VIDEO: Four black mambas and THAT python
The largest of the black mambas was caught in a tree at Hibberdene beach on Tuesday morning.
IT’S been the week of the snake!
Sarel van der Merwe, also known as the snake catcher from Pure Venom Reptile Park, has caught four black mambas in as many days.
The largest black mamba of the four was caught in a tree at Hibberdene beach on Tuesday morning. The magnificent creature was close to four metres long.
A black mamba is highly toxic, potentially causing collapse in humans within 45 minutes or less from a single bite.
Once on the scene, he climbed a ladder into the tree in front of a crowd which had gathered below, watching in anticipation while he worked to catch one of the longest species of venomous snake on the African continent.
Once safely on the ground with the lengthy reptile, Sarel received a loud cheer from the crowd.
“My job it to protect snakes and that is what I did today,” said Sarel, a man extremely passionate about reptiles.
“Not an easy catch… but very exciting and certainly an adrenalin rush,” he said. Sarel was taught by his father how to handle snakes when he was a young boy.
“Have you ever caught a snake? You must always have breakfast so you are not shaky. The more black mambas you catch, the easier it becomes,” he said.
“The reason that there are so many snakes around is that they are stocking up for winter. So please be nice to them.”
Never a dull moment for Sarel. He retrieved a 3.2 metre black mamba from a clinic near Margate and another, about three metres in length, from a garage in Port Edward last Friday.
And a man arrived at Pure Venom last Saturday with a 3.8m snake in a pipe where it was, apparently, planning to hibernate.
“Everyone is always happy to see me,” he joked. The snakes are taken back to Pure Venom where they spend a month. They are then released into the wild.
But, don’t panic, they are dropped off far away from humans.
Anyone who has a problem with a snake can contact Sarel at 082 6831604 or Pure Venom at 039 6850704.
On a sad note, a group of men carrying a dead African rock python, measuring between four and five metres, caught the attention of a Pumula couple on the N2, near Umgababa last Sunday.
Yolandi Pearce and her husband, Jonathan, were travelling to Durban when they noticed a group of people with about 15 hunting dogs on the centre median.
“We then saw the huge pole with the massive python wrapped around it. We just looked at each other – and said ‘no ways’!”
Yolandi said they took the next off-ramp, turned around and came back again just to make sure they weren’t mistaken.
“One doesn’t see this every day. We were in awe to see a snake that big, shocked that it had been killed and amazed by the number of hunting dogs,” she said.
News of the snake spread and people flocked to see it. Motorists stopped to take photos.
Yolandi said the magnificent snake’s head had been smashed and sliced up.
The African rock python is Africa’s largest snake and is protected in South Africa as their numbers have decreased, primarily due to habitat destruction and the illegal pet trade.
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