It’s a slithery business – Eastern Green Snake @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

***Harmless Snake*** – A beautifully-marked bright green snake that is active during the day…

Every night we take our pups for a walk in the garden to let them do their business before we go to bed.

We have this tree close to the house that grows these green pods that look almost like pea pods… On this particular night, Tom decided he wanted to play a little joke on me, his plan was to grab one of the pods and yell snake.

Well I am so glad he didn’t… Why??? Because the really was a snake in that exact tree!!! In fact it was sitting right next to the pod that he wanted to grab.

The snake is a perfectly harmless Eastern Green Snake (a constrictor), but still has teeth and will readily bite when threatened.

The next morning we thought it had left its tree to find a more private tree to live in, until a family member pointed out that it looked like it was still in the tree. It wasn’t exactly where they said it was but when we went to check again we saw its head sticking out of the tree. It was almost perfectly camouflaged with its environment, except it’s gorgeous big golden brown eye.

It posed for us for a while, got quiet a few nice shots of it, and then it decided it was tired of the spotlight and started to sway from side to side as if to tell us “leave me alone now please”…

A few fun facts about our pretty Snake here in Sibaya – Sodwana Bay:

They are day snakes, often hunting for geckos and frogs, I guess they like to catch their prey while they sleep, as most frogs and geckos are nocturnal…

They are excellent climbers and often found in very high trees to escape the attention… They are super shy and not very fond of attention.

If you wanna pick one up, you might want to put a pair of gloves on, although not venomous they are still ready to bite when handled, and I guess like any snake their teeth could be super sharp. Although I wouldn’t suggest handling a snake until you are absolutely sure what snake it is, and even then rather get a snake guide to approve of the snake.

Eastern Greens are often needlessly killed, they are often mistaken for a green Mamba or a boomslang, since these venomous snakes also live in trees.

Before killing a snake you might wanna do your homework, our team is very pro-life… Don’t get me wrong if you find a venomous snake on your property that is highly aggressive, you might not have a choice but to kill it, especially having small kids or pets and livestock. But try to rather re-home the snake before going to such extreme measures.

The Eastern Natal Green Snake has keels on the belly as well as the underside of the tail and tends to be bright green with some light yellow on the belly.

They can grow on average up to 90 cm, but some are known to grow up to 130 cm

So next time you see a green Snake, don’t assume the worst, do so homework quickly before needlessly killing a harmless snake…

All fact base information Source: https://www.africansnakebiteinstitute.com/snake/eastern-natal-green-snake/