Grootbos Foundation: Amphibian Conservation and Earth Rangers

-Amphibian ‘interspecies amplexus’-

Kurt van Wyk, a member of the Grootbos Foundation Conservation Research team, published a note in the African Herp News on his observations of amphibian ‘interspecies amplexus’, which is the phenomenon of frogs from two different species mating. In this case, Kurt observed Raucous Toad males, a very common Western Cape frog species, attempting to mate with females of the endangered Western Leopard Toads. 

This pairing is unlikely to result in viable offspring and can have adverse effects on the ability of Western Leopard toads to produce. These trysts may lead to physical exhaustion of the female Western Leopard toad making it less likely that they will successfully mate with their own species and may reduce the opportunities for the Western Leopard toad male to mate with their own species. The Western Leopard toad faces many threats to their population, including habitat loss, road mortality and interruptions to their narrow breeding window, with interspecies amplexus being an example of this.

Earth Rangers Programme

The Earth Rangers programme (Grootbos Foundation Conservation) teaches the sports children to be ambassadors for nature. It is the children who bear the responsibility of protecting the landscape that has been damaged by the earlier generations who did not realise the degenerative repercussions of their actions. Pollution, damaging farming practices and poor waste management have reduced our wild spaces and caused extinctions and destruction. Protecting our planet and conserving our nature is key to ensuring a safe environment for future generations. 

The Earth Rangers programme teaches children the importance of a healthy environment while also teaching the students how to respect and protect the landscape. The Earth Rangers cleaned litter and plastic from the Kleinbaai beach to restore it to pristine natural beauty as part of their Earth Rangers programme. 

Penelope Goemans

Communications Officer