The Savanna Vine Snake

Savanna Vine Snake

The Savanna Vine snake is often referred to as a Twig Snake or Bird snake. The 'vine' or 'twig' name is derived directly from its appearance and markings and the 'bird' part is that large adults are known to raid birds nests and eat young fledglings which is about the only time that the average person may see one. This is a common snake in Zimbabwe and although its venom can be fatal, I was keen to get a much closer look at one. ie I really wanted to notch up my very own Vine Snake !! Well, if I consider that my snake catching hobby started at aged 12, it took me eight and a half years, 25 other species of snake, over 800 individual snakes before this became my only ambition. What really pained me is that I knew where to look for them and each and every fellow snake catcher that I knew had caught several. Some could even show me specimens that they were keeping themselves. Sooo frustrating. I eventually had a chat with one of my closest snake catching allies who had just been bitten by his 'pet' Savanna Vine Snake whilst trying to feed a lizard to it. I was keen to know more about the species and its bite.
He was a very big, strong and healthy man, but when I saw him some three weeks after the bite he did not look well at all. He said that the bite was not a full and aggressive 'me or you' type but more of an over exuberant feed time bite, however and in typical 'haemotoxic' manner the result was that my friend became extremely and physically ill, urinating blood and rupturing blood vessels just under the skin. He indeed was lucky to survive and had to treat symptoms and hope - as their is no anti venom for this snake. The thought of catching a snake that was potentially lethal with no serum excited me even more and I went home extra enthusiastic - if this was at all possible. He had however imparted a key piece of information that I had read somewhere else but had long since forgotten. During the mating season, vine snakes could be found in trees and shrubs overhanging rivers and streams.
I was inspired and that weekend I grabbed my snake catching equipment, looked at my watch and said to myself - Its vine snake mating season , lets go out and get a couple !! ( I had no idea whether it was or wasn't but it sounded good). After borrowing the large, American style, 5 seater canoe from my parents, went around to another long suffering, non snake catcher, friends house and urged him to spend the day canoeing. He looked at the snake bags quizzically and I had to tell him about my ulterior motive. He smirked, gave me the 'fat lot of hope of that ever happening' look and agreed.
We arrived at the local Dam around mid morning and without giving the ominously darkening clouds a second thought set of with great enthusiasm. We decided to go up the river on the right hand bank and come back on the other side. Prudent as we could make a hasty retreat if we encountered the one bull hippo known to frequent this river. Well, 3 hours later we had caught two water leguaans or monitors, seen one brown water snake and nothing. To make matters worse we were subjected to five minutes of torrential downpour on a section of river that was so thick with reeds that we could not get the canoe to the bank or even undercover. My friend had had enough and so we set off home. We did not hug the bank the way we had before and just decided to head for home - a change of clothes and a couple of games of pool at the local club being in order. Well, we rounded the last corner and were pulling away from the final stretch of bank when I noticed not one but two Vine snakes in the topmost fronds of an overhanging thorn bush. It took a lot of persuasion to turn the boat around but we did and banked it just short of the tree. The Vine snakes keen eye site had already picked up what was happening and to my amazement they did something unexpected and out of character. They headed down the thorn bush towards me.My friend was hastily pushing away from the bank, decidedly against sharing the canoe, so I jumped out but being acutely aware of the venom I also stepped aside to watch the pair disappear into the reeds. NO NO NO this was not happening and I was not going to let it happen !! So I plunged into the reeds after them and having a brief glimpse of snake heading away, I instinctively grabbed out and neatly gripped a portion of tail. Hastily retreating I flipped the snake out of the reeds and was then able to catch it on open ground. However after a thorough search of the reeds from both sides, we were unable to locate the second vine snake. Well, if I could not have a mating pair, I could at least claim to have caught a Vine Snake and so I opened up my bag, and released my catch. As we headed off towards the parked car, I looked back and hoped that the two would find each other again, secretly wishing that I had not disturbed them. Sadly I was never again presented with the opportunity of catching another.

