WATCH: Battle between snake rescuer and ‘fat’ black mamba after several attempts to evade the tongs
|Published
The black mamba lunges for snake catcher Anton Davidson a few times as it tries to evade his tongs during a rescue in Coniston, next to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport. A 2.1 metre black mamba was caught by snake catcher Anton Davidson in Coniston, next to King Shaka International Airport in KZN on Monday morning. Picture: Screen grab from video.
DURBAN - A black mamba measuring approximately 2.1 metres was captured on a property in Coniston, next to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport on Monday morning.
Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) received a call at about 9am after the snake was discovered in a cupboard.
“Reaction Officers identified the snake as a black mamba. Professional snake catcher Anton Davidson was called out to the property and on arrival captured the highly venomous snake,” said Rusa spokesperson, Prem Balram.
In a video of the capture, Davidson is seen looking for the mamba inside a waist high cupboard with tongs in his hands.
“It’s eaten something, it’s very fat,” he says on the video.
As he pulls the snake out of the cupboard and tries to grip its head with the tongs, the mamba lunges at him.
The snake is seen darting for Davidson several times as he moves it to an open area on the other side of the cupboards.
The snake is seen moving its head from side to side before Davidson manages to secure its head and grab it with his hands.
“It didn't try to bite me, it just left me. The problem comes when you interfere with it. Then you asking for problems,” said Davidson.
Rusa said the mamba was removed from the property and will be relocated to a more suitable environment.
THE MERCURY