Family finds ‘king of all poisonous snakes’ in their Christmas tree Snakes alive! A South African family found an unexpected guest wrapped around their Christmas tree: a boomslang snake, one of the most venomous serpents in Africa.
“I didn’t know what it was at the time, but then I Googled what snakes are in our area, and it came up immediately as a boomslang,” rattled dad Rob Wild told CNN. “I thought, ‘Holy Moses, this is the king of all poisonous snakes.’ ”
Wild, 55, a British stock trader, said that he and his wife, Marcela, had noticed their cats staring into the tree. The couple assumed there was a mouse hiding in the branches somewhere.
It wasn’t a mouse they found peering out from the boughs, however, but a boomslang.
Boomslangs are known to conceal themselves in bushes or trees, where they hunt chameleons and birds, according to Encyclopædia Britannica. They’re native to sub-Saharan Africa. And while the snakes are often described as fairly shy and nonaggressive — and bites are not common, since they are “rear-fanged,” meaning they have to open their mouths extremely wide to inject venom into prey — their bites are still extremely dangerous to humans. That’s because their potent venom is a hemotoxin that destroys red blood cells and disrupts blood clotting, which can lead to internal bleeding. So boomslang venom can be fatal to humans, even in small amounts.
The parents kept their two children away from the tree and called in a professional snake catcher, who was able to safely whisk away the holiday party crasher. The snake was female, and between 4.3 and 4.9 feet long. The snake whisperer, Gerrie Heyns, theorized to CNN that the boomslang probably slithered into the house in search of food, water or shelter, and then was scared into the Christmas tree when it heard or saw one of the pets or family members. ...............
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/family-finds-king-of-all-poisonous-snakes-in-their-christmas-tree-11639504942?cx_testId=22&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0&mod=home-page-cx#cxrecs_s
