Six-Foot Snake Escapes In Dorm

A six-foot-long boa constrictor escaped from its cage in a Harvard Medical School student's dorm room yesterday, slithering into a heating duct before it was recaptured by University officials who lured the animal out with chicken meat after cutting a hole in the student's wall.

"A student had the snake in the cage and he was cleaning the cage, and the snake slipped out," said Lt. John Anderson of the Harvard University Police Department.

But police officers said the incident was "not unusual" and that they have dealt with several snake escapes in the past few years.

"It's just the kind of thing that happens from time to time," Lt. George Hill said.

Police officers from the Medical School area as well as four officials from Harvard's Environmental Health and Safety Office were dispatched around noon to Vanderbilt Hall, a 130,000 sq. ft. residential hall home to 321 medical students located at 107 Ave. Louis Pasteur.

Dorm occupants were not officially notified of the temporary escape because the snake was at large for only about two hours, police said.

"There were four environmental health and safety officers on the scene, so I'm sure that people in the building know," Medical School spokesperson Keren R. McGinity said before the boa constrictor was caught.

Lt. Anderson said the snake was recaptured around 2 p.m. when officials from Facilities Maintenance cut a six-inch by six-inch hole in the student's sheet-rock wall, exposing a hollow area in which the snake was hiding. The student will have to pay to fix the wall, he said.

Citing Harvard's ban on animals in dorm rooms, Anderson said the animal was not returned to the student but was "removed from the premises and taken to an area science museum."

Officials declined yesterday to identify the student involved.

Jose P. Rosado, a herpetologist, or snake expert, at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, said a domesticated boa constrictor is harmless, except when in "feeding mode."

"Most of the time what happens is that the snakes hide really well, but then they come out for food and that's when they're seen...particularly pet snakes," Rosado said. "When they feed they go into feeding mode and when any thing moves they'll bite it."

But Rosada said individual snakes vary and since he did not know the snake involved, "it's hard for me to speculate."

Lt. Hill said the temporary snake escape "was not unusual."

"A few years back," Anderson said, a snake escaped in a student's dorm room in Adams House. "It went under some furniture and we were able to get to come out and we caught it in a bag."

Hill recalled a similar incident 10 years ago in which a snake that was at large was also lured out with chicken.

"This is really a common occurrence," Hill said

"A few years back," Anderson said, a snake escaped in a student's dorm room in Adams House. "It went under some furniture and we were able to get to come out and we caught it in a bag."

Hill recalled a similar incident 10 years ago in which a snake that was at large was also lured out with chicken.

"This is really a common occurrence," Hill said