Hehe. I hunted Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Namibia for 24 days. When I went I was worried about snakes, cobras, but especially black mombas. The whole time I was over there I saw one measly little 12 inch snake that resembles our garden snake. In south Texas, where I hunt, I haven't made records, but if I had to guess I would have seen at least a couple of rattlesnakes and several indigos. What is your experience with snakes? Captdavid

While on three trips to South Africa I saw two puff adders and one boomslang. It just isn't something I worry much about. I worry more about taking my dog grouse hunting in PA during a warm fall day.

FWI, indigos are non poisonous. Their main food is other snakes. It's against the law to kill them. Because of their blue-black color they are easy to see, and we kill rattlesnakes on sight we see them more often.Captdavid

Puff Adders and Boomslangs are typically docile and will leave you alone if you do not step on them. While highly toxic, Mambas are fairly shy and will choose to exit unless cornered, then all bets are off.

The only snake that keeps me up at night is Namibia's Zebra Cobra. They are very aggressive, love to enter homes and tents, and spit as well as bite. No Bueno, they die on sight.

I've been over there 14 times, and like you, I've seen one snake and that was what they called a sand snake, at Chete in Zim. I've killed at least 4 copperheads within 20 feet of my cabin in the last year and a half. I'm not afraid of them but I don't want my dogs to get bitten.

Four trips to Africa and I saw poisonous snakes on two of those trips.

Namibia - Cape Cobra and a black Mamba.

South Africa KZN - My PH warned me of a snake on the path by saying "Adder!" After I hit the ground 10 yards away he said it was a different poisonous snake (I don't remember the name) that wasn't very dangerous. Our camp manager also killed a Mozambique spitting cobra in the laundry room in camp.

Closer than I'll ever intentionally get....

Saw a cobra in Chirisa crossing a dirt track. The road was about 7 feet wide and the snake hung over each side at least a foot.

Not all Cobras spit, but the one's that do are amazingly accurate within a 6 foot radius. Not fun for the eyes...

Adders on the other hand are a little easier on the eyes.

Great photos MJines and Opus1!

Saw lots of grey snakes when doing some exploration in long grass (7-9' high) in Tanzania. Even running between us. Don't know what they were. Our guide whilst mapping in the Livingstone Mtns by Lake Nyasa would not let us go to one area in the long grass due to large fierce snakes, literally a week after the wet season had finished. We went there after the grass had hayed off.

Saw a Puff Adder. Can't remember too many other snakes. Used to worry a little when walking tracks in the moonlight but didn't have any issues.

Are the snakes out in Namibia? I leave in two weeks. I hate snakes!!!

I have seen( and seen killed) 2 mambas in camp in the Caprivi. Just keep your eyes open.

David,

I don't know where you are in South Texas, but to see several indigos in the space of a few weeks would be fantastic. I was born and raised in South Texas, hunted extensively there in years past, and continue to annually and I've only seen a handful in 50 years. Mind if I ask where you are?

Mike,

Great pic.

Only 6 trips so far. I've seen mambas, pythons, a cobra, a boomslang, a horned viper, and a few that went unidentified. I don't have a real problem with snakes unless they are in camp, but mambas can be aggressive. A lot depends on where you are and time of year.

quote:

Originally posted by Slider:

Are the snakes out in Namibia? I leave in two weeks. I hate snakes!!!

The number of snakes generally coincides with the amount of food. The drought has done a pretty good job of killing off their food supply so most are hibernating in the bush. However I did see a Boomslang at Oppi-Koppi (Kamanjab) last month - the first snake I have seen this year.

In Namibia 2 cobras, and 2 puff adders.

In Djibouti 8 or 9 cobras, and about the same of mambas, and I saw a couple of sea snakes when we swam in the Red Sea.

In the Mojave desert I generally see 8 - 10 rattlesnakes a year. Same growing up in Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona and Montana.

No problem, I live in Port Isabel, but hunted mostly around Zapata.
We had a small lease 700 acres. Four of us were on it. The landowner, while he didn't actually live on the ranch spent 2-4 days per week. We were on it for four years. It had a pond quite a few pigs concentrated and we only killed one rattlesnake. There was one, I believe, indigo, that lived around our camp. We saw him several times per year. We had another that we saw around another stand, at least once a year year. I assume these were the same two snakes.
We had another lease. It was on highway 83 west of Zapata. It was oddly shape, I assume, by a judge, because it was less than a mile wide and 12 miles long. It had two Caliche roads built by oil companies running ten miles along each fence line. Traveling these super highways, back and forth to our stands, probably led us to see more snakes. It's obviously easier to see an indigo, thirty feet from the road, than a camo colored rattlesnake. We had pigs, but they were only seen nearer water. There were twelve of us on the lease, broken in to three groups. The different were deer lease friends. I'm not sure what the other groups saw, but in the three years we were on the lease the others killed 2-3 rattlesnakes, during deer season. Indigos never came up. Again, I didn't keep written records, but my group killed two or more rattlesnakes every year. None of these were killed during deer season. Most, if not all were killed along the roads. As for indigos, I can rember seeing several while in my stand deer or pig hunting. It wouldn't be all that uncommon, enough for me to mention it at camp. While driving around, we wouldn't be really excited to see one. Remember, most of our 'sightings' were not during season, and colder weather. The 24 days I hunted in Africa, would equal ten weekend hunts. captdavid

Snakes are a negligible threat and you can count yourself lucky when you see them. The South African Johan Marais has written the best guide books on them in Africa.

