Durban South Snake Rescue

25/09/2025

What a beauty
Albino brown house snake caught in the wild.
Getting a call from a gentleman in Woodlands, for a snake that he had just managed to get in a bucket in his garage.
He described the snake to me as a pink and yellow snake. So thinking it was some sort of exotic snake. I asked the gentlemen to send me a picture. I was a little bit shocked, looking at the pictures that it was an Albino House snake hatchling. As this was only the second one I have seen in the wild in my life. So I quickly jumped and the car and collected it.
As usually these snakes do not last long in the wild due to it being an Albeno they do not last long in the wild. Due to predictors.
Big shout out to the gentleman in question for not killing it and phoning us.
It is now safely in our care.




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25/09/2025

How sad is this?
Myths and legends
I was sent a message by a good friend of mine Jason Arnold aka the snake man for a suspected rock python escapee in Umlazi.
On phoning the young gentleman in question who had asked for help, I managed to gather the information that his friend had bought a Python from a Sanghoma to cook and eat. And was told it would bring him millions. We'll they went out to buy ingredients, and the python very easily escaped from the card board box they had it in and disappeared from their dwelling.
So on advice from their father they put a shout out for help. So my friend Dave and I went out to search the residence for the illusive rock python. Dave spotted it behind the kitchen cabinet, and it ended up being a very pretty Ball python. You just remember these snakes in their normal form, look very similar to an African Rock Python.
They are an exotic dwarf python species from West Africa. So we were told by the father to please take the Python away so we did so.
Please all the Myths and Ledgends eating snakes do not bring you wealth and on top of it if it was an African Rock Python, which is a protected species the persons in question could have landed themselves in a heap load of trouble.
So many thanks to all involved.





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25/09/2025

Vine Snake
Sorry haven't updated for a while, so we had a call from a resident in Mount Vernon, as there was a snake on their gate that looked like a stick or a twig. They sent me the photo and I confirmed it was a very dangerous Vine Snake. Helen and I quickly jumped in the car and raced through peak hour traffic, to get there. We got there and in typical Vine Snake action it was still pretending to be a stick in the wind and admiring itself in a mirror polished sliding gate, Vine Snake are very easy to capture, it took all of about 30 seconds to catch it.
A very big thank you to the family for not killing it. And it has been released in a safe place away from people.




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09/09/2025

Sitting in traffic
Just saw a hawk of some kind
Flying with a snake in it's claws quite a large one too

02/09/2025

02/09/2025

On Saturday the 30th of August I got a phone call from a resident in Northdene, where I have caught numerous venemous snakes before including a Black Mamba last year with Nick Evens. So I knew what I was in for.. Getting sent a picture of a Mamba high up in a tree in a very unaccessible pice of bush, and knowing how difficult the catch was last year. I phone a friend of mine, my daughter and her boyfriend accompanied me to the property. With Dave and Savannah being a lookout at the top of the bank watching the Mamba in the tree, Travis and I set out on the daunting task of scouting the bush to get to the Mamba. Getting tangled in every vine and every thorn bush we could find. Eventually getting to the spot with the help of a lot of people shouting directions from the top. By this time we had gathered quite a large crowd.
Stuck in the bush with the longest pair of tongs I have, basically about 10 cm out of my reach from it, it decided it was just going to move further away from me. Realizing that I could slide further down the bank into a clearing where I could stand up, I post sight of the Mamba and Travis shouted it was right above me in the branches which actually ended up being a tree. So climbing into the tree I reached up as high as I could with my extra long tongs, and very gently just removed it out of the tree. Got hold of it with my second pair of tongs behind the head, necked it safely and got it in the bucket. Thank you to my look outs Savannah and Dave and Travis for following me through the bush and passing me my tongs as I needed them.




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02/09/2025

On a happier note spring has sprung a little bit early for me.
As the day and night time calls have started to pick up. In the last week I have gone on 3 calls all after 12am, all of them being the usual suspects. Brown House snakes and Red lipped Heralds. They are on the move, it's mating season. Remember these are the snakes we actually want around as they are very good toad controllers the Redlipped Heralds which is commonly mistaken as a Black Mamba with its Grey color and intimidating stance of flattening it's black head and mick striking and hissing. The Brown house snakes love rats, mice and ghekos.




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