Topic offshoot - Bitis Albanica faces extinction

[Copperbob]

Has anyone spoken directly to the mining company or land owners? I say this because no company wants to have "Extinction of a species" on their resume, especially now with most companies trying to be "environmentally friendly". Froots idea also cuts out any need for a large scale captive breeding project. I think it would be very interesting to know if the company or land owners are even aware of the situation. Maybe a free educational talk on the situation and a request for certain personal to monitor and work in the areas would not be too much of a long shot, so who’s knows, we might be pleasantly surprised.
If none of the above works out, then it should be taken a step further e.g. certain TV shows just love juicy stories like this and it may catch the attention of all the right people.
Just a thought.

[gaboon69]

It seems like a few guys including myself are willing to donate money to tackle this enigma. Lets set up a fund. Armata is the right candidate for this job. Vivat albanica.

[Telescopus]

Hi all, here is my 5 cents regarding albanica.
Since 2002 till 7th May 2007 20 albanica have been found in the area in question. Seven were sent to The P.E. Snake park between 2002 and 2004 (when the mining began). these all died. In 2007 I approached Dr. Branch for the back-up to get Nat. Cons to do something about these snakes, Bill agreed. I wrote out a 10 page study programme with Bill and held numerous meetings with the Natu. Cons guys. to try do something. Nat. Cons were helpful but rather reluctant to get involved. I managed to get access to the property which is exclusively owned by 'the cement company'. One of the main conditions for them granting me the research permit to study these snakes was that I had to get written permission from the custodians of the land('the cement company') . iM STILL WAITING FOR THIS LETTER. I however went onto the land with the verbal permission of one of the custodians.

Most of the snakes were found in deep trenches which had been bull dozed open. They were approximately 100meters long, up to 5 meters deep and 5 meters wide. From spending much time in these trenches I realized that the albany adder is 100 % on its habitat. The rock that is been mined is the same rock which secures the snakes survival.This rock forms the foundation of the vegetation type (Bontveld) which is limited to the albanica area. This is how it works; The rock lies about 10-15 cms under the topsoil. The vegeatation is limited to plant species which have adapted and established themselves to survive in such shallow soils. My main concern is that the mining removes this rock, thus killing the vegetation.(other than killing the snakes in the vegetation). Im not too sure if an EIA was conducted as the mining activity is controlled by the Mineral Affairs and Energy Act. I know that one of the conditions generally regarding mining is that the mined areas must be rehabilitated before a certificate of completion is issued by government when mining in the area is finished. This seems fine to most people but in terms of the bontveld, the mining removes the rock, this will never be replaced for rehabilitation, thus the vegetation after the mining will not be bontveld- it will change to a common bushveld with Acacia trees and grasses. This is a complete habitat change for the albanica.

When studying the rock, one can see intricate tunnels through the rock which lead into chanbers within the rock. In these chambers I found geckoes, small lizards etc. The food for Albanica. By destroying the rock, the snakes habitat together with the food source is destroyed. These rock chambers explain why albanica are found after digging the trenches- they are simply desplaced and crawl out the destroyed chambers into the trench.On the ground surface, one can see entrance holes into the rock. In my opinion- these snakes spend much of their life semi under ground- in these tunnels and surface when conditions are favourable etc. (I could be wrong as Im no expert). But thats what I reckon.

Now the politics: 'the cement company' is the owner of the land, they have the rights to mine the enitre area. With regard to the S.A economy, more and more cement is needed for housing development etc and to sell overseas. The Depatrment of Economic Development is also the Department of Environmental Affairs-the people who have the power to stop the mining.(Quite ironic). Nature Conservation is governed by the same department. 'the cement company' was happy for me to go onto the land, but as soon as I launched the Albany adder Project, the results became clear that the main threat to the snakes was habitat destruction. By making this aware, it would be in direct conflict to the mining operation thus also the 'the cement company' contribution to the economy. Unfortunately in a third world country as SA, the rights of snakes are completely forgotten when the rights of humans are considered. Nature conservation stated that they will never issue a permit for someone to catch or keep albanica, no matter who they are or which institution they belong to , as it will open too many doors for smuggling etc. They also will not allow captive breeding setups etc as they are affraid of the spread of pathegens into the wild populations and the genetic pollution sargar. They say that noone can prove that released specimens will survive- they all think its a cover screen for keeping and trading with these snakes.

It seems that the only way to save the species is to save the habitat inwhich they live.

It is quite remarkable that the day I launched the Project was the day the last albanica was found. Since then everything has gone dead quiet.

Good news. I had a meeting with Nature Conservation this morning regarding the Project (Pressure from Rob, hee hee) and they are keen to tackle the situation again. will keep you guys informed.

[Rob]

Tony would have to move if he was to tackle this. So choose Tony, armata and rubida, or albanica?

Copperbob - Point made, but prove they will be extinct after the cement company is done mining? With the small Bitis classification still so disorganised you could say they occur on the west coast too
Like Tony says, in some instances theyre still seen as a subspecies of Bitis cornuta

[Rob]

50 lines of bad news, 2 lines of good news. Kinda sums up the situation doesnt it?

So bottom line Mark (Telescopus) has had his finger on the pulse for a few years now and what he just told us is the latest on the ordeal.
Where to go from here? Who knows.

