The Green Mamba - One of South Africa's Deadly Dozen Snakes
The Green Mamba - One of South Africa's Deadly Dozen Snakes.
This is a very shy snake and compared to it's cousin, the Black Mamba, shows very little aggression.
It is a tree living snake and in South Africa it is only found along the Natal Coastline. It is not found anywhere else in South Africa!
It is often accused of being any green snake and many harmless Green Snakes are killed every year mistakenly identified as a Green Mamba.
So here is a quick guide if you see a green Snake in South Africa.
- Any green snake seen away from the Natal Coast - that is further than 2km from the sea - it is NOT a Green Mamba.
- If it is a small green snake away from the Natal Coast - It is HARMLESS - 1 of 5 harmless green snakes found in South Africa.
- If it is a large green snake away from the Natal Coast - It is a Boomslang. Small Boomslangs are NOT green. When they hatch out of the eggs they are about 32cm long and GREY. The ones that turn green only do so after reaching a length of 80cm+
- If you live along the Natal Coast - If a small green snake has BLACK spots on it - It is one of the harmless Green Snakes and NOT a Green Mamba. Unfortunately both the Green Water Snake and Eastern Natal Green Snake (Both Harmless) could be misidentified as a baby Green Mamba - experience will teach you the difference.
So PLEASE don't kill harmless Green Snakes - they really cannot hurt you.
Interesting that small boomslangs turn green after surpassing a certain length
Reading your posts, one gets a feeling there are venomous snakes all over the place in South Africa. 😮 How often would you say an average citizen of South Africa comes across a venomous 🐍? Would that be a couple of times a year or on a daily basis? It probably depends on whether they live in the urban or rural area...
Most people might only see a few snakes in the wild in a life time. The snakes are generally very shy and keep out of our way. Daily we have people calling us with snakes in their garden or house, for most of the calls that we get, it is the first time the person has seen a snake in a while
Interesting. That's even fewer than I see then. 😉 Especially in spring when they start appearing after winter hibernation, I'd see them quite regularly. But unlike South Africa, we only have 4 species of snakes living here only one of which is venomous (and I doubt its bite would be fatal for an average adult).
Right, we don’t have the right. We do not own this planet. We belong here just like animals, which means we should be more careful not to kill harmless ones. Thank you for sharing ^^