Massive mamba is evicted from its home
A HUGE black mamba was removed on Thursday from the business yard that had been its ‘home’ for at least three weeks.
Supervisor at Build-It Warehouse in Empangeni, Zakhele Zwane said because of his love of wild creatures he did not want to kill the venomous reptile, and had let it roam the yard freely as it was not interrupting any operations.
‘It was living between the pallets and it had three favourite spots. We used to check on it every now and then to know its whereabouts.
‘It was not aggressive, so I urged my colleagues not to kill it but to let it be,’ said Zwane.
‘Snakes are part of our lives and are generally very peaceful so I knew that it was looking for something to eat like rats and frogs from the bushes around our yard, so there was no need for us to kill it.’
However, in the interests of protecting both the snake and any person who might accidentally cause it to strike, he decided to contact a snake catcher.
Local expert Fred Lubbe was called in and he successfully undertook the potentially dangerous removal of the huge mamba, which was extremely angry at being forcefully removed.
It was taken to a safer habitat and released there. Lubbe said although the black mamba is is deadly snake and can become aggressive, this is just to defend itself.
‘It only attacks a human if it is cornered or if someone steps on it,’ he said