Snakecatcher finds beautiful 1.68m Boomslang in Hillcrest
The Boomslang has a potent haemotoxic venom, and is considered to have the most toxic venom of any South African snake.
NICK Evans of the KwaZulu-Natal Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, caught the biggest and most beautiful Boomslang he had ever seen in Hillcrest recently.
A resident in a Hillcrest estate notified Evans about a two-meter Boomslang but Evans was unconvinced about the find and thought it was probably a common Spotted Bush Snake until he saw a photo that was sent to him by the caller.
“To the caller’s credit, he was spot on with his identification of the snake. I looked at his photo, and could tell straight away that it was a Boomslang. It was sticking it’s large rugby ball-shaped head out of a hedge.”
The Boomslang has a potent haemotoxic venom, and is considered to have the most toxic venom of any South African snake. Bites are rare, as they’re shy snakes.
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Evans rushed over to the home. He said he was expecting it to be difficult, as the caller said it had been pacing along the hedge, and in the hedge down the bank, in the neighbours garden. Fortunately the caller kept an eye on the snake till Evans arrived.
“The snake hid in an indigenous Freylina hedge. Pretty, great for privacy, but an absolute nightmare to catch a snake in. It was so dense, I couldn’t see anything inside. My hope was diminishing quickly,” said Evans.
Evans walked along the hedge towards the end, shaking the shrubs, shoving his hook stick through the middle of the hedge and even sprayed the hedge with water using a hosepipe for the snake to appear, but to no avail.
“I was almost ready to give up, thinking it may have shot down the bank, into the neighbours border hedge. Just before calling it quits, I walked along the hedge again, shaking it as I went. As I neared the end, the caller stopped me. It appeared,” said Evans.
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The snake’s head was sticking out of the hedge, right at the end. Evans snuck around the hedge to get a look. It’s head, and about 25cm of its body was now exposed. It looked like it was about to bolt out. Evans knew he only had one chance to get it. He inched his tongs towards the snake. It didn’t move. When he was about 20cm away, he launched forward, and grabbed the head with the tongs.
“I had to be really careful. Squeeze to hard, and I could cause it spinal damage. Too weakly, and it would slip out. Happy with my grip, I got my left hand around it’s neck, and with that, the rest of the body came out, wrapping around my arm,” said Evans.
He said he could not believe the colours on the snake. “It was absolutely gorgeous. Even if you hate snakes, you can’t say that this isn’t beautiful. I was also stunned by the size. I haven’t caught many Boomslang, but this to me seemed a real whopper, 1.68 meters. So the caller wasn’t far off at all with his size estimation.”
Evans said he would take a DNA sample and photograph it before releasing it.
“To me, it’s a once in a life time snake. I’ve never seen colours on one like this. In the Cape they do look more like this, and technically that’s a subspecies. Further north in the country, our males are green as opposed to yellow. I wonder which one this is? Certainly looks more like the Cape subspecies,” added Evans.
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