A Durban man had a close encounter with a venomous snake when he tried to fix the pump for a pond in his garden.
On Friday night, as he placed both his hands in the box that houses the pump, he saw a black mamba centimetres away from him.
Close encounter with black mamba
Snake rescuer Nick Evans said this proves that black mambas are reluctant to bite people.
“It just kept still, desperately hoping he’d leave it alone, which he did. If it wanted to bite him, it could easily have done so,” he said.
The homeowner left the snake where he found it and then called Evans in the morning to catch it.
“It was late at night, so he didn’t want to bother a rescuer at that time, so he waited till 06:30 to call.”
‘Chilled out’
Evans was surprised by how relaxed the homeowner was.
“He wasn’t too bothered by it, but he needed to fix the pump. I don’t come across many people as chilled out about the presence of a mamba as him,” he said.
When the snake catcher arrived at the house, the mamba was still hiding under a part of the pond’s pump.
“I just managed to squeeze my tongs into a gap where I could get a hold of its neck region, and gently pull it out, where I was able to grab it.”
The capture, however, didn’t go down as smoothly as Evans would have hoped – the snake urinated on him as he pulled it out.
“Still, a fun way to start the day!” said Evans.
Another black mamba removed that day
It wasn’t the first black mamba that Evans had caught on Friday.
Earlier in the day, he was called to Westville to remove a snake that was hiding behind a granite slab underneath a carport.
“Not the biggest specimen, around 2.1m, but it was very feisty, and fast!” he said.
