Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa: All the Reptiles of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi

546 Pages·2001·43.49 MB·English

by  Spawls Stephen

"The scientist does not study nature
because it is useful, he studies it because he
delights in it, and he delights in it because
it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful,
it would not be worth knowing, and if
nature were not worth knowing, life would
not be worth living"
Henri Poincare
Scientist and Philosopher
1854-1912
A FIELD GUIDE TO THE
REPTILES
OF EAST AFRICA
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi
By
Stephen Spawls
Kim Howell
Robert Drewes
James Ashe
Consultants:
Alex Duff-MacKay
Harald Hinkel
A & C BLACK • LONDON
Published 2004 by A & C Black Publishers Ltd.,
38 Soho Square, London, W1D 3HB
www.acblack.com
Copyright © 2002, 2004 by A & C Black Publishers Ltd.
Reprinted with corrections 2002
Reprinted with corrections 2004
Reprinted 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7136-6817-9
All Rights Reserved.
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Front cover picture courtesy Colin Tilbury
Designed and Typeset by Elaine C Monaghan
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Printed and bound by RDC in Hong Kong
109 8 76 5 4
Contents
About the Authors 6
Introductory Essays
List of Maps and Line Drawings 7
Preface 8
Sources and Acknowledgements 9
Further Reading on East African Reptiles 11
How to Use this Book 13
Reptiles in the East African Environment 14
The Zoogeography of the East African Reptile Fauna 16
Observing and Collecting Reptiles 20
Reptile Conservation, the Role of National Parks and Museums 23
Identifying Reptiles 25
Common Names 27
Photographing Reptiles 28
Notes on the Husbandry of East African Reptiles 29
What are Reptiles? 30
Species Accounts
Chelonians 34
Lizards 66
Worm Lizards 256
Crocodiles 268
Snakes 278 •
Reptile Biology Illustrations 497
Reptile Habitat Illustrations 500
Appendices
Notes on Snakebite 504
Local Names 512
Gazetteer 515
Glossary 528
References 534
Scientific Index 535
Common Name Index 539
A Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa
About the Authors
Stephen Spawls Robert Drewes,
was bom in London a former resident of Kenya,
but when he was four is Curator and Chairman
went to live in Kenya; of the Department of
he lived there 17 Herpetology, California
years, in Meru and Academy of Sciences in
in Nairobi, where he San Francisco. He is the
attended St. Mary's School. Herpetology is his author of numerous
major interest - he caught his first chameleon at scientific publications
the age of six. His publications include a on the natural history,
checklist of the snakes of Kenya and a evolutionary relationships and biogeography
checklist (with Damaris Rotich) of the lizards of African reptiles and amphibians. During
of Kenya, a book about his snake-hunting the past three decades he has led research
adventures in Kenya, and a book (with BUI expeditions and/or travelled through 31
Branch) on Africa's dangerous snakes. He has African countries, Madagascar and the
lived and worked in Ghana, Botswana and Seychelles Islands. He is a Research Professor
Egypt. At present, he lives in Addis Ababa, of Biology at San Francisco State University, a
Ethiopia, with his wife and two sons, where he Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, a
is vice-president of the Ethiopian Wildlife and Research Associate of the National Museums
Natural History Society and teaches physics of Kenya and the Department of Zoology,
and mathematics for a living. University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
His wife and four children have all travelled
to Africa with him on various occasions.
Kim Howell James Ashe
completed his B.Sc. at was bom in Cyprus
Cornell University in 1967 in 1925. He was
and immediately went to educated partly in
Zambia and then Tanzania, Cyprus and partly in
to teach in secondary England. He left
schools for political refugees school at 17 during
from the southern African the Second World War and served with the
countries which had not yet Parachute Regiment. He left the army in 1947
achieved independence. He and trained as a mining engineer. He only went
joined the staff of the University of Dar es where the animals were interesting, working
Salaam in 1970 and completed his Ph.D. thesis for a year in Peru and left by boat down the
on the ecology of insectivorous bats in 1976. Amazon. In Kenya he built a private snake
Since 1989 he has been Professor in the park at home and accepted the post of Curator
Department of Zoology & Marine Biology. He of Herpetology at the National Museum in
has wide interests in vertebrate zoology and has 1964. He went to the USA to build and run
written numerous scientific publications. With Safari Parks and thence to Oxford to work on
D. G. Broadley, he is co-author of a key and water-bugs but returned to Kenya in 1980 to
checklist of Tanzanian reptiles. In addition to run BIO-KEN snake farm on the Kenya coast.
