Richards Bay snake catcher kept busy over festive season
The job was safely done and both venomous creatures were released into the wild the following day.
It was a double dose of adrenalin for Richards Bay snake catcher Peter Daniel when he was recently called to remove highly venomous reptiles at two separate addresses.
First port of call was a large home in Arboretum, with a big garden, plenty of trees and adjacent to a green belt – the perfect environment for snakes seeking a chow in the summer heat.
But the forest cobra made its appearance inside the house itself – in fact, in a bedroom cupboard, much to the alarm of the domestic worker who discovered it.
The homeowner, who had fruitlessly searched for the ‘brown snake’ seen on the lawn the day before, called the ZO in search of a reputable snake catcher, and in no time Peter was on scene for what he described as ‘an easy capture’ of the 1.57m cobra.
The second emergency call-out was trickier when Peter was summoned to a home in Brackenham.
This time it was a fair-sized boomslang, necessitating Peter’s tree climbing skills, but the job was safely done and the 1.45m gravid (pregnant) snake was safely removed.
Both venomous creatures were released into the wild the following day.
