The Durban snake catcher says the reptile had travelled in the back of a truck transporting bails of hay.
Durban – Have you ever heard of a hitchhiking snake? Well Durban’s snake catcher Nick Evans was too late to remove the snake from a haystack in the back of a truck on Tuesday morning.
Evans had received a call from the Upper Highway area after workers unloading bales of hay off a truck discovered a large snake.
The truck had travelled from Newcastle.
Evans said he had hoped the snake was a rinkhals, also known as the ring-necked spitting cobra, but a puff adder would also be cool. It turned out to be a rinkhals.
The snake had travelled in the back of a truck transporting bails of hay all the way from Newcastle. FACEBOOK
“I phoned my friend and fellow snake-rescuer, John Chinn, as I knew he lived around the corner from this premises, so that we could meet on site. Most convenient, as I’d been meaning to drop off something with him for a little while now. A perfect excuse to meet,” said Evans.
However, Chinn had already removed the snake by the time Evans arrived and when he walked over to Chinn, he told him it was dead.
“A species famous for feigning death, and who do it very well. Admittedly, I checked with John that it definitely was not dead. It wasn’t. It’s about 60cm long,” said Evans.
He said he took the snake home to show his wife, which was hooding up and spitting and not playing dead.
Evans said whenever he dealt with rinkhals, he was amazed by how inaccurate they were compared to the sharp shooting Mozambique spitting cobra.
He also said in the past year he and his friends had three calls for hitchhiking rinkhals and three different colour phases.
“This colour is typical of that area, whereas in the Midlands, they’re have gorgeous yellow and black banding,” said Evans.
Two weeks ago Evans removed a black mamba from the engine compartment of a truck.
He said it was fun.
Daily News
