“Muhle wena kona hamba,skati wena bona mamba,noko wena hayi tshetsha,wena ifa lapa stretsha.” African proverb “It’s advisable to hamba (walker),when you stumble on a mamba,for if you do not tshetsha (move),you’ll expire on a stretcher.” Mambas have a bad reputation…

Most snakes have quite long, thin, sharp, and recurved teeth for catching and eating prey. These teeth are firmly anchored to the anterior bone on the lower jaw and the upper jawbone. Just like sharks and crocodiles, snakes replace their…

We are often asked whether snakes have a specific territory. The word territory is perhaps not the correct term as it infers that snake would protect this area to keep other snakes out of it. Snakes do not live in…

Spring (Sept/Oct in Southern Hemisphere) is snake season and as the temperature rises, snakes leave their underground shelters in search of food. It is a slow process and they become more active as the temperature increases. Once the first summer…

The Green Mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps) was described by Sir Andrew Smith in 1849 from animals collected from Natal. Taxonomy The Latin name angusticeps comes from “angustus” meaning narrow and “ceps” an abbreviation for head – narrow head. Surprisingly, many years…

Snakebite was recently recognized as a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organization with about 20,000 snakebite fatalities reported every year in Africa. Subsequent morbidity affects far more people than that. In South Africa we have around 4 000…

Puff adders (Bitis arietans) are widely distributed over whole Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of dense rainforest areas and Madagascar. A puff adder got a tell-tale flat head with a straight line between the eyes, thick body with chevron markings…

Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus, colloquially called ‘crocodile or croc’ in the following) occur in Southern- and Eastern African regions and along the Atlantic coastline in Central Africa. They eat any animal they can get a hold on and are dangerous…

Description of Goannas The Australian sand monitor (Varanus gouldii) is also called Gould’s monitor or colloquially ‘Goanna’. There are two different subspecies: Varanus gouldii gouldii and Varanus gouldii flavirufus (which is a smaller sized subspecies). V. gouldii gouldii is distributed…

In the former blog I described seeing a majestic sand monitor lizard very close by on my drive from Menzies to Sandstone on a side road. Driving further on I was surprised to see many more Goannas left and right…