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[![](https://ipfs-3speak.b-cdn.net/ipfs/bafybeihtqqfnkmd42344acfmllsjdqnaz2zd6wm3bakj7wat7iuw6ftunu/)](https://3speak.tv/watch?v=julianhorack/hjwpbnpv)

▶️ [Watch on 3Speak](https://3speak.tv/watch?v=julianhorack/hjwpbnpv)

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Here in sunny South Africa we live among deadly puff adders due to the vast open natural indigenous virgin terrain. One bite from them and you have a septic wound that hardly heals and can kill you. With timely treatment and months of patience, you can be saved but otherwise one bite and you're a gonner.

![20250617_120945.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/julianhorack/23wMexb71Ce6BciJEjD84Uwfk7RYQjLhU38yvTxW2kWP8CYFSZmNi3U89RxxXGDmbXkLC.jpg)
*Dead puff adder though still with head on*

My current neighbor recently found a large black and gold puff adder just a few meters from my door, since I'm currently living beside a vast indigenous forest, on the beautiful south coast of Africa. I sometimes see deer and regularly see signs of other little mammals. It's an indigenous *fynbos* forest paradise. 

So I get to see snakes like this puff adder every few years, but this was quite a big one. And to think that it was living just meters away from me, I can understand why the neighbor would kill it. He says they try to snare them but if unsuccessful then they have to kill it because it comes back to the same place repeatedly.

The head was cut off and the neighbor brought the decapitated snake to show me. Bizarrely, it still writhed around a bit, despite having no head. In fact it did this for many minutes as the carcass lay there, headless. Apparently the nervous system is still functioning somehow in this primitive species.

I used a finger to gently prod the smooth snake body and feel it for the first time in my life. Suddenly the writhing snake front half lifted up as if to strike towards my hand near its tail. But without a head it just fell back and writhed a bit more. I got a fright of course and pulled back instinctively. Somehow the snake was still defending itself on auto-pilot, like me, and I still had my head on. 

This snake action was quite an eye opener. But what was even more eye opening was when the neighbor who killed the snake then proceeded to slice it all the way from top to tail, down the underside. I was able to see all the insides, like an anatomy lesson. Still it writhed slightly. How truly profound this primitive nervous system is.

As if that was not bizarre enough, this lady then began to strip the skin right off the snake body with her hands from top to tail. It took some effort but the skin pulled off the body neatly in one long piece. It stuck fast at the tail, very tough, so had to finally be cut off there.

What a sight to behold, an old lady skinning this snake with her bare hands, as if it was a daily chore. She must have learned it in her distant youth as a child growing up on a farm.

After that the skin was salted and laid out to dry for a few days, until it came out as a fine trophy for the collection. Now that i something you don't experience every day, maybe one in a lifetime in my case. 

I've encountered these deadly puff adders live on different occasions over the years roaming the bush or even in the garden of houses, but this is the first time I've seen one skinned. Now you can see it too.

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▶️ [3Speak](https://3speak.tv/watch?v=julianhorack/hjwpbnpv)