Be afraid. Be ssssssscared.
That's our message to the snakes on the new season of Snakes in the City who'll be hissing their way through KwaZulu-Natal in the new Season 8.
It premieres on Nat Geo Wild this Wednesday 6 July at 18h00 and there's a new snake wrangler joining the team who's so built she could suffocate a python.
Introducing Mbali Mtshali...
Reptile lover.
Animal lover.
Durbanite.
Body builder.
Piercing fanatic.
Vegetarian.
Mbali's joining series stalwarts Simon Keys and Siouxsie Gillett in their continued quest to save people from snakes - and snakes from people.
According to Mbali, they're more scared of us than we are of them:
Mbali: “For many years, in my culture, these reptiles have been misinterpreted as a sign of witchcraft, a bad omen and an image of the evil serpent.
Working on Snakes in the City shows that residents of Durban can catch snakes too - with the right training.
My biggest message for viewers and my community is that snakes are not these evil monsters that they have been made out to be - snakes are more afraid of us than we could ever be of them.”
Yeah, sure - tell that to your nervous system when you come face-to-fang with a puff adder who's getting up in your business.
There's one in the series premiere who has to be removed from someone's toilet (yikes). If you haven't seen the show yet, they remove the gategrasher snakes from people's homes and bizarre locations and then release them into the wilds.
Also starring in the first episode are: a lethal black mamba who decides to go to school, a python on a goat farm, an angry cobra who goes shopping and a monitor lizard in a ceiling.
How did Mbali get into Jurassic Park?
Her interest in reptiles began when she was young, after moving from Limpopo, where she was born.
She volunteered at a non-profit organisation where she worked with reptiles and went on to work at a reptile park where she learnt how to wrangle poisonous snakes.
A good skill to have in your armoury. Like karate or self defense. It gives the impression of "Do NOT mess with," - not only to snakes but to any hissing human you happen to meet.