I remember many years ago when stopping off at Richards Bay on the Zululand coast (an area well known for snakes), the captain of the day-stopping F27 insisted on the steps being moved away from the aeroplane before they left for the hotel. The reason that he gave was to remove any easy route into the aeroplane for a snake -- as he said, he did not want to be climbing through FL120 on his way home that evening to find a mamba down near the rudder pedals! Different "TEM" issues in different parts of the world!!