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. :-