Snake catcher Jason Arnold was lucky enough to escape what would have been a nasty bite after releasing a rescued black mamba in KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday.
Arnold, the owner of Universal Reptiles, was called out to a home in Westville, where he found a 2.1m male black mamba in a small storage unit.
He told News24 he secured the venomous snake inside a pillowcase and drove about 20 minutes out, to one of his release sites.
A video of the release shows the black mamba slithering out of the pillowcase at super speed before it leaps right up, mouth open, in Arnold’s direction.
“This kind of thing has happened to me before, but I’ve never been that close when it happens,” he said.
Arnold believes the snake possibly saw the silhouette of his parked car as a place to hide, and therefore jumped in its direction. The car was parked behind Arnold.
“It’s not a matter of them wanting to attack you, they’re just scared.”
Arnold said in such situations snakes often fear their surroundings and become highly strung.
The mamba hastily slithered away at the release site after Arnold jumped out of the way.
Arnold said this situation could have been avoided, but he made a call to direct the snake out of the pillowcase instead of waiting for it to get out in its own time.
“I just felt a little bad because it was a really hot day and he was sitting on the hot ground inside the bag,” he said.
