HERMANUS TIMES (S Africa) 03 April 08 Letters: More snake facts
Deon Tredoux, 48 Fourie St, Hermanus:
Regarding all the correspondence about snakes. A perspective is needed to remind people how rarely snakebite cases are actually seen in this area, given the popularity of the walking routes in the mountain and cliff paths.
I have practised medicine in this area for 20 years (ten years in Somerset West and ten years in Hermanus) and in this time I was involved in only five cases of serious snakebite. Two were puff-adder bites and three were berg adders.
One of the puff-adder victims died; primarily because he procrastinated for two days before seeking help. The other person rushed to the hospital within the hour and presented a swollen calf muscle. Very prompt infusion of adequate dosage of intravenous anti-venom led to complete recovery.
The three cases with berg adder bites all needed long hospitalisation and two needed ventilation support. The berg adder is aggressive but small. In one case a young girl sat on the snake when she did not inspect the rock before using it as a lunch chair on a hike. Another case occurred when a gentleman used a weed-eater on his long grass bordering fynbos.
Both these cases teach us lessons in the importance of simple precautions when interacting with nature. The berg adder specimen which bit the girl was less than 5 cm long and fitted in a small pill-bottle. Yet the bite was potent enough to paralyse her breathing muscles 12 hours after the incident. All the berg adder victims had taste sensation and visual (eye muscle and focus) problems for weeks to months after the incident. There is no anti-venom to berg adder poison.
The snake is aggressive and would bite readily. Simple precautions of looking where one puts your hand when rock-climbing, your foot (or bottom!) and wearing protective shoes should prevent serious bites from these small snakes. The other lethal snake in the area is the Cape cobra. Fortunately this snake is shy and would rather avoid confrontation; bites occur when people attempt to capture or handle the snake, or when it is attracted to the heat of a person sleeping on the ground.
The toxin causes paralysis. Effective anti-venom exists. The boomslang bite delivers a potent toxin which could cause death by bleeding about five days after the bite. There is an anti-venom available (which must be ordered from Johannesburg).
This snake has fangs set far back in the mouth and can only cause serious input of venom when it is able to chew on the limb for a few seconds. Serious bites are therefore rare; mostly in people attempting to capture the snake or children handling it out of ignorance.
The variation of colour within the species gives rise to the legend of various types of snakes living in trees in the Western Cape. In fact, colour can show variation according to geography, sex and age. Juvenile boomslang (male and female) is described as presenting “fine stippling of browns and greys on the body, often with small blue flecks on the fore-body. The skin between the scales in the neck area is orange/yellow. The belly is covered by black flecks. The head is chocolate-brown above; white below with a yellow to emerald eye”.
We had one curled up in a large leaf in our garden a few months back. It was spectacular. We did not kill it (but the birds in the garden wanted us to).
At about 1 m length females turn drab olive green or brown. Males could be brown to black (regional variation); even bright green to rust red. Rarely powder blue. All of them, though, are boomslang.
Fortunately the more aggressive African snakes such as the Egyptian cobra and especially the black mamba do not occur locally. Theoretically (according to distribution maps) the coral snake and the rinkhals can occur here.
I acknowledge using information from The dangerous snakes of Africa by Stephen Sprawls and Bill Branch.
Chris Barnes, Tangwyn Farm, Baardskeerdersbos:
With regard to the grape picker holding the unfortunate and beautiful boomslang (HT 29/2), and the responding letter by Dr C P Bezuidenhout, following Pierre Massyn's letter “Sies man” (HT 7/3).
As Bezuidenhout is a doctor, his letter surprises me. One would expect him to be better read on a subject he comments on - he has obviously never read a single book on snakes and should therefore keep his uninformed opinions to himself as misinformation only helps to spread fear and misunderstanding, which in turn leads to eradication of a very necessary species of wildlife.
Firstly, the grape picker is holding a boomslang, and although they possess a very toxic haemotoxic poison are very shy snakes.
To emphasise the inoffensiveness of this species, it should be noted that fewer than six deaths have been recorded from this reptile in the past 60-70 years. Secondly there are no mambas in the Western Cape. They occur only from KwaZulu-Natal, eastward and north to Limpopo province and the northern parts of Namibia. The mamba is neurotoxic and its bite can kill you within 2?4 hours, whereas the boomslang will take up to 26 hours to kill you if you are not treated.
There are no vine snakes in the Western Cape. They are common in Limpopo. They are not aggressive and there are no recorded bites. They are very inoffensive snakes, however no snake should be molested unnecessarily. Their poison is haemotoxic.
Often found in vines are olive house snakes, a constricting non-poisonous snake which is essential to the ecology in their control of rodent infestation on farmlands.
Thirdly, snakes do not chase people. I have worked with snakes all my life and stories of snakes chasing people is an absurd and disturbing myth. Another myth worth remembering is that the boomslang can only bite onto a finger as its mouth is so small and its fangs are set very far back. Because of the snake's non-aggressive nature it always takes flight rather than retaliate.
As with any creature snakes should be treated with the respect they deserve. They were not put on earth to hunt down mankind but to keep the ecology in balance by eating rats, mice, moles, birds, frogs etc. It?s mans ignorance of these creatures that makes a disturbed and imbalanced world.
More snake facts