16-foot python on roof -- captured at last

CAIRNS, Australia, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- A large female python that had been entertaining male companions on the roof of an Australian canoe club for years has been captured.

Dave Walton of Cairns Snake Removals said Tuesday he will find an appropriate place to let the snake loose "to live out the rest of her days," the Cairns Post reported.

Walton had been trying for months to catch the python. With a length of more than 16 feet and a weight of almost 50 pounds, she had become so large she threatened to damage the roof of the Hekili Outrigger Canoe Club outside Cairns on the north coast of Queensland.

The newspaper christened the snake Nagini -- after Lord Voldemort's enormous companion in the Harry Potter books.

"This female has been the one that's been attracting all the males over the years and they were certainly getting it on in the roof, that's for sure," Walton said.

Walton said he had only been able to get hold of the snake's tail in his attempts to capture the python, and did not want to injure her by wrestling her out of an enclosed space. In his successful effort he had some help from a National Geographic Python Hunters team from Florida.