Black mamba goes window shopping in Hoedspruit

A two metres long black mamba ruffled feathers after it was seen "window shopping" outside a Pep store at a shopping centre in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, this week.

The snake, which is suspected to have arrived at the centre by catching a ride underneath a car, attracted a crowd of dozens of wary afternoon shoppers on Monday.

Brass Brassett, a nature guide and programme manager at Campfire Academy, said she was doing her weekly grocery shopping when one of her students alerted her to a snake outside.

“There was a massive crowd of people and when I got there I saw that the snake was a black mamba of at least two metres in length, doing some window shopping. It’s not uncommon here for snakes to catch a ride underneath a car and end up in built-up areas,” said Brassett.

Brassett said that her first concern was to make sure the crowd was safe and that the snake wasn’t being harassed.

“The crowd was making a huge racket and most people were frightened, but the mamba was remarkably relaxed,” said Brassett, who, with the help of a brave citizen, managed to trap the snake in a cardboard box.

Employees from the nearby Kinyonga Reptile Centre arrived 10 minutes later to safely remove the mamba.

The centre’s owner Donald Strydom said that the snake is currently in good condition, but will remain in quarantine for a week.

“The snake looks very healthy and for the next week or so we will conduct tests to find out whether it has any diseases, as well as probing it to determine its gender,” said Strydom.

Strydom added that the centre was investigating where the snake had come from from in order to relocate it back to its territory.