First, let me say that not all posts in the “What’s Different?” series will be about animals hiding in things. But this one certainly is.

A few weeks ago we discovered a snake skin on our veranda. Our veranda is covered and screened in, so it felt more like finding a snakeskin inside our house than outside. Snakes periodically shed their skins, so this was just a little calling card saying, “Just so you know, I was in here.” Locals told us it was a green mamba. If you want to learn more about them, you can do so here. But let’s just say when I looked them up, it was words like “highly venomous” and “fatalities” that jumped off the page.

Fast forward to this afternoon. Our friend Japheth, who is doing some carpentry work for us at the house, came into my kitchen and asked if he could have a long stick. “There is a snake outside. I want to kill it.” It turns out our little green mamba friend had been living inside the fencepost in our backyard. Japheth had found him with his head poking out.

Japheth provided the bravery, and I provided the broom. He held the broom high above his head and swung it down as hard and fast as he could. Got him on the first try.

Editor’s Note:

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. “Joel, that does not look like a green mamba. It looks an awful lot like a philothamnus semivariegatus, otherwise known as the spotted bush snake.” Well, you would be right. After I posted this, a friend in Zimbabwe who knows his snakes quite well emailed to reassure us that we did not have a green mamba in our back yard for the past few weeks. Turns out this little fella is not even poisonous.