BEELD (Johannesburg, S Africa) 08 February 06 Coenie plays mom to 36 pythons (Buks Viljoen)
Nelspruit: Having a passion for snakes is one thing, but being a surrogate mother to 36 pythons is something else entirely.
This is precisely what Lowveld snake expert and breeder Coenie Brown has been doing for the past two months, hatching out 36 python eggs.
The wriggling reptiles were released on Tuesday afternoon in the lush kloofs on a farm in the Crocodile Kloof nature reserve.
Brown's role as mother began late in November when he was summoned to a smallholding outside the town where a 3.8m python had nested close to the house.
Brown said: "The people were scared of the snake, especially as it regularly came close to the house.
"Only then was the reason for her interest discovered: a nest with 36 eggs in it."
The smallholding owner apparently threatened to set fire to the nest, eggs and all.
Brown released the mother snake in the mountains and took the eggs home where he has kept them in an incubator for the past two months.
On Saturday, the first little snake hatched out and, by Sunday, 36 wriggling little snakes were slithering around in the cage.
Brown said even though the little snakes were barely five days old, they would survive easily in the wild.
"They have an inborn hunting instinct and will immediately begin surviving on food such as mice and birds."
This is not the first time Brown has released pythons in the nature reserve.
About two years ago, he released a 4m python after it had swallowed a dog in Nelspruit.
Coenie plays mom to 36 pythons