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SARCA Newsletter No. 6

April 2007

Dear SARCAlites

As you know, members of the public are making a substantial contribution to SARCA. They are doing this by helping the Project Herpetologist, Marius Burger, in the field, and by submitting photographs of reptiles seen in the wild to the SARCA Virtual Museum (VM). The VM is, to our knowledge, a unique innovation that has great potential to be used in a variety of other biodiversity surveys. It is the contributors to SARCA who have demonstrated its potential.

In this newsletter I want to give you some interesting statistics about the VM that provide an indication of how we are doing in this aspect of SARCA. Note that all of the following stats are drawn from only the first 2000 records in the VM.

1) Number of contributing observers: 329 observers

2) Number of quarter-degree grid cells included: 451 grid cells (22%)

3) The grid cells with the most records submitted are:

  • 3318DC 59
  • 3418AB 41
  • 2431DC 38
  • 2431CD 31
  • 3322AC 30
  • 3322CA 30
  • 3318CD 29
  • 3124DC 29
  • 2732CA 28
  • 3418BD 27
  • 3422BB 26
  • 3418AD 26
  • 2917CA 25
  • 2530BB 19
  • 2330AA 19
  • 2530BD 18
  • 2430DD 18
  • 3322CC 18
  • 3420AD 18
  • 3030CD 17
  • 4) Number of species included: 208 species (~50% of the species in the atlas region)

    5) Number of records identified to date: 1545 records (77%)

    6) The 30 most commonly recorded species, and their numbers of records, are:

  • 1490 Agama atra Southern Rock Agama 95
  • 5540 Geochelone pardalis Leopard Tortoise 70
  • 5530 Chersina angulata Angulate Tortoise 55
  • 5410 Bitis arietans Puff Adder 50
  • 4540 Pseudaspis cana Mole Snake 49
  • 1570 Acanthocercus atricollis Southern Tree Agama 44
  • 0230 Hemidactylus mabouia Moreau's Tropical House Gecko 41
  • 0320 Lygodactylus capensis Cape Dwarf Gecko 34
  • 2450 Trachylepis punctatissima Montane Speckled Skink 31
  • 2360 Trachylepis margaritifer Rainbow Skink 31
  • 2480 Trachylepis varia Variable Skink 29
  • 2310 Trachylepis capensis Cape Skink 29
  • 1410 Chamaeleo dilepis Flap-neck Chameleon 29
  • 2430 Trachylepis striata Eastern Striped Skink 28
  • 5340 Naja nivea Cape Cobra 28
  • 0550 Pachydactylus geitje Ocellated Thick-toed Gecko 28
  • 4320 Lamprophis capensis Brown House Snake 27
  • 1100 Afrogecko porphyreus Marbled Leaf-toed Gecko 25
  • 1220 Varanus albigularis Rock or White-throated Monitor 25
  • 4960 Psammophylax rhombeatus Spotted or Rhombic Skaapsteker 25
  • 4510 Duberria lutrix Common Slug-eater 22
  • 4560 Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia Herald or Red-lipped Snake 22
  • 2470 Trachylepis sulcata sulcata Western Rock Skink 19
  • 4690 Dispholidus typus Boomslang 19
  • 2060 Acontias meleagris Cape Legless Skink 17
  • 2340 Trachylepis homalocephala Red-sided Skink 16
  • 2490 Trachylepis variegata Variegated Skink 16
  • 4750 Dasypeltis scabra Common or Rhombic Egg-eater 16
  • 1830 Pedioplanis burchelli Burchell's Sand Lizard 15
  • 4070 Python natalensis Southern African Python 15
  • 7) The observers who have submitted the most records are:

  • Diedericks G., 100
  • Scammell I., 93
  • Dorse C. & van Rooyen S., 86
  • Badenhorst W.J., 65
  • Le Roux E.R., 60
  • Grundlingh F., 54
  • Els J.C., 53
  • Botha W., 51
  • Bowker M.B., 50
  • Douglas M., 49
  • Phelps T., 48
  • Rebelo A., 42
  • Marais A., 37
  • Braat P., 37
  • Theron J. & Diedericks G., 35
  • Deacon A.R., 28
  • Witberg M., 27
  • Armstrong Q., 24
  • Haacke W.D., 24
  • Van Wyk A.J., 24
  • Phelps T.; Els J.C. & Bezuidenhout R., 24
  • Manson A., 23
  • Webster K., 20
  • Honiball D., 20
  • Witberg M. & Parker L., 19
  • Opperman G.J., 19
  • Tomsett G., 19
  • Pfeifer H., 18
  • Kruger A., 17
  • Maguire D., 17
  • Personally, I feel that these stats indicate a most laudable contribution by SARCAlites, a contribution that will undoubtedly expand our knowledge of the distributions of species within the atlas region, and contribute to our assessment of their conservation status. However, it is also clear that the number of contributors, and the number of grid cells they are managing to record from, are still relatively small. I would like, therefore, to urge you to pass the word on to your friends and associates, and especially to your herpetological/botanical/birding/wildlife/hiking/mountaineering clubs and societies, that we are very keen to welcome them into the SARCA fold and to receive their observations of wild reptiles. Please always refer them to the SARCA website so that they can get the method of submission correct from the start.

    The SARCA VM is already closing in on the 3000-record mark, largely as a result of your excellent response to the VM Competition. I will soon supply you with the results of that competition. In the meantime, keep those cameras clicking!

    For me, stuck in my office, it has been a huge pleasure to enjoy your field experiences vicariously through your VM records. Long may they continue to stream in!

    Best wishes

    James A. Harrison

     

      

    [ Document posted on 28 August 2007 ]

        December 3, 2024, 11:02 am