Tag: escaped snake

Meanwhile in Benoni this morning…

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Much reptile. So yellow. Very escaped. Wow.

I’m a regular follower of the Benoni Community Police Forum webpage. For me, there’s no better way of keeping up with the latest news on the crime front from Benoni and the surrounding area.

Technically, what follows is not a crime, per se (yet), but it did make their webpage this morning:

  • URGENT look out !!!!  Yellow Burmese python escaped from Titans reptiles at oakfileds shopping centre this snakes big enough to take out a small child please call mark 082 557 7084

Oh, Mark 082 557 7084. What have you done? How can you lose a snake big enough to eat a toddler?

While Burmese Pythons in the wild usually “only” reach an average of 3.7 metres, a superior diet (including, perhaps, small children) means that they can get much bigger in captivity:

The record maximum length for Burmese Pythons is held by a female named “Baby”, that lived at Serpent Safari, Gurnee, Illinois, for 27 years. Shortly after death, her actual length was determined to be 5.74 metres (18 feet 10 inches).

That’s a lot of snake.

Other recent examples of exotic escapees up North infamously include Panjo the tiger, Solly the hippo and the Limpopo lion, which wasn’t deemed worthy of being given a name.

Don’t Panic!

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Great news from Gauteng: Pretoria Zoo’s 2 metre (7ft) black mamba has escaped. And no-one knows where it is.

Craig Allenby, the zoo’s marketing manager, said staff realised last week that the snake’s terrarium was empty.

“The area was immediately cordoned off, and stayed cordoned off for two days while we hunted, but in vain. We suspect the snake could have slithered into the roof, but we can’t get in there because of the angle and the narrow gap.”

There was no need for hysteria, he said, as the black mamba was in all likelihood preparing for hibernation, and was in a constricted area, with little chance of it reaching any member of the public.

No need for hysteria indeed, because herpetologist (or “snake expert” as IOL decribe him) Professor Graham Alexander tells us that black mambas are dangerous although not aggressive. Unless, of course, they feel threatened, in which case:

“…there’s a good chance that it will attack. Their poison* is neurotoxic, and a bite can lead to a heart attack within 30 minutes.”

So dangerous and aggressive then. And venomous.

No need for hysteria though, ok?

Ah, these experts and their contradictions: overall, it’s going exceptionally well.

As ever, it’s all Happy Days in Pretoria.

* Did he really say "poison" and not "venom"? Really?