In a remarkable tale of survival and discovery, a peculiar black mamba has captured the interest of conservationists after its rescue last year in Queensburgh, Durban.
It all began when the speckled mamba entered a garden that had a few dogs.
The dogs were in the garden when the speckled mamba slithered in. To protect his dogs, the homeowner tried to kill the mamba with a slasher. However, he only managed to inflict minor injuries on the snake.
Durban snake rescuer Nick Evans was surprised when he got to the property and looked in the small tree the mamba had gone into. He saw a mottled, as opposed to matt grey black mamba.
A male around 2.2m long.
Evans said the snake was visibly underweight, weak and full of parasites, and had a few other things wrong with him.
“A once-in-a-lifetime sighting! It was an exciting day, to say the least,” Evans said.
“The appearance is due to a genetic mutation.”
At the time of the rescue, Evans strongly believed it had been suggested it could be a really bad skin condition.
“I was surprised that he had survived to adulthood. If I had seen this specimen as a hatchling, I’d never have guessed it would make it to adulthood,” Evans said.
He thought long about what to do with the snake while his friend ‘babysat’ it.
“I consulted with a few knowledgeable friends to see what the consensus was,” Evans said.
“I sided with the decision to not release it back into the wild, once we were sure it was a genetic mutation (weeks, then months passed, as did shed skins, showing no signs of a skin condition).”
Evans said the reasons the snake was not released were his poor health and they could not and cannot find information on the genetic anomaly.
“I don’t know of a black mamba like this that has been seen before.
“The gene could have a negative effect on a mamba population wherever it was to be released,” Evans said, adding he would not take a chance.
Evans’ friend looked after the snake for a while before it went to Dangerous Creatures at uShaka Sea World.
Now ‘Snowflake’, as dubbed by Evans’ friend and the name stuck, is in the best of care, in excellent condition, at Dangerous Creatures. He is on display for the public to see and learn about.
Evans said he would try to get a picture of the mamba’s shed skin.
“I’ve seen a piece of it, it’s so cool!” he exclaimed.
“Normally, mamba skins are a brown colour. His is, as you can imagine, speckled, and lighter brown.”
Evans added that they look forward to learning more about this snake. They already have a few ideas to better understand the unique specimen.
South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr) senior herpetologist Carl Schloms said Evans brought Snowflake to Dangerous Creatures Reptile House six months ago. However, Snowflake has been on exhibit in Dangerous Creatures for a month.
“This was the very first time that any of the herpetologists at Dangerous Creatures had seen a black mamba with such a striking skin variation,” Schloms said.
However, Schloms has seen other snakes with skin variations such as albinism in pythons, night adders, house snakes, and heralds.
“As Snowflake has shed three times since he arrived, the possibility that his skin variation was caused by a disease was ruled out,” Schloms said.
He said Snowflake has an unusually docile temperament for a black mamba but in all other respects shows behaviour consistent with a black mamba and is in overall good health.
“While Snowflake is in our care, we are hoping to learn a little more about him with further diagnostics,” Schloms concluded.