Taylor's fascinating life with snakes

07 Jul 2024

The resentment between man and snake predates the biblical era.

There are stories about how a beautiful story of obedience, hope and inspiration was suddenly turned upside down, thanks to a snake.

We are told one day Satan came disguised as a snake and spoke to Eve, convincing her to eat the fruit from the tree of good and evil.

The snake tempted Eve to eat saying she would become like God if she did. Eve believed the lie and took a bite and gave some to Adam for him to eat the forbidden fruit.

The snake, craftier than any of the wild animals God created made man to commit the first sin since creation and triggered the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

Near home, the African culture associates snakes with witchcraft, a bad omen which is a generally believed fact that soils the already ragged relationship between the two sworn enemies, man and snake. In Mokolodi lives a man who regards himself as an exception to this cultural myth and distortions about these fascinating creatures.

His love for snakes has grown into a passion which he has now turned into a business joint, the Madison Snake Park. Mr Sean Taylor’s fondness for snakes goes beyond any given boundary.

Taylor is comfortable with these confirmed killers who get as meek as a lamb in his hands. One thing that makes his heart ‘white’ as they always say, is to watch the many snakes he catches in and around Gaborone slither away into the wild without any slight injury.

“I think people are missing a point, they think that snakes should be killed when sighted but you know they have a huge impact in the ecology.

Right now we encounter snakes because we are taking over their habitat,” said Mr Taylor, a man who once survived a ferocious attack by a fully grown snouted cobra. 

A snouted cobra is one of the highly venomous snakes whose potent neurotoxic bite if left untreated could cause respiratory failure and eventually death.

In many communities’ snakes are perceived as creatures that should not even come close to any human settlement. 

In Mokolodi a stone throw away from Mr Taylor’s bedroom lives about 80 snakes, caged and fed.

Mr Taylor’s fascinatiAll of the snakes have permits and a record on their capture and release. 

Mr Taylor said people were not interested in setting up snake parks because they were afraid of snakes due to several beliefs.  He however conceded that snake parks were an expensive undertaking that required someone to be drive by passion and ambition.

“Setting up an anti-venom production facility would require something like P21 million and would take up to three to five years to get all the things in place,” he said. For Mr Taylor it is more of a love for snakes than making money.

He said Botswana harboured many dangerous snakes and they were more fatalities than usually reported. Mr Taylor appealed to government to assist entities such as SRG with subsidies so that they could engage in more public campaigns around the country.

Renowned professional snake handler, Mr Aaron Tsatsi said snake management could be a money spinning business in Botswana.

Mr Tsatsi whose enthusiasm and passion for snakes has touched many lives has always provided inspiration and enlightening presentation in his line of duty. He said he was worried by the small number of snake handlers locally.

“We have a small number of snake handlers because many are not complying to set regulations to be certified as snake handlers with a capture and release permit,” added Mr Tsatsi.

He said Botswana had great potential to produce its own polyvalent snake anti-venom. 

Mr Tsatsi said there were reputable institution such as BIUST and Botswana Vaccine Institute that had proven their mettle in research in the past and should be in a position to conduct research on anti-venom production.

There are currently 69 species and sub species of snakes in Botswana nine of which are highly venomous and could cause fatalities such as Black Mamba (Mokwepa), snouted cobra (Kake), Mozambique spitting cobra (Kake e foufatsang), puff adder (lebolobolo), boomslang (Legwere) among others.

Worldwide there are 3 700 specieng encounter with snakes has made many curious to know more about his strange hobby and career of catching snakes. Taylor spent his early childhood in Zimbabwe where his love for snakes grew.

As many of his childhood friends trembled at the sight of a snake Mr Taylor did not keep away from the slithering reptiles.

It is now something that puts food on his table, rescuing and removing snakes from people’s homes and releasing them back into the wild.

His company Snake Relocation Gaborone (SRG) offers educational content on catching and releasing life threatening serpents which include among others cobras, black mambas and puff adders.  Mr Taylor has been living in Botswana for the past 23 years and only started catching snakes here 12 years ago.

“Four years ago I decided to set up a snake park which included a rehabilitation and training centre for snakes.

If we get a call we go catch the snake, bring it back here and because we catch 15 to 20 snakes a month we can’t keep them all here we have to relocate them. We have a couple of farms where we relocate them,” said Mr Taylor.

Worldwide there are 3700 species of snakes 600 of which are known to be in Africa. An estimated 5.1 million people worldwide are bitten each year with around 80 000 to over 130 000 people dying each year due to snake bites.  Ends

Source : BOPA

Author : Baleseng Batlotleng

Location : Mokolodi

Event : Interview

Date : 07 Jul 2024