membership of regional and international The farm co-operates with a number of
professional and conservation bodies, he has different organisations and runs two yearly
served as Chairman of the IUCNSSC African seminars mainly for the medical profession on
Reptile & Amphibian Specialists' Working the reduction of deaths by snakebite. The farm
Group, is co-representative for the Declining also supplies antivenom free to people who
Amphibian Population Task force in Tanzania, a cannot afford to pay for it.
member of the CITES Animals Committee, and
is a founding member of the Wildlife
Conservation Society of Tanzania.
6
List of Maps and Line Drawings
Consultant Alex Duff-MacKay was bom in Consultant Harald Hinkel grew up in a small
Mombasa, Kenya in 1939. He attended St. village in south-west Germany inside a
Mary's School, Nairobi and the University of military reservation. At the age of four, when
Rhodes, E. Cape. Initially a forest entomologist questioned about what he wanted to become
with the East African Community, he later in his life, he would reply, "Go lion-catching
joined the Coryndon Museum (now the in Africa." His first contact with reptiles was
National Museum). A lifelong naturalist, he at the age of nine, when he caught a Coronella
began at the museum as a mammalogist and austriaca which awoke an interest in these
later founded the Department of Herpetology animals. He soon started making cages and
and Icthyology. He has many interests, keeping reptiles and amphibians. His
including recreational scientific career and life was dramatically
mathematics, physics, influenced by war and the genocide in
astronomy and sea Rwanda in 1994. Ever since, he has been
navigation, geology, active in emergency relief work. He has been
meteorology, scorpions and married to Rwandan wife Claudine since
lutherie. He was awarded 1991.
the presidential honour,
the Order of the Burning
Spear in 1999.
List of Maps and Line Drawings
Map 1 East Africa showing localities of Fig. 17 Head scales of Loveridgea, from above.
prominent places mentioned in the text. Page 258
Page 15 Fig. 18 Head scales of Chirindia, from below.
Map 2 Altitudes of East Africa. Page 15 Page 258
Map 3 Vegetation types of East Africa. Page 15 Fig. 19 Head scales of a blind snake, side view.
Page 282
Fig. 1 The upper shield (carapace) of a tortoise Fig. 20 Head scales of a blind snake, from
shell. Page 38 below. Page 282
Fig. 2 The under shield (plastron) of a tortoise Fig. 21 Head scales of a blind snake, from
shell. Page 38 above. Page 282
Fig. 3 The upper shield (carapace) of a turtle. Fig. 22 Head scales of a worm snake, side
Page 46 view. Page 298
Fig. 4 The under shield (plastron) of a turtle. Fig. 23 Head scales of a worm snake, from
Page 46 above. Page 298
Fig. 5 Lizard stripes. Page 69 Fig. 24 Head scales of a worm snake, from
Fig. 6 Lizard head scales - side view. Page 69 below. Page 298
Fig. 7 Lizard head scales - from above. Page 69 Fig. 25 Head scales of a colubrid snake, side
Fig. 8 Lizard head scales - from below. Page 69 view. Page 312
Fig. 9 Lizard pores. Page 69 Fig. 26 Head scales of a colubrid snake, from
Fig. 10 Keeled imbricate lizard scales with above. Page 312
pores. Page 70 Fig. 27 Snake tail anal and subcaudal scales.
Fig. 11 Granular scales with enlarged Page 312
tubercular scales. Page 70 Fig. 28 How to count the dorsal scale rows of
Fig. 12 Mucronate scales. Page 70 a snake, count obliquely, V = ventral scale.
