After more than 50 years, the incredibly uncommon rainbow snake has lately been discovered in Florida. The two ladies who saw the innocuous reptile and photographed it while hiking in Ocala National Forest, 47 miles north of Orlando, reported it to the FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in a Facebook post.
The occurrence came as a surprise for wildlife experts as the last sighting of a rainbow snake in Florida was in 1969, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, CNN reported. The museum officials also said the species is harmless and no venomous.
“The rainbow snakes spend most of their life hidden among aquatic vegetation,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. “They are highly-aquatic…seldom seen, even by herpetologists, due to their cryptic habits.”
The snake spotted by the two hikers was around 4-foot-long. The longest rainbow snake ever recored was 5 feet and 6 inches long.
The snake was spotted by Rebecca Boyer and Tracey Cauthen while hiking in the Ocala National Forest. They even got the chance to grab some snaps with the rare reptile. “Tracey hale Cauthen and I came across this gorgeous critter,” Rebecca Boyer wrote on Facebook.
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