NICK Evans and his wife, Joelle, rescued two black mambas about 1.5 metres in length from the roof of a house in the Inanda Valley last week.
This was his first mamba rescue since the riots in July and the first he had allowed his wife to assist with, Evans said.
The mambas were in the roof in the space between the tin sheeting and the top of the walls, he said.
EVANS said that as the house was up against an embankment and judging from the recently cut thick bush, the mambas may have been in the roof ever since the bush was cut.
“We saw a head poking out in a gap above the wall, but it soon disappeared and so began a frustrating, hour-and-a-half-long game of cat and mouse.”
Having forgot his ladder, Evans used an old box, beds, a cabinet and buckets to try to get to the snakes.
“The mamba was moving on top of the walls. I think there was a groove running along the wall, probably between the two layers of bricks.
“The mamba was moving in that, and it was protected by beams. It was a small one too, which didn't help. And from time to time, it would disappear. We'd lose track of it. We were using an iron spear to bang the tin sheeting, and try to lift it in parts. Sometimes success in locating the snake, mostly not.”
He said what made the rescue less infuriating was that some of the residents helped.
“We had eyes inside, in all rooms, and outside. They were committed to their job too. This paid off. While I was trying to hook it on one side, the guys on the other side of the wall, in the next room, told me to come around quickly.
A coil of the body was sticking out. I managed to hook it, then get my tong on it! The neck then popped out, and I grabbed that, but it's tail was wrapped around something on the wall, and it was trying to pull back.”
Evans handed his wife, Joelle, a second set of tongs, and she grabbed the mamba halfway down the body.
“When it felt that second tong grab it, it knew it wasn't going to reverse, and once I had the head in my hands, it gave up.”
He said the mamba measured just over 1.5m in length, “the first mamba I've let Joelle physically help me catch.”
The second mamba, which was about the same size as the first, popped up and gaped its head angrily at Evans after he poked the hook stick into a section of the roof.
“It found a gap between the sheeting. We ran out, and up the embankment, and saw it going under a loose piece of sheeting.”
This part of the rescue was tricky as Evans would have to get on to the roof without a ladder.
Joined by a resident, they walked along the safest part of the corrugated roof.
“I was given some suggestions… none I liked. One involved leaning a thick branch from the bank on to the roof, and me going across. Unfortunately, I'm not as good a climber as our vervet monkeys that climb along things like cables/wires in suburbia. Only one of those could have made this climb.
“I decided to park my car up against the house and use that as a very big makeshift ladder.”
Evans lifted the corrugated iron with an ASI hook and grabbed the mamba with his tong.
“I had the tail, not the best end to have with the tongs. Luckily, I managed to pin it down for a second with my hook stick, and move the tongs up, grabbing the neck. From there, it was routine… and I had it.”
With the assistance of another resident, Evans successfully placed the mamba inside a bucket.
“I've never caught two small mambas hiding out together like this, so that was interesting. I haven't sexed them yet. What a terrific way to end a mamba drought!”
THE MERCURY