RESIDENTS at the house in Tongaat bordering the Tongaat River, which is a prime snake habitat, spotted a Black Mamba poking its head out of the roof of an outbuilding, earlier in the month, and so I was called.
The outbuilding had an asbestos roof, consisting of two layers with about a 30 centimetre gap between them. This is where the mamba was hiding. With no ladder long enough to get me up there, I climbed up a Fig Tree, growing next to the building. See the benefits of having beautiful, big indigenous trees in the garden?
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I understand asbestos is toxic, but I didn’t have a choice, I had to break it. Using a hammer, I started breaking holes in the roof, trying to locate the mamba. I found old, shed mamba skin. Clearly, this snake had been living in here for a couple of months, maybe even more.
Sibonelo, a young man who lived at the house, was my assistant for the evening. He was standing on a ladder, and looking into the ceiling through a hole in the side of it. I was relying on him to keep eyes on its whereabouts, but it was hiding behind a beam, which was blocking his view.
Did you manage to catch it? Yes, but not easily. An hour into the search, I had now broken holes in the roof all around me. I was surrounded by them, and with the mamba moving around and around, it could have popped out of any of them. It was a stressful time. I kept checking the holes all around me, frantically. Eventually, I located it in one of the corners. After breaking a large hole, I successfully managed to extract it. It was a whopper. A big, muscular and healthy snake, which measured out at 2.6m long. Sibonelo and I were both so relieved.
There was a twist. While I had been chasing the mamba around this roof, Sibonelo, staring in from the side of the roof, spotted a Monitor Lizard. I didn’t quite believe him at first, but I spotted the lizard during my mamba chase. I had actually seen the mamba slither over it. The Monitor was hiding between a beam and the wall. I was impressed with his ID skills, and the fact that he knew what it was called. Most people refer to them as Iguanas, or my favourite, crocodiles. I held the lizard down with one hand, preventing it from running, and broke away some more of the roof to get it out.
The Monitor was around a meter long. I was puzzled, as I had never found these two large reptiles hiding out together. In fact, Monitor Lizards feed on snakes, including venomous ones. But it stood no chance against this beast of a mamba. I presume they were both drawn to the roof for rats, living in and around this building. They seemed to have just tolerated each other’s presence.
There wasn’t just one twist to this story, there were two. While I was pulling the Monitor Lizard out, I had asked Sibonelo to run down to my car to fetch a second bucket. When he returned, and climbed up the ladder, he looked into the roof one last time. “Uh…Nick…Nick we have a big problem”. By this time, I had just got the Monitor out of the roof. “There’s another mamba.”, he said, in a terrified tone. “No ways”, I thought, “Maybe he’s seeing things?”. He wasn’t. About a meter from where the Monitor and my hands were, was another Black Mamba. It was curled up right beneath where I was standing. I could not believe it. I was excited, but in shock too. My head and hands had been dangerously close to this mamba, while I was chasing the first one and when I was catching the Monitor. Funnily enough, while chasing the first mamba, there were times when I did think there were two mambas. But I brushed the thought aside, thinking I’m not that lucky.
Before it started moving around, I quickly pinned it down, and had it safely secured. This one was much smaller, at around 2.2m in length. I was just left for words.
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Why were there two mambas together? This is much easier to explain than why the Monitor was with these two mambas- it’s mamba mating season. Generally, snakes are solitary animals, but they obviously do come together during the mating season. Most species come together to mate in spring, but mambas are different. They breed in winter. So yes, these infamous snakes are active all year round, as rats are abundant throughout the year.
Contrary to popular belief, mambas are not more aggressive at this time of year. They’re never aggressive really, just nervous, shy, and above all, misunderstood. Although male are more aggressive with each other. If two males track down the same female, they’ll wrestle for the mating rights. So at this time of year, mambas (Black and Green) are occasionally seen wrapped around each other in open spaces, ‘wrestling’, where they ‘throw’ each other to the ground. One eventually tires out and leaves, they don’t fight till the death.
What did you do with the three large reptiles? Well, at the time, I only had two buckets. So when Sibonelo spotted the second mamba, I had to ‘dump’ the Monitor. I released it into the large patch of bush next to the house, which ran down to the river. This act infuriated some of the bystanders, as they wanted the Monitor for dinner. Monitor Lizards are often killed for muthi or food. This is illegal, as this powerful reptile is protected by law.
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I collected data off the two mambas (measurements, weight, DNA sample) and released them together in a wild valley where they will hopefully never see humans again.
I am indebted to Sibonelo for his courageous help.
For snake removals/emergency rescues you can contact Nick Evans on 072 809 5806, or for snake awareness/educational work, e-mail nickevanskzn@gmail.com or visit www.kznamphibianreptileconservation.com.
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