CERCOPAN

Category: Cercopan, Nigeria, Rain Forests | Date: Oct 27 2009 | By: cercopan

by Amy Baxter

Having spent the last month and a half working on finances in Calabar I looked forward to returning for a week to the bush site at Rhoko, where I usually work, to help out in the absence of the Rhoko manager.  After a week there though I started to remember some of the more unnerving aspects of the rainforest, namely the gleam of beady eyes and the slinking movement of snakes …….

Although snakes are fairly rare at Rhoko, it always seems to be that all sightings come very close together, usually in the space of a week.  This was one of those weeks.  The first sighting was in our main camp shed when I and a short-term volunteer were chatting quite happily.  It was only when I caught the sight of movement out of the corner of my eye that I turned and came face to face with a 2m long spitting cobra hanging from the ceiling beams.  It was hanging right above the only exit and I was already blocked in by the dining table.  I did consider climbing over the table but this was likely to scare it into spitting at me.  Spitting cobras get their name due to the way they protect themselves from predators; aiming a toxic solution into the predator’s eyes that is very painful and can blind, certainly if left untreated.  Instead I ducked, looked to the floor and made a run past it.  It then decided to move along the central beam, heading fairly speedily towards Ray, our short-term volunteer.  After he did the same ‘duck and run’ tactic as I, we watched with interest from the slightly safer doorway.

It moved to different areas of the hut ceiling and we could keep up with it easily; this was until we looked away for too long.  When we glanced back it had disappeared and we tentatively searched around us in case it had slithered somewhere nearby.  It was when we heard the smash of bottles that we relocated it.  He was just entering one of our open cupboards and in the process had knocked over an empty wine bottle.  After spending a few minutes in this cupboard, he made his way in to the above food cupboard, through a hole rats had previously made.  This cupboard was notorious for vermin and we waited in anticipation to see if he caught anything.  Two minutes or so passed and there had been no sight or sound of the cobra, but then, as if strolling down a high street, a small rat appeared from the hole of the cupboard and made its way casually out of harm’s path.  We laughed at how calm he seemed, baring in mind he had just spent 2 minutes with a sworn enemy!  A few minutes later a snake head appeared at the hole and this is when he realised we were still watching him.  He appeared to be working out his escape route and when he eventually braved the outside of the cupboard, he disappeared into the kitchen roof and, despite now three staff watching the area closely, none of us saw the route he took back to the trees.

Two days later, again in broad daylight but this time with 5 members of staff noisily discussing CERCOPAN issues, there it was again!!  Up in the beams entirely undeterred by human presence!  All of us were watching out and following it carefully but this time it often moved much more quickly than before.  Our older guard dog Simon tried to go inside the main shed and seemed very perturbed with all the yelling we automatically did in fright of him getting so close to the cobra.  Disgruntled, he moved away and sulked under another hut.  It was just when we lost sight of the snake and thought it had headed under the hut that Simon made his second attempt to get near the main shed, running straight under the hut where we believed the cobra to be.  Yet again there was a lot of yelling, but thank-fully we relocated the snake and it was still inside the hut.  Simon however, remained adamant that he would worry us as much as possible and, darting through all the staff attempting to grab him, he headed in to the hut and right towards the cobra.  Again, automatically we had yelled but were quickly quiet in case this stressed the cobra further and put Simon in more risk.  We held our breath as Simon panted directing under the cobra, wandering what all the fuss was about.  The cobra still seemed confused and was getting more stressed, eager to find a way to leave.  He made his way out of the main shed and on to its roof.  We prayed it wouldn’t return inside as Simon had wedged himself in to an area he knew we couldn’t reach to try to pull him out.  After a while the cobra finally found a liana on which to return to the forest and we watched him as he fumbled over branches in a hurry.

Finally we felt as if we could relax.  We let out our smaller, fairly young dog Ticky from the office where she had been locked and joked about our two close encounters with snakes.  The peace was shattered within 10 minutes though, as Ray quickly said ‘Is that a snake in the grass?’  Obviously, we all assumed he was joking until we turned around and, right in the middle of the compound, coming from a completely different direction from where the other left, another spitting cobra of a similar size was racing across the lawn.  Ticky had run straight towards it, thinking it a game like the lizards she loves to chase.  Screaming, I ran toward her and in my panic she stopped with confusion.  I grabbed the bewildered Ticky and luckily the snake had thought it best to keep moving and just disappeared in to the longer grass at the edge of the compound.  All the staff sat down exhausted after the stress of what had turned in to 2 and a half hours of dealing with snakes that day.  The rest of the afternoon everyone was very careful around camp and the dogs were on leashes in case of cobra reappearances.  Thankfully the rest of the day was fairly uneventful, remaining snake free.

We had two other sightings of snakes during my week at Rhoko; one of a good size but not seen long enough to identify, and one green mamba; a dangerous but rarely seen snake.  As much as I love wildlife and enjoy seeing snakes in the wild, I have to say I would rather not have any more close encounters like this when I return next time to the forest!

Tags: African Wildlife, Cercopan, Naja nigricolis, Rhoko camp

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