LOOK: Nick Evans makes two more snake catches
KwaZulu-Natal Amphibian and Reptile Conservation’s Nick Evans captured two snakes within 24 hours that made work places their homes.
Evans captured a 3 metre python on the property of a steel factory in Cato Ridge on Sunday morning.
Evans says once he arrived to his call-out, the snake was moving along the property’s fence line.
"It was an easy catch. I just walked right up to it and grabbed it behind its head. You don’t want a python biting you - they are not venomous, but they got rows of sharp needle like teeth.”
"What is quite worrying is that its rather underweight, so I am going to take it to the vet to have it checked up.”
He says no one was injured during the capture.
"Unfortunately, pythons are killed because people want to eat them, or people use them for traditional medicine - all of which is illegal as the Southern African python is a protected species.”
Not long after, Evans was called out to capture another snake.
A 2.3 metre Black Mamba was recovered by the snake expert at a car repair shop off Queen Nandi Drive, alongside the N2 - north of Durban.
Evans says he received a call from a woman, whose father-in-law noticed the reptile at his place of work on Sunday night.
“He was lying underneath a raised car, finishing off installing a new gearbox. Suddenly, he noticed a large Black Mamba slithering right past him, just to his right.”
Evans, who described the snake as a ‘fatty,’ says it was curled under a small cardboard box and covered in oil.
“So, it was rather amusing that this large snake had chosen such a small hiding place."
“I lifted the box up, which was filled with tools, exposing the mamba. I grabbed it gently with the tongs, on its neck, and dragged the head end out. It quickly reversed, and I grabbed it.”
