Snakes in WC Spring Time

[Paul Ruinaard]

2 hours ago, dave303e said:

Comes back to what @Paul Ruinaard said, they are more concerned with getting out alive themselves than with hurting you. It could well have been a dry bite and hopefully it was.

Like the experimentation done on puff adders. Think it was a wits professor ±2012 who would track them down and then 'step on' and tease them with gumboots to try get them to bite. They were very averse to biting and would usually try stay camouflaged or his and move away.

We had an incident with a spitting cobra and kids in a bungalow in Brits where a Moz cobra was in the bungalow hunting frogs and the kids came between it and the prey so it spat at him. Very logical for the snake as well. You are threatening him. Moz cobras are another one that doesn't run away - he will spit at you. They are pin accurate as well from a distance of some metres. Very well adapted animal and strategy. They will hit your eyes from metres away. They are also pretty common and quite dangerous. FWIW the kid spent the night in some pain in the hospital and was fine. What set my senses off was when the kids complained that the "frogs" spat at them and it burned, then i realised it had to be something else as there are no spitting frogs. Again beautiful from a distance, respect them and leave them alone. They can and will spit at you from metres away. Aggressive, well camouflaged and great strategy. So be careful when they are around or could be around.

You have to be either very unlucky or stupid to get bitten properly and actually get within range. . Dont screw with wild animals at all be they lions or giraffes or snakes. If you do get bitten/stomped on etc and survive  then you can always find what you did wrong. A lot of the time there is a warning etc that is ignored when the animal threatens or indicates its next move will be an attack. If you ignored this and still moved in to their space then you are effectively threatening their existence. Same as them, when that happens to you, you react.

[The Ouzo]

8 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

A lot of the time there is a warning etc that is ignored when the animal threatens or indicates its next move will be an attack. If you ignored this and still moved in to their space then you are effectively threatening their existence. Same as them, when that happens to you, you react.

exactly what I say about hippos too.

Having spent many many hours in the more remote parts of the st Lucia estuary system I quickly learnt that hippos will give verbal warning long before you can even see them. Its then up to you to find out where that hippo is and make sure you not threatening it or its young.

[ChrisF]

Murphey .... two passing cars had me ON that yellow line ....

 

 

Adderly street

 

 

Anybody know what type it is ?

Edited November 15, 2022 by ChrisF

[MORNE]

1 hour ago, ChrisF said:

Murphey .... two passing cars had me ON that yellow line ....

 

 

Adderly street

 

 

Anybody know what type it is ?

Cape cobra.

edit: where on adderly? I rode there too today but via spes bona so only did adderly into dville from there.

didn't see anything.
I had a 1.5/2m one of these dart across contermans road about 5m in front of me back when one could still ride there on your own a few years ago. It crossed that wide road so fast. 

Edited November 15, 2022 by MORNE

[ChrisF]

8 hours ago, MORNE said:

Cape cobra.

edit: where on adderly? I rode there too today but via spes bona so only did adderly into dville from there.

didn't see anything.
I had a 1.5/2m one of these dart across contermans road about 5m in front of me back when one could still ride there on your own a few years ago. It crossed that wide road so fast. 

 

Just before Spes Bona, heading out of Durbanville

 

About 16.30

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by ChrisF

[DJR]

https://www.africansnakebiteinstitute.com/courses-2/

For anybody interested in learning something useful and perhaps overcoming that somewhat irrational fear of snakes

[The Ouzo]

13 hours ago, ChrisF said:

Murphey .... two passing cars had me ON that yellow line ....

 

 

Adderly street

 

 

Anybody know what type it is ?

well if it was on Adderley str it must have been an Adder

[Paul Ruinaard]

Not sure if you saw these items:

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/woman-recovering-in-hospital-after-puff-adder-bite-at-drakensberg-hotel-77539bb8-9cf7-4e8c-bb61-134c572678ce

https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/news/woman-captures-puff-adder-striking-after-it-had-bitten-her-ankle-landing-her-in-eastern-cape-hospital-for-2-days-881f6027-2223-49b0-850d-f5d60a1de057#:~:text=by Mark Marshall.-,A woman was bitten by a puff adder on the,hospital%3A Supplied by Mark Marshall

Both of these are puff adders and both are likely driven by people almost stepping on them.

As they say if you go running in sandals and the like in snake infested territories...

Both people are recovering. 

 

 

[The Ouzo]

16 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Not sure if you saw these items:

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/woman-recovering-in-hospital-after-puff-adder-bite-at-drakensberg-hotel-77539bb8-9cf7-4e8c-bb61-134c572678ce

https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/news/woman-captures-puff-adder-striking-after-it-had-bitten-her-ankle-landing-her-in-eastern-cape-hospital-for-2-days-881f6027-2223-49b0-850d-f5d60a1de057#:~:text=by Mark Marshall.-,A woman was bitten by a puff adder on the,hospital%3A Supplied by Mark Marshall

Both of these are puff adders and both are likely driven by people almost stepping on them.

As they say if you go running in sandals and the like in snake infested territories...

Both people are recovering. 

 

 

second one doesnt add up.

according to the article

Quote

“So I fumbled with my backpack to get my phone out, and forced myself to stay calm enough to draw my unlock pattern.

yet she still managed to catch the snake in strike position ?

[Paul Ruinaard]

yep if i have been bitten by snakes i am not F00king around at that point ... But yeah you need to know what cause you need to get the right anti venom. Lots of times they dont even use ant venom.

 

[Duane_Bosch]

24 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

 

yet she still managed to catch the snake in strike position ?

If you gonna be dumb you'd better be tough

 

[Robbie Stewart]

14 hours ago, ChrisF said:

Anybody know what type it is ?

That was a Cape Cobra. They are typically mottled with goldish brown spots on their bellies as you can clearly see on this one. Its sad that people will kill snakes so haphazardly when they are in their natural environment. 

[Robbie Stewart]

44 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

yep if i have been bitten by snakes i am not F00king around at that point ... But yeah you need to know what cause you need to get the right anti venom. Lots of times they dont even use ant venom.

 

You absolutely have to be able to identify what snake bit you before you are administered antivenom. If you get bitten by a Rinkhals for instance, and you tell the medics only that it was a cobra, they could assume it was a cape cobra that bit you and give you that antivenom. Cape cobra venom is neurotoxic which paralyses your diapraghm and causes death by suffocation. Rinkhals venom is cytotoxic like that of a puff adder, which will destroy tissue. Getting a dose of the wrong antivenom is akin to being bitten by that snake as well.

That woman absolutely did the right thing to calm down and assess the situation and try to identify the snake that bit her. 

Her only mistake was running in sandals. Who does that? Especially at the Van Stadens Gorge which is a snake paradise.

[Paul Ruinaard]

BTW for the guys geeking out on this thread there was a post up top there about a very nice app i downloaded now from the African Snake Institute which has a lot of good information in it.

 

[FootballingCyclist]

16 hours ago, ChrisF said:

Murphey .... two passing cars had me ON that yellow line ....

 

 

Adderly street

 

 

Anybody know what type it is ?

The dangerous type!!!

[dave303e]

Just had a coffee >>>> keyboard moment.

My office looks out over the back camp where our teenage calfs graze. It is lovely just above ankle grass at the moment. I happened to look up as one of the staff was heading to the far corner to fix a fence when his post lunch stroll turned into a 20meter hurdle session. He nearly stepped on a rather large mole snake that is living in some old burrows in that field.

Edited November 22, 2022 by dave303e