Black Mamba Research Project
Black Mambas (Dendroaspis polylepis) have for the longest time been vilified by mainstream media and the general public as a whole. Much of this can be attributed to their reputation as being “aggressive and confrontational” which is more often than not exaggerated or misinterpreted by fearful “victims” and perpetuated by the uninformed.
ARK-KZN’s primary focus is education and for this to succeed it needs to be based on documented and researched facts. It is in this light that the above project is being conducted. There is currently no consolidated database of information pertaining to reptiles in KwaZulu-Natal. ARK-KZN has the capability and critical member knowledge to establish and maintain such a database.
Our aim with this project is to micro-chip each Black Mamba (>1.8 m) caught by nominated catchers in order to establish growth rates, migratory patterns, territorial behaviour, reptile – human confrontations and all relevant geographical data.
To date an amount of 51 Black Mambas have been caught, recorded, micro-chipped and released thus far . With this being a long term project we can expect this number to rise significantly over the coming years.