African Savanna Conservation

Tracking Africa 's most venomous snake - the black mamba

The black mamba ( Dendroaspis polylepis ) is a large elapid snake that is widely distributed across much of sub-Saharan Africa (Broadley 1983) . Typically, an adult grows to well over 3m in length and may take a variety of prey including small mammals and birds. Black m ambas are known to have home ranges centred on long-term refugia (Phelps 2002) . However, little is known about how far they forage or what factors influence their movements. Furthermore, to date, nobody has successfully tracked this species.

This study sets out to determine whether translocated black mambas (captured in sugar cane fields and released in protected areas) differ in their movement patterns compared with resident individuals. Black mamba movement is being studied by means of radio-telemetry. Each snake has a transmitter surgically implanted into the body cavity. Each snake is then tracked using a receiver and antenna.

A large number of people are directly involved in this project. Thea Litschka-Koen and Clifton Koen conceived the idea of this project, caught the mambas and organised the logistics. Tigress Productions sponsored six transmitters and funded much of the work. Prof. Mike Perrin sponsored ten transmitters built by Clifford Dearden. Dr. Silke Pfitzer operated on the snakes. The tracking field work is being coordinated and implemented by All Out Africa. Profs. Graham Alexander and Ara Monadjem are the scientific advisors of this project and are responsible for analysing the data and writing up the results.

To get involved:

Join our African Savanna Project as a self funding conservation volunteer indicating under "your questions" that you wish to participate in the black mamba tracking study..

Latest results of the mamba tracking:

References

Broadley, D.G. 1983. FitzSimons Snakes of Southern Africa . Delta Books, Cape Town .

Phelps, T. 2002. A study of the black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) in KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa , with particular reference to long-term refugia. Herpetological Bulletin 80: 7-19.