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A photo in a screenshot posted on Facebook in December 2020 shows what seems to be a long dark-coloured snake moving along the grass verge next to a road. Its text reads: So, if I now avoid Nelspruit you know why! This Black Mamba was caught on camera close to an orange grove in Karina near Nelspruit (South Africa). Estimated to be about 6 and half metres long. Estimated Age being 45. Has enough venom to kill 400 men- and very, very quickly! Nelspruit is a city in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province . The problem is, the photo of the snake has been circulating online for more than nine years. It’s been posted with a range of claims that it shows a king brown snake in Australia or an unidentified species in either Florida or Mississippi in the US. ‘That damn snake’ According to National Geographic , black mamba snakes are actually brown. They get their name from the blue-black of the inside of their mouths, which they display when threatened. The species is lethally venomous and can grow to a length of 4.2 metres. A TinEye reverse image search reveals that the photo has been online since at least September 2011. It’s even been used in a popular meme . In 2012 users of the r/australia discussion forum on Reddit got together to investigate the photo, in a thread titled Anyone near Alstonville NSW feel like doing a quick investigation about that damn snake? They found that it in fact showed a sculpture at 189 Uralba Road in Uralba , near Alstonville, in the Australian state of New South Wales. There's a house nearby on the bend with lots of other things too, one redditor wrote . Look in the trees along that road too for other cool arty stuff. Another posted a closer photo of the sculpture, from a different angle . It looks nothing like a black mamba . Claims about the photo have been debunked by Hoax-Slayer , Snopes and the website Snake Catchers , which gave the creature the species name of Snakieus Bullshitterus Foolesyounus . – Africa Check
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