Xenopus from the Tanabe peninsula
The invasive population of Xenopus on the Tanabe peninsula has been one that I have wanted to visit for many years. I was alterted to its presence through a paper by Kento Takata from the Wakayama Prefecture Natural History Museum (Takata et al. 2023).
I was really pleased to take this opportunity to visit the Tanabe Peninsula and meet up with Kento and Hiroshi Doei who has been working for 16 years to eliminate Xenopus laevis from the Tanabe Peninsula. Unfortunately for me, Doei has done such a good job that despite setting over 100 traps the night before I arrived, we did not capture a single individual. In fact, they had not seen any individuals in 2024, and only a handful in 2023, with the last tadpoles seen in 2022.
If this invasive species really has been eliminated from the Tanabe peninsula, this would be a remarkable feat. I take my hat off to Hiroshi Doei who had come up with some truely inventive ways to set traps and capture animals in more than 30 ponds on the peninsula. It was a great visit, even if I was not able to sample any Xenopus!
One of the key innovations that Hiroshi Doei made was to place traps on a pulley across the pond. This enabled him to set 30 or more traps at a single site with minimal effort..
To get an idea of just how bad the Xenopus population was on the Tanabe peninsula, take a look at this video.
