Part of Discovery Park closed after venomous snake sighting

What was thought to be a venomous copperhead snake in Seattle’s Discovery Park turned out to be nothing more than a corn snake.

Park staff warned the public and closed the area Wednesday. To their relief, the animal was found and it turned out to be a corn snake — not native to Washington, and not venomous.

The sighting was at the top of a sandy bluff. Copperhead snakes are not native to Seattle, and city law makes them illegal as pets here. 

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 Aug. 9 “copperhead 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 snake in question got to Seattle or who owned it.

MyNorthwest staff contributed to this article.