Three of Africa’s deadliest serpents — the green mamba, boomslang and puff adder — were all discovered in Gqeberha suburbs in the space of 24 hours.
It was a busy weekend for Gqeberha snake catcher Mark Marshall as he bagged two of the continent’s most venomous snakes within mere hours of each other.
On Saturday evening, a green mamba, which is predominantly found along the KwaZulu-Natal coast, made its way into a bird cage at a Sidwell residence.
The homeowner ultimately ended up being admitted to hospital after the snake bit him on his finger.
The same evening, a puff adder was found slithering along Fife Street in Rowallan Park.
And hours later, on Sunday morning, a boomslang was discovered in Breton Road, Humerail, after a dog got into a fight with it.
Marshall said the Sidwell resident, in his late 50s, was bitten by the snake at about 7pm after going to check on his two parrots on the patio.
“The house had two bird cages on top of each other,” Marshall said.
“The man went to see the two parrots and noticed that the bird in the top cage was dead.
“Then he noticed a big green snake on the floor of the other cage.
“Thinking it was a boomslang [usually a calmer snake], the man grabbed it by the tail.
“Immediately, the snake whipped back and bit him on the finger.”
He said mambas were very sensitive to touch.
“That stimulated the bite.
“They are highly defensive. It is not too much aggression but the defensiveness gets perceived as aggression and they are also fast.
“They are deadly, deadly, deadly venomous snakes.
“Within five minutes, you already display symptoms.”
Marshall requested a photo of the snake because the symptoms of a swollen hand, painful finger and difficulty breathing were similar to those of a Cape cobra bite.
He said he nearly had a heart attack when he saw it was a green mamba.
By 8pm, the victim had received the polyvalent antivenom and was undergoing treatment.
“The reality kicked in. Can you believe it? A green mamba in Gqeberha.
“I have never heard of it in 32 years of catching snakes in the metro.
“The thing with green mambas is that they are an extreme environmental concern at the moment because you can pretty much only find them on the northern Durban coastline in the forest.
“They have such a limited area of natural distribution because of habitat destruction so they are not as common as before.”
He said the man had placed it into a container.
“I collected the snake and have it in my care,” Marshall said.
He said the mamba in the weekend incident was 1.1-metres long and was “definitely hunting those parrots”.
In the Sunday morning incident, a Humerail resident was called by a neighbour shortly after church to notify him that his dog was fighting with a snake.
“On arrival, the owner separated them and placed a container over the snake,” Marshall said on his Facebook page, Sandula Conservation.
“From a close inspection of the dog, no bites are evident.
“I advised close monitoring of the dog and to take it to the vet if any symptoms showed up.
“The snake is badly injured and I’ll take care of it until it has recovered.”
With the heatwaves hitting the metro, Marshall said many snakes could be expected as it was the breeding season for birds.
“The breeding season for birds attracts a lot of snakes like boomslangs,” he said.
“There are a lot of rats and mice around at the moment.
“Because of the heat, a lot of the snakes are choosing the urban environment since it’s cooler.
“I have caught six boomslangs in the last week or so.
“They have all been extremely aggressive.
“Festive season was busy but the last week-and-a-half has been crazy.
“I am receiving about 50 chat group messages a day.
“I am getting those messages from all over the Bay.
“Summerstrand is big at the moment, and Rowallan Park.”
The Herald
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