Author: Chad Keates
New Species of Rainfrog
It's not every day that you can say that you were part of the history of science, but for Luke Kemp and I, a warm summer night in Hluhluwe of this year was just one of those days. In January of this year, Luke and I attended the Herpetological Association of Africa Conference of Africa …
Science is a Collaborative Endevour
Today I received my samples back from their holiday in Amsterdam, and I am happy to announce that all but one sample worked. The samples from today coupled with the samples I received last month amount to 75 successfully sequenced samples to date. These samples, which comprise four genes, make up a large proportion of …
My skaapsteker MSc
I am roughly six months into my Master’s and this is my second post on the subject. Although I am not overly proud of my Msc coverage on the website, I am rather ‘chuffed’ with my research progress to date. My genetic samples are ‘amplifying’ and better yet, they are translating into clean, usable sequences, …
Herping the Western Cape
Recently Luke and I (Chad Keates) went on a herping adventure to the Western Cape. We stayed two night in Wilderness and one night in Oudtshoorn, and the function of the trip, as usual, was to find as many reptiles and frogs as we could. Whilst dwarf adders and ghost frogs remained high on our …
May
Cape Cobra (Naja Nivea) Family: Elapidae. Size: 1.2- 2.4m. Distribution: They are distributed throughout much of the western parts of Southern Africa with higher densities along the southern coast. They are found in all provinces except for Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Kwazulu Natal. Although present in both Namibia and Botswana, they are absent from the northern parts …
Herp Files: Puff Adder
The Herp Files was created by myself and Luke Kemp. It was created with the intention of showing off the reptiles and frogs of Southern Africa. The videos include general information about each species with interesting facts thrown in between. It is our attempt to expose the beauty of South Africa's enormous herpetological diversity while …
