A snake catcher got a little more than he bargained for recently when he went to remove a snake from a home in Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa.

From the description given to him down the phone, he arrived at the property last Friday expecting to find a Mozambique spitting cobra but instead encountered a 2.3 metre black mamba.

Without quite the right tools for the job, the snake catcher was forced to try to guide the highly venomous reptile into a makeshift cardboard capture box.

After a few anxious moments when the snake was coming close to his legs, the plan worked a treat and the black mamba was safely removed.

The snake will be relocated next month.

Black mambas have a fearsome reputation because their venom is extremely toxic, however attacks on humans are rare and they usually avoid confrontation.

My partner and I own Ndlondlo Reptile Park in KZN South Africa. Last year we did 934 rescues of which 91 were black mambas. Collectively cobras made up 101 rescues. Among the others were green mambas, boomslang and vine snakes. Highly venomous snakes make up thirty percent or so of all our call outs. This is a conservation as well as a humanitarian effort and is funded solely by income derived from our park, filming (mainly documentaries but also the snakes in the city reality show). We do charge a small call out fee to those that can afford to pay (about thirty percent of all calls pay).
This particular capture took place in a private residence in Tongaat a little village on the KZN North Coast on the 9th of February. I received the call at about 08h40 and believing (from the description given over the phone) that it was a Mozambique spitting cobra i just grabbed a short hook stick and a visor and raced off to do the rescue on my own. On arrival I found myself looking at a 2.3m black mamba. Not having a snake tong on hand I decided not to attempt to neck and bag the snake but rather to guide the snake into a cardboard makeshift capture box. The hook stick proved to be a bit short so I improvised my technique and switched to using one of my crutches. The snake was safely removed and will be released on the 5th of march.