Saw two puff adders on my first trip to SA. I had asked my outfitter if he could help me add a cobra to my "what I saw on safaris" trip. We looked but no luck.

The adders were beautiful, chunky, about 31/2 ft long. Pretty docile, too. Helped make the trip a bit more special.

Here's what's interesting: last year 240+ people in Florida were killed by distracted drivers using cellphones while driving. One person was killed by a venomous snake in the past FIVE years. That cellphone in your pocket will kill you before a snake will.

3 trips to Africa, and saw only 1 puff adder in Namibia.

While not in Africa, here's a pic of me and my east African gaboon viper named Ginger relaxing.

Hunting in Africa and not seeing snakes does not make the safari complete!

I love snakes

Alaska has no snakes. No fleas, ticks, scorpions, heart worm, etc. A few mosquitos, however.
I hate snakes.
Cal

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
Alaska has no snakes. No fleas, ticks, scorpions, heart worm, etc. A few mosquitos, however.
I hate snakes.
Cal

But Alaska has Cal!

That is bad enough

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:

Alaska has no snakes. No fleas, ticks, scorpions, heart worm, etc. A few mosquitos, however.
I hate snakes.
Cal

A few mosquitos????

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:

Alaska has no snakes. No fleas, ticks, scorpions, heart worm, etc. A few mosquitos, however.
I hate snakes.
Cal

A few mosquitos????

And big ones that compete with the bald eagles for prey.

I believe the mosquito is Alaska's state bird. If not, it should be.

I'll take a cobra or two over an Alaskan mosquito swarm anyday. At least you die quickly from a snake bite. Hell, even the beloved mopani bee is a dream in comparison...

I have been either 24 or 25 times, I need to count again.

I have seen a single black mamba. Less than 5 puff adders and a handful of other snakes.

I think going when it is really hot means the snakes are not out during the day.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I have been either 24 or 25 times, I need to count again.

I have seen a single black mamba. Less than 5 puff adders and a handful of other snakes.

I think going when it is really hot means the snakes are not out during the day.

Wrong Larry.

In Chete in October November we see at several during our hunt.

Sometimes more than on in one day!

About 20 years ago I was hunting (as a resident) down near the Rufiji river in Tanzania. It was just a weekend jolly but conditions were not good and we had nothing.

On the way back out to Kisarawe I spotted a warthog from the car a few hundred meters off. I stopped the car and went wide to put a small overgrown anthill with trees on it between me and the hog. I stalked in carefully and stood slowly up to rest the rifle on a small low hanging branch. I was concentrating on the pig and as I was just about to put the rifle on the branch it moved up in the tree!! A vine snake!

Got the pig though.

Seen a lot of snakes......

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
Alaska has no snakes. No fleas, ticks, scorpions, heart worm, etc. A few mosquitos, however.
I hate snakes.
Cal

But Alaska has Cal!

That is bad enough

How about if I move to your 'hood?
We can be mates.
Cal

At the risk of stating the obvious, hunting season is winter when snakes are generally not active.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:

Two nice snakes in that pic!!

quote:

Originally posted by Barry Foster:
While not in Africa, here's a pic of me and my east African gaboon viper named Ginger relaxing.

Nice gabby. She must be pretty calm.....

Not sure why but I seem to be a snake magnet on every trip, they must smell fear. On a family trip to Namibia 2 years ago we averaged about five snakes a day. Boomslangs, Puff Adders, and at least six black Mambas over the course of 14 days, it was crazy. We had a couple different PH's on the trip and they killed every Puff Adder and Boomslang we ran into. We were on a long walk one day and if not for a quick thinking tracker grabbing my then 12 year son by the arm he would've stepped on a giant of a Black Mamba. That tracker got an extra good tip!

quote:

Originally posted by INTJ:

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:

Two nice snakes in that pic!!

OK Mike, tell us the story of the photo.
Cal

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:

Alaska has no snakes. No fleas, ticks, scorpions, heart worm, etc. A few mosquitos, however.
I hate snakes.
Cal

A few mosquitos????

Mostly mosquitos mistaken for pelicans.......

Barry,

Do you know Trooper Walsh?

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
Alaska has no snakes. No fleas, ticks, scorpions, heart worm, etc. A few mosquitos, however.
I hate snakes.
Cal

When I was stationed in Alaska the standing joke was that the mosquito was the state bird!

Those guys are huge! And they hunt in packs.

Almost as bad as the no-see-ums.

Cal, do the tourist shops still sell "Moose-quitoes" made out of moose nuggets?

Nitro Express:
The tourist shops of mosquito stuff and stuff made from moose nuggets. Also 12-gauge shot shell hulls with a moose nugget placed in them for a bullet.
Tourists love that stuff.
Cal