Red List of South African Species

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Least Concern (LC)
Assessors: Bryan Maritz Marius Burger
Contributors: Werner Conradie Josh Weeber
Facilitators: Graham Alexander Krystal Tolley
Reviewers: Michael Bates Juan-Jacques Forgus Krystal Tolley Luke Verburgt

Rationale (Changed due to Criteria Revision|Knowledge of criteria)

This species is fairly widespread with and extent of occurrence greater than 122,000 km2. While there has been substantial habitat loss within its distribution, it is not considered severely fragmented and is therefore considered Least Concern.

Distribution

Endemic to the eastern parts of South Africa, from northeastern KwaZulu-Natal, southwards to East London in the Eastern Cape. It occurs as far inland as the Estcourt area in KwaZulu-Natal (Bourquin 2004), and the Amatole Mountains in the Eastern Cape (Conradie et al. 2012). The record from Kosi Bay reported in Bates et al. (2014) represents a misidentified Amblyodipsas polylepis (W. Conradie pers. comm. 2018), which means that the likelihood of this species occurring in southern Mozambique is lower than initially thought.

Decline

Moderate

Population trend

Trend

No information on population size is currently available. The population is inferred to be decreasing as habitats within this distribution are highly transformed.

Threats

Ongoing coastal development along the east coast could cause fragmentation and isolation of populations, particularly because the species is semi-fossorial and prefers forest habitats.

Uses and trade

This species is not utilized.

Conservation

No recommendations at present, although improved information regarding the possible degree of habitat fragmentation and the effects on this species would improve confidence in the assessment.  Forest patches are supposedly not getting smaller; they have been quite stable for the past 25 years.

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}
}
,@book{2817,
 address = {Cape Town},
 author = {Marais, J.},
 publisher = {Struik},
 title = {A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa},
 year = {2004}
}
,@article{5336,
 author = {Bourquin, O.},
 journal = {Durban Museum Novitates},
 pages = {57--103},
 title = {Reptiles (Reptilia) in KwaZulu-Natal: 1 - diversity and distribution},
 volume = {29},
 year = {2004}
}
,@book{10242,
 address = {Parklands, South Africa},
 author = {Broadley, D.G.},
 publisher = {Jonathan Ball and Ad. Donker Publishers},
 title = {FitzSimons' Snakes of Southern Africa},
 year = {1990}
}
,@article{110133204,
 author = {Conradie, W., Venter, J. and Nicolau, J.R.},
 journal = {African Herp News},
 pages = {19--21},
 title = {Geographical Distribution: Macrelaps microlepidotus.},
 volume = {58},
 year = {2012}
}
,]
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