The Spotted Bush Snake

What I like most about the spotted bush snake is that it is fang less. This is a common snake in Zimbabwe and I have had chance to collect and study a large number of them. As its name states, it is a snake that can be found in bushes, shrubs and trees. It is a long and slender snake and if cornered will puff its throat and strike aggressively. It may be fang less but I can assure you that it can make you feel that you have been attacked by a pin cushion with its sharp backward curved teeth. This is an extremely agile and fast moving snake and as it is not a constrictor, can be quite hard to free hold. Feeding on a diet of geckos and lizards makes it an easy snake to keep and its beautiful markings make it one of the most attractive snakes. The most unexpected and unique point of interest is that its tongue is a bright blue, easily visible as it is in a state of constant alert.
My best catch was a large Male that was seen going into a line of small conifers. I was about 15 and fearless so i simply started climbing the conifer. the thing about conifers is that although the bottom branches are quite sturdy, they rapidly recede to much smaller and less substantial ones. They also exude a sticky sap. I was intent on capturing this snake which did not have any problem with reaching the top and so I soon found myself holding onto the central stem of a swaying conifer and shimmying up towards the snake. Well, the tree soon decided that my weight was more than enough and like a poor comedy it bent and bent until i was quite literally hanging upside down with the snake still out of reach but now below me. With a loud crack the tree snapped and I plummeted but even in falling, my focus was such that I reached out and grabbed the bush snake mid body. I crashed down and as luck would have it was caught by the sturdy bottom branches and was left hanging upside down just inches from the ground and in plain view of a large group of students from the school. The shocked silence then burst into gales of laughter and as my eyes re focused and my mind started to acknowledge where I was, I realized that I still had a writhing and unharmed snake in by grasp. Attempting to realise some dignity from the experience (and still hanging upside down), I raised the snake in a show of accomplishment.
Well, the snake too felt that a show of dignity was necessary and it puffed itself up and with a loud hiss bit me right on the tip of my nose. My tenacious grip on the tree finally gave and I landed in a heap at its base. The students roared and for the two weeks following, the marks on my nose were a source of great mirth. I retreated, sticky with sap, bloodied, bruised and subdued, the mocking laughter ringing in my ears. Was I bothered ? No way !! The snake catcher had got his snake and my track record was intact !!

The Boomslang

Young Male Boomslang

The boomslang or tree snake is the most venomous and most feared of the Zimbabwean back fanged snakes. This is because it is also the most commonly seen and can grow to well over one and a half metres long. If threatened it will puff up its throat and body and this combined with its size, the large scales, big round eyes and speed of movement make it very intimidating. For those in the know, its poison effects the blood clotting mechanism and death is usually as a result of blood loss. The anti-venom is available from reserves kept in South Africa and this in itself is of grave concern to the Zimbabwean snake catcher. Fortunately bites are rare and mostly confined to snake catchers, handlers or those silly people who decide to try and kill them. The snake catchers that I have known to take a nip from Boomslang's have all survived due to its propensity towards saving its venom and giving warning or 'dry' bites. Every one of them will also tell you that it was their own lack of caution that led to the bite. Why is this snake so common ? Its simply the fact that it does raid nests for fledglings and various bird species highlight its existence to other creatures by chattering and even mobbing it.

They say that knowing a snakes habits are what makes a snake catcher good at their hobby and for me the boomslang was my most common catch. After noticing that when disturbed, most boomslang's would try to escape by going to the highest point in the tree (not rocket science as they are called tree snakes ) . I would equip myself with a snake bag and a pair of heavy duty welding gloves and climb to the highest point and wait whilst getting the often resident crowd to rattle the lower branches. Nine out of ten times the snake would come right up to me. I would grab it as close to the head as possible and, whilst clinging precariously from often very thin branches, unwrap the tail and bag the snake.  That tail is really a nuisance and is used to hold onto branches with a tenacity that was often very frustrating.
I would not have caught in excess of 500 of these if it wasn't for a new trick that I found. I was regularly called out to catch Boomslang's in hedges and for a very frustrating period would fail to find the snake in nine out of ten instances. And even after spotting some, would inexplicably lose them. The few I did catch were around midday and would follow my theory of 'highest point', moving out of the hedge into adjoining trees. Then the moment of break through came as I watched a green male boomslang disappear before my eyes. Closer inspection showed that the corner post pipe for the fence was hidden at the back of the stem of the bush and I could only surmise that the boomslang had gone into hiding in the fence post. I banged the post, prodded the holes and still could not here or see it. After returning home and reading through some of the old snake books I came to a passage that talked about putting petrol down termite mounds to get snakes to leave them. I went back to the fence post armed with a syringe and my trusty welding gloves and gave it a little spray. The result was almost instantaneous but not what I expected. There was a loud hissing and scraping from inside the pole and out came a large brown female boomslang. I just had time to close my hand and pull her out when out popped the green male. I just had time to catch that one with my other hand and then faced the bagging problem. The Person who had called me was delighted as they had only ever seen the green one. They were even more impressed when, after putting petrol down all the fence pipes, I had come up with another three - two green males and a much rarer dark olive one commonly referred to as a black boomslang. What a result - five lovely specimens caught from one garden ! I returned home now worrying about the possible effects of the petrol on the snakes. I washed them down and then took them to the snake park where we monitored them. They showed no ill effect from the petrol dowsing and after a month and several chameleons we then released them. Several months later I decided to test this theory in a high density built up area near a school with no reported sitings of snakes and on a late afternoon went along hedgerows hitting and shaking the hedges following it with a petrol treatment on the fence posts. Two hours later I had to call it a day having bagged 31 boomslangs. They made a great show at the snake park for the visitors and we had to go further a field to find suitable release sites when it came time to set them free. Of note here is that after trying different methods a syringe was definately the best method of petrol dispursal as the spray filled the air quicker and I believe this irritated the snakes keen senses making them come out quicker than just pouring the fuel in.

