UPDATED 5.15pm A live snake has been caught on the tarmac at Auckland Airport after hitching a ride here on a private jet.
The snake was spotted yesterday and was quickly caught by an MPI snake handler after slithering out of a plane from Brisbane.Â
MPI Manager Craig Hughes said it's a likely to be a brown tree snake.
He said it doesn't pose a risk humans but could do serious damage to our native bird population.Â
Mr Hughes said there weren't any other snakes on the the plane and believes this hitch-hiker is a one-off. ​
Staff are always on the lookout for live snakes and handled the surprise well, he said.
He said the snake was in poor condition making it easy to catch.
Normally snakes are found dead but this one had only been on the plane for three hours so was a bit chilled - but moving, Mr Hughes said.Â
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