With around 175 different types of snakes in Southern Africa, the subject of their conservation status is often raised. For many snakes in remote areas of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, as well as poorly researched areas in South Africa, like parts of the Transkei, Kalahari and the central Karoo, we lack data and know little about some of the snakes that occur there.
For most of South Africa we have good data and one of the most significant conservation efforts for our snakes was the Reptile Atlas project that started more than 18 years ago. It resulted in the publication of the Reptile Atlas ā a comprehensive book in which the conservation status of every reptile in South Africa was listed with additional information, colour photographs and distribution maps. The Reptile Atlas has just been updated and the results of the various conservation assessments of our reptiles will be published soon.