Durban – The floor of a garden shed gave way, exposing a forest cobra that had played hide-and-seek with a snake rescuer in Arboretum, Richards Bay.
Richards Bay snake rescuer Bruce McMenamin recently removed a forest cobra which was about 2.1m in length and probably about four years old.
McMenamin said he was sent a picture by a woman at a property, of a snake that was resting just under the roof section of a garden shed at the back of their property.
Initially, the woman said the snake should be left alone as it was not disturbing anyone. However, a couple of hours later, she called McMenamin again and said that since there were children living on the neighbouring property, it was best for him to come to remove the snake.
McMenamin said he arrived at the home armed with his snake hook, tongs and his capture box.
He said he tried to snag it in that roof section, it was still there, but it spotted him and dived inside. So they had to open the roller door and it slid into a big container. There was a lot of stuff in there, cricketing gear in a backpack and the backpack had big holes. It had gone inside the backpack.
“It was a bit of a challenge because this thing was above my head. I wasn’t prepared to take the risk of lifting this thing down and the snake comes out and bites me on the face or somewhere on the body, not my wish,” McMenamin said.
He said he was given a stool to stand on and as he started moving the container, the cobra escaped out of the bag, out of the container and went behind some more containers in the corner of the garden shed.
The shed was stacked with at least five motorbikes and there were bicycles and wheelbarrows. It was jam-packed. So they had to move bikes out of the way. Then they had to take out the containers that the snake had gone behind.
McMenamin said that as he was moving the last container box full of tiles, he was standing there and the floor gave way under his feet. So he had to clear away bricks and broken concrete and eventually spotted it hiding.
“When I stepped on the area, some of the concrete gave way. So when I moved the last container out then I started looking, fishing around with my snake hook… I broke away a little bit more and then I saw it, it was still underneath the floor of the garden shed but I could see the body. It was hiding the head away.
“Then I got a tong on it and once I pulled it towards me, I waited to see which way the head was and which way the tail was because again I don’t want to grab the body and then suddenly the head comes up and bites me,” McMenamin continued.
He said he waited and could see the head and could see the snake still trying to get away because all snakes, even the black mamba, will try to flee from people.
“As soon as I determined which end was the head end, then I got the body. I pulled it out, but I didn’t pull it all the way, I just pulled because it was resisting and it was using its head as an anchor and I didn’t want to injure it. So I pulled and I waited a good five minutes for the resistance to subside, then I started gently pulling it out and then as soon as I got close behind the head, I put the tongs behind and secured the head.
“It was quite a battle to get it out of there, but I got it out and the people were very happy, very relieved,” McMenamin said.
Speaking about forest cobras, McMenamin said the snakes are limited to northern KZN, forested areas, in other words the first 8km inland from the sea. You can say from Mtunzini, northwards up through Kosi Bay and then they are far more widespread in Mozambique.
He said they dwell in forest areas, which is their preferred habitat.
They eat frogs.
They can grown to a maximum length of 2.7m.
“They are really distinct from other cobras in South Africa because of the sort of their mottled colouring from the head down to the last section of the tail and what makes the tail the last sort of distinct is that it is black. It is a dead give-away that it is a forest cobra,” explained McMenamin.
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