“By processing, I mean measuring, sexing and weighing. Good data to collect off of these snakes before being released,” Evans said.
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He said it was a laborious, lengthy procedure, needing a great deal of concentration, yet pleasurable at the exact same time.
I enjoy research study, Evans said.
“We managed close to 60 snakes, consisting of black mambas, brown house snakes, spotted bush snakes and vine snakes.
“The mambas were the biggest, being 50-60cm, weighing around 30g. The house snakes were the shortest, 25-30cm. The bush snakes were the lightest, less than 10g,” explained Evans.
“Hatchling snakes are very cute. But, with the venomous species, one still needs to be extremely careful of the sharp end.”
Evans said that the moms of the snakes were captured in residential or commercial properties, where they were trying to find an appropriate area to lay eggs (typically, a keeping wall).
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“I, or friends, gave them such an environment, in captivity. Once the snakes laid their eggs, they were released in the wild, they’ll lay and leave the eggs,” Evans said.
“The young will be released soon away from humans.”
Evans said the snakes were completely efficient in hunting and taking care of themselves the minute they hatch. As well as that, raising them up until they are larger and after that launching them might disrupt wild populations, as more will likely endure to their adult years than nature meant. Also, by keeping them for months or more, there is a possibility they get a parasite or illness in captivity, and after that that is presented into the wild population.
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“So no, it is a sweet gesture, but not an ethical, nor practical option,” Evans said.
He thanked Warren for his important help.
Meanwhile, last Friday night, Evans looked at the eggs gathered from rescued snakes around two-three months earlier and was thrilled to see that both the Mozambique spitting cobra clutches were hatching.
He said their moms were captured by his friend Duncan Slabbert. Both were concealing in a hole in a garden in Shallcross, in early December. After laying the eggs, the moms were launched.
“There’s just over 30 from the two clutches, so measuring all of them will be a tedious task, involving a lot of concentration,” Evans said.
Earlier this month, Evans said that in December, he headed out to a storage facility in Verulam to gather some snake eggs.
“After a while in a box of vermiculite, in my cupboard, the eggs are currently hatching. Non-venomous brown house snakes. Cute little things,” Evans said.
Then at the end of January, the hatching of 12 green mambas was a morning reward for staff at the South African Association for Marine Biological Research’s Dangerous Creatures.
In November in 2015, Evans rescued a green mamba from a suburb and saw that the snake was noticeably gravid (pregnant). In order to provide the mommy and her offspring the greatest possibility of survival, he brought the snake to the herpetologists at uShaka Sea World.
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