Alarmed residents made more than 750 calls to the RSPCA last year to report concerns about exotic animals in Suffolk and Essex.
Officers were called out to deal with everything from a stray rhea roaming around Colchester to an oriental garden lizard found in a shipping container at the Port of Felixstowe.
In their annual report, the animal charity said there were 215 calls to exotic animals incidents in Suffolk in 2018, and 567 in Essex.
More recently they were called to Christchurch park, Ipswich after a pair of boa constrictors were found.
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