Durban serpents star in international snake show

Forget Snakes on a Plane. Extreme snake catcher Simon Keys has been called out to find snakes in forklifts‚ kitchen cupboards‚ trains‚ casinos and mattresses.

And sometimes‚ they are not even snakes at all. Aside from being called out for a plastic rattlesnake on a roof‚ he’s been asked to save people from hairbands‚ lengths of ropes and in one instance‚ a gheko’s tail‚ carefully trapped under an upside down teacup.

Now Keys and his partner Siouxsie Gillett are gaining international stardom as the unlikely leads of a reality series on Nat Geo WILD.

It’s called Snake City‚ set in the tropical paradise of Durban‚ and it is one of the station’s top rated shows. The show involves the snake handlers rushing to homes in and around Durban rescuing reptiles - and people - from precarious situations.

Currently wrapping up filming of the fourth season‚ the pair put their lives on the line almost daily‚ facing everything from harmless house snakes to venomous black mambas and spitting cobras.

The series films between November and March‚ a period of four and a half months‚ the hottest time of the year in Durban when snakes are at their most active. Each series is eight episodes long and each episode involves around six call-outs to different locations.

Gillett‚ a qualified herpetologist‚ said that before she joined the show in series two she didn’t believe that they would be called out more than once a month. “Snakes in people’s houses was such a strange concept for someone who comes from Britain. But I was thrown in the deep end. On day two we were called out to remove a black mamba.”

Nothing about the show is staged. The cameras begin rolling from the moment a call is received and the couple tries to establish the salient facts over the phone. “We tell people to close all the doors and windows in the room where the snake was seen‚ and even to block the gap under the door‚” says Keys.

“We’ve been to call outs where everything has been left wide open. Then how do we know where the snake will be? We’ve gone to a call out to have people say‚ ‘I saw it go into the bush‚ can you find it?’ No we can’t‚ that’s its natural habitat.”

Snakes‚ they say‚ move towards food. Geckos are the favourite meal of bush snakes and black mambas love the taste of rodents. Piles of rubbish outside a home attract rats which then brings snakes.

Snake City may be action-packed but there is a serious side to the work they do. Both are passionate about animal welfare and conservation‚ and are concerned about the state of the environment. Green mambas are on the threatened list‚ rock pythons are listed as endangered.

All the snakes captured are released into safe environments – onto private farms or into game reserves.

Gillett says that they try to educate people about snakes. “There are a lot of superstitious beliefs about snakes - they get a very bad rap. We want people to stop killing them‚ and to rather phone us or other snake catchers to come and remove them.”

The couple will return to the UK in the middle of March‚ and are looking forward to going back to their animal sanctuary that houses around 200 snakes as well as a host of rabbits‚ chickens‚ turtles‚ fish‚ meercats‚ iguanas‚ tarantulas and scorpions.

“And don’t forget the two dogs‚” adds Gillett who became a vegetarian at the age of seven.

“We not only save a lot of snakes we also save people. We had a situation where we removed a venomous snake from a woman’s bed. Had she sat or trodden on it‚ she would have been bitten and possibly died. Ultimately we are saving human lives.”

Snake City 3 will be broadcast on Nat Geo Wild (DSTV 182) from Friday 12 May‚ at 18h00