Aug 31 2020
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An unwelcomed guest in my Bed!!! The Herald Snake/red-lipped snake

By Sodwana Bay

Imagine getting into bed just to feel something wriggle or even bite you! I would definitely scream like a girl! Well I did scream like a girl on Christmas night 2019 when my cat decided to bring me a live Christmas present – a giant rat bit my finger, but that’s a story for another day! No this article is about our poor pups that got a seriously unwelcomed cuddle buddy in their kitchen bed! What we presume to be a baby herald snake also known as the Red lipped snake was looking for some warmth on a cold winter’s night, unfortunately it did not get the welcoming party it expected! Tom was in the bedroom and I was enjoying a nice warm shower, when all of a sudden 1 of our 4 pups – Racer started barking. Now although these pups are already huge for their age, they are still babies and are scared of everything, so they tend to bark at anything and everything that goes bump in the night! And this snake was no exception! This is the very first time these puppies have ever seen a snake and I am so grateful they rather bark at their fears then bite the thing that scares them. At first we thought Racer was barking either at his siblings or he got a fright for something… Tom and I got to the kitchen almost at the same time and at first were confused about why Racer was barking at his bed; of course the rest of the pups had already retreated to the bedroom not even taking chances with this strange creature! Sorry for the poor quality pics – We only had our cellphone cameras on hand and wanted to get this poor snake back to safety as soon as possible! The little snake was very courageous in trying to ward off the giant! It tried blowing its head up and standing up like a cobra, although a cobra has a hood and this little guy/girl did not! – Fun fact this is typical defense mechanism for them… Although they are mildly venomous they pose no threat to larger mammals only toads and frogs! – Click the link below to find more fun facts like this 1! Flicking its tongue and hissing it pretended to be a mighty snake although it was really small. It definitely worked in scaring off the enemy. We were fortunate to have been able to catch the poor snake before the Jack Russell’s got their chance to jump in. Unfortunately these small dogs were bread to hunt and bite before they think! Our little snake friend luckily calmed down real quick after a couple tries in getting it in the container to set it free! It was a little bit of a mission as it kept flicking itself out with the back of its tail every time we put it in the jug! Well I guess it’s not the easiest thing in the world catching a snake with oven gloves/mittens and trying to chuck it in a small jug that is a little shorter than the snake itself! I am just so grateful this snake was harmless and that it doesn’t appear to have bitten any of our pups… Now our puppies are super cautious going to lie on the bed. They sniff and lift everything up before lying down just to make sure there’s nothing waiting to chase them off again! Click on the link to find out all the fun facts about the herald snake/red-lipped snake!  >>>>>> Herald/Red Lipped Snake

Apr 02 2020
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Blind as a “SNAKE”??? Schlegel’s beaked blind snake @ Sodwana Bay ~ South Africa

