Reptile removal at a development site.

[mania]

thats great the amount in such a short time. Wish I was there. hehe

[Rodwraylva]

by Bushviper on Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:31 pm

The area was less than a square kilometer. One anthill produced about 12 snakes.

The animals were all released about 2 or three kilometres up the road so they are still in the general area.

I shudder to think what the bulldozers killed when they graded the access roads. I drove past there this morning and there were guys surveying a new stretch of veld. I give up. How could they have done impact studies and not noticed the hundreds of snakes there.

BV, my brother is a surveyor did field work in his practical year, one of the guys who works with him and who does field work now, when he finds snakes on the job he removes them out of the area, so not all surveyors are like that. This is a very late reply but still, just letting you know, there is a little hope

- Rodwraylva

[Durban Keeper]

I know this is an old post, but it seems like this happened 'before my time'.

Those two photo's at the top of the thread are breathtaking! never seen so many D. scabra or even A. capensis in all my life.
Nature is a wonderful thing & I do shudder to think how many snakes and other animals pay with their lives for these developments!

DK

[John Rees]

I didn't realise how old the original post was when I first saw this. DK I also can't believe how many of just two species were found. Now I can understand why the D.Scabra is sometimes called the 'Common' egg-eater!

Nonetheless I am a civil engineering consultant so, unfortunately, often directly linked to the habitat destructive development industries (although I work mainly on water projects - pipelines mainly). From what I have seen in the environmental impact assessments there is very rarely, if any, reference to snakes in the reports. More often the reptiles mentioned may be chameleons and frogs but not snakes. This may be due to the snakes not easily being found whilst the EIA survey is being conducted. It would seem that if they did a bit more digging and scratching around on land destined for 'the chop' a whole lot more snakes etc may be unearthed.
I often look at the land clearing going on, especially here on the KZN coast, where they clear huge tracts for housing and estate projects, and wonder just how many snakes and other smaller creatures are getting wiped out. Granted here it is often sugar cane plantations but not always. The South Coast tends to have more natural forest being cleared than the sugar cane areas between Umhlanga and Blythedale.
If only I had the time (and money!) to get in there each time to see what could be rescued.
Sad but very interesting nonetheless. I must plan a couple of weekend trips to new sites one of these days!

[Durban Keeper]

Thanks for the reply, appreciate the insight of someone in the industry. My girlfriend is actually also studying civil engineering at UKZN. Maybe one day she will be able to assist in this matter also!

Regards,
Dean.

[Chameleon Company]

by Bushviper on Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:31 pm

The area was less than a square kilometer. One anthill produced about 12 snakes.

The animals were all released about 2 or three kilometres up the road so they are still in the general area.

I shudder to think what the bulldozers killed when they graded the access roads. I drove past there this morning and there were guys surveying a new stretch of veld. I give up. How could they have done impact studies and not noticed the hundreds of snakes there.

BV, my brother is a surveyor did field work in his practical year, one of the guys who works with him and who does field work now, when he finds snakes on the job he removes them out of the area, so not all surveyors are like that. This is a very late reply but still, just letting you know, there is a little hope

- Rodwraylva

Im am a postgraduate student in the environmental management side and i can tell you about a lot of corruption when it comes to surveying, Environmental impact assessments and risk assessments.

Sadly the government will do anything for money.... Even a quick buck.

I have seen this time and time again, sadly the government is above all other authorities and calls the final shot......

If people continue to misuse the land, the land will die and the people die with it.

[Chameleon Company]

I have a question.

How do you break a termite hill to get the snakes out? I mean by using a fork or spade one could easily kill a few snakes?

How did you do this Froot? i hear of people breaking open termite hills for snakes but never really understood the process

[Bushviper]

Breaking open termite heaps does kill many of the snakes inside and also destroys the micro-habitat of numerous other creatures. The only time this is acceptable is if the area will be bull dozed and developed in any case. I have an idea it is illegal in most provinces.