Part of Discovery Park closed after snake sighting

After officials said a venomous copperhead snake was spotted in Discovery Park Wednesday, staff roped off the area.

Later Wednesday, Seattle Parks and Recreation staff said the snake was not actually a copperhead as they said earlier, but was a corn snake.

The snake was found at the top of a sandy bluff. Seattle Parks and Recreation staff did not immediately have additional details.

Copperhead snakes are not native to Seattle, and city law makes them illegal as pets here. Corn snakes are not native to the area, either; they are also not venomous.

All venomous reptiles and amphibians, regardless of whether the venom glands have been removed, and all snakes that are 8 feet or more in length are defined as exotic animals and not allowed in Seattle, according to animal shelter staff.

Discovery Park in Magnolia is Seattle’s largest park at 534 acres. The area was established as Fort Lawton, an Army fort, in February 1900, and the majority of the fort was designated as Discovery Park in 1973. The fort officially closed in 2011.

Discovery Park was closed in September 2009 because of a cougar sighting. There were three suspected cougar sightings in Seattle that month: One in Magnolia, another in Greenwood and a third in a Discovery Park field.

The 2009 closure was the third time since 1972 that the park was closed. A cougar was also seen there in 1981 and was tranquilized after a multiple-day search.

Parks department staff did not plan to close the park because of the August 9 snake sighting.

In another snake case in June 2013, a 2-foot Western Rattlesnake was found at Fremont Avenue North and North 120th Street. The snake was taken to the shelter where staff worked with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife to return the snake to Eastern Washington, where rattlesnakes are indigenous.

Staff was unable to determine how that rattlesnake got to Seattle or who owned it.

Cox Media Group