Footage showing a black mamba slithering across a bedroom floor before trying to hide beneath the bed has been captured at a home in South Africa.
Nick Evans, a snake rescuer who removes snakes from human-inhabited areas around Greater Durban, filmed the encounter when he arrived to remove the black mamba in the Inanda township.
Evans can be seen opening the door of the house where the highly venomous black mamba can be seen lurking quietly in the darkness. In a Facebook post describing the rescue, Evans said he had been armed with a torch in case he had to search for the snake.
"To my pleasant surprise, I certainly didn't need to search. As I opened the door, the mamba was lying across the floor, right in front of me!" he said in the Facebook post.
In the video, as soon as the snake catcher begins to approach the snake, it begins frantically slithering away. He attempts to secure it with tongs however the black mamba appears keen to hide.
"Perhaps I was rusty after the mamba drought," Evans said. In previous Facebook posts Evans has said this snake season has been particularly quiet for black mambas.
In the footage, the snake darts towards the bed and nearly makes it underneath for cover, before Evans finally manages to grip its body with the tongs.
As the black mamba wriggles in its grip, it moves backward, and Evans seizes his opportunity to secure its head. The snake catcher then reaches forward and holds its head in his hands.
"That was quick and easy," Evans can be heard saying.
Black mambas are highly venomous snakes native to Africa. They are among the deadliest snakes in the world, with a fatality rate of 100 percent if a bite is left untreated. However, their first instinct when faced with a human is usually to slither away and hide. They only tend to bite if they feel threatened or vulnerable.
In a Facebook post, Evans said the day had been "chaotic but fantastic" with three black mamba calls.
Black mambas are the longest snake in Africa and can measure as long as 14 feet. This mamba, however, was about 7.2 feet, which is not very large for the species.
It was "slightly underweight, with plenty of ticks," Evans said. He said most mambas found in the Inanda area are not usually very big.
"Most of the Inanda mambas are about this size. I've never seen a big, well-fed, chunky mamba there. Such a wild place, but maybe it shows there's not as many rats in the bush as there are around suburbia," he said.
Larger black mambas are often found in and around homes in suburban areas of Greater Durban. They get enticed into the areas by prey such as rats and feral kittens.
At the end of the video, Evans carefully lifts the rescued black mamba out of a box with tongs. He places to snake on the ground, and it quickly slithers away to freedom, into the bush.
