'Still growing': Four-metre, 36kg python seized from small tank

A four-metre Burmese python has been confiscated from an upstate New York man who was keeping the still-growing snake in a small tank.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it got a complaint about an illegally owned snake in New Hartford on August 28.

Environment conservation police officer Jeff Hull responded and found the snake in a 1.2 to 1.5-metre tank.

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The snake weighed 36kg and measured four metres in length.

It appeared to be in good health and was still growing, the Department of Environmental Conservation said in a news release.

The snake was relocated to the Fort Rickey Discovery Zoo in Rome, New York, which has the state-required permits for such an animal, the agency said.

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The snake's owner said he had not been prepared for how fast the snake would grow, the department said.

He was ticketed for possessing wildlife as a pet and for possessing dangerous wildlife without a permit.

Burmese pythons are native to south-east Asia and have become popular pets in the United States.

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They are an invasive species in Florida, where they prey on native wildlife.

Burmese pythons can grow to be five metres long.

The animal seized in New York, an albino Burmese python, was yellow with an arrowhead-like design on its head.

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