Durban – Local snake rescuer Nick Evans said February is mating season for the boomslang which also means that there will be combat taking place among male snakes.
Evans said he received a call recent from in a community in the Savannah Park area of Pinetown.
He said the caller said that there were multiple green snakes and one brown snake in a large tree.
“The brown one was likely the female that the green males were after, although there are cases where those colours don’t match the expected sex.”
Evans said when they arrived, it was already getting dark and they could not find the snakes and decided to return the next day.
Evans’ friends Duncan and Jade Slabbert met him at the location.
“They got there a bit before me, and were lucky enough to witness male combat. Two or three males entangled high up in the large Umdoni tree. They moved across to a smaller tree, next to a house. Suddenly, a large boomslang appeared, engaging with the others in the combat.”
He said as he carefully approached, the snakes decided to disperse.
“I saw two going towards the large Umdoni. I climbed up quickly, with the plan to get tongs on at least one, and pass it down to Duncan.”
Evans first attempt to catch one of the snakes, a large one, was unsuccessful.
“The boomslang did what I expected it to do. Realising it couldn’t escape, it turned around and darted back in my direction. It worked, I released the tongs. It glided right past me, then along a branch next to me, on its escape route, and tried diving down to where Duncan was standing. I grabbed the tail as it did this, giving Duncan a second to get the tongs on it.
“As he reached for it, it came swinging back up. I let go of the tail, and lifted my legs away from where the snake’s head was swinging to, and stayed like that till Duncan had it down.”
He said the team spent an hour looking for the other snakes, climbing and shaking trees and even had some help from the crowd.
But they could not be seen.
Evans said the captured snake was a stunning 1.7 metre male that has since been released.
