday.

Carroll said he took the item back to the post office to let his colleagues examine it.

"And this guy said, 'That's a boa' -- and he owns a boa," he said.

Jeffrey Beane, collections manager for herpetology at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, said he viewed pictures of the skin.

"It's a boa or python; that's all I can be sure of," he said.

Grover Barfield, director of the Carolinas Reptile Rescue and Education Center in Mount Holly, said the snake is unlikely to pose any danger to humans or their pets.

"Best it could eat would be a large rat," he said.