Footage of a black mamba on a Durban beach is circulating on local timelines – again.
SAAMBR/Facebook
- Footage of a black mamba on a Durban beach is circulating on local timelines.
- But the clip dates back to August 2020.
- The same rescue was reported by SABC, the SA Association for Marine Biological Research, and local media at the time, and herpetologists confirmed the video was not recent.
“Black Mamba reportedly went for a swim at Durban Beach,” reads the caption of a Facebook and Instagram reel published on 24 November.
South African road safety awareness group Arrive Alive shared the reel with its more than 470 000 followers, accompanied by a link to an article on snake safety on its website.
The clip shows a snake being pushed ashore by the ocean waves, before it is captured and put into a clear, rectangular box as people look on.
Some social media users appeared to believe the footage was recent, with one writing: “Durban trip cancelled.”
Another wrote: “This is the second time a mamba is found at a beach.”
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Black mambas are common in Durban, although they are typically found inland.
The beach video in question, however, is more than five years old.
A keyword search for “black mamba swimming in Durban beach” led to local media reports on an incident in August 2020 featuring videos of the same incident shot from different angles.
Durban 2020
National broadcaster, the SABC, published a video of the scene on YouTube on 26 August 2020, with the title: “Black Mamba rescued on beach”.
The video is reposted by Arrive Alive to its social channels without reference to it being five years old.
The black mamba was reportedly rescued off the coast of Addington Beach in Durban.
It was the second dangerous snake to be rescued from a Durban beach. The first was a yellow-bellied sea snake found the previous month about 15 kilometres away.
The South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) shared an image from the rescue on Facebook at the time.
According to the post, the team rescued the 2.47-metre snake and noted that the species was “uncommonly found along the coastal belt, preferring deep valley areas with thick vegetation”.
The same individuals in the circulating clip can be seen in the photo the SAAMBR published.
Screenshots comparing footage shared in recent posts (left) to the SA Association for Marine Biological Research’s 2020 post.
Carl Schloms, the lead herpetologist at uShaka Marine World, confirmed to AFP Fact Check that the video was old.
“I was actually off that day and one of our herpetologists, Craig, who was working in the aquarium, went and caught it,” Schloms said on 24 November, adding that it was “very rare” to see a black mamba on the beach.
Craig Smith can be seen being interviewed 35 seconds into the 2020 SABC news report.
Schloms said that in the 2020 incident, the snake had been spotted by fishermen on a nearby pier about a week prior, likely feeding on the rats, and when it later washed up on the beach, the team “knew straight away it was the same snake”.
He added that while black mambas are good swimmers, saltwater is not their preferred environment.
The snake “was exhausted”, making it easier to capture.
Black mambas prefer dry habitats, such as arid woodland, valleys, rocky hills, and savannah, making sightings on the coast rare.
Schloms added that they monitored the animal for about a week before releasing it.
Snake rescuer Nick Evans also told AFP Fact Check the incident was “very, very strange”, suggesting the snake “may have come off a ship at the harbour”.
