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Kylie Knott

At 9am on Monday, William Sargent sat at his desk ready for a busy week. Then the police called.
A venomous - and potentially deadly - white-lipped pit viper, or bamboo snake, was slithering around Penny’s Bay, the Hong Kong government’s Covid isolation facility.
As one of only a handful of snake catchers in Hong Kong, Sargent’s full-time job as an events planner would have to wait.
“It was near hut 55, right under the stairs,” he said, of one of his more unusual assignments. “If it bit someone it would have put them in hospital.”

The bamboo snake, recognisable by its bright green scales and yellow belly, is responsible for more than 90 per cent of all snake bites in Hong Kong. There are about 100 each year.
People outside Hong Kong might be surprised to learn that the city is home to more than 40 species, 14 of which are venomous. Of those, eight land-dwelling ones have potentially deadly bites.
Snake season, from April to December, when hot and humid weather lures them out of their nests, has kept Sargent on his toes - while wearing flip-flops. “People always tell me off for my footwear!”
“I’ve had about 30-40 call-outs this year,” said Sargent, who also conducts night safaris for those keen to learn more about the reptiles.
He has removed king cobras from under shoes, behind shampoo bottles - even from a Jockey Club betting centre. “A staff member spotted it under a desk and tracked it on CCTV.
A shy creature that usually avoids humans, the venomous hooded cobra can grow up to six metres in length.

A two-metre cobra, hidden under some bicycles, was his most challenging catch. “Police said it was a [non-venomous] rat snake, so I earned my fee that night.”
Other jobs took him to a monastery, “I usually get a call once a year. The monks are always really chilled,” he said, and a private residence to remove a rat snake from a child’s toy car.

“It amazes me that you don’t hear of people getting bitten in their homes or offices,” he said, adding snakes “really need to be cornered or trodden on before they strike.”
Public safety is his main motivation along with educating people about a snake’s vital role in the ecological system. They control pests and regulate rodent and insect populations.
Easing peoples’ fear of snakes is also his mission, and for good reason.
It runs deep, despite the fact that Hong Kong’s last snake bite death happened 30 years ago when a snake restaurant employee was bitten by an imported Russell’s Viper and died because there was no antivenom available.
In August, after four years of campaigning, Sargent was the first catcher granted rapid release powers as part of a new government pilot scheme that allows him to release a snake back into the wild close to where it was found.
In the past, snakes were collected by police, taken to a station and then moved to Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, a local conservation centre.
“It was a waste of police resources, with two-four officers, a van and potentially a 100km round trip, just to transport one snake to Kadoorie.”
The journey was also potentially harmful - for the snake.
“They struggle to find food, thermoregulate, reproduce and find a safe hiding spot,” he said, adding many sit in police boxes for days before being released, potentially causing dehydration, injury or death.
It’s a progressive step. Until 1997, any snake reported to authorities was captured by snake shop owners and used for soup - or killed on the spot.

And there was one that got away - from Sargent at least. He did not play a role in the August capture and release of a 4.89-metre, 32kg Burmese python - the largest of the protected species found in Hong Kong.
“The longest I caught this year, a Burmese python, was 4.2m and weighed 17kg.”


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Serpent snarer William Sargent says biggest snake he caught this year was a 4.2 m, 17kg Burmese python
Around 100 people in Hong Kong are bitten each year but last snakebite death was 30 years ago



A snake catcher reveals the reptilian underbelly of Hong Kong in which he has to tackle everything from poisonous vipers in a coronavirus quarantine centre to cobras hiding in flats.


Trending in China

‘Crazy catches’: venomous vipers in quarantine centre to baby cobra hidden in flat, Hong Kong snake catcher reveals all

Serpent snarer William Sargent says biggest snake he caught this year was a 4.2 m, 17kg Burmese python Around 100 people in Hong Kong are bitten each year but last snakebite death was 30 years ago

Serpent snarer William Sargent says biggest snake he caught this year was a 4.2 m, 17kg Burmese python

Around 100 people in Hong Kong are bitten each year but last snakebite death was 30 years ago