Fig. 13 Cycloid scales, tricarinate and smooth. Page 312
Page 70 Fig. 29 How to start the ventral count for a
Fig. 14 Chameleon anatomy. Page 208 snake; start with the first ventral that touches
Fig. 15 Chameleon horn types. Page 208 the lowest dorsal scale row. Page 313
Fig. 16 Head scales of Chirindia, side view. Fig. 30 Unkeeled dorsal scales. Page 313
Page 258 Fig. 31 Keeled dorsal scales. Page 313
7
A Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa
Preface
We have prepared this book to meet a campsite in a forest, in a relatively well-
major need in East Africa; it is the first collected area in Tanzania.
book to list and describe all the East African
reptiles and map their distributions, as known Our species descriptions are incomplete. The
at present. We have also tried to illustrate as word "unknown" appears quite often. There
many species as possible, some are missing, are reptiles in East Africa that have not been
many have never been photographed, some seen alive by a zoologist since they were first
have not been seen alive in 50 or more years. described, in many cases more than a century
ago. In this book are described species that
We have all been involved, for over 30 years, in none of us has ever seen or collected; we have
East African herpetology. We have all been had to use the field notes - where they exist - of
asked by members of the public, many times, the first collector. We have tried to avoid
questions like "what sort of snake is this ?" or repeating, where there is no supporting
"what sort of tortoises can you find here ?" or evidence, some of the earnestly repeated myths
"how many dangerous snakes are there in my of African herpetology, such as the 9 metre
area ?", "where can I find a picture of this python, or the 4.5 metre Black Mamba.
lizard ?" and, most often of all, "where can I However, often, in our species accounts, we
find out more ?". This book is an attempt to have had to repeat the words of earlier authors,
answer some of these questions, to share our simply because no recent information is
experience of East Africa's reptiles. We available on that species. And still virtually
sincerely hope it will be useful to all those nothing is known of the lifestyles of most East
whose work and pleasure involves them with African reptiles.
our remarkable and beautiful reptile fauna.
In addition, the people of East Africa have long
This book is not the "last word". There will recognised the special value of reptiles: some,
never be a last word in East African such as sea turtles, are valued for food, the skins
herpetology. And it will be quickly out of date. of monitors and pythons are used for drums
Very little is known; study of East Africa's and various reptile parts are used as medicine.
reptiles is still in the primary stage. The A few are deemed sacred or feature as spirits
taxonomy is undergoing dramatic revision. which protect sacred places such as water
The relationships between various groups, sources. The most venomous of snakes, as well
genera and species is unclear, and the as, unfortunately, many harmless snakes and
systematists working with these animals are the innocuous chameleons, are also greatly
hampered by a lack of museum specimens; feared. Other reptiles, such as the house gecko
many of our reptiles are known from a total of and dwarf geckoes, are among the most
five or less museum specimens. The familiar of animals, even to urban dwellers.
distributions are incomplete. Huge areas of Others, such as crocodiles, while valued for
East Africa have never been visited by a their skins, may be a threat to humans and
herpetologist, let alone sampled. There are livestock. Regardless of one's point of view,
many unrecorded and undescribed reptiles yet reptiles are always interesting and guaranteed
to be found. Hence our maps, while to stimulate conversation. Probably no other
assimilating as much information as is group of animals is maligned more and suffers
available, are incomplete because there are more from fear and superstition than reptiles.
areas from which there is simply no data We hope that this book will help to counteract
available. Even supposedly well-known areas this fear and superstition.
