Chad Keates Archives
Lesotho is a small land-locked country, which is found in the heart of South Africa. The nation, which was once a kingdom, is characterized by rolling grasslands, interconnected streams and towering mountains. The region currently plays host to 21 different snake species (confirmed) with only three of them being potentially dangerous to humans. The planet currently has approximately 4,145 snakes (as of August 2024), with new species being described all the time…. Read More
On Sunday the 18th of march I hosted a private snake ‘walk and talk’ for the nature club of Graham High School. Although it was intended as a two part event, only the talk took place because of the bad weather conditions. Due to the cold weather, and the intermittent thunderstorms, we were unable to go out and explore the wilder parts of Grahamstown, in search of reptiles and frogs. Nevertheless, the… Read More
Recently myself, Luke Kemp and Courtney Hundermark ventured to St Francis in search of a small, range-restricted species of gecko called the salt marsh gecko (Cryptactites peringueyi). The gecko is commonly found at base of restios, in and around salt marshes. Although we knew where to look, it certainly did not mean that we found them easily. After spending the whole morning hunting through restios along the estuary, on the outskirts of… Read More
So as I am sure you have you gathered, I could not let the little ‘sheep stabbers’ go. Instead of just finishing my honours and leaving the skaapstekers in my rear view mirror, like I did with the painted reed frogs, I decided to continue on studying the snake with the addition of everyone else in the genus. Unlike with my honours, my masters will investigate the entire genus which is ‘currently’ six… Read More
Chad Keates 