One man, four months - and a room full of snakes A Sussex carpenter who spent four months locked in a room with 40 snakes in South Africa says he 'wanted to do it for years'.

David Jones, a 45-year-old carpenter from Sussex, started taking an interest in snakes from the moment he caught his first grass snake on a railway line near to his home as a young boy.

Before spending 121 days in a locked room with 40 black mambas, cobras, boomslangs and puff adders, however, he had never actually handled a venomous snake - making his world record even more impressive. Or barmy.

Surpassing the South African former world record holder Natie Swart's effort by eight days, Jones survived the four months, eating, drinking and sleeping in the same small enclosure as the reptiles without being bitten, and has now returned to Britain.

"It was something that I've wanted to do for a long time, although I can't explain why - I just love snakes," says Jones, looking back on the experience. "Prior to this I used to enjoy spending the day looking for them under logs, catching them and then releasing them."

Handed two tubs filled with live rats and mice every 10 days, he would feed the snakes with 30cm-long forceps - a process that would often take up to two hours.

"Considering they have no arms, no legs and poor sight, it is so impressive how they manage to hunt down their prey," he says.

Visitors to the Chameleon Village Reptile Conservation Park in Johannesburg, South Africa, were able peer in at Jones and communicate via a sliding glass door. At night, two guards would take turns watching over him, ready to wake him if a snake got too close.

"I was woken a couple of times, once at about 5am when one of the guards was jumping around the middle of the room shaking his trouser leg. He had fallen asleep and a 90cm puff adder had made its way halfway up his trouser leg."

Jones's interest appears to have passed on to his four-year-old son Toby, who kept close contact with his father via Skype and now wants his own snake.

"I was pretty selfish these last four months, doing this and leaving my wife and son behind, but it is something I've wanted to do for years and they have been so supportive," he says.

While the record is undisputed, Guinness World Records (GWR) refuse to officially acknowledge it. A spokesman for GWR said: "Snakes are solitary animals and we've been advised not to encourage Guinness World Record attempts where they are forced to live together for long periods of time as there is a possibility of cannibalism depending on the species. Our animal expert has also advised against exposing such animals to human presence for long periods of time."