God’s Little Creatures – Twig Snake

With summer coming fast, I would like to share my first snake call out of the season, definitely not one of the usual ones.

I was phoned at 5;30pm by a gentleman in the Seaview area of Durban, at first listening to his description of the snake on the phone, I thought is was a harmless Brown House Snake, However I thought it was a bit strange that the snake was up a small  tree. I rushed off to his house to rescue this snake from possibly being killed, only to see that this was no Brown House snake.

From a distance all I could see was the silhouette of the snake in the fading light and right away from the shape of the head I could see that this was no Brown House Snake. Getting closer, with my snake tongs in hand, I saw that it was something that I had been wanting to see for a long time. It was indeed a Twig Snake also known as a Vine Snake. I safely caught it out of the tree and took it home, the following morning a friend of mine and I went to a local nature reserve to photograph the beautiful snake before releasing it back into its natural habitat.

​The  Twig Snake is commonly found in the Seaview and Yellow-wood Park areas, however it is seldom seen due to its ineradicable Camouflage.

​Its body looks identical to the small branches of trees, enabling it to blend in perfectly to its surroundings. It will often sit low down on shrubs, bushes and trees, where it keeps absolutely motionless, sometimes for days, waiting for its preferred pray to come past. They prey largely upon lizards, including Chameleons and even other snakes. Their prey is grabbed in one swift motion, where the snake then begins to chew its venom into it, once the venom has taken effect the prey is then swallowed whole, often while the snake is hanging head first.
The venom of the Twig Snake is potently Haemotoxic, but bites from this snake on humans are extremely rare, which is fortunate because as yet there is no anti-venom to treat the bite.

These snakes are evenly tempered and not quick to bite, unless handled inappropriately, ie: with bare hands.
​I believe that snakes, even venomous ones like the Twig Snake were made by God for a specific plan and purpose, by killing them you are taking out a very important part of the food chain, or the chain of life.

No snake should EVER be picked up with your bare hands, specially if you don’t know the species of the snake. Rather get an expert in that’s got the right equipment to safely capture and relocate the snake, preferably away from built up areas.

​This is a picture of me safely handling the snake to photograph.

Please feel free to check out my photography page to see more of God’s amazing creation.

https://www.facebook.com/WkDickPhotography

God Bless

Warren.K.Dick