are often unknown in herpetological terms;
recently one of us, after just completing a check­ There is still much work to be done. The field
list of Kenyan lizards, visited the Masai Mara of East African herpetology is under­
and recorded there two species of agama new to developed. Few workers are active in it. The
Kenya. Yet both species were obvious in the active enthusiast, be they layperson or scientist,
area. Another of the authors recently described can make a big contribution. Read the section
a new species of treefrog common on a famous on "Observing and Collecting Reptiles". Get
rock in the Serengeti and a third author found a into the field. Observe, document, photograph
species of snake new to science while clearing a and collect. Get in contact with zoologists at
Sources and Acknowledgements
local institutions (a list of these is given). East African reptile fauna. They can be
Assemble the data before the habitats and their contacted as follows:
inhabitants disappear. Publish your data. If we
have made mistakes, or our data is incomplete, •Stephen Spawls: 44 Templemere, Norwich
then the scientific community needs to know. NR3 4EF, England, e-mail stevespawls
This book is a first attempt, and, to adapt the ©hotmail.com
words of Bill Branch, who wrote Southern
Africa's first comprehensive reptile field guide, •Kim Howell: Department of Zoology and
"you can't throw a dart until you have a Marine Biology, the University of Dar Es
dartboard." Salaam, PO Box 35064, Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, e-mail [email protected]
Stephen Spawls
Robert Drewes •Robert Drewes: Department of
Kim Howell Herpetology, the California Academy of
James Ashe Science, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco,
Alex Duff-MacKay California, USA 94118. e-mail
Harald Hinkel [email protected]
The authors are always interested to learn of •James Ashe: Bio-Ken, PO Box 3, Watamu,
new discoveries and records concerning the Kenya, e-mail [email protected]
Sources and Acknowledgements
A book like this owes a considerable, indirect exceptions - men such as Jumbe Kimemeta
debt to three main sources: the early and Mohamed Hassan, formidable organisers
adventurers who explored and collected in - but without their sterling efforts, be it as
what was then a harsh and dangerous land, the porters, guides, soldiers, interpreters and
institutions and their personnel who received administrators, no expedition could have
and curated those collections, and the taken place.
professional zoologists and authors who came
later in expeditions, collected specimens and To the museums and institutions that
published on their findings. house important East African collections, and
to their curators, past and present, we
First to the explorers. In today's world of anti- owe a debt. Such institutions include the
malarial drugs, antibiotics, motor vehicles, British Museum of Natural History now
plastic containers and lightweight safari the Natural History Museum (BMNH), the
equipment, it is difficult to imagine what it National Museum of Kenya (NMK),
would have been like to walk from the coast to the University of Dar es Salaam
Lake Turkana, or from Tanga to Lake (UDSM), the California Academy of Sciences
Tanganyika. Among those early pioneers, (CAS), the Natural History Museum of
those who made important contributions to Zimbabwe (NMZ), the Field Museum
East African herpetology include Gustav of Natural History in Chicago (FMNH),
Fischer, Emin Pasha (Dr Eduard Schnitzer), the American Museum of Natural
Count Samuel Teleki, Ludwig von Hohnel, History in New York (AMNH), the Museum
Arthur Donaldson Smith, William Astor of Comparative Zoology at Harvard (MCZ),
Chanler, Arthur Neumann, Vittorio Bottego, the National Museum of Natural History (the
Prince Eugenio Ruspoli, Dr David Smithsonian) in Washington (USNM),
Livingstone, Sir John Kirk and Carlo Citerni. the Koninklijk Museum voor Midden
Many of these intrepid souls died in Africa, or Afrika in Tervuren, Belgium (RGMC),
returned to their homes, their health broken, the Senckenbergische naturforschende
never fully to recover. We should also like to Gesellschaft in Frankfurt (SMF) and the
acknowledge those largely unsung heroes, Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum
those East African men and women who Alexander Koenig in Bonn (ZFMK). Present
accompanied the European adventurers. Their and recent curators and administrators who
names are mostly unrecorded, with a few directly helped us include Alan Resetar
9
A III IP (, I ii m ro i Ml Ki rill IS' I
(FMNH), Linda Forxi (AMNH), lion and Shiela Many important specimens were collected in
Broadley (NMZ), Alice Grandison, Garth southern Tanzania in the 19S0* and 1%0s by
Underwood, Nick Arnold, Colin McCarthy CJ.P. lonides, known to his friends as "Iodine"
and Barry Clark (BMNH), Jens Vindum and or simply, 'The Snakeman" His collections,
Alan Leviton (CAS), Charles Msuva (UDSM), distributed in various museums, have greatly
Jose Rosado (MCZ), Wolfgang Bohme (ZFMK), clarified the herpetological situation in
Damaris Rotich, Patrick Malonza, Michael southern Tanzania; over 90 % of all known
Cheptumo, Peter Nares, Jonathan Leakey, specimens of a number of endemic species
Richard Leakey, Pius Matolo and Jackson lha were collected by this remarkable enthusiast
(NMK), and Danny Meirte at the Koninklijk and hunter, whose eccentric lifestyle has
Museum voor Midden Afrika in Tervuren, provided the material for several books.