By Sodwana Bay

Afrotyphlops schlegelii, commonly known as Schlegel’s beaked blind snake or Schlegel’s giant blind snake, is a species of snake in the family Typhlopidae. The species is endemic to eastern and southern Africa, and bears the distinction of being the world’s largest typhlopid. It is harmless to humans and lives exclusively on a diet of termites. Source: WikiPedia We usually tell someone they are as blind as a bat, but why do we only use bats as illustrations to describe how blind we are? There are a lot of other creatures out there that are just as blind or even blinder than bats, but they never get credit for their way of navigating the world! Living close to a nature reserve without borders can bring excitement almost every day… We live next to the Isimangaliso wet lands park a world recognized heritage site, but occasionally there might be a few strays that stray outside the protection of the park, such as – the occasional hippo, monkeys, monitor lizards, mongoose and of course snakes wandering out of its borders. You wake up in the morning wondering what excitement the day will bring in your own yard… No need to go to a nature reserve to find some fun, exciting things, they decide to come to us… Although sometimes I wonder how the larger creatures such as monitor lizards and tortoises manage to get into our yard through a tight fence… We have encountered a few snake species around our yard and even in our house before, to name a few snake species – the brown house snake, an Eastern Green snake falling on our Tv and than later found on a nearby tree next to our house, a East African Shovel snout snake tryna hide away in our door post (We thought it might’ve been a Stiletto snake), these are just to name a few… Our latest snake find is the Schlegel’s beaked blind snake… It has a weird crown on its head, black and white spotted with a white belly and it is hard to tell it’s head from its tail, as we discovered this morning while it couldn’t stop wriggling… Apparently it is a really rare find as they usually stay under ground… I wonder what this one was doing above ground? It tried to burrow a hole to get away from us, but we know better than to just leave an unknown snake close to our house, especially not knowing of it’s venomous or not… So far we have been lucky enough only to find non-venomous snakes, but still stay cautious… Although all the snakes mentioned above are non-venomous they still have teeth and mouths big enough to bite if feeling threatened… Our family freak out every time we show them a new snake… Some find it fascinating and exciting, whilst others vow never to come visit while there are snakes around… It is really funny seeing different peoples reactions to snakes… A few fun facts about these tiny snakes: They only grow up to 60 – 70 cm or maximum of 95 cm… So maybe up to a school ruler and a half… That is really not big for a snake… These snakes live solely on termites and their larvae and are no threat to humans… Now I know why the snake was above ground… These Snakes often emerge above ground after heavy rains… I guess their houses might be flooded underneath the ground or they chasing after the termites that have now started making new nests? These snakes have no idea when to stop eating – well that is my opinion… Ever heard of an obese wild snake?! I have never heard of any wild animal living in the wild ever been obese till now… Schlegel’s beaked blind snakes are as blind in sight as they are in their appetite… These snakes often over eat themselves – who knew termites could be so fattening…. I get why there tails are so fat and not pointy like almost every other snake out there! These obese snakes are awesome snacks for predators such as birds of prey and other carnivorous snakes – more like cannibal snakes! I think these snakes are blind for a reason… They live most of their lives underground and have very little use for their sight… They have scales that cover their eyes, so they are not completely blind, but don’t see well at all either… Sort of like a mole… The Schlegel’s beaked blind snakes are the largest snake in their family… Makes you wonder how small can snakes be before been classified as worms? Our factual sources for this article came from: WikiPedia and Snake Bite institute Send us an email about any exotic or scary encounters you have had under the water or on land and your story might go viral! Please go checkout our  Patreon Page Below… We wanna start giving you guys who are committed to us exclusive content and be able to further our channel and provide better content to our Patrons… To do this we need funds and all the support we can get… Also check out our YouTube Channel when you done reading this… Every view is one step closer to our goal, we need 4000 hours of our subscribers views and 1000 Subscribers to be able to start making money and better content for you guys, YouTube is free please watch all our videos till the end… and subscribe – It’s Free – if you haven’t already and don’t forget to share the video when you done.

Mar 10 2020
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The Brown House Serpent! – Brown House Snake

By Sodwana Bay

Boaedon capensis, the Cape house snake, also known as the brown house snake, is a species of lamprophiid from Botswana, South Africa (from KwaZulu-Natal all the way through to the Western Cape), Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They are a non-venomous lamprophiid. This species was previously grouped in the genus Lamprophis but is regrouped with the genus Boaedon. I have always heard of brown house snakes, but never took the time to look them up and see what they look like. All I knew was they like living in peoples homes, are very tranquil, non-venomous and of course hence the name are brown snakes. But I always imagined the snake been a boring plain ugly brown color… So imagine my surprise to find out that they are not such ugly snakes and that have beautiful white markings on their face, almost like the Indian tribes…. We were cleaning up our yard  and found this cute snake underneath a pile of junk under an old trailer, we obviously suspected there would be snakes around and under the trailer, hence the clean up (less place for the snakes to hide in)… We were always quite concerned about that area because unfortunately our dogs never back down from a fight, would rather not take a chance in finding a venomous snake that could potentially kill our dogs… I was really not expecting to find a small brown house snake underneath there. As I mentioned before it was much prettier than I expected, if the dogs weren’t so volatile to strange creatures I might’ve tried keeping it as a pet. Well at least this one did not have an encounter with the dogs and got to see another day, at least I hope nothing else caught it later… I will definitely not consider a brown House Snake ordinary after seeing this one… Their Appearance: Cape house snakes are usually dark brown on top, but the color varies greatly from almost black through brown to olive green. The stripes that stretch from the rostral scale through the eye to the back of the head are very strong, thick, and bold. This species may have a lateral stripe running down the flanks, often resembling the links of a chain. They also sometimes have lateral stripes running along either side of the spine. Linking lines between the lateral striping is not uncommon. These body markings tend to be a paler brown/cream in color on top of the often dark, chocolate-brown base tones. These markings normally fade two-thirds of the way down the body until only the base color remains, but there are exceptions to the rule. Individuals without pattern are often found in the wild. These individuals have the head markings but no other markings on top of an often pale-brown body. Like all house snakes, Boaedon capensis is very iridescent, their scales often shining with an oily sheen in certain lights. Some fun facts about this Snake, their habitat and size: Like most frogs, the female Brown house Snakes grow larger than the males – Males will only grow up to 61–76 cm and the Females can grow up to 120 cm. Most probably the one we found was still a juvenile, cause it was relatively small compared to these measurements…. Contrary to popular belief, humans very rarely will introduce Brown House snakes to their homes, instead these snakes will rather welcome themselves into your home and help keep your rodent problem at bay… Their favorite food is of course  small rodents such as mice and rats and won’t mind eating a whole nest of mice/rats in one sitting. Although most people hate any kind of snake – I guess it’s in our human nature, since they did betray us on the garden of Eden- they an still be useful, if I have to choose between a non-venomous snake and rats that chew all your furniture and eat your food, I will definitely choose the snake that eats the mice/rats, also I doubt the snake will bite you for no reason like mice and rats do… Mature Brown House Snakes generally breed 1 or 2 times a year. These snakes are completely harmless, but don’t annoy them they might not like it and bite you… Depending on the person the snake bites, the poor snake might loose it’s life for human negligence… Don’t kill these snakes because you don’t feel like rehabilitating them, remember they are helping you get rid of your pests for FREE… So have a bit of respect for them! The Brown House Snake is the largest of it’s species – there are 7 different similar snakes which are classified under the same name. Like most reptiles they use the sun to warm up their bodies These snakes are not total savages, they at least kill their prey before consuming them, like most non-venomous snakes they are constrictors and will suffocate their prey before eating them, like a Python. These snakes to have teeth so be careful when handling them, you won’t die, but I can’t imagine it been a good experience been bitten by any snake Brown house snakes try act like possums in the face of death! For those who don’t know the possum way, they play dead in the face of prey… Some of their natural predators include owls and larger snakes Thanks for reading this post and hope you found this useful Info… Our factual sources for this article came from: Wikepedia and Animal Talk Send us an email about any exotic or scary encounters you have had under the water or on land and your story might go viral! Please go checkout our  Patreon Page Below… We wanna start giving you guys who are committed to us exclusive content and be able to further our channel and provide better content to our Patrons… To do this we need funds and all the support we can get… Also check out our YouTube Channel when you done reading this… Every view is one step closer to our goal, we need 4000 hours of our subscribers views and 1000 Subscribers to be able…

