Breaking stereotypes – Mother and daughter team catching reptiles for a living

A mother and daughter team from Pretoria are out to prove the old gender stereotype wrong that all women are afraid of insects and reptiles.

Heidi Pfeifer and Charlene Gebhardt are part of a group of women in Pretoria who work with renowned snake specialist Arno Naude. Their jobs is catching and safeguarding big reptiles found in unwanted places.

Many people might squirm at the idea of holding a spider in the palm of their hands, or feeling the slithery layers of a snake’s skin against their necks. But they are not most people.

“I enjoy working with reptiles as they are so misunderstood and feared,” Pfeifer told Rekord.

“The most rewarding feeling is when you can convert someone from fearing them, to admiring and respecting them.

“When people realise reptiles, especially venomous snakes, actually do not pose such a great danger and are as scared of us as we are of them, then we have won one person over. All it takes is one person to change the world for a snake,” she said.

Pfeifer said that as a young girl, she never had any intention of working in this industry.

“When I was about 17, my father found a snake in the garden. It was a Cape Wolf snake which was a harmless snake. At that stage, we did not know that it was illegal to keep any indigenous reptiles in Gauteng. We did as much research as what we could, unfortunately, this was before Google,” she said.

“We then purchased a small pair of Burmese Pythons and not long after that traded up for a pair of three-metre long Burmese Pythons.

“I was hooked. This is where my interest peaked. We started keeping various snakes as well as geckos and I got interested in venomous snakes as well.”

Pfeifer then attended a snake identification and bite treatment course as well as a venomous snake handling course presented by Arno Naude and Gustav Collins in 2002.

“A few months later I went on my first call-out and caught a Rinkhals. That same year I managed to catch a Black Mamba in Pretoria, which had hitchhiked with a vehicle. The most rewarding part of this work, is releasing an animal back into a safe area,” she said.

Pfeifer explained that being a woman in the industry can be quite challenging.

“Many people question your capabilities and skills to catch and remove a snake,” she said.

“But one of the funniest situations are always when there is a group of men. They don’t expect a woman to arrive, and when it is an ‘easy’ catch they mostly comment, ‘I could have done that’.

“I once had a man lock his wife out of the house until I arrived to catch the snake. Only once I left, did he allow her back in. I’ve also been called out for toy snakes, toads and even painted stones,” she said laughingly.

Pfeifer said her favourite reptile is the Gaboon adder.

“I think they are the most beautiful snakes and you can visualise how they would camouflage among leaf litter in the forests.”

Pfeifer’s colleague and daughter Charlene Gebhardt, followed in her mother’s footsteps and also developed a love for rescuing reptiles.

“We grew up with snakes. Arno and my mum used to do snake talks at all my birthday parties and I did a lot of reptile-related talks at school.

In grade 8, I did a talk on Dumeril’s boas for my science class and received a 90% on it. I started my training around the age of 12 and worked with Mozambique spitters and snouted cobras. Before that I would catch the occasional brown house snake with my mum when she went on call-outs.”

Gebhardt said being a reptile lover is also a great conversation starter.

“I love educating others about reptiles, especially people who are afraid of them.”

Gebhardt said one of the most frightening aspects of this job is actually going to sites alone, rather than actually catching the animal.

“Many times call-outs are at night and I need to go out alone. You don’t know who you are going to meet there. I usually send my mum a live location when going out at night and she stays up until I’m home safely.”

She said that she thrives on the rush to see what venomous snakes she’ll come across next.

“Before I had my kids, I didn’t mind catching venomous snakes. But since my first pregnancy, I’ve been very cautious.

“I’ve been very blessed to have been raised by Arno and my mum Heidi. Arno hasn’t only taught me about how to care for, catch and identify these snakes, he tweaked my interest in snake bite treatment as well,” she said.

“ I’ve been in the medical field for eight years and would classify myself as someone that specialises in snake bites.”

Only Charlene has been bitten by snakes before.

“I once helped my mum clean her boa cages and I asked her to move for more space. Before she could move, the boa constrictor got a hold of my ankle. Luckily, just a few drops of blood.

“Other than that, I’ve been bitten by a few brown house snakes. I handle venomous snakes as little as possible and in the safest way possible to avoid any accidents,” she said.

This article first appeared on Rekford East and has been republished with permission.

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