NewsflareWhen you sign up to be a snake catcher, you probably understand the job comes with a few risks which can’t be covered by most health insurance policies.
It’s not your average 9-to-5 so eye strain and back problems take second string to poisonous venom and spine-crushing snake strength, as Cor Viljoen knows only too well after a run-in with a python, he tells UNILAD.
Still, Cor didn’t expect this python’s 3 metre death grip to constrict him – check out the horrifying footage below:
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The Pretorian animal conservationist was working in the field (read: the wilds of Limpopo Province in South Africa rather than a conference centre in Slough), when he encountered a particularly tricky customer.
As the snake catcher tried to make contact with the 9-foot python, in an attempt to move the potentially lethal animal from a local property, the snake sneakily began the long and arduous process of crushing Cor.
NewsflareBeginning by coiling the animal catcher by his legs – a very human flaw in the face of a slippery serpent, if there ever was one – Cor, a Field Guide at ATKV-Klein-Kariba, went weak at the knees as he realised this was one vice grip it might be hard to escape from.
Laughing, Cor grappled with the snake’s head as he supported his body weight on a nearby tree.
It was only when another man came to the Cor’s rescue he was able to break free of the python’s grip.
NewsflareCor told UNILAD:
I was called [to relocate] a python who was just basking in the sun at one of our mountain cabins. A guest saw her and freaked out. I went down to catch her and, as I was making my way back to the guests over the rocks, she slyly wrapped around my legs.
As you can see, while I was showing the snake to them she started coiling around my legs, but that was just her way to try and get out of my grip. She wasn’t trying to kill me at all, she was just scared.
I could’ve taken her off myself by sitting down but I like the workers to interact with the snakes I catch to educate them a bit. So I wasn’t in any danger at all. She was safely released quite a way away.
Facebook/Cor ViljoenCor also told UNILAD the Southern African Python is the only python found in South Africa and explained how it’s a protected species.
Moral of the story? Don’t mess with the snake. The snake is always right.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.