TYPICALLY November is the busiest month of the year for Sunningdale snake rescuer Jason Arnold as snake activity is on the rise.

On Thursday (November 28) he was called out to Blackburn Village Informal Settlement where he rescued three Black Mambas, one male and two pregnant females, from a steep embankment next to the residents’ homes.

What is more, Arnold had also captured a Black Mamba from the same spot in July this year, which is considered the end of the snake’s breeding season.

Arnold said the highly venomous snakes had settled in the embankment because of an abundant supply of prey, including rats and bird life that occupied that space.

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“The rats and birds were there due to residents throwing all their rubbish and food scraps down the bank. On my first call-out I spotted two Black Mambas, one of which was sunning itself. I managed to capture the first snake fairly smoothly and uneventfully. The moment I got the first snake restrained in my hands I discovered she was gravid (full of eggs).

“I placed her into a secure bag and walked her to my car, parked about a 50m walk away. I then headed back to the site and expected to wait at least 45 minutes for the one that disappeared, but to my surprise the second mamba was out in the sun again. I was also able to capture her and discovered she too was gravid, but in slightly earlier stages. The people were very relieved and I left there thinking our job was done,” he explained.

Just two hours later however, Arnold was back at the settlement and captured a male mamba measuring 2.65m at the same site.

“It’s certainly not unusual to see a few Mambas in one spot during their mating season in winter. But any other time of the year there’s almost always only one. In this particular case, the snakes weren’t remaining in the same small bush area to remain with one another, but rather because of the abundance of prey that frequented the spot,” he said.

This video below, posted on Arnold’s YouTube channel from earlier this year, shows how he and snake rescuer Grant Cavanagh (Durban South Snake Rescue) rescued the first snake.

In all, Arnold has rescued four mambas from the same site.

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