It was a big day for young Mason ‘Snakemason’ Daniel when he captured his first python on Saturday, unassisted.

Son of legendary Richards Bay, KZN, snake handler Peter ‘Daring’ Daniel, the 12-year-old could hardly wait to be taken to a Birdswood home where the python had just enjoyed a hearty lunch courtesy of the home’s chicken run occupants.

The uninvited lunchtime guest might possibly have been trying to embrace the gees of the Bok team in the world cup semi-final by also making a meal of a cockerel, but it was reckoned as ‘fowl play’.

Anyway, Mason was not chicken as he tackled the southern African python fearlessly, despite the creature’s many attempts to bite him.

“We normally take a pillowcase for the python to bite into and when its teeth get caught in it, we grab it by the head,” says Peter.

“In this instance, it was more interested in biting Mason’s hand so he had to be careful, but in the end, he did a good job, and the 1.8m male specimen was safely captured.”