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| Dragon Lizard, Smaug warreni depressus resting in it's crack. |
The three months were an extremely busy period for the SCBC.
We did a lot of traveling and recorded many new species and surveyed many new
sites, continuing our ‘broadening horizons’ programme. February started off
just South-west of the Soutpansberg at Masebe Cultural Village. The SCBC was
helping a team led by evolutionary biologist Chris Broeckhoven, including
geneticist Genevieve Diedericks and herpetologist Yousri EL Adak. We were
looking for Smaug depressus lizards, the scientists aimed to figure out why
there is such a high variation in armour and osteoderms in this species from different
localities in the Soutpansberg. We moved along a West-East axis surveying areas of different altitudes which took us
to some beautiful locations in the Soutpansberg and surrounding areas: Lajuma,
Bluegumspoort, Zvakanaka, Golwe-Vhurivhuri, Gundani and of course sunny Medike.
We eagerly await the results of this study.
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| Unusually dark Smaug warreni depressus with reduced spines, Entabeni. |
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| Smaug warreni depressus, light with reduced spines Golwe-Vhurivhuri. |
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| Typically coloured Smaug warreni depressus in its crack for the night, Medike. |
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| Dragon lizards can remain still for hours. Their camouflage effectively conceals them when in the open. |
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| Night scene, Golwe-Vhurivhuri. |
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| Arid northern slopes, Goro. |
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| View descending Lajuma Peak, The highest point on the Soutpansberg. |
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| Cordylus vittifer, Common Girdled Lizard, Entabeni. |
Late summer is usually a good period for biodiversity and in
particular a good time for reptiles and this late summer season was
exceptionally good. I have never encountered so many reptiles and snakes as we
did over the last three months. We had some record night drives and record
walks. One memorable night walk turned up seven snakes three of which were
rarities.Besides the rarities, common species were also out in full-force and we enjoyed a wide spectrum of reptilian biodiversity.
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| Unusual sighting, a Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis), lying on a bare rock face at night. Photograph Melissa Petford. |
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| A young Black Mamba captured by Medike resident Alan Carr. Photograph Melissa Petford. |
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| A hatchling Puff Adder. A large proportion of the snakes seen this season were hatchlings. |
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| Striped Skaapsteker (Psammophylax tritaeniatus), Medike. |
Shortly after saying goodbye to the team from Stellenbosch
the SCBC welcomed volunteer Freo Jaques from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Freo, a
young environmentalist, volunteered in order to add some more work experience
to his already impressive portfolio of working with wildlife and conservation. Freo had the following to say about his experience at the SCBC:
I started
my journey in conservation only one year ago and it was in the Soutpansberg
that i got my first chance to get close to wild snakes. Like most people I grew
up in a culture very poor when it comes to information about reptiles. What it
could be easily taken as amazing or fascinating was rather sold as scary or
despicable. I realized that it is impossible to understand, truly understand, a
snake through a book or a documentary film, even when they are realistic and committed to change the 5000 years of bad reputation of these animals.
They are
dangerous, yes, but so is every other animal when attacked or highly disturbed.
It's no reason to fear, but to respect them. They are in the far edge of
conservation right now and not many people care when a snake is killed. People
were led to believe that in order to be safe they must kill every snake close
by. But they were not taught that the main cause of a bite is, in fact, the
attempt to kill a snake.
It was in
the Soutpansberg, during warm nights, after a rainy week, or a sunny day, that
I got to truly understand snakes. There, sometimes, I would encounter 4 or even
5 different species of snakes in a day. And you have to get close to them. You
have to hear the sound of the night instead of the background music or Sir
Attemborough's voice, look at their movement instead of a high definition
picture or the text on Marais' pages.You have to hold them between your fingers
to realize how delicate and calm they can be. There's something mystical about
a snake moving in the night, smelling the air silently, sliding smoothly among
rocks that no device can capture. And, if you give it a chance, it's something
powerful enough to finish every myth, fear or prejudices of ignorant times.
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| Freo having a closer look at a Common Purple-glossed Snake. |
Thank you Freo, without your help and motivation, this
season would not have been half as successful. I have full-confidence in your
future as an environmentalist making positive changes in this world.
