RANGERS have taken a 1.3m snake from two travellers at Mission Beach, south of Cairns.
The couple surrendered the scrub python yesterday, three days after they tried to get it identified at the Mission Beach Tourist Information Centre.
It is believed to have been living in a bag inside their tent.
The couple kept it, despite the man having been bitten on the hand.
They told a ranger they had opened a bag of items at the weekend and found it there and had been tending to it ever since because it was injured.
The couple said they had even taken it to a vet.
An Environmental Protection Agency spokesman yesterday warned it was illegal to keep native animals, including reptiles, without a permit or licence.
The snake has an open wound on its side and was yesterday being tended to by Queensland Parks and Wildlife officers and a vet.
Charges were not being laid.
The seizure comes the week after a man was fined $450 for having two jungle pythons, a spotted python and a carpet python in his car when he was stopped by police for speeding in southern Queensland.
It also follows a $75 fine for a Deeral man who kept a dead night tiger snake in a soft drink bottle at his home south of Cairns.
The EPA spokesman said penalties could apply to anyone buying, selling, possessing or keeping reptiles without an appropriate permit or licence under Queensland's wildlife laws.
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