Greetings and Salutationssssss

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Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby bitis s2 » Mon Apr 15, 2013 11:27 pm

Thought I'd better find the time to introduce myself to the group at large.

The name is Stu, originally from Aberdeen, Scotland but been living in Namibia now for the past 2 years. I am a wildlife biologist and am just awaiting final approval from the MET for my research permit to start a tracking program for puff adders removed from areas of snake-human conflict. I will be attaching small VHF transmitters (externally - NOT doing internal surgical implantation) then following their movements to monitor any homing instinct and survival post-translocation.

This will be the initial foray into herp research in central Namibia, with other exciting project proposals in the pipeline if all goes well. Watch this space

P.S. any other herp researchers out there that are willing to share their thoughts and experiences please give me a shout.

Stu
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Re: Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby najarw » Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:30 am

Welcome Stu
It's always good to hear there are research initiatives out there
All the best
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Re: Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby insaniac » Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:40 am

Welcome bro,

Your research field sounds very interesting.

Good luck with your pending approval and with the tracking endeavour.

Post some updates from time to time... ?
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Re: Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby michael » Tue Apr 16, 2013 9:07 am

Wow, that will be some interesting research, I hope you will keep us updated with the results. I believe there was a similar study done in Australia with tiger snakes. Good luck and welcome here, I hope you learn a lot and enjoy your stay.
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Re: Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby gekosin » Tue Apr 16, 2013 9:12 am

Sounds awesome, how do you attach the transmitters?
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Re: Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby Bushviper » Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:07 pm

Very cool research. In Mpumalanga they are doing something similar with black mambas but using microchips and hoping to recapture snakes. Your method will show results so much quicker. Good luck with that.
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Re: Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby bitis keeper » Tue Apr 16, 2013 6:54 pm

Howsit stu! francois here looking forword to the project any news on the molds of the trackers yet?
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Re: Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby bitis s2 » Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:39 pm

Thanks all for the warm welcome, muchly appreciated. I will try to post updates as I am able (of course much of it I will not be able to make public until after publishing). This kind of work has been done in Oz with tiger snakes, yes michael, and also in the US with rattlesnakes also.
@ gekosin; I am looking into different attachment compounds; super glue is the first obvious one however this degrades too quickly, so I will probably have to look at different epoxys or something in that vein.
@ bushviper; I will also be using PIT tags and ventral scale clipping as redundant back-ups for ID in case of transmitter loss so mark & recapture will form part of the project.

Howsit Francois - no news yet but should be forthcoming now the permit has been approved - YES the final approval came through today so everything is good to go.
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Re: Greetings and Salutationssssss

Postby Bushbaby » Wed Apr 17, 2013 9:11 am

Welcome to the forum.

I hope you will enjoy your stay with us. I trust that you can most definitely add value to this forum. I hope we can be of assistance to you as well.
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