“So,” I ask,” Lions, rhino’s, elephants, buffalo, and leopards are all very dangerous, is there anything else that can kill you here?” Anne and I were having dinner with a film crew staying at Ngiri house like we were. Having finished another day of filming a documentary show to be aired on British ITV and on CNN in the US on September 15th, they were interviewing the six finalists for the Tusk Conservation Awards.
“Snakes!” They responded. It seems that Kenya is noted for its poisonous snakes. The black mamba is the fastest snake in the world and its bite can kill you in 20 minutes if you don’t get anti-venom. Its close cousin the green mamba is even more deadly but it is very shy and so isn’t usually a danger. Not as poisonous, but more feared because of its aggressiveness is the puff adder. It will wait in the middle of a trail for you. When we asked the Ngiri staff if there were any of these nearby, we were told that the green mamba especially liked living in the flower beds next to the lodge but the others were around as well.
Great, now we had to watch everywhere we stepped as well as being on the lookout for things that wanted to eat or crush us. Going to bed that night both Anne and I were, understandably, fretting about snakes.
Ironically, it was the very next morning that I hopped out of bed, carefully checking the floor before putting my foot down, walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. The black line on the shower floor began writhing as it slithered toward the wall attempting to avoid the spray.
“Anne, there’s a snake in the shower.” I called. It was only about 18 inches long, as thick as a pencil and solid black. “Is this a baby black mamba?” I thought. “What are YOU going to do about it?” Anne said.
Carefully I grabbed the toilet brush and scooped the snake into a sisal basket. Then with the head and tail of the snake swaying over the edge, and keeping that edge away from me, I carried it outside and tossed it into the grass. It stayed around long enough for me to get a picture and then it disappeared into the wild.
John
Well….. What type of snake was it???
Anne and I went to the Kenya National Museum today. They had a snake exhibit. It looks like the little fellow was a Brown House Snake. They come in a variety of colors and it said “They have sharp teeth but are not poisonous.