SUMMER in Durban North involves beautiful sunny days and warm weather and while outdoor activities are in full swing, so too is snake season. Durban North reptile expert, Jason Arnold, said snake activity has increased in the last two weeks.
The increase is particularly among black mambas, the Mozambique spitting cobra and brown house snakes. If the past week is anything to go by, then the local snake man will have his hands full.
Two of his highly unusual catches over the Festive period involved two forest cobras in Sunningdale.
“Normally you find them on the North Coast, near Zinkwazi, so it was highly unusual to find them so far from their natural habitat as well as in the heart of a built up residential area,” Arnold explained.
However one of the cobra’s origins has been traced as far back as Hluhluwe Game Reserve.
“I got a call from a local resident who spotted a forest cobra crawl underneath his car while he was at the reserve. Though he waited for the snake to come back out, it didn’t appear again and he had to come back to Durban.
“He then drove back and thought the snake would slither away once he began to drive away, but when he arrived at Virginia Airport, he realised the snake hadn’t actually crawled away and called me. We located the snake under the car in the chassis.”
Arnold also warned residents wherever possible to avoid cornering or approach snakes, such as the spitting cobra and black mamba.
“Their activity has peaked in recent weeks and I’m getting call-outs on a daily basis. Mambas are very secretive and are extremely nervous and alert. However, they’ll be aggressive in a very small area. Snakes are only as dangerous as you make them,” he said.
Arnold also inserts microchips into black mambas he releases so that scientific data can be collected if they’re caught again.
Contact Jason Arnold on 082 745 6375.
