An uMhlanga property could be housing the eggs of a green mamba rescued in Izinga Ridge.
The green mamba was rescued by snake handler Jason Arnold.
Arnold responded to a residential property in the Izinga Ridge area and found that the green mamba had just laid eggs.
Once in a small tree, the snake tried to avoid Arnold but he managed to grab it.
He said that the snake was a female and it had just laid eggs.
“She had laid eggs… She has most definitely laid eggs,” Arnold said.
Explaining this, he said: “This is very distinctive of a snake that has laid eggs, these creases on the sides of the snake because of that sudden reduction of weight because she was nice and fat with all those eggs. She's now laid the eggs and there’s a lot of excess skin. So that creates these little creases here.”
“I’m wondering how close she laid those eggs. Has she laid them and travelled a bit or has she literally laid them right here somewhere, in the garden?”
Arnold said the snakes were shy and docile.
“They’re not the worst snakes to have around because they are very good-mannered, good-tempered and good-natured snakes. So unless you do what I was doing, there’s very little reason for you to ever get bitten by a green mamba, they’ll just move away from you,” Arnold explained.
“I don’t think we’ll ever find where she’s deposited those eggs but I reckon in about late February or March, if they were laid on this property, you're going to start seeing a couple of babies. So, only time will tell - unless she’s laid them on someone else's property in which case they're going to start seeing little baby green mambas.”
Arnold further explained that the eggs would have been laid in a protected area, like a retaining wall or somewhere there is blank soil.
Meanwhile, Durban South Snake Rescue founder Grant Cavanagh said that on Thursday afternoon, they received a call about a green mamba on a property in the Queensburgh, Northdene, area.
“Not a very common catch for myself,” Durban South Snake Rescue said. “As we got to the property we walked straight down and made an easy catch.”
Durban South Snake Rescue said the gravid (pregnant) female was about 1.7m in length.
“A big thank you to Nick Evans (snake rescuer) for taking it off my hands.”
Durban South Snake Rescue can be reached at 084 267 9402.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
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