a little while back in zambia we were hunting buff and leopard. our camp head was a tall thin fellow name of peter. anyway we were coming back to camp one afternoon when we saw a big puff adder crossing the road, just outside of camp. Having a 22 onboard we quickly dispatched the fearsome looking serpent, throwing the thing in the back of the truck. We more of less forgot about it being as it was quite hot and a cold beer had our total attention.
a bit latter sitting around the dining tent evil arrived. Terry, our ph, disappeared for a moment or two, returning with our long departed 22 victim. curling it up just in front of the refrigerator where the beer was held, he all for peter to bring another round of cold ones
coming for a ways away peter seemed a bit put out that we couldn't get our own beer,but dutifully went to the refer. He opened the door and had one can in hand when he saw the curled up adder. The scream that was issued scared a pride of lions out of the area,the beer can took flight landing somewhere in another dimension and the feet and legs took on a dance that a rock star would been envious of. fortunately all was forgiven in the aurora of humor, but the peter dance will live forever

Too bad the beer didn't hit one of you jokers
in the head!

George

Many years ago, I did something similar to Terry Palmer. I'd shot a cobra and put it in his tent, near the bed. He nearly tore the tent down, trying to get out, until he saw us all laughing uncontrollably outside. I can still remember him yelling, "You bloody bastards!"

I remember Peter!

Good man. Always had a beer ready for us on return. Now that I think of it though, he did always look before he went to the cold box...

The one I remember was one of the Duckworth boys (I think it was Neil) put a rubber black mamba that they used to play tricks with monkeys on the door of my PH, Hilton Nichols while he was taking a nap. They had someone yell and the next think you heard was a gun going off... about 5 minutes later... "You bastard! Payback is a bitch!!!!"

The whole camp staff at Chewore were in stitches for the rest of the day!

Hilton was muttering about coming up with something for the rest of the hunt. I never heard if payback was made. Maybe Neil or Gary can finish the tale.

As a zoologist, I just can't fathom the imbecilic need to arbitrarily shoot snakes, venomous or otherwise.

Just sayin'.

I totally agree whats the point of shooting snakes somewhere in the bush. I can understand if it is right at camp!!! And that too....

One of the funniest snake encounters I've ever seen caught on camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTZymwd1LSE


I can see the point of shooting a venomous snake when you take into account that the livelihood of a PH are the animals in the area. This includes cattle farmers as well. If one of those snakes bites an animal, that loss of that animal can be costly. I doubt it happens all that often but it would factor into any decision I would make on it.

I was hunting in the Kwa Zulu Natal in 2016 and the camp manager killed a Mozambique spitting cobra in the laundry room. The snakes we encountered in the field we just gave a wide berth to.

Buffalo hunt in Matetsi unit 3. At the end of a long day of hiking and not shooting, we were all back at the truck and getting ready to head back to camp. My good (and trusting) friend walked a few yards away to take a leak. I came up behind him with the shooting sticks (bamboo, 6' long). By now you can see what's coming, and so could the PH, tracker, and game scout. All watched as I bent down, pushed the end of the shooting sticks through the grass and dead leaves, right up next to him. A very unmanly scream followed, along with hopping about and urine sprinkling randomly.

We all had a good laugh, knowing that payback would (and did)follow a few days later. But it was worth it.

I suppose venomous snakes in camp may be a different matter, but if you had some type of magic glasses that let you see how many were actually around and about, there probably isn't much point.

Most snakes are not territorial in any case, so most will just be passing through wherever they are found anyway.

The problem is that most folks just don't know enough about snakes. A good resource for Africa is anything off of Johan Marais's African Snakebite Institute website. Lots of free downloads and the latest int on snakebite treatment.