Last week, an illegally kept 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) Burmese python was seized from a home in central New York state, authorities said.

On Aug. 28, an officer with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation received a report of a snake in New Hartford, a city about 50 miles east of Syracuse. The complainant said he believed someone was keeping the reptile illegally in his home, the agency said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

The officer identified the snake as a Burmese python after seeing a picture of it, primarily because of the “arrowhead-like pattern on its head,” according to the agency. In New York State, it is illegal to own a Burmese python without a permit.

Native to Southeast Asia, Burmese pythons can grow to be 23 feet or more long and weigh up to 200 pounds, according to NationalGeographic.com. They were introduced to the United States through the pet trade and are considered an invasive species, according to InvasiveSpeciesInfo.gov, because they prey on native wildlife, some of which is threatened with extinction.

The snake was found in the New Hartford home later that day. It was 16 feet long and was trapped in a “4- to 5-foot tank,” the Environmental Protection Agency said. The python was in good health and weighed 80 pounds.

The snake’s owner told the wildlife officer he was unprepared for the python’s rapid growth and could no longer care for it, the agency said. The snake was confiscated and taken to the Fort Rickey Discovery Zoo in Rome.

“The snake’s owner received tickets for keeping wild animals as pets and for possessing dangerous wild animals without a permit,” the agency said.