Snake rescuer catches black mamba in KwaZulu-Natal river – PICTURES

Snake rescuer Nick Evans had a quiet week, but has rescued two black mambas in as many days in KwaZulu-Natal.

By: Garrin Lambley

Snake rescuer Nick Evans had a quiet week, but has rescued two black mambas in as many days in KwaZulu-Natal.

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Evans took to his Facebook page on Wednesday to write: The Black Mambas have been pretty quiet my side for the last week or so. Although a call just now made it two in two days.

The call came from an informal settlement in Shallcross, along the Umhlatuzana River. I was told there was a big Black Mamba close to the houses.

Calls like this never fill me with much hope, as often, the mamba disappears before we arrive or proves extremely difficult to catch, often just moving tree to tree. However, I knew something needed to be attempted, so I went for it, pleading with the caller to just watch it till I arrived.

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I met the caller on the side of a road, and he led me through the settlement. After a bit of a walk, we got to a clearing, where a small crowd had gathered. It was good to see that many people were watching the snake for me. But I had this horrible sinking feeling as soon as I saw where they pointed to where the snake was.

The crowd pointed to a clump of bush in the middle of the river.

The quality of the water in the Umhlatuzana river is criminally poor, as is the case with pretty much all our rivers. Heavily polluted, a disgrace, it’s hazardous to humans and wildlife. With lots of rubbish dumped down in there as well, I knew this would be unpleasant. And I didn’t have my damn gumboots, just my trusty slops.

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Snakes empty their bowels on me every day, it doesn’t bother me. Human excrement, I draw the line there. That was far more of a concern, and whatever else may be in the water, than the mamba.

Black mamba could have been killed

Fortunately, as I warily made my way down, I found that I could get to the mamba without stepping in water, and potentially losing a foot.

Unfortunately, I could see the colour of the rocks was not a natural one. But, it had to be done. The mamba stood a good chance of being killed by people here, or entering a home, where further disaster could occur.

The opportunity presented itself to use my new African Snakebite Institute collapsible tongs, which extend from 118cm to 175cm. I reached out and grabbed the mamba, who was too busy enjoying the sun, with those tongs, pulled it closer, and grabbed the neck with my 1.1m tongs. It was actually a pretty easy catch! It was a little cool to the touch, like yesterday’s mamba, which I’ll post about tomorrow, and so it didn’t have a lot of energy. Obviously, it hadn’t been basking for too long. The hardest part was getting out of this thicket with the mamba, and not falling into the sewage-filled river.

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The community were absolutely delighted to see the 2.2m mamba being taken away, and were extremely grateful. I was grateful to them for not killing it, and especially grateful to the gentleman who called me.

It was a well-fed mamba, most likely living off what I’d imagine there to be an abundance of rats there.

Fun rescue. I just wish the powers that be could sort out our rivers, and get them restored to their former glory, so that wildlife can thrive, and people can benefit from it too.

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