Belgium.
We would also like to acknowledge our friends
We relied heavily on the work of professional and colleagues who have helped directly with
collectors and authors, whose field expeditions this book. Our field companions, such as Ian
and books have provided much of the MacKay, Glenn Mathews, C harles Msuya,
groundwork for our own efforts. Initial Jackson lha, Kit Boyd, Jens Vindum and Colin
mention should go to Arthur Lovoridge, the Tilbury. Jonathan and Timothy Spawls
father of East African herpetology. Loveridge collected a number of the animals illustrated in
collected extensively in East Africa between this hook, and Jonathan drew the illustrations.
the start of the first world war and the second, A lot of people lent us their precious slides, or
and then curated the collection at Harvard (one allowed us to photograph their animals; they
of the finest East African collections) for include Joe Beraducci, Colin Tilbury, Wulf
another 30 years. As well as personally Haacke, Bill Branch, John Tashjian, Mike
collecting and assembling the collection, he Klemens, Dave Morgan, Chris Wild, Dietmar
published over 150 papers on East African Emmrich, Wolfgang Bohme, Barry Hughes,
reptiles, including major checklists and Gerald Dunger, Don Broadley, Dave Blake, Jens
revisions of many groups. We have made Rasmussen, Peter Gravlund, Dong Lin, Fiona
continuous use of his East African checklist. Alexander, Alan Channing, Dave Showier,
Many of his important works are listed Mike McClaren, Paul Freed, Paul Coates
in Ken Welch's useful book Herpetology of Palgrave, Jens Vindum, Steve Irwin, Lorenzo
Africa, (1982; Krieger publishers, Florida). In Vinciguerra, Deone Naud£, Lynn and Barry
addition to the works listed in our section Bell, Michael Cheptumo, Dave Brownlee, Carl
entitled "Further Reading on East African Ernst and George Zug. Individual photographs
Reptiles", other significant literature sources are also credited to the photographer at the
on East African reptiles include Ernst and back of this book. In connection with the
Barbour's Turtles of the WorW (Smithsonian photographs, we'd particularly like to thank
Institute Press; 1989), Barbour and Loveridge's Joe Beraducci, who allowed us unrestricted
major study of the reptiles of the Eastern Arc access and time to photograph his superb
Mountains A comparative study of the private collection in Arusha, in this we
herpetological fauna of the Uluguru and were helped by Anderson Mark; Lorenzo
Usambara Mountains, Tanganyika Territory Vinciguerra, who, as well as lending us many
(1928; memoir 50 of the Museum of lovely slides, went to Rubondo Island to find
Comparative Zoology at Harvard, pp 87-265), out what was there; Mehmood and Shawn
three major herpetological studies in national Qureishy, of Spectrum Colour Lab in Nairobi,
parks in the Democratic Republic of the who developed, with great care, most of the
Congo and a seminal work on central African pictures in this book and Deone Naud£, of
chameleons, all by Gaston de Witte (details Meserani Snake Park, who handled with
in Welch), plus a number of important aplomb deadly snakes as we photographed
revisionary papers on forest and woodland them, and told us when we were getting too
snakes by Jens Rasmussen, at the University close. Drs David Warrell and Colin Tilbury cast
of Copenhagen. Information on crocodiles their expert eyes over our snakebite section,
came from two excellent books, Discoveries of and David Warrell kindly did a final updating
a Crocodile Man by Tony Pooley (Collins, for us on that. Betty Muzee, Patrick Malonza
Cape Town, 1983) and Eyelids of Morning by and Damaris Rotich found out local names for
Alistair Graham and Peter Beard (New York us. David Brownlee, Rick Shine, Barry Hughes,
Graphic Society: Greenwich, 1973). John Greatwood, Yehudah Werner and
10