Snakes are transported in plastic foam boxes to protect them from the low temperatures in the cargo hold of airplanes. If they didn't find their way into something warm that was offloaded from the plane, they would have died anyway. I'm sure that whoever didn't tie that bag securely is kicking himself right now. Another possibility is that he was supposed to ship 12 snakes and only shipped 8 for some reason. Rather than admit the mistake, he's letting everyone else take the hit.
The big snake around Samuel Jackson's shoulders in this picture
appears to be some kind of Australian carpet python. I don't know the Stimson's pythons, but I'm guessing that they look like smaller versions of this one.
