[iStockphoto] It started like a joke when the apparition of a giant serpent slithering out of Lake Victoria revealed itself to Onyango Donde. Mumbo, for that, is what the serpent's name pronounced.

The giant serpent was identified as a Vasuki indicus, a madtsoiid genus that dates back 47 million years and is almost double the average size of pythons and other similar snakes, CBS News reports.