DURBAN - One of the many pregnant green mambas rescued by Nick Evans in December last year, had 11 of their eggs hatch on Valentine’s Day.
Evans said he had not shared information about that particular green mamba.
On Tuesday, Ann Kunz of uShaka Sea World said the ball started rolling in December last year when Evans brought the green mamba to them after he removed it from a home on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast.
Kunz said it was obvious to the staff at Dangerous Creature that the snake was heavily gravid (pregnant) when it arrived. The team was therefore not surprised when they discovered 11 healthy eggs the following morning.
She said it appeared that the snake had slithered into the North Coast home looking for a place to lay her eggs. Understandably, the residents were not very comfortable sharing their home with this unauthorised summer visitor and contacted a local snake expert to remove the beautiful bright green mom to be.
“The unauthorised visitor was released the following day leaving behind her eggs which were placed in a specialised substrate and monitored for the next 68 days,” Kunz said.
“Some of the young green mambas had already started the slow and cautious emergence from their eggs by the time the staff arrived at work. The process of fully emerging from the safety of their eggs takes green mambas roughly 18 hours. They seem to take an awful lot of “peeps” into their new environment before they muster enough courage to emerge fully from their eggs,” Kunz said.
She said the juveniles, which are independent from the time they hatch, will all be released in a few days at a suitable site.
Evans added that on Wednesday morning he collected the juveniles from uShaka for release.
He said they will be released soon but he will check the weather first.
Daily News