Mamba mia! KZN scientist survives close call with poisonous snake

Dr Adrian Armstrong is a curious and dedicated scientist‚ acknowledged as an expert on the thousands of snake‚ frog and creepy-crawly species that live in KwaZulu-Natal.

So when he spotted a smallish‚ bright green snake slithering along the ground next to the Nyoni River recently‚ he was pretty sure it was a water snake. He grabbed hold of it swiftly‚ the better to take a closer look at it.

“It is important to look at the colours on the underside of a snake to ensure a positive identification‚” the senior Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife animal scientist - herpetofauna and invertebrates - explained in an interview this week.

But snakes don’t always behave as they should‚ or they pop up in places where you don’t expect them to be.

In this case‚ his curiosity turned out to be a big mistake. For what he suspected to be a harmless animal was in fact a green mamba - one of the most venomous snakes in Africa.

Snake expert Johan Marais says green mambas spend most of their time in trees and generally avoid humans‚ but they have a potent venom that can easily kill an adult.

If the snake is able to inject its venom‚ symptoms can develop from dizziness to nausea‚ difficulty in breathing and swallowing‚ irregular heartbeat‚ convulsions and respiratory paralysis. Some experts say there are cases of people dying within just 30 minutes of a bite.

Fellow ecologist Sharon Louw‚ who had accompanied Armstrong and a group of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife staff on a survey of crocodile nests in the Amatikulu Nature Reserve on the KZN north coast‚ said: “Everyone assumed the small snake on the water’s edge was a water snake of sorts and I took a photo of the snake as a sighting record for Ezemvelo’s central database. It was only when I observed the unusual‚ bright lime green head and the dark gape when the snake opened its mouth‚ did the calm situation turn into panic! Adrian had been bitten by a mamba!”

Now they were up the creek without a paddle‚ so to speak.

There was no cell phone reception in this part of the reserve and the group was on foot‚ at least 1.5km from the nearest vehicle evacuation point‚

“But it is amazing what one can do when adrenalin kicks in‚” Louw recalled.

Luckily they had an emergency pressure bandage to apply to the wound‚ and some of her colleagues also sprinted downriver to find a cellphone signal and summon an ambulance.

Armstrong was soon loaded into the nearest vehicle and they raced towards Ngwelezane Hospital‚ transferring him to an ambulance on the N2 freeway en route.

“Adrian was extremely lucky that it was a young green mamba that bit him‚ with only a single puncture wound. The dose of venom was sufficient to trigger known symptoms‚ but fortunately they did not progress any further after five hours of observation.”

Armstrong remarked: “The snake was at the water’s edge and I only saw it at the last second when it was moving away over the open and low-vegetated shoreline towards the cover of the forest. It was small and the colour of the body of hatchlings is more bluish-green compared with the brighter green of the adults‚ and I didn’t see the head well.

“I didn’t think it was a green mamba. Instead I thought that the snake may be one of the four harmless green snakes that occur or may occur in the area. And because part of my job is to document reptile occurrence in protected areas‚ I thought that I would catch the snake as gently as possible so as not to harm it‚ to identify it and obtain a distribution record for the species‚ and then let it go again.

“For that reason I grasped it gently about mid-body. Hence the bite!”

Though his colleagues were relieved to learn of Armstrong’s lucky escape‚ a ribbing seemed inevitable and he found a note pinned to his office door a few days later:

“1‚ 2‚ 3‚ 4‚ 5. Once I caught a snake alive. 6‚ 7‚ 8‚ 9‚ 10. Then I let him go again. Why did you let him go? Because he bit my finger so!”