Green mamba takes cover on bookshelf in KZN children’s home

This is exactly what happened on Monday afternoon at the St Monica’s Children’s Home on the Bluff in Durban, reports the Southlands Sun.

Snake expert Warren Dick received a panicked phone call at about 5.15pm about it. The woman who phoned him said she had just left her office for the day and gone home, but soon received a call from her boss saying there was a green snake in the office she had been working in. At first he was thinking that it was probably a harmless spotted bush snake, but knowing that area, he knew it could well be a green mamba.

He was not taking any chances and advised them to keep an eye on the snake from a safe distance and that he would be there as soon as possible.

Warren arrived within 10 minutes and was met by a woman who told him this was not a common garden snake. This one was fat.

She pointed out the bookshelf and he immediately knew it was a green mamba.

Warren called his good friend, Nick Evans, to let him know what he was dealing with, as one does not see a green mamba every day and he knew that Nick loves them as much as he does.

Nick told him to keep an eye on it until he got there. Warren sat next to the bookshelf watching the snake while waiting for 20 minutes for Nick to arrive. After taking a few more pictures of the green mamba, they decided it was time to catch it. Even though Nick has way more experience catching most venomous snakes in Durban, he let Warren catch the green mamba. After pulling the small bookshelf away from the wall, it was a fairly easy capture.

In hindsight, he was glad the snake did not make its appearance earlier in the day or when there were children around the immediate area, as it may have not gone so well. However, this was nothing to be concerned about, and we, as humans, need to learn to live with the wildlife around us and just be cautious.

The snakes that Warren and Nick catch are released into their natural habitat. This snake will be released later this week once a DNA sample has been taken for an ongoing study of the mambas around Durban.

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