Durban — After four years of training and working with venomous snakes, Crocworld Conservation Centre’s reptile keeper rescued a green mamba in a tree recently.
In a Facebook post, on Wednesday, Crocworld said that in early May, the Crocworld team was called to assist with a green mamba in a tree, at a residence in Malangeni.
Crocworld manager James Wittstock and reptile keeper, Sphesihle Nyawose attended the call hoping to rescue the snake.
“Sphe, as he is known, was full of adrenaline as this was his first mamba call after four years of training and working with the venomous snakes at our facility,” Crocworld said.
“Needless to say the four years of hard work and training paid off as Sphe successfully and safely caught the snake and educated the residents of the property, by allowing them to safely touch the tail end, in the hopes that they would realise that these beautiful creatures are not out to hurt anyone and deserve their place in the food chain.”
Crocworld said the green mamba was taken to a wild area, away from human development where it will hopefully live out its life.
“Well done Sphe, there’s many more rescues to come!” Crocworld said.
On his Facebook page, Nyawose shared images of the rescue with a simple caption: “1st green mamba call.”
Last month, Crocworld’s snake team rescued a black mamba from the roof of a house and a green mamba at a water pump station, both on the KZN South Coast.
Crocworld’s animal curator, Busani Mthiyane, said they received a call from a family indicating that a huge, green mamba had been found on the roof of their house. On their way to the house, they agreed it was more likely to be the spotted bush snake. But while searching the roof, they found the shed (skin) of a black mamba.
They also noticed rat droppings and realised it had probably been up there feeding on rats. They continued searching the roof and saw something big move. They managed to safely remove the mamba and relocate it.
In the other incident, a green mamba appeared at a Roseneath water pump station and a security guard called and reported seeing a huge, green snake.
The snake team attended the call-out and after a few moments of searching, discovered a male green mamba hiding behind one of the big water pipes.
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