Our Stories

Wits PhD candidate Azraa Ebrahim is studying the thermal physiology of a snake called a puff adder, a project that falls under the climate change focused Kalahari Endangered Ecosystem Project (KEEP).

Research by Dr Bryan Maritz into reptile ecology aims to understand which species occur at Tswalu and how those different species interact with their environment.

Marcus Westberg, a renowned photojournalist with a passion for storytelling, recently spent several weeks at Tswalu documenting his day-to-day experiences.

The Kalahari tree skink is a tree-dwelling lizard commonly found on a camel thorn or shepherd’s tree, especially common if the tree contains a sociable weaver colony.

Even though Cape cobras are quite conspicuous snakes (they are large, with colours ranging from bright yellow through speckled brown to almost black), there is still much that is not known about their ecology.

The boomslang (meaning ‘tree snake’ in Afrikaans) is regularly sighted at Tswalu, winding its way through the massive nests of sociable weavers. The snakes move from chamber to chamber, looking for food, then wedge their bodies into the chamber hole when they find the chicks or eggs they’re after.