The African Rock Python

Constrictive Coils

This is the largest Snake found in Africa, and as such is probably the easiest to find. Although it is generally a twilight / nocturnal predator it has a large body to keep temperate and can often be found during the day either sunning itself or lying in water (giving rise to the alternative name of African Water Python). It has heat sensing pits at the front of its nose which are used to sense warm blooded creatures at night.
A large number of pythons that I have been called to rescue have been found in hen houses having eaten a couple and then been unable to slither through the wire mesh.

Heat sensing pits

My best catch was when I was about seventeen and was asked to go out to a farm to look for a Python that had been taking its meals from a prize heard of Angora Goats. I rode out to the farm on my newly acquired racing cycle. The farm was some 20km from my house so it took a while. It started to rain about halfway there (a half hour torrential downpour !) and wearing only a T-shirt, Running shorts, Trainers and a school satchel, I was soaked through. For the last km I had to leave the tarred road and turn onto the dirt track heading to the farm. Racing bikes are not made for this and I came off at the first muddy bend. Exhausted, soaked, muddy and grazed I realized that I had not appreciated what 20km really is !! I eventually reached the farmhouse and one of the herdsman offered to take me to where the snake was last seen. I had high hopes because Pythons tend to range in quite a small territory. We worked our way through an area with quite dense elephant grass into an area with open vlei. I was keeping my eye open for rocky outcrops and anthills where pythons like to live and noting each as we went to the snakes last sighting point. To my delight and that of the growing party of visitors who had come to see (bush telegraph always amazed me ), the very first anthill that I chose to give further inspection turned up fresh tracks in the mud. I looked at these with awe and my first thought was ' I will need a bigger bag' . There was no visual snake and after avid discussion a willing volunteer raced back to the farm house and returned with a couple of 'badza's' (hoes) a shovel and a very ambitious 50kg stock feed sack. The crowd swelled as the termite mound begun to be dismantled. It soon surrounded the anthill and after half a meter, a shout followed by a huge commotion came from the back of the spectators. I leaped up and sprinted towards the yell and to my delight saw a baby python just peering out of a hole in the ground. It was quickly caught and placed in the school satchel - I was delighted but after bigger and better things so reorganized and involved all the -now skittish- onlookers to search the surrounding ground for any more holes. A necessary precaution as other less savory species of snake tend to cohabit . Specifically Cobra's and Mamba's.

