LOOK: KZN snake catcher rescues python blamed for eating goats and chickens at Qinisisa homestead

Fanie Cilliers with his son Sean Cilliers with the massive python. Picture: Claudine Senekal/Ladysmith Herald

Fanie Cilliers with his son Sean Cilliers with the massive python. Picture: Claudine Senekal/Ladysmith Herald

Published Jan 23, 2023

Share

Snake catcher Fanie Cilliers and his son Sean rescued a massive Southern African python from a homestead in the Qinisisa area in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal.

Speaking to the Ladysmith Herald, Cilliers said the beautiful 3.96m reptile weighed an impressive 24kg.

“It was quite easy to catch her… She was full after eating a big goat,” he said.

Cilliers said this was his 11th python rescue in the past 10 years.

He said residents in the area complained that they had lost a lot of goats and chickens recently.

Cilliers said the massive snake will be released in a local game reserve.

Fanie Cilliers with the python. Picture: Claudine Senekal/Ladysmith Herald

Fanie Cilliers with the 4m female python. Picture: Claudine Senekal/Ladysmith Herald

Fanie Cilliers with the nearly 4m python. Picture: Claudine Senekal/Ladysmith Herald

In a separate incident, a juvenile African rock python is on the road to recovery following surgery at the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr), after it was rescued from a minibus taxi’s engine recently.

Saambr’s Ann Kunz said that uShaka Sea World received a call about a snake in the engine of a taxi on Durban’s South Beach.

Kunz said that once the snake has fully recovered, it will be released at the discretion of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

IOL