A pet snake has returned to his ten-year-old owner after surviving more than four months in the wilderness.

Jericho the 2ft Mexican milk snake slithered out of Mark Rose's home in March and was feared to have perished in the chilly, wet spring weather.

But Jericho, named after the WWF wrestling star Chris Jericho, has now turned up four doors away at a neighbour's home after four months.

The snake, which is red, white and black, was given to Mark last April for his tenth birthday.

The youngster, of Meadowview, Brighton, kept it in a vivarium in the living room, where he fed it a diet of frozen mice and ensured the South American serpent was kept warm with a heat pad.

But the lid of the tank was damaged in an accident and Jericho made a break for freedom.

Mark said: "When he went, I thought he was in the couch but after all that time I thought he must be dead. I also thought one of our cats had had him.

"He has eaten two mice since he came back and he's slithering about more now."

Mark said he was pleased his pet was back home and he now had a new tank.

His mum Sarah, said: "We got up one morning and he'd gone. We were looking frantically for him everywhere. We've got four cats and didn't want them getting at him."

As the weeks passed, the family gave up hope of seeing Jericho again. But Sarah received a call from her neighbour Alison, who is the mum of Mark's best friend Lee.

Sarah said: "She said it was on her front doorstep. I couldn't believe it. She doesn't like snakes. She's petrified of them."

Mark, a pupil at Coombe Road Primary School, in Brighton, went to his friend's home and picked up his prized pet. Sarah telephoned the shop where she got the snake and told them it had been found and where.

She said: "They couldn't believe it had been living outside all the time. They thought it was living in the house. I don't know what it was eating, perhaps it had been eating live mice."

Some scientists believe snakes have a heightened sense of smell and Sarah believes this may be how Jericho chose to settle on the doorstep of Lee's home because Mark often goes there.

Jericho is the second snake to make an escape and turn up weeks later at a neighbour's door.

Ashley Smallwood's corn snake turned up at his nan Shirley Gardiner's home just doors away from his home in Sandgate Road, Brighton, two weeks after disappearing.