Durban — A snake catcher stumbled on a green mamba while conducting research on pythons.
Nick Evans said that while tracking pythons for a research project he was working on last week, “I heard the birds going crazy in the coastal forest. I quickly saw why – a green mamba. What a treat.”
“As a child, when my family and I went down the South Coast, one would occasionally hear the weavers going mad, and there would often be a green mamba inspecting their nests. They'd usually get chased off by the weavers, who would continuously mob them,” Evans said.
“I’ve found many snakes by listening for upset birds. They’ve also alerted me to the presence of owls, even bushbabies.”
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 around angrily at 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