For Goodness Snakes!

A photo of a rather full African Rock Python has caused a bit of a stir on Facebook in the last couple of days.

Andy de Wet, from De Wet Enviroscaping, uploaded the above photo of the snake after it was discovered on his neighbour’s farm in the Hartebeespoort/Brits area, having just eaten a duiker (deer-like antelope).

Some people thought the snake was definitely dead, with one Facebook commenter even declaring that it was “clear that snake was killed in the electric fence and pulled out”.

But the snake is alive and well. And just a little busy digesting its lunch…

“The snake is fine,” Andy told SAPeople. “Both me and my neighbour are monitoring it to see that it stays fine. It is almost completely immobile at the moment, but will slowly regain agility as the duiker is digested.”

And one more for snake lovers…UPDATED:

While we’re at, we thought we’d upload another photo of what we thought was a pretty cool South African snake you may not have seen. It was uploaded to Facebook in February 2012, with the claim that it was a “six-and-a-half metre black mamba captured on camera close to an orange grove in Karino near Nelspruit. The snake was estimated to be about 45-years-old and with enough venom to kill 400 men!”

BUT…this is NOT a black mamba – it’s just another one of those South African myths that abound! Unfortunately nobody knows for sure where this pic was taken or when – it seems to have originated in Australia where someone claimed it was an  Australian King Brown snake, but then disappeared when a snake expert questioned the photo’s authenticity. Most likely it’s a photoshop hoax! Sorry!