Ruaha National Park launches groundbreaking research initiative on snakes in Tanzania

Arusha. Ruaha National Park is pioneering the first dedicated special research on snakes to study the variety of species as well as the specific behaviours of the reptiles in Tanzania.

Speaking at Ruaha, the Tanzania National Parks’ Senior Conservation Officer, MarckyFarreny Rwezaula, revealed that the research on the species and the number of snakes found in the National Park has started.

She, however, did not divulge when the research would be accomplished, but once it is done, it will probably be the first serious study on snakes to be conducted in Tanzania, if not the entire East African region.

“While snakes evoke fear in many people, there are also a significant number of individuals who are intrigued by these creatures,” she said.

This fascination is evident in the hundreds of visitors who frequent the snake park in Meserani, Arusha, as well as the thousands who tour the Nairobi Snake Park in Kenya.

Gasper Kahabi is the Conservation Officer Grade II in the Tourism Department at Ruaha National Park, and he points out that diversifying tourism products in the conservancy will help boost the number of visitors.

Ruaha, the second-largest national park in Tanzania after Nyerere, spans across 20,000 square kilometres, with over 70 percent of its vast area yet to be fully explored.

The conservancy is home to an estimated 15 species of reptiles, including oversized crocodiles and a variety of snakes currently under study.

Ruaha is home to the highly feared Boomslang snake, a dangerous reptile whose venom causes its victim’s blood to not only stop clotting but to come running out of every hole on your body.

According to the report by the ‘Save the Snake’ organisation, there are more than 420 species of reptiles, among them snakes, in East Africa.

Many of the snakes found in Tanzania and East Africa happen to be endemic, especially those slithering in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Morogoro.

Tanzania supports a diverse variety of snakes, including some of the world’s most venomous species, such as black mambas, cobras, and puff adders.

However, zoologists from various institutions around the world confirm that there are very few, if any, studies done on snakes in East Africa.

The only authoritative paper about the most common snakes in Tanzania was posthumously published in 1975 by the former Scientific Officer of Tanzania National Parks, Desmond Foster Vesey-FitzGerald.

Apart from that, there have been very few published accounts that include collections of snakes from other regions of Tanzania.

In 1991, scientists Donald Broadley and Kim Howell published the Checklist of Reptiles in Tanzania in order to build an understanding of the biogeographical and macro-ecological relationships of the East African herpetofauna.

However, other than that, no detailed survey of the snake fauna of the country has been carried out so far.

Apart from snakes, Ruaha National Park is also home to 15,000 giant elephants, over 20,000 buffaloes, 575 bird species, and more than 300 ostriches, as well as prides of rather big lions.