Snakes in Marloth Park
Snakes are valuable to our environment for the following reasons:
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Snakes keep the number of rodents and bats in the bush under control.
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Snakes also eat frogs, birds, lizards, geckos, chameleons, bird eggs, insects, and fish. They are part of the food chain. Furthermore, snakes are food for the Brown Snake Eagle, other snake-eating birds, reedhounds, hyenas, and other snakes.
We have a number of beautiful, harmless, and mildly venomous snakes (their venom is of no concern to humans) in the bush of Marloth Park. Unfortunately, the snakes sometimes come to our homes in search of food or shelter. Out of fear, many people will kill the snake if they see one because they do not know whether it is a dangerous snake or not.
This information is necessary to allow our harmless snakes to continue living in the wild, where they are part of the food chain as nature intended. It is also important to learn about venomous snakes and how to react when you see one. In Marloth Park, there is a contact person for all snakes whom you can call to have the snake removed. Naturally, this information is available at our holiday home, Mhofu .
The 18 most common snakes found in Marloth Park and Lionspruit are:
Harmless
- Spotted bush snake
- Green water snake
- Brown house snake
-Python. Not venomous but has bad bite.
Mildly toxic, the poison of no importance to humans
- Eastern Tiger Snake
Striped belly sand snake
- Olive grass snake
- Red-lipped herald
- Common egg eater
Marbled tree snake
- Black-headed centipede eater
- Snouted night adder
Toxic
Common night adder
- Boomslang
- Mozambique spitting cobra
- Black mamba
- Twig snake
- Puff adder
Identification of a number of snakes
The curious and harmless Spotted bush snake, often confused with the harmless green water snake or the venomous Boomslang.
The venom of the red-lipped herald is of no concern to humans.
The beautiful and mildly venomous tiger snake is often referred to as the eastern tiger snake and is sometimes confused with the venomous coral snake, which is not found here.
This is the small marbled tree snake. It is tawny in colour and has vertical pupils and large eyes, as they are nocturnal. They belong to the cat-eyed tree snake family and their mild venom is harmless to humans.
The common puff adder is Africa’s most dangerous venomous snake. It is stout, not very long and not particularly fast, but reacts aggressively when disturbed. As a defence mechanism, it puffs up its body (hence its name) and hisses. If that does not work, it launches a swift attack and bites, injecting a life-threatening dose of venom with its long fangs.
