Durban snake catcher Nick Evans stumbled on yet another “dream kind of sighting” while at one of his study sites.
Evans said that recently while at one of his study sites, he “bumped into these three beautiful southern African pythons. There was actually a fourth, which disappeared before I took the photo.”
“This is typical mating behaviour. Males will congregate around a female (the larger of the three),” Evans said.
He said it was the very end of python mating season, most of which occurs in the winter months.
“Of course, they all vanished once they sensed me. I obviously felt bad. But I certainly wasn't expecting to bump into them in the thick reeds,” Evans said.
“They'll link back up very quickly. Males can smell that female from far away.”
Evans added that studying the species has been “absolutely fascinating and exciting”.
A week ago Evans said he stumbled on a green mamba while conducting research on pythons.
“I heard the birds going crazy in the coastal forest. I quickly saw why – a green mamba. What a treat.”
Evans said that at this sighting, there were turtle doves, weavers and collared sunbirds.
He said collared sunbirds are very often in scenes where snakes are being mobbed by birds. They would hop angrily around 2.5m black mambas without fear.
“The only frustrating thing about this sighting was I had no camera, only a cell pic to show for it. I ran back to my car to get my tongs, as I needed to collect some data off of the snake for another research project. But it was gone by the time I arrived, as were the birds,” Evans said.
He said that any sighting of this elusive, beautiful snake was special.
“Definitely nicer seeing them in the wild as opposed to in properties,” Evans said.
Daily News