The Industry - Its nothing without the good guys

When i started keeping reptiles, I had no idea that I was stepping into an industry with such a massive following world wide. I had a Brown House Snake and a book by Johan Marais - Snake versus Man. That book gave me my basic understanding of Southern African snakes, there habitats, there basic feeding and husbandry requirements and there localities. My interest kept growing into my high school years and from there I met other guys with the same interests in reptiles as I did and that opened up a new world to both indigenous and exotic, venomous and non-venomous and big and small reptiles.

Durban  beach front was home to the world famous Fitzsimons Snake Park and I started working there at the age of 16 at weekends for a nifty 50 bucks a day. My life was complete...... or so i thought! I would catch the train from Pinetown every Saturday and Sunday to go make my 50 bucks cleaning snake shit, being crapped on by African Rock Pythons, bitten by Burmese Pythons, preparing snake food for feeding off and showing some seriously faulty tourists the world of reptiles at the park. This is where I had the fortune of meeting John Chinn. This man turns everything he touches into gold and I learned quickly not to touch his prized breeding stock of rats (I fed them ALL off to the Burmese Pythons by mistake). I made an impression to say the least and he certainly knew my name after that!!!!!!

Being exposed to exotic snakes opened up a new door for me. Two years after my brief working period at Fitzsimons, I came across a gentleman by the name of Byron Zimmerman. This guy looked cooler than John plus he bred rats and mice and built cages. He did snake call outs and was often popping up in the papers for removing snakes from various homes. This guy was THE MAN! I would place orders for rats and mice each week and pop in to collect them. I didn't really need all the rodents, I just was in awe of his amazing collection of snakes I only ever saw in books. Byron was the only one who built cages full time and my first order was placed when I purchased a Boa Constrictor and a pair of yellow rat snakes. 14yrs later, those snakes are dead or sold but the cage stills stand strong along with all my new cages and racking systems.

Over the years, Byron and myself have attended various snake removals and the one that sticks out the most is my first mamba call in Marianridge..... It was a warm summers evening and Mr Zimmerman phones me to inform me its time for me to learn how to catch a mamba. "Ya sure!!! Im keen!" "Great, ill pick you up in 15min". Time has never stood so still as I waited for Byron. 15minutes seemed to feel like 7days! Eventually i was in his Ford Bantam and heading into the darkness of township life. Now being 9pm, its obviously dark and finding obscure street names in the dark was not easy. Two hours later we finally find this little RDP house with some rather excited and drunk locals sitting around a fire. We proceed inside the premises to be greeted by a thick wall of smoke from a burning tyre......EISH!!!! This was going to be fun!!! We allowed the smoke to escape and then began the search for this mamba amongst a pile of beds, clothes and any other crap that was stored in there. "I reckon I should look behind the fridge" (my gut said this was a bad idea). As I peeked behind, all I saw was an open black mouth and heard a deep long hiss! "BYRON!!! ITS BIG! ITS F#@CKING BIG!!!". So along come mr cool, calm and collective and says, "Sheesh! That's a nice size mamba. Lets get it out." Now when Byron says its a nice size, it is a NICE SIZE!! Byron grabs the mamba with his tongs and brings it out onto the more spacious kitchen floor. I just stood with my jaw dropped!! This was my first experience working this close to a potentially deadly snake!!! Byron instructs me to use my tongs and grab it directly behind the head (ok, this isn't so bad)... "Ok Byron, I have it!" "Rob! Are you sure?" "Yes Byron I have it but I cant neck it because my hands are shaking like a leaf!".  Mr Z then releases the grip of the mamba as I have just assured him I have it secure. As he lets go, Mr pissed off mamba snaps back, pulling out of my, once thought secure, grip. I will never forget that moment!!!! Byron just yelled out loud "OH F@#K!!!" as this mamba shot off trying to escape. I froze!!!!!! This snake literally was between the two of us standing about 1.5m apart! It lunged of trying to get away and Byron, with all his confidence, grabbed the tail and pulled waiting for the snake to come back. My instinct kicked in automatically! The snake returned to see who was holding its tail and to deliver a bite!!! Next thing I knew I had the mamba secure in my tongs!! I dont think either of us knew exactly how that happened, but we walked away alive and in awesome spirits. I walked away that night knowing that I had a friend who wont let me die (just yet anyway), and to this day when ever my confidence levels need boosting, I know Byron will just tell me "JUST DO IT AND DON'T DIE!". Words of wisdom from a great man to whom I owe alot!

Next on my list of good guys is Mr Jp Wittstock. When I return in my next life, I want to be as mentally and physically strong as this guy!!! Jp is the owner of Reptiles Unlimited and just a ball of information with an endless supply of patience. I would spend hours in his shop at the Durban train station back in 1998 just gawking at corn and rat snakes then repeating the same questions about genetics and how they work. He didn't shoot me and for that I am grateful.

Jp and myself took leave of absence to focus on our respective career paths. I ran into him a few years back at a petshop in Hillcrest when we (ironically) where both getting back into the reptile trade. We swopped stories and checked a few photos of what we had then parted ways. His one photo of a lavender albino reticulated python grabbed my attention and it was back to the "good ol days" of me phoning and asking dumb questions (i'm still alive so I didn't piss him off to much, again). Its only within the past year and a half that we spent some time driving around doing road cruises at night did I actually get to really know this man. What a champ!!! He is another reason why I haven't ended up in hospital or dead from a snake bite.

Jp, like Byron, is well known in communities for removing unwanted snakes. He also did a four month snake sit in at Fitzsimons to raise funds for various projects. Jp isn't short on info when it comes to working with venomous snakes and has assisted Donald Schultz and Anton Roberts (two more top class guys) with a mamba and forest cobra telemetry project at Umkhumbi Lodge, Hluhluwe. When I asked Jp to possibly assist me with understanding Black Mamba behavior when capturing, he gladly came to the party to assist. He caught a 2.5m mamba in Tongaat and called me to come assist with the release. That day was amazing and not only did I spend almost two hours assisting with a bad shed and sexing the snake, but i managed to get some really good photographs as did my girlfriend Antionette. Working with mambas is all about understanding them and being confident. Jp managed to bring that out in me with his calm manner, but always reminds me..... "Boet, if it bites you, do not expect me to give you CPR. You are way to ugly for my liking". What a champ!!! When i got back into breeding reptiles, Jp noticed how hungry i was to get going. Within a short space of time, I have managed to go from one snake up to 30+. I can now boast an awesome collection of snakes not normally seen on the market because of Jp and he is one of few that i will only purchase from because of his high standards of reptile keeping and breeding.

So there you have it...... Those are just a few guys that inspire me to go out and explore the world of reptiles.
I've learned a lot and will continue to do so no matter where we all may end up in the future. Future blogs will have these names mentioned a lot, and there are many others still to be mentioned.

Catch ya later ;)