Feb 18 2020
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Shove It! – East African Shovel snout snake @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Full Name: East-Africa Shovel-snout (Prosymna stuhlmanni) Classification: HARMLESS A smallish snake averaging around 22 cm and inhabits lowland forest and moist savanna where it may be found under rocks or logs or in leaf litter. Whilst getting ready for bed, we found a little worm like creature slithering around in the corner by our bedroom door post. We have grown a custom to Shongololos (giant African millipede), our Jack Russel pup loves it when they crawl into a ball, she will always push them with her nose until they curl up and wait till they open up again and do it all over again, unless the next  bug comes a long, especially her puppy bugs (Fork-nosed Dung Beetle). Luckily she is already ready for bed when we start packing up to go to bed… Tom was busy taking things to the room when  he noticed our slithery friend tryna climb up the wall or just get into the crack of the wall to hide, since it is such a tiny snake. At first I thought it was a baby, but research suggests this is not such a baby, as they don’t grow very long. We have a WhatsApp group for family and friends, where we inform them of all the weird and wonderful things we encounter. I think we scared everybody half to death with this little guy, not because its a snake but because of what snake we thought it could: A stiletto snake (Dangerous). Luckily for us it was a sweet harmless East-African Shovel-snout. They are fairly small snakes and mostly eat reptile eggs. Well of course what it can fit in its mouth. The one we found seemed quite curious about us and would rather try get away than pretend its dangerous. We were able to go visit Sodwana Bays local snake guide and he informed us that there was no panic needed and that it was a harmless shovel snout. But it is still wise to be careful of any unknown  snake… Although this awesome wildness can get a little scary sometimes it is so cool that we can experience Africa for its true beauty and no more the fake big city life. A few nights later we found another little one on its way to our house. We not sure if its the same one, cause we took the first one quite far from the house. This one was super friendly, went straight into the container we used to take it away from the house and just kept on looking at us like it completely trusted us. We don’t necessarily  worry to much about harmless snakes near our house but the problem comes in the dogs don’t like anything foreign near us, so for the snakes safety we move them where the dogs can’t get to them? More about this cutie pie – Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake: Most Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake only grow up to 22 cm. Their main habitats are moist Savannah and lowland forests. Makes sense there is water atleast on 2 sides of us less than 5 km away. The Eastern-African Shovel-Snout Snake does not coil up like their cousins when threatened. Easiest way to identify this specific species of Shovel Snout is their cute yellow snout. Right on the tip their snout they have a yellow spot, some of them also have white spots on their backs. They feed on small reptile eggs, of course any egg that can fit in their mouth they will consume, oddly enough they love hard shelled gecko eggs. Its kinda strange to me since the are so tiny! Theses snakes are also super shy and really don’t like being center of attention…Sounds like me!!! Source of all factual info: africansnakebiteinstitute.com  

Feb 17 2020
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It’s a slithery business – Eastern Green Snake @ Sibaya – Sodwana Bay

By 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/