Alex and Sandton children learn about snakes
Snakes are more afraid of us than we could ever be of them, says snake wrangler Mbali Mtshali during the launch of a new season of Snakes in the City.
Children from Alexandra and neighbouring Sandton had the opportunity to touch and handle a snake in the company of the world-renowned snake handler, Simon Keys and his girlfriend Siouxsie Gillett.
Herpetologists Keys and Gillett were joined by SA snake wrangler Mbali Mtshali at the launch of a brand new season of National Geographic’s Wild’s Snakes in the City which premiered across the country and Africa on July 6.
Children loved the launch in Johannesburg and got to meet their favourite snake-handler trio in real life. The little ones, along with other guests, enjoyed a demonstration with non-venomous snakes and previewed the first episode.
“It was quite fascinating to be able to touch and let alone handle a snake, which I have often seen on TV done by the trio. I must say it was an experience of a lifetime that I will savour for some time, though I was a bit sceptical to handle the snakes,” said Alexandra’s Siphesihle Nongawuza (8), who was accompanied to the show by her cousin, Lukhanyo Kubheka (3).
Handling and touching the snakes was an easy affair for the pair as it was under controlled circumstances with non-vernomous snakes. However, the real nightmare for their parents came when the pair had to go to bed.
“We had a nightmare of a different kind as we struggled getting the pair to sleep afterwards,” said Siphesihle’s aunt and Lukhanyo’s mother Sibongile Kubheka.
She said the kids kept knocking on her bedroom door, saying they can’t sleep as they were scared of seeing the snakes. They demanded to sleep with her on her bed as they were scared of nightmares. In the end, she had no choice but give in as refusing would have amounted to a long night of back-and-forth.
In the new episode of Wild’s Snakes in the City, the streetwise snake catchers race across Durban – which has become known as the ‘Snake City’ – to face some of the world’s deadliest snakes in the most bizarre situations and release them back into the wild.
When Mtshali joins the team, her skills are quickly put to the test as they go up against a lethal black mamba inside a school, a puff adder in a toilet and an enormous python on a goat farm, not to mention a super-fast monitor lizard in a ceiling, a spitting cobra inside a local shop and many more.
Born in Limpopo, Mtshali moved to KwaZulu-Natal at a young age and had her first exposure of working with reptiles while volunteering at a non-profit organisation. She later cut her teeth handling snakes while assisting at a reptile park. She has since learnt to handle venomous snakes.
“For many years, in my culture, these reptiles have been misinterpreted as a sign of witchcraft, a bad omen and an image of the evil serpent. Working on Snakes in the City shows that residents of Durban can catch snakes too – with the right training,” Mtshali told Alex News.
“My biggest message for viewers and my community is that snakes are not these evil monsters that they have been made out to be – snakes are more afraid of us than we could ever be of them,” she added.
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