Snakes in Africa

There seems to be a sense among most people who have never been to Africa that it is heavily populated with snakes.  In my 25 years on that continent I rarely saw a snake, although I learned a little about them as a Zoology student.  I’ve never had too much interest in snakes but I have never been particularly afraid of them either.  During 1997, in the Gona-re-Zhou Game Reserve in southeastern Rhodesia, not far from the Mozambique border, one of the Senior Tsetse Field Officers with whom I worked, came across an eight foot long python that had swallowed a small impala. It was a comical event in several respects. 

First, the unfortunate man was an energetic, very highly respected, African man of very small stature, standing about 5ft. 4in. tall, with a slight frame to match his limited height.  Despite his small size he was an excellent supervisor by virtue of a strong will, terrific leadership qualities and a wonderful sense of humor (humour).  He was leading a group of men in single file along a dirt path across a flat, sparsely vegetated, area of low mopani shrubs. It was July, in the dry season, when most of the leaves had fallen, so he would have easily seen the python had he not been talking and frequently turning to look back at his companions. In other words he wasn’t paying attention.

Second, most Africans have an innate and terrible fear of snakes of any kind, especially those that are bigger than they are. Encounters with even the smallest snake, chameleon or lizard snakes become the topic of conversation for weeks afterward.  Steven happened to look down as he was about to step on the python and suddenly launched himself into space, clearing the animal by about four feet. The other men scattered and only regrouped when they realized that the snake was almost completely immobilized by the large meal it had consumed and which was slowly being digested in its stomach. Most of the serpent was about six inches thick except for the great two-foot long bulge in its mid-section that was about 12 inches in diameter.

An 8 ft. Python photographed in Tanzania in 2005.

Over the following weeks the story of Steven’s great leap over the Python was embellished and exaggerated out of all reasonable proportions, always accompanied by raucous laughter and banter. I saw the snake about half an hour after the incident while it still lay where it was discovered, rendered completely harmless by its excessive appetite.

One of the most venomous snakes in Africa is the Black Mamba. A mature specimen can grow up to 12 – 14 feet long and they slither through the bush at great speed. Fortunately they are shy and tend to avoid confrontation.  A Black Mamba bite, before the development of antivenin, always resulted in death to a human in as little as 20 minutes. Its venom is both a potent neuro-toxin and cardio-toxin, making it doubly lethal.  I have seen a fully grown male Eland, weighing over 1,500 lbs, killed by the bite of a Black Mamba which it must of encountered by accident. 

Black Mamba - National Geographic photo

My only encounter with a Black Mamba brought us literally face-to-face.  I was working on a Tsetse Control assignment in Mozambique and one hot afternoon I was alone in my Land Rover and driving along a relatively smooth track, through an area of open bush, probably at a speed of about 20 mph. It was in late September when the days were almost always hot and sunny and the air was dry, so I had removed the metal cab and window frames from my vehicle and lowered the front windshield to benefit from the breeze. I had also removed the metal doors on both sides of the cab.

As I glided through the  bush (or “veld”) enjoying the cool breeze on my face, suddenly and very unexpectedly I looked to my right and saw a large Black Mamba approaching rapidly, with his head just about level with mine. Before I had time to react I passed in front of him, and at that moment he reacted by rearing back to avoid me and spreading his cobra-like neck flaps.  I reacted by hitting the accelerator and gripping the steering wheel.  Its head was about three feet from my face for an instant, and it was one of those moments in my life when I felt completely and utterly helpless. We passed one another so quickly that, had he had the time or intention of striking, he almost certainly would have missed me, so I can’t honestly say that I narrowly avoided death in the wilds of Africa on this occasion. 

In that one second I saw him up close and then he was gone, lost in the dust cloud my vehicle was creating behind me. I stopped some distance down the trail and looked for a while but he was long gone. There is a common seed pod of an African acacia tree that is 12 – 18 inches long, flat and dark in colour. (I can’t recall the exact species.) As it dries in the sun, it curls up, and on a windy day it rolls along the ground with a rapid spiral movement.  For a long time after my close-up meeting with Mr. Mamba, one of those seed pods would blow across the ground in front of me and, catching that movement out of the corner of my eye, I would cringe – imagining it was a snake.

Photo credits - The photo of a Black Mamba was downloaded from the National Geographic website and was taken by George Grall.  I took the Python photo while in Katavi National Park in Tanzania in September 2005.

For information about the Black mamba go to: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/black-mamba/