Bonn zoological Bulletin 66 (2): 107–133 December 2017 The snakes of Mali Jean-François Trape1, * & Youssouph Mané1 1 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Laboratoire de Paludologie et de Zoologie Médicale, UMR MIVEGEC, B.P. 1386, Dakar, Sénégal * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. From 2004 to 2010 we sampled snakes in different localities in the Republic of Mali, West Africa. A total of 5,224 snakes belonging to 60 species were collected at 37 localities, including specimens from 18 species not reported before from this country. Based on a full account of this collection, supplemented with additional museum specimens and reliable literature reports, we present an annotated checklist of the 65 snake species currently known from Mali. Col- lecting localities for all specimens are provided and, where necessary, some taxonomical and biogeographical issues are discussed. Key words. Reptilia; Ophidia; biogeography; country checklist; venomous snakes; West Africa. INTRODUCTION chet et al. (2008). Trape & Mané (2006b) provided square- degree distribution maps for all species of snakes known The Republic of Mali is the second largest country of West from Mali and neighbouring countries, including a large Africa with 1,240,000 km2 between latitudes 10°N and part of the material here reported, but precise collecting 25°N and longitudes 12°W and 4°E. The northern part of localities were not mentioned. Sindaco et al. (2013) pro- the country is Saharan (Fig. 1), the central part is Sahe- vided square-degree distribution maps of Palaearctic lian (Fig. 2), and the southern part is Sudanese or Sudano- species distributed in northern Mali. Guinean (Figs 3–4). Elevation is low, ranging from 30 m along the banks of the Senegal River in the westernmost part of the country, to 1,155 m at the top of the highest MATERIAL AND METHODS peak in the Hombori Mounts in central Mali (Fig. 5). Even in the most elevated areas of the country, i.e. the From July 2002 to March 2010, we conducted field work Mandingue and Dogon Plateaux in south-eastern and cen- in several regions of Mali in order to collect snakes. We tral Mali, and the Adrar des Iforhas in northern Mali, el- deposited cans or buckets half filled with formaldehyde evation rarely exceeds 500 m. The country has a rich hy- or ethanol in 32 villages (Fig. 6), which were housed by drological system, with the Niger River and its tributar- the chief of the village. We asked the villagers to deposit ies that form a large inner delta in central Mali before in these containers snakes they killed when they were oc- reaching the Sahara desert then heading southeast to the casionally encountered in the vicinity of their village. A Gulf of Guinea, and with four main rivers in the upper modest award (300 CFA, i.e. approximately 0.6 US $) was Senegal River basin in the western part of the country (Ar- given for each preserved specimen. In most parts of Mali, naud & Pitte 2010). as in most parts of Africa, all species of snakes are feared Small collections of snakes from Mali, formerly Soudan and systematically killed when they are encountered. Thus, français, have been reported by Pellegrin (1909), Cha- the objective of the award was to acknowledge the effort banaud (1917), Angel (1922, 1933), de Witte (1930), An- of carrying killed snakes from surrounding fields to the derson (1935), Angel & Lhote (1938), Villiers (1950, village, but without encouraging snake research and 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1965), Joger (1981), Schät- killing. Visits to the villages were organized in April 2003, ti (1986), and Böhme et al. (1996). Papenfuss (1969) and January, June and December 2004, February, June and No- Joger & Lambert (1996) reviewed the literature recording vember 2005, January and May 2006, January, October snake and other reptile species in Mali, reported their own and December 2007, January 2008, and March 2010, to collections, and provided a country checklist with local- retrieve the specimens. During these trips we also collect- ity records for each species. Specimens from Mali were ed snakes at five additional localities. The 37 collecting included in works on certain genera or species, in partic- localities (Table 1) were distributed either in the southern ular by Roux-Estève (1974), Hughes (1976, 1977, 1983, part of the country (7 localities between 11°00’N and 1985), Broadley (1984), Wüster & Broadley (2003), Trape 11°59’N), in the central part (13 localities between & Mané (2006a), Trape et al. (2006, 2009, 2012), and Cro- 12°00’N and 14°15’N) or in the northern part of the coun- Received: 09.03.2017 Corresponding editor: Ph. Wagner Accepted: 14.09.2017 108 Jean-François Trape & Youssouph Mané Fig. 1. A typical