The pair of black mambas.
- Snake expert Nick Evans got quite a surprise when the black mamba he was called out to rescue had an unexpected “roommate”.
- One of the mambas was shedding and put up quite a fight.
- Evans says it’s unusual to find a pair of mambas as it is not mating season.
KwaZulu-Natal-based snake expert Nick Evans got quite a surprise on Monday when the black mamba he was called out to rescue had an unexpected “roommate”.
Evans, in the midst of filming a series on his serpent-related exploits, and his cameraman Tyrone Marcus were called to a home in Westville near Durban to remove a black mamba that had been spotted in a roof.
PICS | What’sss for Sssupper! There’s a mamba in my kitchen!
Evans initially thought it was probably a house snake, as is often is the case when he’s called out about a mamba. But not this time.
“We arrived and, sticking out the side part of the roof was the nose of a large black mamba! Below the eaves of the roof were some planks of wood. The mamba was in that space,” he says.
“It was tricky, as I couldn’t really get the tongs in. It appeared I had to break something to get it. At one point, my face was about a foot away from the snake’s, when I got on a ladder.”
Evans says he could see the mamba was “in the blue”, which means it was in the process of shedding. Its eyes were clouded over.
The mamba then disappeared into the asbestos roof of the domestic worker’s room.
“She had apparently been seeing the mamba in recent times, briefly,” says Evans.
Marcus and Evans then got up on to the asbestos roof.
“I lifted up a sheet of it, and there was the mamba! And it had a huge stomach! A big rat visited the wrong roof! I grabbed the tail end and pulled it out, pinning it down.
Nick Evans with one of the black mambas.
Not one, but two mambas…
“I grabbed it behind the head, and looked at it. This snake wasn’t shedding. Its eyes were normal. I clicked – there’s two mambas…
“Seconds after I had this first mamba, Duncan, our other cameraman, saw the head of the other one pop out of the roof behind us! It then appeared in the gap in the roof I’d left from lifting the asbestos sheet, trying to escape. I grabbed it with the tongs, and this one put up more of a fight.
“When mambas are in the shedding process, they tend to be a bit more slippery, and as their vision is affected, they’re more agitated. It wriggled around, desperate to get out of my grip. It thinks I’m going to kill it, and I don’t blame it, I suppose.
“Of course, I’m trying to help it, but how is it supposed to know? After making us sweat, we soon managed to pin it,” says Evans.
“Two mambas! Can you believe it? We were so chuffed and it was all on camera.
“I’ll closely inspect them after they’ve shed and digested.”
Evans said the mambas were presumably a pair, which is an anomaly because mating season is in winter.
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