Our activities during the three-month period were centered searching for
reptiles and scorpions to build our lists for the Soutpansberg and surrounds. Our reptile list
now stands at seventy for the Soutpansberg. Looking at distribution maps,
historical records and anecdotal accounts we believe there are still many more
species to be found and documented. For the February-April period we found seven new reptiles: Cordylus vittifer, Trachylepis punctatissima, Amblyodipsas
polylepis polylepis, Elapsoidea
sundevallii longicauda (technically this record is just north of the
mountain but is included here), Lychophidion
capense capense, Psammophylax
tritaeniatus and finally Megatyphlops
mucruso.
This three month period was excellent for nocturnal snakes. We spent a lot of time getting out there and walking at night, often until past midnight searching for nocturnal species. Ocassionally we took a drive and had some good success. The efforts really paid off. Below are a few of our more charismatic finds:
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| The Brown House Snake (Boaedon capensis) a very common nocturnal snake. |
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| A beautiful Variegated Wolf Snake (Lychophidion variegatum). Locally common at Medike. |
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| A dark Variegated Wolf Snake, Medike. |
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| Common Wolf Snake (Lychophidion capense), near Buysdorp. |
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| Black File Snake (Gonionotophis nyassae) adult, Medike. |
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| Black File Snake (Gonionotophis nyassae) hatchling, Medike. |
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| The Common Purple-glossed Snake (Amblyodipsas polylepis polylepis) Medike. |
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| Atractaspis bibronii, Bibron's Stiletto Snake. Uniform colouration Medike. |
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| Atractaspis bibronii, Bicoloured form Waterpoort. |
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| Common Egg-eater (Dasypeltis scabra) a harmless snake with an effective defensive display. |
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| The Eastern Tiger Snake, Telescopus semiannulatus semiannulatus, near Waterpoort. |
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| The Zambezi Giant Blind Snake (Megatyphlops mucruso), Goro. |
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| Pachydactylus vansoni, Vanson's Gecko. Entabeni. |
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| Pachydactylus nigropunctatus incognitus, Lajuma peak. |
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| Pachydactylus nigropunctatus incognitus, Cryptic Dwarf Gecko, a Soutpansberg ndemic. |
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Afroedura pienaari, Medike.
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| A large Chondrodactylus turneri, the most common gecko on Medike. |
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| Common Rough-scaled Lizard, Meroles squamulosus, Golwe-Vhurivhuri. |
Besides the new reptiles in we also added some new scorpions
to our Soutpansberg list over the three months we got Parabuthus mossambicenis from eastern and western Soutpansberg. Hottentotta trilineatus and Uroplectes planimanus from the Sand
River valley. From the Northern slopes we got Uroplectes carinatus and finally managed to photograph Opistacanthus asper. Just to the north
of the mountain we found Opistophthalmus
boehmi.
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| A 'normal' coloured Parabuthus transvaalicus. |
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| An unusually colourful Parabuthus transvaalicus. |
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| Dark Parbuthus mossambicensis from Western Soutpansberg region. New for our Soutpansberg lists. |
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| Light Parabuthus mossambicensis from Eastern Soutpansberg (Golwe-Vhurivhuri). |
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| Hottentotta trilineatus, Sand River Valley. New for our Soutpansberg lists. |
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| Uroplectes carinatus, Goro, Northern slopes, Soutpansberg. New for our Soutpansberg lists. |
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| Opistophthalmus boehmi, north of Waterpoort. A new species for our Soutpansberg list. |
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| Soutpansberg endemic Opistophthalmus lawrenci, Goro. |
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| Opisthacanthus asper, Goro. |
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| Soutpansberg endemic, Hadogenes soutpansbergensis, Goro. |
In addition to our creation of biodiversity lists for the
Soutpansberg, we have also been collecting behavioural data on reptiles. This
requires spending time watching animals without disturbing them and recording
what they are doing and how they are doing it. We aim to begin using trail
cameras in order to help record behaviour. This is new ground for us and we
hope to be producing relevant data on these behavioural aspects in the next
SCBC update.
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| The Rough-scaled Plated Lizard, Broadleysaurus major. Photo Melissa Petford. |
In broadening our horizons the SCBC has been doing data
collection on different properties on the mountain. We recently visited Goro on
the Northern slopes and will return in due course. Lajuma has been a good site
too and in May we will be there for ten consecutive days, I am sure they will
be productive. In the near future we aim to expand our surveys to even more
sites to create lists that better reflect the biodiversity of this beautiful
and diverse mountain range. Thanks to everyone at Lajuma, Leshiba, Goro and Zvakanaka who helped us during this period.
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| Pyxicephalus edulis, the African or Edible Bullfrog, near Waterpoort. |
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| South African Porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis). Medike. Photo Melissa Petford. |
