Let’s say that you see a small dark snake in your house or in your garden. What do you do? Leave it alone? Or pick it up? Unfortunately, many people choose the latter option, and they often soon regret it. The rainy season is here, and now is the time of year when a particular…
As we head into summer, conflict between dogs and snakes is increasing, and we’re set to see more incidents in the next few months. Here are some things you should know about when these two animals come into contact with each other. Venom in the eyes The most common incident I see is dogs being…
To some people, any green snake is a Green Mamba. Well, there are six species of Green Snakes in the Greater Durban Area, and only one of those is a mamba, and only two of the six are venomous. This post aims to help people identify the various different green snakes. It’s focused on the…
The third and final blog post about my recent Cape trip… On our third and final full day in the Western Cape was spent in West Coast National Park. After two sensational days of ‘frogging’, we decided to spend this day searching for reptiles. After all, there weren’t many frogs to find in WCNP. But…
After an extremely successful first day, my friends and I didn’t really care what we during the remainder of our short stay in the Cape. We’d seen more than what we had hoped for! But we were staying with Cliff & Suretha Dorse, their levels of enthusiasm hadn’t died down at all, and they still…
I’d always wanted to explore the Western Cape and it’s biodiversity, and so when my friends (Nick Schaller & Darren Van Eyssen) asked if I wanted to join them on such a trip, I couldn’t resist. Joining them on the trip was the best decision I have made in a long time! I had only…
We in KwaZulu-Natal are lucky enough to have a good diversity of chameleons. We have 9 species occurring here, but 8 of the 9 species (one is yet to be fully described though), are endemic to KwaZulu-Natal, meaning that they do not occur anywhere else in South Africa, or the world! Some friends and I have completed a…
Last week, I was lucky enough to be a part of a research team who were headed for Ndumo Game Reserve, in northern KwaZulu-Natal. One of the researchers, Cormac, was looking for terrapins, while Camille, another researcher, was looking for hippos (yes, two completely different animals!). The other member of our team was…
Working with mambas can be somewhat difficult to describe, but I will try… The Black Mamba is the most notorious and feared snake in Africa. People think of it as this evil, aggressive, psychotic killer, which will either stare you down, eye to eye, or just chase you. Is that really the case? No, not…
A lot of us, who are keen on frogs, often say to one another, “We’re going frogging”. Those who have never heard of the word give us the strangest of looks. “You’re going what?!” In short, ‘frogging’ basically means to go in search of frogs (I doubt it’s in the dictionary). To the normal city slicker, that just…