BURLINGTON, IOWA (AP) -- A popular classroom snake that called a Burlington classroom home for several decades has died.
Naja, a corn snake, belonged to science teacher Joe Desy at Horace Mann Middle School.
The Hawk Eye reports the snake died on Oct. 6 due to natural causes. Desy estimates Naja was about 45 years ago, which he says is old by reptile standards.
Desy wrote in an obituary that Naja's early years were spent ridding Iowa farmlands of small rodents. At about the age of 8, the snake came to the school and was "resident reptile and teacher of all things good and true about snakes."
Naja lived in the classroom from 1972 until 2002 when Desy retired.
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