Welcome to SARCA! SARCA depends on participation and collaboration of a large number of people, including volunteers. By volunteering to help, you can make a contribution to the conservation of southern Africa's wonderful reptiles.

SARCA volunteers fall into two categories: herpetologists and non-herpetologists. These two categories are addressed separately, below.

A) Non-herpetologists

Even if you cannot tell a gecko from a crocodile, you can make a useful contribution to SARCA, provided that you have a digital camera and access to an internet connection. Our intention is to create a "virtual museum collection" of digital photographs that are linked to an accurate set of coordinates, a date, an observer's name, and a reliable species identification.

Here are seven easy steps to making a contribution to SARCA's virtual museum:

Step 1 - Find a wild reptile: Do NOT kill it or harm it in any way. Do NOT remove it from the wild or transport it away from its natural habitat. If it is a venomous snake in a place where it poses a danger to people, obtain the assistance of an expert snake catcher to move the animal to a safe place. If the animal is already dead, e.g., a roadkill, it can still be useful, provided that the head is not unrecognizably squashed.

NB: SARCA covers South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland only. However, you may submit photos from anywhere in Africa.

Step 2 - Record the exact location of the specimen: This can be done preferably with the aid of a global positioning system (GPS) or, alternatively, a good map (a 1:50 000 or 1:250 000 government map). The location MUST be recorded as follows: degree, minutes and seconds South, degrees, minutes and seconds East, e.g., 34 10 55 S, 18 33 27 E. Please make sure that the datum of your GPS is set to WGS84, the standard adopted in South Africa.

NB: Always record the southern coordinates (latitude) first and the eastern coordinates (longitude) second.
NB: The degrees and minutes must be absolutely accurate and the seconds estimated to the nearest whole second. Degrees and minutes alone, or a grid cell reference code, are NOT enough!
NB: Use seconds, not hundredths of a minute. Set your GPS readout accordingly.
NB: It is critically important that this information be recorded accurately because the record is useless without its location, and positively misleading if the location is incorrectly recorded.

Step 3 - Describe the location in words: For example: "Vrekbok Farm, 20 km north of Pofadder, Northern Cape". This information allows us to cross-check the accuracy of the coordinates.

Step 4 - Record the date: Use the format YYYY/MM/DD. This must be the date of finding and photographing the animal, not the date of submission of the record. The time of day is not necessary.

Step 5 - Take pictures of the animal: Get as close as possible while keeping the picture sharp (in focus). At least one picture should include a good view of the head. If possible, get a dorsal (the back of the animal), lateral (side) and ventral (the belly of the animal) views.

NBNB: Be extremely careful when photographing venomous snakes. Do not get within striking distance (or spitting distance, in the case of spitting cobras). It is very easy to loose track of distance when looking through the lens of a camera - BE CAREFUL! SARCA will not accept any responsibility for accidents.
NB: Pictures that are badly out of focus cannot be used.
NB: All picture files must be in JPG (jpeg) format.
NB: If your picture files are larger than 1 megabyte each, please reduce their size, otherwise they may cause the email not to send or receive properly. Start by cropping away unnecessary background.
NB: Your photographs will appear on the project website and will not be subject to copyright, i.e., people will be free to download and use them, with appropriate acknowledgment.

Step 6 - Send an email to SARCA: Attach your jpeg files, FOR ONE ANIMAL ONLY, to the message. The covering message MUST be according to the following format. Cut and paste the following lines into your email and replace the examples (outside the square brackets) with your own information. The [begin] and [end] lines remain unchanged.

[begin]
[SARCA]
[observer name] Botha W.
[coordinates latitude] 24 34 13 S
[coordinates longitude] 27 23 42 E
[locality] farm Doornhoek; Thabazimbi district.
[province] Limpopo Province
[country] South Africa
[date] 2005/08/27
[number of photos] 2
[notes]
[end]

Excepting the notes field, ALL of the information listed above MUST be provided, otherwise your photos cannot be used. The Project Coordinator will acknowledge your submission by email.

The address for submissions is: sarca@adu.org.za

NB: Do NOT send prints by post. It is too labour intensive to scan prints - we can only use digital photos. If you do the scanning yourself and email us the jpeg files, that's fine.
NB: Send no more than three pictures of any particular animal - select only your best pics.
NB: For every animal photographed, send a separate email. This is important because it avoids confusion between animals, and between the coordinates, dates and locality information for each animal.

Step 7 - Check this website: Check for acknowledgement of your record and an identification of the animal. This should be available on the relevant page of this site within 30 days of submission.

NB: Do NOT email the Project Coordinator to request feedback about your submissions - check the website. Only email if you have a major problem that is not addressed by the information provided on the website.
NB: Check the "What's new?" page on this website for news and possible changes to procedures.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR PARTICIPATION IN SARCA!

Cut and paste the following template:

[begin]
[SARCA]
[observer name]
[coordinates latitude]
[coordinates longitude]
[locality]
[province]
[country]
[date]
[number of photos]
[notes]
[end]

B) Herpetologists

If you are an experienced herpetologist, either amateur or professional, you can make an important contribution to SARCA by helping the Project Herpetologist (PH), either in the study, lab or field. (The PH is Marius Burger, a well-known herpetologist who was also involved in the frog atlas project, SAFAP).

In the study: Most herpetologists are in the habit of keeping record of their sightings in the field. Some herpetologists also have private collections of voucher specimens. These records are valuable and can make an important contribution to SARCA. We urge herpetologists to share their records with SARCA by submitting them to the Project Coordinator (sarca@adu.uct.ac.za) in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.

The columns in the spreadsheet should be as follows, from left to right: (A) unique collection/accession number, as allocated by the collector, (B) name of collector/herpetologist, (C) the date of collection, given in the form YYYY/MM/DD, (D) if available, the coordinates of the locality (degrees, minutes and seconds South, degrees, minutes and seconds East), (E) quarter-degree grid cell code, e.g., 3021DA (F) if available, a brief description of the location, e.g., Vrekbok Farm, 20 km north of Pofadder, Northern Cape, (G) species scientific name, (H) additional notes, if relevant.

Only records that you are confident are accurate in every respect should be submitted. All contributions of data will be acknowledged on the project's website and in the ultimate publication.

In the lab: The PH needs the assistance of herpetologists in the lab. Herpetologists with expert knowledge of particular reptile families are invited to help the PH to check the specimen records in various museum collections. Because many specimens were collected a long time ago, prior to many taxonomic revisions, some of the specimens are no longer correctly labelled. Specimens from groups in which this and other errors are likely to have happened, need to be carefully checked so that the data SARCA uses will be reliable.

In the field: All herpetologists, even relative beginners, can help the PH in the field. The PH will be organizing many field surveys in high priority areas (areas with insufficient data) and he will be effective only if he has the support and assistance of at least two volunteers during each trip. Trips will typically be 10 days in duration and will usually be based in relatively wild and rugged areas. Activities will include setting and clearing traps, searching roads and other likely habitats at night, excavating termitaria for fossorial species, etc.

Costs: Volunteers for both types of activity will not be paid for their time, but their costs will be covered by SARCA. This includes travel, accommodation and food expenses. However, all arrangements must be made with the PH in advance, and only those costs approved by the PH, and properly documented, will be covered.

If you want to help in the lab or in the field, please email Marius Burger (sungazer@iafrica.com) and give details.

Herpetologists can also contribute by submitting ad hoc, incidental distribution records - see below.

Volunteers assisting with fieldwork for SARCA must fill in this indemnity form (PDF, 31 Kb).