DURBAN – Snake expert Nick Evans was surprised when he discovered upon arrival at a home in Westville North, on a black mamba call out, that a neighbour in the same road, at the same time, was also visited by a black mamba.
The snake rescuer assumed when he received the request regarding the second snake that it was the same call he was en route to.
“When I was about four minutes away, I received a photo of a black mamba from someone in the same road...I told the messenger I've already been called about it, and that I was close,” he said. In the message he was advised that the snake was on a deck.
Evans said when he turned into the road, the messenger was outside, and waved him down.
“When I got out of my car, someone at a home across the road asked, ‘Have they also got a snake?’ Incredibly, there were two black mambas! One in a home on each side of the road, nearly opposite each other! Wow,” he said.
He said the mamba was no longer visible at the home of the first caller and he decided to run over to the neighbour’s house as it seemed more urgent.
“The mamba was at the bottom of the garden, looking rather tired. I approached slowly, and it lifted its head, probably thinking, ‘This isn't good!’ It tried to get out the fence, but the bulge prevented it from doing so, so I grabbed it with the tongs,” said Evans.
Evans further explained that when he grabs mambas with tongs, they reverse, and he then grabs the head with his hand.
“This one just would not reverse. It was very annoyed with me, but wouldn't reverse as per normal. It was most inconvenient! Eventually, though, it gave up, and reversed for me,” he said.
Evans measured the snake at 2.2m long once he secured it. He said the mamba looked like it had just eaten a young dassie.
“Across the road, that mamba was also hunting dassies. In fact, I had caught one there a few years ago. That one had also eaten a dassie,” he said.
Unfortunately Evans said he could not find the second mamba after a search.
THE MERCURY