Scorpion stowaway is star of show

A POTENTIALLY deadly scorpion stowaway that sneaked back to Cambridgeshire from Portugal now has pride of place in a Crow country wildlife centre.

The Mesobuthus scorpion is listed as a potentially lethal animal and now resides in Shepreth Wildlife Park.

Phil Barber, the keeper who collected the invertebrate from a surprised Ely man, said: “The bloke found it after two days being back from holiday called us up and said he found a scorpion in his bedroom and wanted our advice on what to do.

“When he described it I realised it was quite a dangerous one, I told him not to touch it - but he had managed to get it into a little tupperware box.

“He wasn’t shocked his wife was a bit shaken up he found it quite exciting that he found a scorpion.

“When I told him it was potentially lethal he was laughing and told me that he walked round in his house bare foot all the time.”

The 22-year-old and his colleagues introduced the scorpion into the wildlife park’s bug city attraction, where it is doing well.

Mr Barber, who has been at Shepreth Wildlife Park for around five years, said finds like this are not uncommon but this is the first one that he has been involved with.

“This is the first on that I have done,” he said.

“I believe that a year or two ago there was another case of a scorpion coming over but that one didn’t get in there and didn’t survive.”