Durban snake rescuer Nick Evans ended his longest-ever “mamba drought” when he captured one on Friday.
“I caught my first black mamba since the 11th of June, ending my longest-ever mamba drought,” said Evans.
He said that although winter season is typically considered a duration when snakes are non-active, the season is really the time that black mambas mate and it is generally a relatively hectic mamba capturing time for him. Not this winter season, nevertheless, despite the fact that it has actually been a warm one, bar 2 or 3 cold spells.
Recalling the black mamba rescue, Evans said he received a call from a lady in Westville, whose home he had actually been to a couple of times in the past to rescue Mozambique spitting cobras.
“This time, she hadn’t seen a snake, however, her dog, Benji, had been barking at something hiding under an outside table. She immediately recognised the bark as his ‘snake bark’, as he was generally the one who had found the cobras in the past, and yes, had been spat at before too. I could hear him barking wildly over the phone,” Evans said.
Evans said that generally, he is exceptionally sceptical of heading out on calls where a snake has actually not been seen, however understanding this dog and property, he understood he must examine.
He said the caller had actually called Benji far from the snake’s hiding location by the time he got here and was enjoying that it had actually not crawled out from under the table.
He said that he strolled over, began tape-recording a video with his phone, with the flash on, and held his phone down into a space, with the electronic camera intending under the wood slabs at the bottom, as searching in himself was hard.
“I immediately saw some ventral (belly) scales appear on the screen, with the flash reflecting off of them. ‘Cobra’, I said, as their ventral scales are often very obvious. I studied the screen for a second or two longer, and realised I had clearly gone too long without seeing a black mamba because this was no cobra!” Evans said.
“I was very relieved to find it was a non-spitting snake!”
Evans said his partner, Joelle, had actually opted for him to the rescue since he required help.
The slabs on the bottomof the table were rotten and damaged and might be lifted simply enough for him to draw out the mamba, and doing both would be difficult. So, Joelle got a stick, lifted and assisted up the slabs, while he set about drawing out the mamba, Evans said.
He said that on his phone, the mamba did not look huge, perhaps 2.2m at the majority of.
“We quickly realised our estimation was off, once I started pulling it out. It was bigger than we thought!
“The 2.5m mamba didn’t put up too much of a resistance, and made for a relatively easy catch. It’s slightly underweight, although not yet anything to be concerned about. It’s an old-looking animal, with quite a large head for a mamba,” Evans said.
He said that then, the most astounding thing occurred.
“While I had the mamba in my hands, the gardener from next door came running in, telling us about a big snake that slithered from the property he was working in, to the one I was at,” Evans said.
‘I’ve got it’, I informed him, revealing him what I was holding, Evans said.
‘No, it’s like that, but a different one, it’s there now’, the garden enthusiast said.
Apparently, it was on the opposite of your house, Evans said.
He said that he and Joelle fast got the mamba he had actually captured into a pail, prior to running around the property, not thinking what was occurring.
Evans said that the back garden was an extension of the Palmiet Nature Reserve, therefore the bush was thick, with a cliff simply above the property.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the snake. However, I could hear Collared Sunbirds going wild at what must have been this second mamba, in the bush, close to where the gardener last saw it.”
He said it would have been rather something to have actually got that a person too.
“This call reminded me that it is so important to understand your dog, for many reasons. In this case, if the owner had ignored her dog, and left it to keep going at the snake, her dog likely would have attacked the snake once it came out (Benji couldn’t get to it where it was). Benji might have killed the mamba, but in doing so, would have been bitten and likely would have died as a result. So grateful that that scenario didn’t unfold. Or, if she ignored Benji’s warnings, she might have ended up with a mamba in her home!” Evans said.
“We were all so impressed with Benji for finding the snake and alerting his owner. I believe he got a nice dinner.
“He was fearless with the mamba, although with my GoPro, he was, like most dogs, not happy. So if he looks a bit nervous in the screenshot below, that’s why,” Evans chuckled.
“Well done to both for how they reacted!”
Evans said that it was great to have some mamba “fun” after a hard winter season.
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