Ssspitting into the New Year

Writer & Photographer: Taylum Meyer.

A black spitting cobra (Naja nigricincta woodi) was the last thing a family in Sandbaai expected to find in their home last week in the early hours of the morning.

The snake, which is approximately 1.6 metres in length, was first thought to be a ring-necked spitting cobra (commonly known as a rinkhals) by Corné and Hugo Uys from Corné Uys Outdoors, who received the one-in-a-million callout at 00:30 on Tuesday 7 January.

Corné and the black spitting cobra.

“We thought it was a rinkhals when we got the call because you do not get black spitting cobras in the Overberg,” said Corné who just finished writing his matric last year.

Black spitting cobras occur east of Cape Town and northwards into much of Namaqualand, extending east to Tswalo and Witsand, and north into Southern Namibia. So how did this snake end up in the Overstrand?

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