A dramatic snake rescue unfolded when a bird rescuer discovered a black mamba, more than two metres long, hiding inside a cockatiel nesting box.

Craig Fry says the cockatiels’ unusual behaviour first alerted him that something was wrong while he was feeding birds last Saturday, reports The Witness.

“I noticed everyone was on one side of the aviary, and nobody was coming down to feed. That’s when I knew something wasn’t right,” he says.

He initially suspected a bird might be inside one of the nesting boxes.

Normally, Fry would reach into the boxes to check if birds had laid eggs, but something made him pause.

“There’s a small hole in the box, and I thought I saw something move,” he adds.

When he stepped back and onto the large feeding table to get a better look, the truth became clear.

“This mamba just looked at me.”

Fry quickly closed the nesting box and called Pietermaritzburg snake catcher Dean Boswell for assistance, and he arrived shortly afterwards and began the tricky task of removing the snake from the box.

At first, the snake did not appear particularly large and refused to leave the nesting box.

“It was very difficult to get out because it didn’t want to leave the safety of the box,” Boswell says.

Attempts to coax it out by tapping the box failed, as well as the use of a ‘tickle stick’ to further agitate it but eventually, Boswell managed to slide his snake tongs inside and secure the snake’s head.

What happened next surprised everyone.

“As it came out, we realised it was a lot bigger than expected,” says Boswell.

The snake measured about 2.1 to 2.2m and appeared thick and healthy.

Fry says the length of the snake seemed almost impossible, given the small space it had hidden in.

“It just kept coming out. It’s not the biggest box in the world, but this huge mamba kept coming out,” says Fry.

Boswell added that it appeared the snake may have eaten one of the birds.

“Birds are part of a black mamba’s natural diet,” he says.

Another snake the next day

The drama did not end there.

On Sunday, Fry encountered another dangerous snake while working at the sanctuary.

The birds began sounding alarm calls, prompting him to investigate.

At first he suspected monkeys or a returning monitor lizard, but quickly realised the threat was far more serious.

“I thought, ‘No man that’s a great big puff adder,” Fry says.

The snake proved difficult to capture.

Although puff adders are generally slow-moving, this one was particularly aggressive and repeatedly launched itself off the hook.

Eventually, Fry managed to secure it and place it in a bucket.

“I’ve been catching puff adders for years, but this was one of the biggest,” Fry explains.

Multiple snake call-outs

Boswell says the mamba rescue was one of several recent call-outs he had attended.

A few days earlier, he had been summoned to a facility with horse stables where staff had spotted a large black mamba.

“They kept an eye on its escape routes until I got there,” Boswell says.

When he arrived, the snake appeared to have vanished until he looked up.

There it was, coiled on the roof beam.

Boswell managed to grip the snake with his tongs but had to engage in a brief tug-of-war as it tightened its coils around the beam.

Monitor lizard rescue

In another recent rescue, Boswell was called to Bellevue, where residents had spotted a water monitor sticking its head out of a rainwater drain.

With the help of a friend, he flushed the reptile out using a hosepipe.

“It soon popped out, and I grabbed it,” he says.

Boswell adds that the monitor, measuring about 60cm, was relatively small but extremely strong.

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