(dpa) - A python was saved from certain death when the car he was hitching a ride in broke down, news reports said Monday.
The engine overheated and when the driver looked under the bonnet the 2.5-metre reptile was wrapped around the radiator.
"He's got some very nasty burns," Gold Coast's Currumbin Wildlife Hospital vet Michael Pyne said. "But he'll do OK. It's just going to take a lot of time - maybe three or four months because things happen very slowly in reptiles."
Pyne explained to Australia's AAP news agency that snakes like heat and this one had slithered into the engine bay at a goat farm where he had taken up residence.
"They're very nice people who like wildlife and used to let him snaffle the odd baby goat from time to time," Pyne said.
The treatment for a python quickly dubbed Blaze is occasional swims in a solution of antiseptic.
Blaze is expected to be released back into the wild before the end of the year.