Woman discovers 1.5m green mamba snake in her sink
A KwaZulu-Natal south coast woman recently received the shock of her life when she discovered a 1.7m green mamba in her kitchen sink.
The elderly Sezela resident’s son immediately called the Crocworld Conservation Centre to remove the reptile.
“I received a call from a young man in Sezela about a large snake discovered in the kitchen,” said Wade Kilian, reptile curator at the centre in Scottburgh.
“Apparently his mother had been packing away dishes before doing another load when she spotted the snake climbing a curtain rail. It took refuge in the kitchen sink beneath a bucket, which is where we found it.”
Kilian said he arrived to find a very nervous, machete-wielding elderly woman shouting about a snake.
“Fortunately her son had alerted the reptile team in time and she had not attempted to kill the snake herself,” he said.
“We encourage residents not to approach or attempt to kill any snake species but rather to contact us to safely remove it. Not only are some species threatened and therefore protected by law, but most snake attacks happen when humans try to move or kill them.”
Kilian said once the snake had been removed from the kitchen, it was safely released into a wildlife habitat away from humans.
Fast facts about green mambas
Green mambas are carnivores and will eat eggs, birds, frogs, lizards, rodents and other small mammals. Green mambas are mostly solitary and aren’t known to be territorial.
They prefer coastal areas with dense, shaded vegetation and tend to live in trees.
Female green mambas will lay four to 17 eggs at a time that hatch after around three months. Green mambas can live for up to 14 years.
Green mambas have short, fixed fangs at the front of their mouths and are highly venomous.
Source: www.pretoriazoo.org
