Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Black Mamba Question.

My friend an Ph John sharp lost half of his finger to a Puff Adder and what Steve says is prety much word for word what Sharp related to me. He did add that both he and his trackers of many years Isaac and Kevin have been through a lot; lion, leopard, buffalo & elephant charges but NOTHING scares them more than a Black Mamba. Glas I've never seen a SINGLE snake in Africa! jorge

yep their name comes from the color of their mouth, their body is usually slate gray or silverish in the right light, especially after a shed....

Excellent Plan! I have seen what I believe was an adult black mamba near Lake Manyara. I couldn't be sure because I was running in reverse as fast as I could. The Toyota caught up to me in less than a mile.

Terry

Jorge, now don't you bother to go get your eyes checked and get a pair of perscription glasses OK. I don't want you to start seeing all those snakes that are around in various places. Trust me Jorge, they are there and that is a fact. Not to mention those friggin Scorpians too.

the electric shock works, well at least on animals. i first heard of this a couple of years ago from our local veterinarian. he once gave me an extensive lecture on just how one does this. i was amazed but as time went by i sort of forgot about it. i recently asked him about it again and he said that he treated a terrier that was bitten by a puff adder on the tongue. he said the dog was eating again in less than 24 hours. he once told me that if he was bitten by a snake he will take to the cattle prod with out a doubt.

I've got a big problem with guys killing snakes in the bush out of hand..... there's no need for it, it's illegal in most countries and it's the hunter who is the invader into the snake's environment.

As I see it, people who behave in that manner are just bloody ignorant of the real facts of the African bush.

like i said i dont understand how it can work, from what i know it doesnt seem to be possible and i have yet to find anything that tells me why it works, just ppl stating that it does.....but out in the bush with no modern medicine or the like nearby, hell ill shock myself if yah give me the cattle prod beats doing nothing, thats for damn sure.....

As I understand it..shock works on hemotoxin...no idea on cyto or neurotoxin.....
And I agree with Shakari..I don't kill snakes,just catch & photo..
Ingwe

.....but out in the bush with no modern medicine or the like nearby, hell ill shock myself if yah give me the cattle prod beats doing nothing, thats for damn sure.....[/quote]


i hear ya. a friend of mine once got bitten(on the tip of his index finger) by a mamba while stalking kudu. he shot the snake and then took one look at his finger and simply put his finger in front of the barrel and shot the tip of his finger to hell.he then fainted. i know this story isn't suppose to be funny but you should hear the local trackers tell this story.

i got a bit of a giggle, mainly cause i can see myself doing similar knowing what i know bout snake venom....dont know that i woulda used a gun but i might sacrifice the finger with a quick chop with a heavy knife sure....but placing it over a rifle muzzle? ill pass

Studies have proven conclusively that an electrical shock does not break down the venom. Too bad, because it beats anaphalaxis if you are allergic to anti venom.

I've seen a puff adder, and several Black Forest Cobras, but no mambas. I'm glad about that. I should note that the staff sees the snakes long before I.

There is a great program about a game ranger in Kruger Park who was struck by a black mamba, and was able to flag down a car and get medivaced to a hospital. The MD's at the hospital didn't believe he was bitten by a mamba, because he wasn't dead after an hour, so they refused to give him mamba anti-venom and put him on a ventilator. After 36 hours or so, his body metabolized the venom, and he began to recover. Eventually he recovered his speech and gave them hell for not believing him.

Rattler, a quick question.

Which snake, either nuro or hemitoxin has the fastest acting venom?

By that I mean, considering you are injected with the same amount of venom and receive no medical treatment, which snake's venom is likely to kill the quickest?

The reason I ask is that I have heard of 'one step' snakes and 'two step' snakes, meaning that you will die after taking one step if bitten by one, or you won't take but two steps if bitten by the other.

I don't believe any snake's venom acts this fast, but it got me to wondering which was quickest.

I'm not Rattler and I'm not an expert on snakes, but my guess would be one of the Sea Snakes...

the "one step" and "two step" thing is BS......15 minutes is realistically in normal conditions how quick the fastest acting venom will likely kill a healthy adult male....

Pete is right, the sea snakes have the fastest acting venom and if you think about it that makes sense....they got to paralyze the fish NOW! in a 3D environment like the water...

on land its the fierce snake(inland taipan) of the Australian Outback but it rarely kills anyone in nature cause it lives in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.....the run of the mill Asian cobra and Russel's viper kill more ppl than any other...both have fairly toxic venom but nothing spectacular, we have a couple rattlesnakes that are worse....however they live in densely populated areas with poor medical care by western standards so by a quirk of geography and economics they whipe out more ppl each year just due to the fact they bite more ppl than any other species...

in Africa Egyptian cobras, saw-scaled vipers(lil bitty viper rarely more than 18 inches long) and the puff adder kill the most...

in the US the eastern and western diamondbacks kill the most....due to their large size and the fact they have large ranges....our lil prairie rattler has more toxic venom than the western diamond back but because its smaller and tends to inject less venom in a bite and the fact its range mainly includes pretty rural country with fewer ppl than the other two, it kills very few ppl...

I killed my share of cotton mouths near Pierre Part, Louisiana(Bayou Corne and Lake Verret) while in grad school at LSU. They would strike a hit from a .22 if it was too far back, swim toward a boat and look for a fight, and weren't afraid to drop down for a visit if you're alligator hunting in the dark. Snakes are great from a distance, but that's about it for me! These African snakes as y'all describe them, well, y'all are braver than me!

And here he is holding up the biggest one! But it was in 2005, when I hunted with you. Henk was hunting with Chris and Cyril.

oh yeah Cyril, how could I forget that guy. He was sooooo funny and made that trip such a joy!

Sorry we almost killed him with the pranks we pulled. Was that the same year we put the gemsbok horns in the bush near their water hole blind?

Any chance you could direct us to where we could find the studies and results?

There's been talk of such studies for many years but I've never even seen a single paper or scientific report stating any findings either way, and would be very interested to read any you could direct me to.

As I understand the theory, it should work and I remember reading claims from one or two PHs that it did work (seem to remember Wally Johnson of Mozambique fame claimed to have used the Landrover trick a time or two) but of course, those are just claims rather than scientific research with conclusive scientific results.

It'd be nice to see proper conclusions one way or the other for the obvious reason.

ADDED

Having just spent a bit of time researching this on Google, it seems there are no end of arguments and examples either way but very little if any proper scientific studies.

I did however notice that there seemed to be more claims of successful treatment with the HT lead of a truck than there with with using a stun gun...... might possibly be something to do with voltage/current in relation to effeciency of treatment...... but I'd still be very interested in the results of any proper studies that might have been conducted if anyone knows of any.

Here is one: pdf file

John

JPB,

An interesting read but really an example of my added comment. They used a stun gun and a simulation of a stun gun but didn't try it with a HT lead set up..... if you do a Google search, you'll find several examples where people claim to have used the HT lead set up successfully.

I've heard no end of stories over the years for both arguments and I don't know which is right or even if there's an inbetween where it might sometimes work, but not always..... and I've certainly never had to give it a try on anyone and hope I never will.

I would however, like to see a report of a long term study with really conclusive results either way.

Having said that, I guess it'd be a very difficult subject to research thoroughly!