A stowaway scorpion who made its way from Kenya to Ireland is now at home at the National Reptile Zoo in Kilkenny.
In a video shared to Facebook this week, zoo owner James Hennessey showed the scorpion – a female named Kenny – in her new habitat. He said she will stay in the temporary habitat for about two weeks before she can settle into her permanent home. She’ll also be on display for the public to check out.
Lorraine Dempsey, who lives in Wicklow on Ireland’s east coast, first posted about Kenny in a Feb. 3 Facebook post. She put it in a box that read “scorpion – do not open!”
“Meet Kenny the Kenyan Death Stalker (Leiurus quinquestriatus),” she said. “Unbeknownst to me has spent the last 12 day[s] in my bedroom having stowed away in my luggage from a horseriding trip to Kenya.”
At first, Dempsey just saw the scorpion scamper out for around five seconds before it disappeared under her bed. She then started calling friends and experts, who helped her capture Kenny after searching for around an hour and half. When they finally found Kenny, Dempsey contacted authorities.
“Kind of sad to see the back of him,” said Dempsey in a follow-up post. “He was given a big welcome and quickly secured in the Venomous Section of… The National Reptile Zoo in Kilkenny. It’s up to the Department of Agriculture to decide if they can keep him but hope he can stay and we can go back and visit sometime. What a weekend!”
According to the zoo, Kenny is actually a fat-tailed scorpion. She can be seen snacking on crickets in the video. Hennessey explained that scorpions with small pincers, like Kenny, are more poisonous than scorpions with large pincers. However, he said her bite would not be very serious.
Per an NBC News report, the fat-tailed scorpion is common across Africa and the Middle East. Hennessey told the outlet that stowaway animals are more common than people might realize.