“It was very special,” Simon told RTL Nieuws. “I was in the toboggan run with a friend, he was on the sled in front of me. Suddenly there was a hose in the middle of the track. I could slow down in time, but he drove over it.”
The snake was not served or shocked by that. At least the beast hissed at Simon. “He crawled away, but he was right next to the track, really in attack mode,” Simon suspects.
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The attraction was halted, allowing Simon to lift his sled off the track and wrap around the hose with a large arc. The animal ambulance pulled out, but when it arrived the snake had already disappeared between the bushes.
Bull snake
It was a western bull snake, an animal ambulance spokesman told ANP. It does not occur naturally in the Netherlands, but because animals have escaped or been dumped, some of the snakes live in the wild.
About 40 bull snakes are said to live in the dune area near Wassenaar, where Duinrell is located. They typically live in drier parts of North America, such as semi-deserts.
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Nice in the sun
The specimen on the toboggan run was about one and a half meters long, according to Simon. The bull snake is non-venomous, but it can bite and strangle its prey.
Today was the first day that the amusement park was open again. This may have caused the snake to be so close to the attraction. “The weather is showing them up,” said the animal ambulance spokesman. “This was nice in the sun.”
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