sandy valley and wadi in the mountains of the Adrar des Iforas (19°01’N, 01°50’E). Fig. 2. View of the Sahelian vegetation in western Mali, near Samé Ouolof study village (14°33’N, 11°20’W). Bonn zoological Bulletin 66 (2): 107–133 ©ZFMK The snakes of Mali 109 Fig. 3. Sudanese savanna in eastern Mali, west of Niamasso study village (13°02’N, 05°47’W). try (17 localities between 14°16’N and 16°45’N), where RESULTS average annual rainfall ranges approximatively from 1,000–1,100 mm, 500–1,000 mm, and 200–500 mm, re- We collected a total of 5,224 specimens belonging to 60 spectively (Mahé et al. 2012). The most Saharan part of species (Table 1) and examined additional Malian speci- the country, i.e. north of 17°N, was not surveyed except mens from IFAN (one specimen) and MNHN (13 speci- during a two-week period in February 2004. Although no mens). Two additional species are known with certainty specimen was collected during these two weeks, some in- from Mali but were not represented among the specimens formation on records of Cerastes cerastes Linnaeus, 1758 that we collected or examined personally. Altogether, the and C. vipera (Linnaeus, 1758) was obtained from locals total number of snake species from Mali is 65. Coordi- (they are indicated as “sight record”). nates of collecting localities are listed in Table 1, and those Most specimens were deposited at the Institut de obtained from literature data and sight records are in Table Recherche pour le Développement (Dakar, Senegal; 2. acronym: IRD) and several specimens were donated to the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris, France; acronym: MNHN). We also examined selected Malian Family Typhlopidae Gray, 1845 specimens from the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (Dakar, Senegal; acronym: IFAN) and at the MNHN col- Afrotyphlops lineolatus (Jan, 1864) lections. Material: 12 specimens. Specimens were identified to species according to clas- Localities: Npiébougou (11), Laminina (1). sical identification keys for West African snakes (Villiers Remarks: First record for Mali. & Condamin 2005, Trape & Mané 2006b) and further tax- onomic analysis (Trape et al. 2009, Trape et al. 2012, Trape Afrotyphlops punctatus (Leach, 1819) et al., unpublished). For recent changes in snake generic Material: 21 specimens. names, we usually followed those adopted in the reptile Localities: Laminina (1), Mamoroubougou (7), Niamou database by Uetz et al. (2016) (http://www.reptile-data- (2), Npiébougou (1), Titiéna (4), Zamoko (6). base.org/). Literature record: Diafarabé (Villiers 1953). Remarks: All specimens from Mamoroubougou and one Bonn zoological Bulletin 66 (2): 107–133 ©ZFMK 110 Jean-François Trape & Youssouph Mané Table 1. Collecting localities of snakes in Mali (our study). N Locality Latitude Longitude Altitude Ecoregion No. of specimens No. of species 1 Agoudoud 15°54’N 01°13’W 320 m Sahel 42 2 Ballabougou 12°52’N 06°52’W 338 m Sudanese 15 7 3 Bamako 12°38’N 08°00’W 325 m Sudanese 11 4 Bangaya 13°14’N 10°43’W 135 m Sudanese 118 19 5 Boussouma 15°06’N 02°38’W 318 m Sahel 19 4 6 Bouyanga 14°30’N 09°38’W 278 m Sahel 305 12 7 Djinagué 12°59’N 09°52’W 305 m Sudanese 125 17 8 Donguiba 13°49’N 06°05’W 303 m Sudanese 11 9 Doro 16°08’N 00°50’W 295 m Sahel 10 2 10 Doussoudiana 11°09’N 07’48’W 365 m Sudano-Guinean 116 20 11 Gaoudel 15°59’N 04°05’W 270 m Sahel 95 7 12 Gogui (10 km S) 15°35’N 09°20’W 210 m Sahel 11 13 Gouina 14°00’N 11°06’W 70 m Sudanese 11 14 Haoussa-Foulane 15°59’N 00°08’E 256 m Sahel 74 15 Kinani 15°00’N 03°51’W 268 m Sahel 37 5 16 Koundian 13°09’N 10°40’W 170 m Sudanese 68 18 17 Koyretao 16°04’N 03°53’W 271m Sahel 55 6 18 Laminina 11°12’N 07°46’W 361 m Sudano-Guinean 160 28 19 Léré 15°43’N 04°54’N 268 m Sahel 63 20 Mamoroubougou 11°14’N 05°28’W 386 m Sudano-Guinean 1064 36 21 Niakoni 11°11’N 07°48’W 378 m Sudano-Guinean 14 7 22 Niamasso 12°59’N 05°27’W 281 m Sudanese 21 5 23 Niamou 14°01’N 08°02’W 372 m Sudanese 498 23 24 Npiébougou 11°59’N 08°00’W 367 m Sudano-Guinean 372 29 25 Sadjouroubougou 12°35’N 07°44’W 335 m Sudanese 26 10 26 Samé Ouolof 14°29’N 11°34’W 41 m Sahel 71 8 27 Saré-Soma 14°45’N 03°55’W 271 m Sahel 31 4 28 Sébékourani 12°12’N 08°42’W 386 m Sudanese 409 28 29 Séoulasso 13°14’N 04°42’W 279 m Sudanese 292 16 30 Tacharane 16°09’N 00°04’E 257 m Sahel 15 2 31 Ténintou 11°20’N 07°44’W 357 m Sudano-Guinean 11 32 Tinjemban 16°44’N 02°50’W 269 m Sahel 23 4 33 Titiéna 11°26’N 06°33’W 308 m Sudano-Guinean 376 27 34 Topokhoné 15°02’N 10°34’W 105 m Sahel 43 35 Toumboula 14°20’N 07°47’W 287 m Sahel 170 9 36 Toya 16°39’N 03°03’W 266 m Sahel 71 3 37 Zamoko 13°09’N 07°57’W 395 m Sudanese 622 25 Total 5,224 60 specimen from Laminina and Titiéna were marbled, the Localities: Doussoudiana (1), Mamoroubougou (4).