Sarel’s Snake Diary: Tales of rescuing a skink, green mambas – and a dog bite
In other news, Sarel was recently bitten by a German shepherd while trying to catch a green mamba in Anerley.
Twelve days into 2019, and the South Coast’s snake catcher, Sarel van der Merwe has a rather busy January.
Sarel recently rescued a skink which are creatures usually no more than eight inches in length.
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“Most skink species have short legs that are well-formed and a few have no legs at all. They often look like a snake crawling about. Skinks are very beneficial to the garden because their prey includes grasshoppers, snails, slugs, cockroaches and even small mice.”
He also responded to a call out in Uvongo to remove a young and harmless red lipped herald.
Sarel promptly demonstrated to the client that the snake is harmless by allowing the it to bite his finger. PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF!!
In other news, Sarel was recently bitten by a German shepherd while trying to catch a green mamba in Anerley. “If you have called me to your property to catch a snake, please lock your dogs away, not only for their safety but for mine.”
As he was busy with the green mamba, he received a phone call about another green mamba high up in a tree in Umtentweni.
He was third time lucky, as he had visited same premises twice before. Later that day, Sarel rushed to a car dealer in Port Shepstone where there was a snake in the showroom.
The snake turned out to be an egg eater, harmless and virtually toothless.
“The eating of an egg by these snakes is truly a wonder of nature. They swallow the egg whole, and it’s often several times larger than the diameter of the snake,” said Sarel.
“When the egg is some way down the throat , they contract their muscles and move from side to side. This presses the eggshell against special protrusions on the snakes vertebrae, which pierce the eggshell. After they squeeze out every drop of the contents, they regurgitate the shell.”
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