Who are we?

Herprint International CC (Herprint is short for "Herpetology in Print") was founded by Thomas Michael Ulber and his wife Elké as a company registered in South Africa in 1992. German born and raised in Berlin we had taken residence in South Africa in 1991. Initially the exclusive aim of Herprint was the publication of an English edition of the German quarterly journal SAURIA, but this project had to be aborted after completing only one volume (1991/92) due to an apparent lack of interest by herpetologists / terrarium keepers in this still grossly underrated herpetological periodical.

Meanwhile we had been contacted by a German publishing house that was looking for translators English-into-German with a herpetological background. This was how the first book translation came into being in 1993. While we were subcontracted only for the translation of books with a herpetological content initially, subjects such as aquarium keeping were added after some time, followed by dogs and various others. English-into-German was complemented by French-into-German and German-into-English, with odd smaller jobs in other languages in between.

An exchange rate that favours European currencies and the US-Dollar enables us to offer highly competitive prices. We pride ourselves in very prompt delivery, and high quality is our highest priority.

Amphibians and reptiles appear to be our passion, and they have indeed been for more than 20 years, but we are actually also interested in just about every other aspect of biology. This is particularly true for subjects like ecology, ethology, evolution, systematics and taxonomy, and many others. We are, in spite of the company's name, not limited to herpetology as can be seen by clicking on "Translations". As a result of many years of dog training (Elké is a qualified dog trainer) and living together with a pack of Groenendaels (Belgian sheep dogs), and an acute interest in the social behaviour of wolves, we naturally enjoy translating books on these subjects. From the keeping and regular breeding of Hanging Parrots stems our interest in parrots and birds in general. Keeping, breeding and raising pet donkeys and having lots of intriguing wild mice in our fields leaves us interested in mammals, and having had freshwater aquaria for many years creates a link to this hobby. Our extensive travels through Southeast Asia with the aim of studying amphibians and reptiles implanted in us a fascination with Asian cultures and concepts so that it is not really surprising that we cultivate Bonsai and orchids (in our greenhouse) and have a corner display of Suiseki ("viewing stones") in our living room. Finally, Thomas' obsession with books, especially antiquarian herpetological ones, made it necessary to dedicate one large room of our house exclusively to a library where some 29.000 books, journals, reprints etc. (28.000+ herpetological) are now safely stored. Thomas and Elké have had 49 papers and 4 books to their own names, dealing with various herpetological subjects, published in Germany, the US and South Africa.
Some of these have meanwhile been translated into other languages as well (not by us, though)
In short, we have a wide field of interest in everything living and love to translate good books.

If you want to know what else Thomas & Elké are doing, visit our other websites, www.safow.org and www.onDVD.co.za.