Durban — A spitting cobra farted while snake handler Jason Arnold checked which sex it was after searching through stacks of concrete slabs for the snake.
One afternoon, Arnold made his way to Morewood Road in the Clare Estate area after people saw a large brown snake in the yard. The snake went underneath a pile of concrete slabs.
Arnold said it sounded like a spitting cobra. The caller had told him that the snake had black markings on its neck.
He said he thought the snake was probably getting a bit of sunlight since they are nocturnal snakes but they come out during the day just to sunbathe.
“I think if they’ve seen it going underneath those concrete slabs, I’m pretty sure that’s where it’s been staying and it’s just gone underneath there and settled itself,” Arnold said.
“I said to them that the chances that the snake is still underneath those slabs is pretty good.”
When Arnold arrived at the property, he was shown where the snake was and told it popped its head out.
Arnold put his sunglasses on and started his daily gym workout by removing some of the slabs.
After minutes of removing slabs and being bitten by ants, Arnold found a small brown house snake.
“This is definitely not what you saw,” Arnold said about the brown house snake.
After contemplating whether or not to take the brown house snake with him, he decided to leave it.
Then, after removing more concrete slabs, the spitting cobra was not where he had hoped it would be.
An out-of-breath Arnold then moved onto another pile. “Sweating bullets here,” Arnold said while tackling the pile.
After moving to yet another pile, Arnold spotted the snake and quickly grabbed it by its tail. He reached for his tongs and necked it.
“I knew he would be here,” Arnold said.
The male snake farted immediately after Arnold checked its sex.
He said the snake was about 1.3m to 1.4m in length.
“They are very scared of people, they just want to get away,” Arnold said while holding the snake and demonstrating that all it wanted to do was flee.
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