Police capture a 1.5-metre Montpellier snake at a Sagunto residential block
A Montpellier snake (culebra bastarda) measuring around 1.5 metres turned up in the machinery room of a new residential building in the Fusión area of Sagunto on Monday 8 June; Municipal Police captured it and released it into the Palancia river.
Residents of number 10, calle Enginyer Celso Montes in the Internúcleos development — midway between Sagunto and its coastal district Puerto de Sagunto — had quite a Monday morning when the reptile was found in the pump and filter room of their building. Municipal Police responded, identified it as a Montpellier snake and removed it safely, releasing it back into the Palancia riverbed nearby. The Montpellier snake (Malpolon monspessulanus) is the largest snake on the Iberian Peninsula and in Europe: adult males frequently exceed two metres in length. It does carry rear fangs capable of delivering venom, but envenomation of humans is extremely rare and has never proved fatal, so it poses no real danger to people. The appearance is also no great surprise given the local environment: the species favours dry, sun-exposed areas near watercourses, overgrown plots and peri-urban fringe land — exactly the kind of landscape that still characterises much of Internúcleos, where vacant lots border the Palancia river. Residents also reported an ongoing problem with rats and rabbits in the area. According to El Periódico de Aquí, the incident highlights how Sagunto's expanding residential developments continue to border natural corridors used by local wildlife.