The investigation is continuing into a snake found at a south Auckland construction site on Tuesday.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has been looking into the reptile after it was discovered by contractors while flushing out a new pipe on a site in Papakura.
Despite initial reports the snake was dead, the manager for aquatic and environment health Michael Taylor told Newshub it may have been alive when found by the construction worker.
He confirmed the snake is a juvenile carpet python, although they are still working to ascertain how it got into New Zealand.
"We don't know exactly [where it came from] yet, but we suspect the snake may have come from Australia in construction goods," he said.
"We currently have an investigation underway to find out what we can about that and we are very thankful for the early notification so we could eliminate the risk immediately."
He said there are several facilities in the area which receive consignments from overseas, so it would make sense that it came from there.
Because the snake is a juvenile, Taylor confirmed it was unlikely it produced any offspring during its time here.
"The snake is currently with our herpetologist, our snake expert, who will give us the information on the age of the snake, whether it may have eaten recently, it's sex, those types of details."
