SNAKES

We live in a region where there are supposed to be many snakes, but in the 5½ years we have been living here, I have seen only five snakes (an average of about one per year!) and only one of those was potentially very dangerous, namely a mamba lying in the shade of a car parked in front of our house. The other four were two harmless spotted bush snakes, one mildly venomous redlipped snake and one dangerous young puff adder.

Many people have very confused ideas about snakes, as a snake expert, Johan Marais, points out in his book A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa. He lists some of the misconceptions:
You frequently hear about large mambas, stretching from one side of the road to the other, but the maximum size recorded is about 4,5 m.
All snakes spit their venom! Wrong, in our area only the rinkhals and the Moçambique spitting cobra do that.
The snake can sting with its forked tongue! Nonsense, its tongue is only for smelling, it can not even lick with it.
The puff adder strikes backwards! No, it can only strike forwards or sidewards.
Snakes move in pairs and if you kill one, its mate will come looking for you! Superstition! Snakes do not have constant companions, they live alone and only mate in the spring.
Do snakes have nests? Not our snakes, but the King Cobra of Asia sometimes builds a rough nest, our snakes live in holes or under a rock or tree stump.

In South Africa we have only a few very poisonous snakes: most adders; the mambas; the cobra family; the yellow bellied sea snake; the vine snake; and the boom snake. Most of the snakes are completely harmless or mildly venomous and quite lot of them are extremely useful as they feed on the rodents and insects like snails and beetles.

Moral: Do not kill every snake that crosses your path!

Oupa