The specimens were determined to range from tiny lizards such as O. gracilis, to snakes as large as a modern boa constrictor, to meat-eating lizards up to 2m (6ft 6in) long.

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At the project's launch at the Science Museum on Wednesday evening, people were invited to take part in a variety of games - from Play Your Eco-Cards Right to Eco-Snakes and Ladders.

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Croagh Patrick is just one of several places where St Patrick is famously claimed to have banished snakes from Ireland, chasing them into the sea during his mountaintop fast.

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But like panthers, snakes also seemed to have vanished from Kanha.

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Two snakes rescued from one of the houses were returned to their owner after being seen by a vet, a fire service spokesman said.

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Health risks in the disaster-ridden area are seemingly everywhere, from diarrhea-causing organisms in the water now to snakes that could have been driven out by the water and may be more likely to bite people.

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They are from the family of constricting snakes, which kill their prey through asphyxiation and can grow to more than 9 ft long.

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With no way to get food from the outside, the colonists resorted to eating horses, dogs, cats, rats, mice and snakes, Horn said, according to the accounts of George Percy, who was the president of Jamestown during this time.

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