Confiscating animals: Illegal reptiles confiscated by the state Department of Agriculture in recent weeks have included:

A non-venomous albino king snake, native to the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States.

A collared lizard, about 1 foot long, seized in a Hawai'i Kai home where the albino snake also was found.

A 1-foot king snake, which can grow as long as 7 feet.

A Madagascar giant day gecko, a species averaging 11 inches in length that may be established in Manoa. Photos by Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser

The Manoa captures last week were part of a recent string of seizures of illegal animals on O'ahu. On May 21, Department of Agriculture inspectors confiscated a 4-foot albino king snake and a foot-long collared lizard at a Hawai'i Kai home. On May 28, a Honolulu Zoo employee found a cardboard box containing two snakes on his doorstep, presumably left by a pet owner trying to surrender them to authorities.

"Snakes are the greatest threat to our environment because they feed on rodents, possibly birds (and their eggs)", said Domingo Cravalho Jr., a quarantine inspector with the Department of Agriculture. He said Madagascar giant day geckos pose an indirect threat to native birds because their proliferation might put them in competition with birds for their common food supply: insects.

"They're not venomous, but this one bites," Department of Agriculture inspector Keevin Minami said yesterday, holding a Madagascar gecko at the department's Sand Island facility.

Last week a Manoa woman called the state's pest hot line to report a large green lizard, with red spots, crawling on the wall of her Huelani Drive home. On May 25, state inspectors caught a 10-inch Madagascar giant day gecko. They returned the next day to catch three more on the same residential street near the Waioli Tea Room.

"I didn't expect it to be so visible," Minami said, recounting how the geckos were in plain sight on bamboo and palm trees in private yards.

The captures bring the total number of Madagascar geckos captured in Manoa since 1997 to eight.

"We're pretty sure they're breeding back there," Minami said. He said it is likely the geckos were smuggled into Hawai'i and either escaped or were released intentionally.

In the Hawai'i Kai case, a tip alerted agriculture inspectors about illegal reptiles at a Nohili Street home. Inspectors seized the animals May 21 and handed the animals' owner, Shane Paul Quirk Stowell, two $1,000 citations. Officials said Stowell told inspectors that the animals were given to him in January by an acquaintance who moved off the island.

"He said he didn't know what to do with it. He didn't think it was a major problem, but he knew snakes were illegal," Cravalho said.

The two snakes left on the doorstep of a Honolulu Zoo employee were identified as a 4-foot albino corn snake and a foot-long king snake. Cravalho said the orange-spotted albino corn snake is internally producing eggs, although officials don't yet know if the eggs are fertile.

Cravalho said anonymously turning in illegal animals to a zoo employee "reflects an alternative that someone could do rather than releasing them into the wild. ... The good thing about it is we got it out of their hands," he said.

The illegal reptiles will be sent to a reptile farm in Florida, to be placed in zoos or educational programs.

Reach Carrie Ching at cching@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.