The one that bites…

My advice to people encountering any snake is to back off five paces. No snake will attack you from that distance; the belief that snakes chase people is pure fiction. Unprovoked, most snakes pose no threat to humans. However, there’s an exception to every rule…

Every year, some people are bitten by snakes while asleep in their beds. In more than 95 % of these cases, the culprit is the Mozambique spitting cobra.

These snakes are commonly found in a huge area: from just south of Durban, north into Swaziland, Mpumalanga, northern Gauteng, Limpopo, North West – and Mozambique, of course. Although also seen during the day, they are at their most active at night when they go out hunting. Indeed, the Mozambique spitting cobra is a ferocious feeder that catches rodents, birds, frogs, lizards and even other snakes. It’s while hunting that these snakes sometimes slip under doorways and accidentally end up in houses.

When the snake encounters a sleeping human in the dark, it identifies us by scent as a mammal (it “smells” using its forked tongue) and it will strike. It will also bite if the human accidentally rolls onto it. There was a time when people thought that the snakes sought out humans for heat, but this has since been roundly disproven.

Victims – mostly children – usually get bitten on the face, chest or arms. In one instance, a victim was even bitten on the elbow as he slept with his arm hanging off the bed. The snake injects a lot of venom, so most bites are serious. The venom is potently cytotoxic, causing pain, swelling and tissue damage. The sooner the victim gets to a hospital for antivenin, the better. So, remember: Take five steps back! And keep an eye out for gaps under door frames…