Arnold Slabbert News Today

Using the social media video and pictures as a guide, three Nelson Mandela Bay snake experts confirmed this was a South African rock python. The experts were Bayworld herpetologist Dr Werner Conradie, wildlife rescue expert Arnold Slabbert and professional snake catcher Mark Marshall.

The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality is to pursue the alleged transgression of a land use bylaw against a Parsons Vlei sand and stone quarry while the department of water & sanitation will investigate the legality of the operation. The two authorities were responding to concerns about the mine owned by Metro Quarries which was approved by the department of mineral resources & energy and energy (DMRE) nearly a decade ago.

A mysterious crop of “boulders” has mushroomed on Pollok Beach, revealing another strand in the Friendly City’s unique maritime history.

The bokke came out to play in Summerstrand this week, or at least one of them did, when a mountain reedbuck found its way into a residential complex. Fortunately the animal was recaptured, after a few side steps and a tackle, and released into a conservation area it once inhabited. Wildlife rescue expert Arnold Slabbert of Wildline and Urban Raptor was alerted by Summerwood Crescent resident Gareth de Ridder to the buck in the burbs on Monday.

A needle-in-a-haystack hunt for a threatened missing raptor ended in triumph and sadness and highlighted again the problems caused by the Papiesfontein land invasion.

When nature called on Tuesday, a woman employee at the Port of Port Elizabeth could not have imagined having a close encounter with a caracal in a toilet cubicle.

The metro is pumping water out Lovemore Lake in Mount Pleasant after concerns were raised about the anticipated weekend downpour which could lead to flooding.

A veteran urban wildlife conservationist has commented on the recent furore over the shooting of Egyptian geese, saying shooting culls are needed to reduce the ecological and human health problems the species is causing.

The growing threat to wildlife from illegal hunting with dogs was highlighted on Friday in a startling incident in the Swartkops Estuary.

It was starving and near death, but thanks to a call from a concerned Motherwell resident and swift intervention by a Gqeberha conservation organisation, a young secretary bird was saved — and on Wednesday released to stalk through the grasslands another day.