Snake catcher Sarel bags a five metre python – Africa’s largest snake

A  ROCK python measuring more than five metres in length was caught yesterday at a dam at Banner’s Rest in Port Edward.

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The South Coast’s famed snake catcher, Sarel van der Merwe was called out to catch this beauty after a farmer noticed his chickens and duck had mysteriously disappeared.

The farmer was also worried that one of his small dogs would be the python’s next snack.

Sarel said he searched for the snake for a hour before he saw its shadow and head pop up in the dam, and that when he grabbed it with grab stick.  “I was just lucky to have nabbed him,” Sarel admitted.

“The dam is the perfect habitat for a python to live in and they usually move into these sorts of areas to look for food,” he said.

Thanks to the combined efforts of Sarel and folk from The Pont, the snake was released into a bushy area further up the Umtamvuna River, away from human habitation.

According to Wikipedia, pythons use their sharp, backward-curving teeth, four rows in the upper jaw, two in the lower, to grasp prey which is then killed by constriction; after an animal has been grasped to restrain it, the python quickly wraps a number of coils around it. Death occurs primarily by cardiac arrest.

Larger specimens usually eat animals about the size of a house cat, but larger food items are known; some large Asian species have been known to take down adult deer, and the African rock python, Python sebae, has been known to eat antelope. In 2017, there was a recorded case of a human devoured by a python in Sulawesi, Indonesia. All prey is swallowed whole, and may take several days or even weeks to fully digest.

This is Sarel’s second catch in the last two weeks.

He caught a much smaller rock python which had managed to get itself stuck in a rabbit cage on a farm in the Oribi Gorge area after it had eaten two baby rabbits for breakfast.

It’s important to get to know your snakes, as it is snakebite season in South Africa.

A few days ago, Sarel was called out rather late, 11.45pm to be exact, to help remove a black mamba. But, it turned out the snake was a harmless red-lipped herald.

“I was in my pajamas that’s why there area no pics of the snake and I,” laughed Sarel.

Sarel pointed out that this snake is not harmful to man, so you are encouraged not to kill them.