The black mamba with a distended belly was slower than usual when snake rescuers from Durban, Nick Evans, and his wife Carla arrived to catch it at a friend's house in Westville-North.
The snake was about to climb a tree near a cliff, which made the extraction process a delicate operation. Evans reported that over the years of working in this area, he has caught many black mambas, including those in the same tree.
The house is located on top of a cliff, which, according to Evans, is a suitable habitat for mambas. He also noted that there is a healthy population of dassies in the area, whose young individuals could serve as a potential food source.
Before arriving, Evans was informed that the snake had eaten a large portion. 'Fortunately, as I was told beforehand, the snake had a big meal, so it was moving slower than usual,' he stated.
The mamba was on a branch above the cliff, inaccessible to his one-meter tongs. Instead, Evans used his 1.8-meter tongs from the African Institute of Venomous Snakes, which, he said, had helped him catch several mambas in this area previously.
He carefully and slowly extended his hand and caught the snake below the feeding spot, which was visible. Then, he gently pulled the snake closer, allowing Carla to support its upper body with shorter tongs. After that, they moved it to flat ground, where Carla secured it.
Evans emphasized that this was an example of good teamwork.
Evans specified that the black mamba was less than two meters long but had eaten an unusually large amount for its size. The exact identification of the prey remains unknown. 'I suspect it ate a large rat or perhaps a decently sized bird,' he speculated.