Nick Evans, a snake catcher and conservationist, said he got a call about a black mamba hanging around the garden, hunting dassies, at a Westville home in Durban on Friday.

He said the homeowners called him a couple of times to catch the black mamba, usually seen basking on the paving, but all his attempts had been futile as it would always drop down quickly into the neighbouring Palmiet Nature Reserve.

On Friday, Evans said he got the call again from the homeowners telling him that the snake was out basking again.

While on his way, Evans said the family told him that the snake had moved down into the reserve, but he decided to go to the house anyway.

When he got there, he said he peered over the ledge, scanning the bush below. He couldn’t see it, so he thought it must have basked for long enough, and maybe gone hunting. Or so he thought.

“I don’t know what made me look down, I hadn’t heard anything, but I did [look down]. Right next to my foot was the mamba, slowly slithering past my foot in the grass, which was above ankle height. Did I keep still? No! I jumped back, in disbelief at what just happened.

“Our eyes locked, and the mamba knew it was time to flee. It tried getting back to the reserve, but I grabbed it with the tongs, a quarter of the way down from the head.

“It was a grumpy snake. Rather than reversing, it tried coming forward, towards my hand. I held on a little tighter than normal, before finally, it decided to reverse, and I grabbed it.

“Once it was in my hands, I was checking my legs for punctures. I’ve heard of people, usually handlers, getting bitten by these snakes and not feeling it. Their fangs are small. But I was fine. Just very shaken up,” he said.

Evans added that this mamba had an easy opportunity to bite him multiple times before he had even known it was there, but it didn’t.

“I see so many situations where people could have easily been bitten, but the mambas choose not to. It’s usually when they are being killed or captured that bites occur. Occasionally freak accidents.”

He said the snake was in the process of digesting a meal, probably a young dassie.