Cape Town - Residents in and around Garlandale Crescent, Athlone, have been urged to remain vigilant following recent sightings of a Cape cobra.
A resident, who requested to remain anonymous, said the unusual find was detected on Friday morning around 9am.
“I was busy doing the washing and saw a snake trying to climb up by the garage wall. At first I didn’t take notice of it, thinking it’s just a mole snake because we’ve had a few of those before.
“But later a stray cat came and I tried to chase it away.
“Then I saw the cat sniffing at something and hitting it with its paw.
“That’s when I saw the snake raise its head and its hood opened.
“We were all shocked and slightly frightened as it’s the first time seeing a Cape cobra here in the area.”
After contacting the SPCA, she alerted neighbours via the community WhatsApp group chat and was assisted by a neighbour with a contact for an individual, Johaar Bassier, who handles snakes and is a nature conservationist.
“He came out as soon as he could but we could not find it in the yard.”
She said the snake was spotted again on Saturday morning and alerted the handler to this.
“Again we found nothing after turning the yard upside down.
“Other neighbours said they saw one slithering down the crescent, so it looks to be that it may have left or possibly another sighting.”
Bassier said sightings this time of the year were usual, however, in an area as developed as Garlandale, it was unlikely but not impossible, with this being one of quite a few sightings.
“Likely with the heavy rains they started making their way into more residential areas to escape the harsh weather and get more warmth.”
He said it was likely that more sightings of snakes such as Cape cobra, puff adder, boomslang, mole snakes, are expected as it was their most active period.
“We usually encounter them in areas close to the mountains or nature reserves namely University Estate, Walmer estate, Newlands, Constantia, Hout Bay, Sea Point, Camps Bay and surrounds.”
Shaun MacLeod, a snake rescue relocation coordinator confirmed that the image of the species was that of a juvenile Cape cobra.
This could be seen by the black/ darker underside across its body, and the top at the neck is black, indicating that the snake is young and under breeding age.
Just yesterday, MacLeod removed a Cape cobra from Melkbosstrand.
“This is where snakes have come out of hibernation and what they do is that they hunt their prey and each species of snake has a different menu.”
While some may hunt eggs, others will hunt frogs, rats and mice, and others’ lizards or other snake species.
He said Cape cobras are found throughout the Cape.
“They are found all over. They are very secretive, they hunt rats and mice, and if they run out of rats and mice, they can actually predator other animals, other reptiles such as mole snakes.
“This is their season where they are out hunting their food source, they are getting water.”
He said if a snake flares up and displays its hood, it’s a cobra.
As a cautionary word, he said to treat all snakes as if they were venomous when sighted and to stay two or three metres away.
One should track the snake’s movement from a distance while contacting a professional handler to assist in its removal from the area.
In the Western Cape, the three main venomous snakes were the Cape cobra, puff adder, and boomslang, which had a different type of venom.
“Snakes bite humans out of defence, not attack… The Cape cobra, their venom is neurotoxic, it shuts down the nervous system eventually.
“Your puff adder shuts down your cells, it basically eats your cells, so you get like a type of gangrene.
“And then your boomslang is a blood destroyer.”
Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Supervisor Jon Friedman said snake sightings were completely normal at this time of the year.
“Southern hemisphere snake species will have been slowly emerging from their winter hibernation, and are on the move in search of food, mates and for some species, egg-laying sites.”
According to Friedman, sightings of adult snakes usually peak around December in Cape Town.
“From late December onwards into March, the season’s newly born and hatched baby snakes start emerging and people may well encounter these.”
“Cobras like locations that provide them with good cover, so areas of long grass, piles of rubble and disused mammal burrows are favoured.”
Friedman said there were 22 species of snake found in the Cape Town metropole. Of these, 12 were venomous and 10 harmless. He added that it was mostly non-venomous species encountered in residential areas.
Cape Argus