Chris Cooke, the owner of HRC, said that hosting the event was a great honour. “To have the event in Hoedspruit was very exciting and a great opportunity for attendees to meet and mingle with the continent’s leading herpetologists. It also showcased to the world what HRC is capable of. We’re a small organisation, with big plans and big ambitions for conservation, and we’re up for the challenge,” he said. “Organising the event was not an easy task due to Hoedspruit’s remote location but the event was a great success and was enjoyed by all who attended.
It is compromised of full daily talks and presentations followed by fun evening events like our ‘pub quiz’, ‘meet the experts’ speed dating, ‘the auction’ and a gala dinner.” Founded in 1965 by Donald Broadley, the late curator of the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, the HAA is dedicated to the study and conservation of reptiles and amphibians of Africa. Guest speaker, Romulus Whitaker of the Global Snakebite Initiative, Centre for Herpetology, and the Madras Crocodile Bank told the conference that his fascination with reptiles has taken him on incredible adventures to the far corners of the world.
Also read: ‘Teach your children well about snakes’ says Chris Cooke
“In my 60-year career, I have mostly concentrated on conservation and public education. Living in India all my life was real luck, and after setting up India’s first reptile park, it was a joy to be hired by the United Nations and other organisations to work on reptile projects in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Mozambique, and Ethiopia. Producing and presenting a couple of dozen wildlife documentary films was fascinating to work that reached millions of people. But my work is far from over and the mitigation of India’s huge snakebite problem is what keeps me busy now,” he said.
Krystal Tolley of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Kirstenbosch Research Centre) said the world has entered the Anthropocene era (modification of the planet by humans). “We have created truly novel habitats that bear little or no resemblance to natural areas and our impact on the planet is driving a current mass extinction. In South Africa, some populations of dwarf chameleons (Bradypodion) appear to persist in urbanised habitats. These populations might simply be confined to areas that strongly resemble the natural vegetation or have possibly acclimated to new conditions, for example, by shifting their behaviour,” she said.
Jeanne Tarrant of the Threatened Amphibian Programme (TAP), said that their actions are guided by the ‘ensuring the future for South African frogs’ strategy. “The project aimed to establish a network of partners in the area, and to improve the understanding of the critically endangered Amatole toad, which until the previous year, had not been seen for 13 years. The project also aimed to provide management recommendations for grassland habitat,” she said. Graham Alexander from the School of Animal, Plant, and Environmental Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand said predators can react to changing prey abundance in two fundamentally different ways.
“There has been a longstanding view that snakes, due to their slow ectothermic physiology, digestion constraints, and ‘leisurely lifestyle’, do not dramatically impact prey numbers in times of high prey abundance. This suggests that a puff adder with a high initial body condition index could survive for more than two years without feeding,” he said.
