A Reptile Encounter

Tonight around 7pm our lovely Boerboel bitch Diva took a stand at a cornwer of our house, and barked a hell of a lot. She never barks like that for no reason... With a flash-lite we discovered a darkish snake. Could be a Black Mamba, but more likely a Mozambiquean Spitting Cobra.

We called the "Reptile Recovery" guys, and they arrived within 5 minutes, and quickly determined that it was a Cobra, not a Mamba.
We followed the capture of the snake, and how wonderfully these guys handled the whole situation!



One has to know that the Mozambiquean Spitting Cobra is responsible for more deaths from snake bite than any other snake in Southern Africa, even though the Black Mamba is much more feared because of its aggressivity. (But the snake killing most people in the whole continent of Africa is actually the Puff Adder, which is not aggressive at all, unless you "step" on it. We had one of those at our front door less than two years ago.)




Less than 10 years ago, I would have shit my pants in a situation like this, but you get used to it. And the best way to control your emergency reactions is to know more about snakes, which is what I have done.
But it still was a kind of an adventure!
The 4th Moz Spitting Cobra in or around our house...