TV couple back with snake ‘tales’

THE weather is warming up and so is snake season. Not only is it mating and egg laying time, its the start of season 4 of the Nat Geo Wild show, Snakes in the City. The show stars eMdloti snake catcher, Simon Keys and his herpetologist girlfriend, Siouxsie Gillett.

The animal rescue show airs on Nat Geo Wild every Monday at 6pm on DSTV 182. Keys said it all started when the popular TV channel, that focuses primarily on wildlife and natural history, shot a promo of him going to a spitting cobra call-out. “The director felt that there was really something great that could come from these rescues,” he explained.

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The show revolves around the couple who operate in a two-hour radius from eMdloti, extending all the way into the township of Inanda. Siouxsie recalls an incident they were called out to in Inanda, inland of KwaZulu-Natal: “It was an unusual scenario as the local residents believed the python was an ancestor returning. They didn’t want to disrespect the family who were adamant that the ‘grandfather’ could not be removed.” One day later the animal lovers were called back and the snake safely removed – it had been eating the chickens.

The journey however for the duo has not been without snake bites. Keys said he was bitten by a Copperhead from North America – a snake with a potentially fatal bite.

“I was bitten on the finger and didn’t think too much of it at the time as it was a baby, only about 10 inches long. By that night I was projectile vomiting and the pain was like having boiling water poured on me. I didn’t have any anti-venom, so I just rode it out.”

He said he eventually lost feeling in the finger.

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Siouxsie has also had her share of snake bites. A scar on the knee was the result of one encounter with a 15-foot Burmese python. But her most memorable meeting is with a night adder. “It was a tiny hatchling which hid in a tiny hole of a shower cubicle and I couldn’t use a leather glove to get it out,” said Siouxsie. “The little thing was in panic mode and bit me. I had swollen lymph nodes and a week of pulsating pain”

Besides the snake rescues that sees the snakes released to their natural environment and out of the reach of human, Keys noticed a change in attitude towards snakes. “It’s great because people are now calling for help which means the snakes aren’t injured, and neither are humans.”

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