Black mamba: fangs for saving me
SNAKE handler Jason Arnold and a friend, Silvano Cassarà rescued and relocated a black mamba that fled a construction site and hid near a car’s engine in Verulam.
Recently Arnold was called out to Oaklands Drive in Oaklands for a large snake in a vehicle. The snake was inside the engine bay of the car.
While heading to the house, Arnold was concerned that the people had not interfered too much with the snake because he did not want to extract an injured snake – a snake that is angry or a snake that has been tormented.
It was Cassarà’s last call-out and Arnold hoped it would be a big and exciting mamba.
When they arrived on the property, Arnold asked if the snake was not a spitting cobra and the people on the property said no, it was a black mamba.
Someone said the snake was by the gearbox while Cassarà indicated where the snake was and confirmed it was a mamba.
Arnold looked underneath the engine bay and there the snake was.
“Hey dude, shame, not a happy snake, hey,” Arnold said.
He said it was the Jeyes fluid. Arnold asked if the snake was injured and multiple people said no.
The snake then moved from under the car on the left side to the middle of the car on the right side.
With his tongs, Arnold tried to grab the it’s head, but said parts of the car were preventing him from getting his tongs over the snake’s head. He could not get the tongs open as wide as he wanted to.
“He looks very, very chilled. Very chilled, under the circumstances, so I’m just hoping he hasn’t been injured by anybody. Apparently, he was chased from a construction site across the road. So we don’t know if the guys from the construction site may have tried to kill it,” Arnold said.
He kept trying to pull the snake out until he was successful, pulling it out by its head.
“Big, hey,” Arnold said of the size of the snake. “Big and powerful … Strong snake, hey.”
He said it was about 2.5m in length but did not look that long. It was thick and well-fed.
“He’s not injured at all,” Arnold said in relief.
Later, Arnold and Cassarà released the snake.
At the site, Arnold said people from the area used it as their dump site.
“It’s good for the snake because it’s going to attract rats and things like that, that the snake will eat,” Arnold said.
He said that beyond the rubbish, the snake can go anywhere it wants to and it’s far from people and homes.
It will be a very happy snake out there, Arnold said.
Cassarà released the snake, which took a quick look around and headed through the rubbish and beyond.