The Great Snake Hunt of 2007

Today I witnessed a snake hunt.

I was down with the construction team when word came that a snake had been seen in the pasture behind the compound walls. Four workers and seven volunteers headed down to hunt the snake. Or rather, the workers went to hunt; the volunteers went to watch. It did not take long before the snake was found hiding in a clump of bushes and dispatched with a sharp hoe.

The workers brought the trisected snake out for us to check out. To be honest, I was torn between fascination and revulsion. The part of me that loves reptiles was appalled by the fact that the snake was killed. However, the workers described the poison as being so nasty that a person would die within minutes of being bitten. On the other hand, it was interesting to look at the internal organs and to recognize the eggs that the snake was carrying.

As for species, I am still trying to work that out. I took a picture of the head, but it was in the shadows and is too indistinct to really see. I was originally leaning towards a puff adder, given the description of the deadly effect of the poison, but it doesn't really match the picture in Wildlife of Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda. I will continue to investigate and will update this post as soon as I have nailed the species down.