Cloaca showing prehensile claw

With everyone on high alert, the herdsman (now the self appointed second in charge ), mocking everyone else's fear leaped bravely into the task of dismantling the termite mound. We worked back from the entrance hole where we had seen the tracks, towards where the baby python had stuck its head out. five more times I was called to retrieve another baby, identical in size to the first. After another half an hour a nice big hole had been made in the mound and then .... a break through - Literally. We had broken into the main chamber and it was absolutely filled with Python. My second in charge leaped out of the hole which was just as well as I was leaping in. I grabbed hold of a substantial lump of hard muscle and pulled. At first ... nothing happened but with continuous pressure it started to come out. I continued to pull and slowly made my way out of the hole with a large section of snake in tow. Eventually the head came free and i leaped back into the hole and grabbed it before the snake could even think of what it might want to do. It was all so uneventful as i know stood in the hole calling for the sack. That was about when I began to notice that the spectators were fleeing led on by my self appointed 2IC. Eventually one brave sole came close enough to throw the sack to me. I was full of adrenalin and excitement and as I let go the section of body to get the sack, the snakes thoughts caught up with it and with a rapid twist of its body it had thrown two coils around my neck and was smoothly wrapping more along my arms and torso and then I felt the strength. If anyone tells you that a python needs to sink its teeth into something to provide the leverage to squeeze the breath out of its prey, I can equally say that there is quite enough strength left without doing that !! It tail was curling up and joining the coils around my neck and then it defecated. This is a strong Musky odor excreted in times of stress and at that close a proximity it was absolutely ghastly. I was a strong and fit young man but for a fleeting moment thought that I was in real trouble. She was not only very strong but felt unexpectedly heavy. I dropped the sack and started uncoiling her, moving the coils down my body until I had sacrificed my left leg to her insistent coiling and squeezing. Still nobody stepped forward to help and so I picked on a spectator of a similar age to myself. I mocked him relentlessly until the others joined in whereupon he reclaimed a bit of pride and dignity by dashing in, grabbing the sack and dashing out again. He was then joined by a wizened elderly man who had just arrived. He took the bag, checked that i was holding the snakes head and then helped me uncurl the snake and put it into the sack. After tying the sack closed the spectators started coming forward and laughing and joking the bravest took turns in picking up the bag and feeling the weight of the snake it contained. I looked back in the hole and to my delight there was still coils of python there. I reached in and brought out a handful of baby pythons. This set off another stampede but the elderly man calmly stepped forward and passed me my school satchel. I pulled out several more handfuls of baby pythons and when every last one that I could see had been collected I set off home. The sack laid over the handle bars, the backpack on my back I walked back to the tar road with an entourage that would have made any conquering hero proud.
I did not really notice the long ride home but I arrived long after the sun had set. There I was - worn out, grazed and scratched, sunburned, reeking of python musk and sweat but as happy as I have ever been !!
The following morning and in daylight my dad and I measured up the catch and the score card read as follows :-
One mommy python in very good health measuring 3m75cm and weighing an awesome 17 and a half kg's along with her 31 babies (they all looked like twins) all measuring around 30cm and with bodies as thick as a middle finger. I took these around to each of the primary schools and gave a snake talk. These snakes will never know how they helped the conservation effort in KweKwe but I can assure you that from then after my family has been called to relocate snakes on a regular basis.
Mommy Python and babies were released separately at intervals and along the river bank in the local game park about a month later and only after the babies had had their first meal.

Here is a small video of a python from my last visit to KweKwe. :-

The striped sand snake

The striped sand snake is alternatively called the yellow bellied or striped-bellied sand snake. This is a slender, fast moving, and (if you are alert) common snake. It is not often seen in its full glory, because it is very alert and will tend to flee long before it has to face any peril. If cornered this snake will tend to bite readily and rapidly and one managed to bite me no less than fifteen times before I could secure its biting parts - drawing blood each time with its razor sharp teeth.
Not a nice snake you say ? Well, I beg to differ as time helped me find some peculiarities in this snake which I found very endearing.
In a grand push to restock the local snake park in anticipation of some school visits along with the annual Wildlife Camp, we managed to find seven lovely specimens which we put into one very large display tank. We saw these school trips as an opportunity to wow groups of children with the park and engender support for conservation rather than destruction. The snake park was operated on a catch and release basis whereby we only kept a couple of each specimen and released it as soon as a new catch had been made to replace it. However when we had large groups booked to come through we relied on volume so that there was no need to keep disturbing a single specimen and thus inviting unwarranted stress.
Anyway, we would start preparing a couple of weeks in advance and as these sand snakes were among those captured in the first three days it gave us opportunity to watch and study them.
Sand snakes have keen eyesight and are extremely inquisitive. Each morning we would get to the park early and they would be the only ones showing any interest - seven little heads alertly watching your every move and in unison too. This would be the same throughout the day when visitors passed through.
The single thing that endeared me to this species of snake was the way it preened itself. For a couple of hours each day the snakes would run there noses along their scales. A bit at a time and from one side to the other, slowly working their way down their bodies. At first I though that this may have been a mating ritual however I have had occasion to see this in others that have been in a cage on their own. I have not seen this intense preening in any other species of snake in Zimbabwe but have read that there are other snakes that do preen themselves. For its inquisitiveness, energy and cleanliness I rate this snake highly.

