World’s rarest snake alive in EC
SNAKES alive – the case for the establishment of a new Eastern Cape reserve to protect the world’s rarest snake has got a whole lot stronger.
Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) field officer Michael Adams, whose team is spearheading the initiative to establish a reserve to protect the Albany adder, said yesterday the project was progressing well.
“We have found three more Albany adders, so now five in all since February.”
While the Caribbean St Lucia racer was previously considered to be the world’s rarest snake, with just 18 left, the Albany adder, even with the new discoveries, is rarer still, Adams said.
Until the new exploration work began this year, just 12 had been recorded since it was first described in 1935.
The Johannesburg-based EWT team is working with Port Elizabeth-based herpetologists Dr Werner Conradie and Dr Bill Branch and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s viper specialist group.
The aim is to establish the density of the Albany adders on the 1 000ha site where they are working and to use the data to back talks with the landowner and the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency on establishing the proposed reserve, which lies between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown.
The US-based Rainforest Trust has funded their field work so far and has committed to funding the purchase of the land.