Mark don't expect the pressure from me to ease up

[Wolverine]

Wow, this is an interesting discussion. Telescopus, thanks very much for sharing all that information. This species really does seem to be one of the priority single-species conservation issues in SA and I would be keen to help out where I can (if I can) if this Albany Adder project develops further.

It has been pointed out that albanica is still listed under cornuta in the IUCN system - it will be Red Data listed in the upcoming South Africa Reptile Red Data book, probably as Endangered. This should give it more formal recognition (both as a species and in terms of the threats faced) (and should then be adopted by the IUCN for it's global evaluation too)) and may help with getting awareness and cooperation from important stakeholders (ie. government etc). It may also be worth approaching SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute) as this should also be a priority to them and they may be able to provide further support.

[Rob]

Perhaps the mods could edit this topic by removing all the initial posts regarding my little prank and this can become a discussion topic?

[armata]

Mark, thank you for this valuable input. Firstly, it is a classic example of Nat Con's nervous attitude toward captive breeding. Everyone is a collector/smuggler until proved otherwise. Also, anyone who has albanica in captivity and/or has promoted collecting/smuggling of this species should hang their head in shame. I get so angry when I see albanica appear on dealer's lists.

Mark, your info about albanica being semi-fossorial is very interesting. This ties up with behaviour of armata and rubida.
Part of my study involves looking at habitat structure.
Also, the albanica that I found a few years back I would also describe as displaced, as they were within the current workings of the mining operation.

The demand for cement is obviously not going to decrease, but here is a test for the govt to find a balance. Also, it has already been stated that the cement co. do not need the publicity regarding the possible extinction of a species. They have full knowledge of the plight of this snake.

One answer is to set aside land, and perhaps the mining company can sponsor a conser vation project; it would be valuable publicity for them; or am I being naive here?

As for my involvement - well I cannot interupt my armata/rubida work. I could however, supervise a project. However, there is a lack of snake ecologists in SA; lots of people doing lizard stuff. Maybe a student from Rhodes? Will talk to people about this.

I will also get in touch with Bill. And Mark, would appreciate seeing the original proposal at some stage.

On a down note. This is a sensitive subject, and at some stage will not be suitable for an open forum.

One other thing. There has been a recent development re taxonomy. albanica/rubida/inornata are more closely related than was first thought. Perhaps WW can enlighten us, although nothing has been published as yet, as far as I know.

[gaboon69]

Great post Mark. Thank you. How does a museum loose 7 / 7 albanica over 2 years? Even if true, then thats a shame. Would those not have been better of with smugglers then? Here come the flying stones.

[Rob]

First question is what size piece of ground is needed to preserve a species essentially?

I wonder what temperature fluctuations occur down those underground crevices.

One can only imagine how many adders are crushed when this mining is done. The ones flushed out and found are probably 10-15% of the population being affected, the rest get squashed.

Surely armata would also be thrown into that albanica/rubida/inornata mix Tony?

[Rob]

Marthinus - Maybe that is an indication of how tricky the are to keep in captivity. Not to say its impossible but difficult.
I know 1.1 of those died when moved from one side of a room to the other. They were doing fine up til then.
As for your smugglers comment, virtually every pair of hands that those snakes go through will belong to someone looking to make a profit, not conserve a species.
Say what you want but there are only a handful of keepers in the world who would NOT sell a pair of albanica if they ever got them. The market wants them because they are valuable, if it were for any other reason then guys would just get cornuta.

[armata]

Rob, if you are talking taxonomy, then no; armata is distinctively separate. The jury is still out on the west coast ones though????

[BushSnake]

The fight against habitat destruction is seriously difficult, as preservation of habitat does not have a lot of commercial value to the landowners, and conservation efforts are consequently shot down very quickly. What I can suggest is that you have a proper EIA done (one done by a naturalist rather than a government employee ), because any endangered and rare vegetation type has insects, mammals, reptiles, etc that are all dependant on those specific plants and the underlying geology. I do not know exactly where the B.albanica spots are, and obviously that kind of information needs to be treated with large amounts of care. But you should probably be aware that there are a couple of endangered butterflies in roughly the same area, and when push comes to shove every little bit of ammunition you have to throw at the opponent helps. They may turn their heads away from a single endangered species, but it becomes a completely different story if it turns out to be a biodiversity hotspot, which it probably is seeing as the vegetation type and soil structure is unique.

But I tend to agree with Armata that discussions about species that are probably critically endangered does not belong on an open forum...or at least be extra carefull about what you post...

[froot]

Perhaps the mods could edit this topic by removing all the initial posts regarding my little prank and this can become a discussion topic?

Done.

Good news. I had a meeting with Nature Conservation this morning regarding the Project (Pressure from Rob, hee hee) and they are keen to tackle the situation again. will keep you guys informed.

I'm clinging to that little bit of hope. Thanks Telescopus, please do.
What is the picture regarding the extent of albanica habitat? How much of it, percentage wise, lies on areas deemed for mining and development compared to areas that are conserved (reserves, game farms, etc)?

[gaboon69]

I dont believe that you can kill snakes by simply shifting their coordinates unless it is accompanied by climate or altitude changes. That is besides the point. Anyone whose purely interested in making money out of such a sensitive species is damned anyway. Now Ill shut up and leave it to the conservationists. You have our support.