Last Monday, April 28, at about 4pm Byron Elston received a phone call from a concerned Primrose resident.
The resident asked Elston, a herpetologist, to come and capture what was believed to be a black mamba from outside their home.
Elston, who is usually on call for Spoornet to remove and relocate snakes from their switch gear rooms next to the railway lines, also removes snakes from factories and residential areas.
“The idea is to educate people that they do not need to kill every reptile they see.
“One of the reasons that we have a rodent problem is because most of the snakes have been removed from residential areas,” said Elston.
Elston responded to the call thinking it was a common house snake or Rinkhals, as mambas are not naturally found in Gauteng.
But, as he did not know for sure, the most important thing to do before anything else was to identify the snake.
Much to Elston’s surprise the snake was indeed a two metre black mamba.
Elston and his colleague managed to get the snake down and into the container.
The black mamba is the deadliest snake in South Africa and one of the deadliest in the world.
Adults average a length of two-and-a-half to three metres and are olive brown or grey in colour, the under body is usually a cream colour.
Mambas are adapted to a variety of climates, ranging from savanna, woodlands, farmland, rock slopes, and dense forest.
The snake’s speed, agility and bad temper makes this snake extremely dangerous to handle.
“It will attack with the least amount of provocation,” added Elston
The captured snake is now on its way to a facility that will relocate it to its natural habitat.
How did the snake get to be so far from its natural habitat?
“It was possibly bought here on the back of a truck.
“A couple of years ago a black mamba found its way into a fruit market via a load of bananas, much to the alarm of the workers in the market, a similar situation could have happened here,” said Elston.
If the community has any reptile related questions or if you need a reptile removed from your property Elston can be contacted on 061 340 3041 or emailed at snakeremoval1@yahoo.com.
