Wednesday 12 / February / 2025
Muscat: An Omani citizen has killed a two-metre-long snake after it startled him while working in his farm located in wilayat Wadi Bani Khalid.
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Ruzaiqi, a farmer, told the Times of Oman that he was maintaining trees in his farm when he chanced upon the snake.
"The snake took me by surprise. I was carrying out discarded leaves and parts of trees at my farm at around nine or ten in the morning when the snake appeared from under these objects and came at me," he said.
“I was startled of course,” Al Ruzaiqi said, “But I gathered my wits and struck out at it instinctively, killing the snake.”
According to the farmer, he had seen some of these snakes before but from afar. "They come out during the heat. This one appeared right under me so I attacked it. I think it was a good thing since we don’t know much about these snakes. It was large and some kids or my employees move around this farm during the night, so I feel like I kept them safe by doing what I did."
“Normally I wouldn’t have wanted to take a picture. My idea was to simply burn the snake. When we had all the wood for the fire built up, one of my employees said that we should take a commemorative photo, so I said yes. Now the snake is gone and if others appear, maybe we can do the same to them,” Al Ruzaiqi added.
In December of last year, Omani Photographer Mohammed Al Mashani managed to capture a photo of the Schokari sand racer, one of the fastest moving snakes in the Middle East, which he found in Dhofar.
