Boa constrictor Bailey, reported missing at B.C. beach, turns up in owner’s kayak

This photo posted to Facebook by the Coastal Animal Rescue & Education Network shows Bailey, a boa constrictor that briefly went missing. (Credit: Facebook//coastalanimalrescue)

Bailey the boa constrictor has turned up safe in its owner’s kayak after being reported missing at a beach in Tofino, B.C., this week.

James Rodgers, co-founder of the Coastal Animal Rescue and Education Network, says the owner who reported the six-foot reptile missing on Sunday found it on Wednesday.

Rodgers says it’s likely the snake slipped into the kayak, which its owner also brought to a beach, on the day it was thought to have gone missing.

He says it is not clear how someone could miss a six-foot-long snake inside a kayak.

The network says in a social media post that Bailey had been “snoozing” in the kayak.

It says the snake is 13 years old and “a little small” for its age.

This report by Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press, was first published June 13, 2025.