120 Years in 120 Objects
Join the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in celebrating the museumโs 120th year of orbiting the sun. Staff and guest curators have chosen one object or item per year of our existence to highlight to the public. Visit the website and our social media platforms regularly to see the latest object and keep an eye out for information about a physical exhibition later this year!
Todayโs Object is from 1967
The Missing Snake by Matabaro Ziganira, Research Technician, General Collections
This rare cream-spotted mountain snake (Montaspis gilvomuculata) is endemic to the north-central Drakensberg Mountains in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Only four specimens are known and were collected between 1967 and 1991; no specimen has been identified or collected in the past 33 years. Unfortunately, one live snake escaped and disappeared during its captivity and thus only three specimens are currently housed in collections in South African museums. The specimen at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum is the oldest and was collected in 1967 in the Giantโs Castle Game Reserve by Z. Grafton, but the exact site remains unknown.
In a collection that is close to half a million items strong and collected over a period of 120 years, it is normal for some items to โgo missingโ. An old tag may fall off or the writing on it may fade and become illegible or something may inadvertently be placed in an incorrect location. This was the case with the KwaZulu-Natal specimen. The specimen was requested by various researchers but was never found in the Herpetology Collections. The situation was compounded because the museum has no curator of herpetology and the collection is regarded as โorphanedโ. In 2020, however, during an intervention into the collections, the specimen was located; it had been shelved in the incorrect location some decades ago. Since relocation, a steady stream of research requests have been received!
Montaspis gilvomuculata. Photo by Matabaro Ziganira
