Neels Niesing: "We will be much obliged if you can identify this snake, as we are ignorant and therefor keep a safe distance if possible. It was spotted in the Groenkloof Nature Reserve in Pretoria, around 14:00 on Sunday 20/07/2008. My daughter and her friend were walking along a rocky outcrop, watching and taking picture of a whole colony of dassies when they were startled by the warning hiss of this snake. Luckily they could move away to a safe distance, and then took several pictures. Does a snake like this feed on baby dassies, and why are its eyes so dim? I also had a look after they told me about it, I guess it was about 1,5m in length."

Johan Marais: "The snake is a Mozambique Spitting Cobra (Naja mossambica), a common snake through most of its range. The size was probably closer to 1.2 m but it is always difficult to judge the size of a snake. These snakes are extremely dangerous and have a potent cytotoxic venom. They are active at night and account for a lot of serious snake bites in this country, especially in KwaZulu-Natal where they end up in huts and bite sleeping people when they accidentally roll onto these snakes. They also spit their venom and do so very effectively. If you get snake venom into your eyes it causes a lot of irritation and is a bit like mixing petrol and beach sand and rubbing that into your eyes. It very seldom causes major problems and blindness is extremely unlikely.

Fortunately for your daughter the snake was close to shedding and the skin over the eyes is also shed but goes bluish and impairs the snake’s vision. It is not that common for this snake to hiss but it obviously felt threatened and couldn’t see that well. I must add that irrespective of whether it was about to shed or not, snakes do not really attack or chase after people but will fend for themselves if cornered or hurt.

These snakes feed on rodents, toads, birds, eggs, snakes and lizards or virtually anything that they can get hold of but baby dassies are probably a little too big for them."