Durban — South Coast snake catcher Sarel van der Merwe bagged four mambas: one black and three green mambas, including a case of mistaken identity, and one snake snuggled in a pizza oven.
Van der Merwe made these catches over two days. Two mambas a day.
“Mambas are keeping me busy,” Van der Merwe said. He said that in the latest two rescues, on Monday, he was called to Umtentweni for a black mamba.
The caller said there was a black mamba in his home office. He was sure it was a black mamba because he knew what it looked like.
So he told the caller to lock everything and keep an eye out.
“The snake had come down the stairs and gone into the office. I had started moving things out of the way when the snake popped its head out from behind the laptop bag. I grabbed it and put it in the box,” Van der Merwe said.
He said that he received another call not long after that, from a house in Uvongo.
“It was for a bush snake in the house. The caller’s employees saw it,” Van der Merwe said.
“I went into the house with a small container and looked everywhere. Then when I looked on a shelf, there it was, a green mamba.”
Van der Merwe said he asked for the snake to be watched so he could fetch the right equipment. He needed a travel box; but when he returned, the snake was gone.
“It was not where I left it when I returned. It had gone behind a picture. They love playing hide-and-seek,” Van der Merwe said.
He said he had to move some items out of the way to reach the snake and place it in the travel box.
Over the weekend, Van der Merwe and his assistant, Emma, were called out to a coffee shop by the manager for a green mamba in a tree near the parking area.
“I said I wouldn’t be able to climb the tree, so a step ladder had to be organised. A small branch had to be cut too,” Van der Merwe said.
He said that he could not see the snake after that, yet the reptile was right above his head on the branch. Emma had alerted him to its position.
“From there I caught it,” Van der Merwe said.
In the fourth rescue, he was called out to a backpackers establishment for a green mamba snuggled in a pizza oven in Umzumbe.
“This was another interesting one,” Van der Merwe said.
He said the pizza oven was not in use and one of the backpackers wanted to put her food in there.
“As she put her plate in, she saw the green mamba. The snake could have come out of the chimney or the bottom of the oven. But when I opened the oven, it was still there and I grabbed it,” Van der Merwe said.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News