Here is a short video of a striped or yellow belly sand snake :-

Preamble

My interest in snakes came from a very early age and although i am sure that there were previous occasions, my first memory was of my father catching a brown house snake which had crept onto our veranda at the farm. I was struck with amazement at the way it moved, its shiny scales, its shiny eyes and the nervous tongue flickering out. My lack of fear was either due to my inquisitive age or a reflection of my fathers own outward show of enthusiasm.
I was therefore devastated when, what appears in my memory to be a very short time afterwards, I was rushed into the house and the shotgun was produced to dispatch a large green snake in the hedge alongside the same veranda. My little mind could not understand why one snake had the right to be loved and released but the other..... I was about seven years old and although I only caught a glimpse of the snakes lifeless body the memory and feeling of unfairness lingers on.

There were many more sitings of snakes and many more dead bodies encountered over the following five years and each would get my blood running with excitement and despair in equal proportions. However i was never again to witness my family kill another snake and in fact did see a few live ones that Dad had managed to box and move. He later explained to me that the snake that he had shot was a tree snake (boomslang) which was deadly and territorial and Dad being in the army and away for some months on end felt that it was safer especially when considering that he had a seven year old with no fear for snakes. I acknowledge now that he had little option and do forgive him !! He too owned up to being interested in snakes at an early age but that is his story and now i am going to tell mine !!!

My First Snake

At twelve years of age I was wrenched from my parents grasp with the necessity of Boarding school. Like all Boarding schools of its time the new intakes were at the bottom of the food chain and mine was steeped in the age old tradition of scivying for the senior year. By sheer destiny I ended up being scivy for a prefect who was also a nature lover and it was not long before I noticed that he collected birds eggs. Being a nature lover I was not interested in depriving the Mommy birds of their eggs but did look up to him for having an interest in nature. He too was reasonably protective of me but despite this I had the misfortune of being both the smallest boy in the dormitory and the smallest boy in the school and as such underwent severe bullying. Not a week went by without me being given manual punishments for various misdemeanors most of which were of other peoples doing. Along with this I hardly ever saw the treats that my parents had lovingly placed in my trunk as this was raided during the night after my infrequent trips home.
I found that, more and more, i had to get away for a while and begun to do 'bunk outs' where i climbed out of the burglar barred windows, over the six foot security fence and disappeared into the bush area surrounding the school. I would spend hours walking through the thick elephant grass down to the forest area and through to a gully which filled with rain water during the rainy season. This became such an escape that i often would register for lunch, gulp it down and then disappear from afternoon school only to reappear at evening registration. It was in my third term that i found out that my prefect also had an interest in snakes and had two little snakes which were being kept in the science classroom in an old fish tank. This was the moment of enlightenment !!! How about that ... SNAKES AS PETS ?? I wanted one !!
Brimming with excitement I gulped my lunch, and made a hasty escape to the bush. I entered the back section towards the thorn trees but to my dismay walked straight into my Prefect. Then it dawned on me - he had a cigarette in his hand and was as shocked at seeing me. He said he was out looking for eggs from the weavers nest and asked me not to tell anyone. I was in no position to do anything but comply. He then said he needed me to stay below the tree so that i could act as lookout whilst he collected the eggs. I said OK and crouched down next to the tree. There was a short length of metal fence post lying next to me and i picked it up and to my delight a tiny brown house snake was nestled under it. I grabbed a stick and pinned it down - as I had seen Dad do with a much larger specimen and received a gale of laughter from the tree. My Prefect jumped down and laughingly mocked my caution, identified it and showed me how to hold the little creature. I was awestruck with it and asked him 20 questions covering what it eats to who knows what else could have flashed through my mind. Overnight i became a cheerful chappy - after all i had just entered the world as a pet owner and oh boy there was never another kid that had a pet like mine. I was very aware that the snakes presence should not be made public and begged my prefect to let me keep it in the dorm and he kindly agreed with the unspoken knowledge that i too would keep other things private. The house snake stayed with me for most of the term - literally. I kept him in a little wooden pencil case that i had made which fortunately had very ill fitting joints allowing plenty of air. Under my Prefects tutoring i ensured that he was handled infrequently and watered daily. I also spent long hours hunting geckos for him once a week which he ate with great gusto. He was bestowed with the completely unoriginal name of 'Housey' and heard all my gripes and moans. Housey was discovered at around one o'clock in the morning after a home weekend accompanied by a large shriek which brought the dormitory to life. So he was banished to the lab which was not good for him but for me resulted in an interval where my treats were untouched and the physical bullying was replaced by retoric to which I found more amusement than any thing else. Housey was replaced at the earliest available opportunity.