Local snake expert Fanie Cilliers has had a very busy nine years in the world of catching slithering serpents.
Fanie recently received a call from a resident living along the Pieters road.
The homeowner noticed that his chickens were restless and went to see what was going on, only to find a massive python in the chicken pen.
Missed snakes
Fanie responded and safely removed the 2.1-metre-long python. For Fanie, this was python number 225 that he has caught and he is glad that he can help in the saving of this species. However, Fanie says the 225 were from roughly 1000 call-outs.
Also read: Donations are blessings for animals at Christmas
He adds that, “I am not funded in any way whatsoever and it’s costing me a small fortune. Such a small number of snakes out of a thousand calls!” Fanie says the reason is that people report to him too late or only get his number a few days later. In recent times, Fanie has asked people to send him a photo of the snake to confirm what it is before he leaves; now he has a 99% success rate in finding snakes.
Fanie explains that due to the vast size of our district and the road conditions (for example if there is no road or just gravel to travel on), he still misses the odd 1% of snakes. Over the past nine years, Fanie says he has driven over 80,000km after pythons and has had his vehicle ‘pack up’ four times already. “I still haven’t received any funding from the local municipality.”
