Common Snake Myths and Folklore | Jason Stewart
We chat to local snake expert, Jason Stewart, to look into some snake myths and folklore and why they absolutely can’t be true.
By Benno Stander
People love to hate snakes and according to Jason we would get along with these slitheries a lot better if we knew the difference between fact and fiction. Here are some myths and folklore that he has encountered over the years.
Green Mambas in the Lowveld
Many people believe that green mambas do occur in the Lowveld but Jason says absolutely not. The green mamba is, as with the black mamba, a feared snake and people have the tendency to call any snake that is green a green mamba. Our climate and habitat is not suited to the green mamba and even if it lands up here by accident it probably won’t survive.
Sucking Snakes
There are many folk tales, especially in Limpopo, that tell of how pythons have the ability to use either their forked tongues, or their vestigial limbs, to suck out the brains of their prey. There is absolutely no truth to this and snakes do not possess the ability to such anything from prey. They swallow and digest their prey whole.
Man-Eater Pythons
These stories spread like wild fire and recently there was a version that included a truck driver that was swallowed whole when stopping on the side of the road to relieve himself. According to the myth his friends were able to find out where he was by phoning him and hearing his phone ring inside the snake. According to Jason there is absolutely no truth to this and apart from many second-hand reports, there is no evidence to support any such incidents.
Tall Tailed Black Mambas
Many people believe a black mamba can stand on its tail and look you in the eye. Jason however explains that it is simply not possible for the snake to raise more than a third of its body length off the ground and still be balanced. With black mambas easily reaching three metres it is however possible for the snake to look you in the eyes when you are sitting in your car, but it stays unlikely that it would want to.
Jason does however admit that mambas do sometimes, in an attempt to move away quickly, throw themselves backwards through the air. This however happens so quickly, and in the opposite direction to the person the snake perceives as danger, that there would hardly be time for a staring contest.
Saving Sip
There is also a common folklore that depicts that if you get bitten by a snake, and you are close to a river, you need to drink from the river before the snake does or else you will die. People who grew up believing this myth usually also believe that if a snake bites you, you should try to get it to bite you again to counteract the first bite.
There is absolutely no truth to either of these and a second bite will definitely make your problems twice as serious.
The Snake Funeral
Many people believe that if they kill a snake, other snakes will come to the spot where it was killed. Jason admits that it would have been great to stop people from killing snakes but unfortunately there is no truth to it. It is however true that female snakes do release a hormone that lures male snakes but this is effective whether the snake is alive or dead.
Babies come in numbers
There is a common belief that if a juvenile snake is found there is bound to be a nest somewhere close with the mother also nearby. This cannot be true simply since snakes don’t care for their young. Mothers lay eggs and move off and as babies hatch they too simply move off and there is no telling how far they have moved by the time you encounter it. If you simply let it go it will keep moving until it finds an ideal hunting ground that is not part of another snake’s home ground.
Spitting Marksmen
It is commonly believed that spitting cobras are precision spitters that aim for the eyes and almost always hits the spot. Although they do very often spit into the eyes of potential danger, Jason explains that this is merely because the venom is ejected as fine spray that covers a rather large area and snakes always tend to spit up at large moving dangers.
If you are standing still, and then move your foot, it will probably spit at your foot as it will then perceive your moving foot as the danger. Jason adds that the venom is also very unlikely to cause any damage to normal unbroken skin and could in the worst case probably cause a bit of an allergic reaction to hypoallergenic individuals.
Getting the Right Info
According to Jason people and snakes will get along a lot better where people are more educated regarding snakes. Some people’s only source of information about snakes are often block buster movies and stories told around the fire. You don’t have to know every single snake species that occur in South Africa but getting accurate information on snakes that live in your area is invaluable.
Catching and releasing snakes
Once you have managed to catch a snake, which should not be attempted if you do not know exactly how, release it at a safe distance from your house but not too far from where it was found. Snakes have home ranges and if you move the snake far away chances are that you will place that snake in another snake’s home range which will cause competition where there was none before.
It might sound silly to release it close enough for it to slither back but keep in mind that if you encounter an adult Snouted Cobra for example, it might be as old as 15 years. It has been living in that home range for its entire life and you only happened to stumble into it now. Chances are you’ll never see it again.
To read more about the most dangerous snakes of the Lowveld click here