SNAKES OF UGANDA – UGANDA SAFARIS

A wide range of snakes are found in Uganda, though fortunately, most would agree – they are typically shy and unlikely to be seen unless heavily looked for. The common sight of all the snakes on Uganda safari is Africa’s largest, the rock python, which has gold –on-black mottled skin and regularly grows to lengths exceeding 5m. Non – venomous, pythons kill their prey by strangulation, wrapping their muscular bodies around it until it cannot breathe, then swallowing it whole and dozing off for a couple of months while it is digested. These snakes consume big rodents, minor antelopes among others. Pythons are not too harmful to adult humans, but conceivably kill a small child. A slumbering python might be encountered almost elsewhere in east Africa, and one reasonably relaxed individual is often present at the bat cave near the visitor’s center in maragambo forest, Queen Elizabeth national park a clear spot on Uganda safari visit.
Of the venomous snakes, puff adder is the most commonly encountered while on a safari in Uganda. It is thick and large preferring rocky and savannah dwellings. Although it feeds mainly on rodents, the puff adder will strike when threatened and it is rightly considered the most dangerous of all African snakes not because it is especially venomous or aggressive, but because of its notoriously sluggish disposition means it is more often disturbed than other snakes. The related Gabon viper is possibly the largest African viper, growing up to 2 m long, very heavily built, and with a beautiful cryptic geometric gold, black and drown skin pattern that blends perfectly into the rain forest into the rain forest litter it inhabits. Although highly venomous, it is more placid and less likely to be encountered than the puff adder.
Several cobra species, including the spitting cobra are present in Uganda most with characteristic hoods that they rise when about to strike, though they are all very seldom seen. Another widespread the family is the Mambas, of which the black mamba – which will only attack when confronted, regardless its calmness – is the largest venomous snake in Africa’s snakes is said to be the boomslang, a variably coloured and as its name – literally tree snake – suggests, largely arboreal snake that is reputed to have accounted for not a single known human fatality, as it is black – fanged and very non aggressive. These snake varieties are first of their kind and worth seeing on Uganda safari tour. The encounter can be arranged in a Uganda wildlife safari, or alongside Uganda gorilla tracking.
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by siima Simon peter