A Durban man is recovering after a snake bite in the Bluff, after several social media users identified the snake as harmless, but snake expert Jason Arnold later recognized it as a highly venomous Green Mamba.
Here’s what to know
The incident unfolded at the front door of John Henry Swanepoel’s property in Durban’s Bluff area, after the snake had already been killed.
IOL reported that people in a WhatsApp group and a community Facebook group described the snake as a harmless green-spotted bush snake, until Arnold identified it as a Green Mamba.
He said he acted immediately after seeing the post.
“I immediately commented and informed the man that I am a snake expert and that the snake posted by him is actually a highly venomous Green Mamba and the bitten person has to get to the hospital immediately,” Arnold said.
Arnold later said the man appears to have escaped a far more serious outcome.
“He is fine, miraculously. Obviously received a very mild envenomation,” Arnold said.
Swanepoel said he is 71 and has limited knowledge of snakes. He said he saw two puncture marks on the man’s arm, passed along the online claims that the snake was harmless, and was told the man felt warm after the encounter.
More background
Swanepoel told IOL that the property houses a family with two home-schooled children and a newborn. He said a doctor in the “main upstairs house” first told him that a snake had been killed at the front door.
Swanepoel said Arnold’s warning alarmed him, and he drove around looking for the bitten man without finding him. He later said he was told local private security companies found the man and that he had vomited.
Swanepoel also said he was told the man stayed in an emergency room overnight because the snake was young and the bite marks were shallow.
What can be done?
Arnold said people should not turn to neighborhood chats or social media posts for emergency snake identification.
“You cannot ask for the identification of snakes on general neighbourhood watch groups, security groups or on Facebook, as the answers you get will almost always be from people who think they know, but they’re actually just guessing,” he said, according to IOL.
Here, those guesses risked slowing treatment for a venomous bite. Arnold corrected the identification only after Swanepoel had already passed the reassuring comments on to the victim.
Arnold also warned against giving casual snake advice online.
“This can have dire consequences. Do not offer advice or identify snakes unless you are vastly knowledgeable and are 100% certain,” he said.
Swanepoel said he noticed the puncture marks before learning the snake was a Green Mamba, and then kept searching the area until private security companies found the man.
“I don’t know why people give info that is suspect when I specifically mentioned he had been bitten. Life and death. If you don’t know, don’t comment,” he said.
Where can I learn more?
These articles cover similar snake encounters and the risks of misidentification.
• A handler survived repeated black mamba bites after building a risky tolerance to venom.
• In Vietnam, Reddit users ID’d a harmless Lacroix’s kukri after a hiker shared photos.
• In Dhaka, experts warned snakes frequently sneak into human settlements as urbanization spreads.
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Source: www.yahoo.com
