Big Bertha makes a very big entrance: Zoo welcome new 16ft python (but it takes five people to carry her in)

By Rob Cooper


New home: Big Bertha, a 16 foot Burmese Python, is carried into the Reptile House at London Zoo yesterday


At 16ft, Big Bertha couldn't help but make a big entrance as she arrived at London Zoo.

The giant Burmese Python was taken into her new home for the first time yesterday by a team of five zookeepers.

The snake - which weighs approximately 80 kilograms - had been held in the veterinary hospital where she was held in quarantine after her arrival.

New attraction: The Burmese Python will live in the Reptile House - where Harry Potter got a similar snake to burst out of it's glass enclosure in the first novel in the J.K. Rowling series

Big Bertha's new home is the Reptile House at the zoo which featured in the first Harry Potter film - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

The wizard released a giant Burmese Python - like Bertha - from her glass enclosure in the reptile house after speaking to it in parseltongue.

The scene was filmed at the zoo in 2001.

The Burmese Python is the largest subspecies of the Indian Python and one of the six largest snakes in the world.

It is native to a large variation of tropic and subtropic areas of South and Southeast Asia.

They are often found near water and are sometimes semi-aquatic, but can also be found in trees.

They average 12ft in length, but can grow as long as 19ft.

Very large reptile: The ten-year-old snake weighs approximately 80kg - or around 13stone


Arrival: The Harry Potter scene was filmed in the reptile house for the film in late 2001


source:dailymail