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WATCH: Would YOU put your hand into a swimming pool to fish out a snake? Zimbabwe 'snakeman' is a hit

Harare - They're calling him Zimbabwe's Steve Irwin - and his fans on social media just can't get enough of him.

Passionate about wildlife since he was a boy, Chawatama Marimo, 43, is frequently called upon to capture "problem" snakes in and around Harare. 

Python in Harare's plush Borrowdale suburb? Cobra in the British embassy's garden? Snake trapped in a pipe that turns out NOT to be a harmless brown house snake but a very venomous snouted cobra? Chawa's your man.

In one watch-if-you-dare clip posted to his "Chawa's Wild Adventures" Facebook page, he waits behind a rock and then grabs a python from the dead leaves on the ground.

"Remember we are the intruders and not them. They [the snakes] were there first," he tells his fans. He imparts snippets of information as he goes along: snakes, like humans and animals, can get bitten by ticks, he says in his post.

"My goal is to educate my fellow brothers and sisters because I believe nothing was made by accident and everything exists for a purpose," Marimo told local tabloid B-Metro this week. 

In the interview he said that he'd been interested in wildlife and trees ever since he was a boy and caught his first cobra at the age of 19. But he only really developed his expertise when he moved into the bush near Mazowe to start a career in mining and started reading up on snakes.

Has he ever been bitten? Does his wife worry? Yes to both questions - though he's obviously survived. 

And what about that bag he puts the snakes in? Can snakes bite through it?

Yes again, says Marimo on Facebook.

"Golden rule is never touch the bag... It's a specially designed bag and you know which areas not to put your hands on." 

Watch Chawatama Marimo's videos below

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