Red List of South African Species

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Least Concern (LC)
Assessors: Bryan Maritz
Contributors: Michael Bates Josh Weeber
Facilitators: Graham Alexander Krystal A Tolley Ranmali De Silva Harriet Milligan Oliver Wearn Sally Wren Tara Zamin Jennifer Sears Penny Wilson Sarah Lewis Paul Lintott Gary Powney
Reviewers: Michael Bates Juan-Jacques Forgus Krystal A Tolley Luke Verburgt

Rationale (Changed due to Same category and criteria)

Apparently widely distributed in an area of low human population density and few threats, hence is assessed as Least Concern. In a few areas it may be affected by habitat loss due to agriculture and mining. This species is very poorly known. For example, there is only a single record on reproduction: a captive female laid three eggs (Bates et al. 2014). Even basic distribution data are lacking, making it difficult to assess this species based on habitat type.

Distribution

Endemic to South Africa where it is known only from the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape provinces (Barts et al. 2012, Bates et al. 2014). The range extends from near Steinkopf in the western Northern Cape, southwards to near Worcester in the Western Cape, then eastwards to near Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape. The latter locality refers to a Virtual Museum record (Bates et al. 2014) and represents the first record of the species in the Eastern Cape. The species may also occur north of the Orange River in southern Namibia.

Decline

Current information (few records from widespread localities) does not allow for inference of Severe Fragmentation. Any fragmentation is unlikely to be anthropogenic.

Population trend

Trend

No information on population size is currently available, but population is suspected to be stable.

Threats

National Landcover data (Geo Terra 2015) shows relatively little habitat transformation in this species range. The central portion of the range does have a relatively large amount of transformation due to large scale agriculture. The northern portion has a minor impact from mining.

Uses and trade

This species is not extensively utilized, however, specimens are occasionally found in the pet trade.

Conservation

There are few records of this species, despite its wide range. The range only coincides with one protected area. Better locality records would improve knowledge of range, and its habitat associations. Given the species is not well-known,  research into the ecology of the species would be useful to understand whether threats to habitat could be of impact.

References 

[@electronic{181632,
 address = {www.iucnredlist.org},
 author = {IUCN},
 title = {The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2018-2},
 year = {2018}
}
,@book{612,
 address = {Pretoria},
 author = {Bates, M.F., Branch, W.R., Bauer, A.M., Burger, M., Marais, J., Alexander, G.J. and de Villiers, M.S.},
 publisher = {Suricata 1. South African National Biodiversity Institute},
 title = {Atlas and Red List of the Reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland},
 year = {2014}
}
,@book{2817,
 address = {Cape Town},
 author = {Branch, W.R.},
 publisher = {Struik Publishers},
 title = {Field Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Second Edition},
 year = {1998}
}
,@article{11227,
 author = {Barts, M., Schneider, C., Boone, J., Marais, J., Branch, W. R. and Haacke, W. D.},
 journal = {Sauria},
 number = {2},
 pages = {41--51},
 title = {<i>Lamprophis fiskii</i> Boulenger, 1887 (Ophidia, Colubroidea, Lamprophiidae: Lamprophiinae), eine selten gefundene Hausschlange aus Sudafrika},
 volume = {34},
 year = {2012}
}
,@techreport{11227,
 author = {Geo Terra Image},
 title = {Technical Report: 2013/2014 South African National Land Cover Dataset version 5. Pretoria},
 year = {2015}
}
,]
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