NelspruitSnake Saviours! – Nelspruit https://showme.co.za/nelspruit Nelspruit, South Africa for all your local and tourism information; from accommodation to events, entertainment, attractions and news - ShowMe Nelspruit | T Feed Tue, 26 Mar 2024 08:45:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://showme.co.za/nelspruit/?p=52733 Snake Saviours! https://showme.co.za/nelspruit/lifestyle/snake-saviours/ Tue, 15 Mar 2016 11:53:44 +0000 Chris Hobkirk, local snake expert shares important information about snakes in the Lowveld...]]> Meet Chris Hobkirk, during the day he is catching all manner of problem animals for Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) and in his off time… well he is doing the same, only his focus is snakes!
Chris Hobkirk

Chris Hobkirk

While most people would run a mile if they found a venomous snake in their house, Chris and his team will come running to remove it. Why? Well Chris has found an interesting way to make Mpumalanga’s problem snakes into unlikely life saviours.

Part of my job for MTPA was to deal with problem snakes. In the past few years I noticed an alarming trend in the number of certain snake species being removed, by myself and other snake catchers. The reason a snake becomes a problem animal is because it’s been pushed out of its natural territory and so invades ours. What was happening though was almost all the snakes being removed from Nelspruit’s urban areas were being released in the same few areas, causing unnaturally high snake populations and resulting in most of the released snakes moving out of these areas and becoming problem snakes once more”.

Rather than releasing problem snakes, Chris came up with the brilliant idea to keep them and milk them in order to make the critical anti-venom required in the treatment of serious bites.

Currently Chris’ venom lab is home to just under 400 snakes, including black mamba’s, puff adders, Mozambican spitting cobra and boomslangs. These snakes help produce the vital venom needed in the production of anti-venom. Chris’ lab is only one of two in the country to do this, meaning the problem snakes of Mpumalanga are now playing a very crucial role in the treatment of snake bite victims across the country.

What advice has Chris got for Lowvelder’s who find a snake on their property?

Stay calm… don’t try to move it, leave that to the professional, but do keep an eye on it. Then phone myself or one of Nelspruit’s other reptile handlers and we will remove it for you. Do remember it will take us around 10-15 mins to get to you, so do watch where the snake goes in that time. Snake removal is a free service if you report the snake straight away and keep an eye on where it has gone.

And if you get bitten – what should you do?

Again the crucial thing is to keep calm and get to the hospital. Snake venom moves more quickly around the body if your heart rate is faster or you are moving around a lot. So while it is hard to do this, by keeping calm you are actually giving yourself more time. A lot of people make the mistake of wasting time taking a photograph. The time taken to take a photograph could be better used travelling to the hospital. Most doctors don’t know their snakes and while some will call in experts like me, most only treat the symptoms and therefore don’t need to know the species of snake. The only time when it could be important is when anti-venom is used, as there are two types. Monovalent anti-venom used to treat boomslang bites and polyvalent used for every other. Because boomslang bites looks so different to all others, doctors would know without having to identify the snake that it was a boomslang.

Chris Hobkirk

Chris Hobkirk handling an African Rock Python.

So how do bites differ?

Basically you have three types of venom.

1) Neurotoxic, this attacks the nervous system eventually leading to paralysis and death. Snakes like the Mozambican spitting cobra and black mamba are neurotoxic. On average for a black mamba bite, you have between 2-6 hours before it becomes fatal, so there is time to get to a hospital and seek treatment.

2) Cytotoxic, this causes tissue damage. The skin around the bite wound swells, blisters and eventually dies. It is incredibly painful and often results in large amounts of tissue needing to be amputated. These bites, if left untreated for 2-3 days can be fatal. Puff adders are a great example of a cytotoxic snake.

3) Hemotoxic, this attacks the blood making it impossible to clot. At first it will only be at the bite site, but then will slowly affect the rest of the body. If it is not treated victims will experience massive internal bleeding, this usually takes 3-4 days. The boomslang is an example of a hemotoxic snake.

Do all bites require anti-venom?

Actually no! In fact only 8% of snake bite victims end up being administered anti-venom. The other 92% are either bitten by non-venomous snakes, have had a dry-bite where the snake doesn’t actually inject any venom, or only get exposed to a low amount of venom that the body can deal with, without the need for anti-venom.

Are there any tips for keeping snakes away?

The best thing you can do is keep your garden clean. Snakes are attracted to areas with lots of prey, frogs and mice. So keep your grass cut, your shrubs pruned and make sure you don’t have rubble piles or excess dog and bird food lying about. Pets also put snakes off and often act as an early warning sign that there is a snake on your property.

Finally which are the top five snakes we should be on the lookout for in the Lowveld?
  1. Top of the list is definitely the Mozambican Spitting Cobra. It is the most common, we are removing around 20 a week at the moment. While they won’t attack humans unless they are being provoked, if they are provoked they become really aggressive.
  2. Next are actually non-venomous snakes, in particular the spotted bush snake. This is often mistaken for a boomslang and killed, when it is actually harmless.  It is a beautiful bright green snake with black spots, never grows bigger than a metre and is as thick as your pinkie finger. Whereas male boomslang only become green when they are mature. By this time they are over a metre and a half long and about as thick as your thumb. So a bright green snake under a metre long is almost certainly a spotted bush snake. Still we would rather people called us in for harmless snakes just to be on the safe side.
  3. The Stiletto Snake is not a snake many people have heard about, but it is responsible for the highest number of bites! Its cytotoxic venom is non-lethal but still very, very, painful. It looks a lot like a mole snake or blind snake, so people often mistake it and pick it up. It is a really aggressive snake with backwards pointing fangs, making it impossible to pick up safely.
  4. The Black Mamba. This is the Great White Shark of the snake world – misunderstood. Mamba’s are actually timid snakes, choosing to stay out of our way and only become aggressive if we actively try to catch or kill them. Because of their size, speed and the strength of their venom, they have become the bogeyman of the snake world.
  5. Finally, the Puff Adder. People often think they are fat and lazy so are tempted to catch them themselves, this is a huge mistake. Puff adders have the quickest strike rate of all snakes in Africa.

So the next time you come across a snake on your property give Chris a call and he’ll happily remove it: 082 372 3350. Just remember to keep an eye on it until he gets there.

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