Collecting Xenopus from WuHu, Anhui Province
My friend and collaboratory Prof. Supen Wang had mentioned to me that he had captured Xenopus leavis near his laboratory in WuHu, Anhui Province, China. So, In mid-June Qen Qen and I flew up to WuHu to see what we could collect.
It was great to meet up with Profs. Wang and Zhao again. I had been capturing Xenopus with Prof Wang in 2019 in Kunming, but I hadn't seen Prof Zhao since Beijing in 2016. Qen Qen and I were accompanied by their students, Zhirong He and Yuting Wang, to the field sites where we set some bucket traps.
Walking out with our bucket traps
Setting traps at the site of an established population of Xenopus laevis outside WuHu.
We were successful in capturing some Xenopus laevis (albino) alongside Ambystoma mexicanum (axolotl) in the same trap! Both species are widely available in the pet trade in China.
Many of the animals we captured were very small metamorphs, making dissection challenging!
