The first GAA3 meeting for Red Listing the amphibians of southern African 

The first Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA) took place in various workshops around the world from 1999 to 2002. I got involved by helping to assess the South African pipids while at University of the Western Cape (Measey 2004), and later at a workshop in Watamu, Kenya in April 2002.

I hosted the first re-assessment of South African amphibians in 2009, a process that incorporated the published strategy for conservation research on southern African amphibians. Together with other members of the workshop, we turned the results of this meeting into a book, which I edited, and was published by SANBI in early 2011. The book is available as a free pdf to download, and you can get your own copy here. 

We repeated the Red Listing process again in November 2015 (see here), and these results were carried into the second Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA2), one of the outputs of which was published last year (see here)

The assessments should be updated every five years, and so it was high time to do it again. This time we got together at the Calders Hotel in Fish Hoek.

It’s quite fun to see the faces in these images ageing. There are the loss of a few of the older faces too. But the really great thing was to see the large number of new faces who brought with them some excellent expertise that amazed me. The workshop was hosted by Josh Weeber and current southern African Amphibian Specialist Group Chair Jeanne Tarrant. This is the first workshop of the GAA3

Although we spent four days solidly assessing the amphibians, we didn’t finish. Lots more work to do before we can submit the updates and have them published on the Red List site. Stay tuned for this update.

American Bullfrogs, Lithobates catesbeiana for sale in supermarkets

I have long been fascinated by the behaviour of American bullfrogs, Lithobates catesbeiana, sold in supermarkets in China. Anyone familiar with these species in their native North America will know that they are easily spooked and quickly disappear at the first sign of movement by jumping into nearby water. Individuals in invasive populations are no different and this causes a lot of issues for those who attempt to control their numbers, as I found out when I was hunting them in San Diego (see here).

Even invasive populations in China act just the same and are very flighty. But the animals that you see in the supermarket are completely sedate, not jumping at all. Usually, these animals are sold in plastic string bags, and they seem to sit very quietly. Nothing like what I’d imagine if I put wild-caught animals into a bag.

But in a supermarket in Kunming, I came across bullfrogs in a wide-open container with a very low wall that all of them were capable of jumping out of. They were not restricted in any way, yet they just sat and I did not see any individuals moving.

What other behaviours have changed for these farmed animals? Are there many other traits of domestication? Are these same domestication traits shared by the turtles in the adjacent tank?

There are some great questions to investigate with these frogs, especially as there are many local invasive populations to sample nearby.

A talk for the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University

As I was already in Australia and had to fly back via Sydney, I decided that I’d take a stopover on the way back and visit colleagues at the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. There are a number of notable researchers there including Martin Whiting (previously of Wits University in South Africa), Georgia Ward-Fear (with whom I had written a book chapter but never met) and Rick Shine (he of the snake and cane toad fame).

There is another important connection. Martin was the former PhD supervisor of James Baxter-Gilbert, who went on to become my post-doc in Stellenbosch University. http://john.measey.com/People/Measey-Lab-Alumni

I was very fortunate to be hosted by Martin at his home and to get to know his family and their adventures. Martin very kindly took me frogging on a wild and windy night and I got to see a few of the region’s amphibians (Adelaide was way too dry).

As well as having a great time catching up with new and old friends at Macquarie, I was able to give a talk for the School:

Measey, J. (2024) What can biological invasions teach us about rapid evolutionary change? 20 February 2024 School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University

A month in the Cassey lat at the University of Adelaide

In January 2020, Phill Cassey invited me, Reid Tingley (Monash University) and Julie Lockwood (Rutgers University) to participate in an ARC Discovery grant application that he was submitting. The aim of the grant was to study the reptile trade in Australia and using past data make predictions on future trends. A large part of the data was set to acquire global data for traded reptiles to determine the demand for global species so that Australian taxa could be placed into context.

Looking back, January 2020 was just before the global pandemic, and none of us knew what was going to unfold over the coming two years. Happily, in November 2020 (despite the pandemic) the Discovery grant was funded and this included funding for a trip to Australia for me to dedicate some time to the project.

In November 2023, Phill reached out to me and reminded me that the project was soon to end and that I should either commit to visiting Australia or lose the opportunity. Happily, I was able to plan a trip in January 2024 that coincided with New Year holidays in China. And so it was that I spent a month working in the Cassey lab at the University of Adelaide.

First, I should say a big thank you to Phill Cassey and members of his lab for hosting me. It was a great experience (1) to spend some time in Australia (my first trip) and (2) to hang out with Phill’s dedicated team of reptile (and other) fundis. Special mention must go to Sebastian Chekunow, Adam Toomes, Jacob Maher and Jasmin Broadbridge - thank you for all your kindness.

In addition to lots of time spent in the office working hard on catching up with the reptile trade work that had already been done, I was able to find some time at weekends for getting out into the field seeing some native Australian reptiles. Especially important for me was the one pygopod that we managed to see.

I was especially pleased to have the opportunity to meet Emma Sherratt and talk caecilians with her.

Before I left, I gave a talk on my own research to the department in a departmental seminar.

Measey, J. (2024) What can biological invasions teach us about rapid evolutionary change? 9 February 2024 School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide

Laurie's work comes to fruition... again

It only seems a few weeks ago that Laurie was defending her thesis in Paris (see here), yet here comes a product of that exceptional work. By now we are all familiar with the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, and we know that it has to move overland between ponds in order to disperse (see Measey 2016). Otherwise, these frogs spend most of their time in water swimming around, finding food, mating and otherwise going about their lives. So when it comes to performance, we might expect that as they spend such a large portion of their time in water, they perform better there. In addition, their morphology suggests that these animals should be much better at performing in water.

Laurie measured the performance traits of African clawed frogs, using animals collected from the invasive population in France and those from iSimangaliso National Park in KZN. The results, shown in the figure below, are really clear. The frogs were found to perform equally well on land and in water. In fact, individuals that performed better on land also performed better in water. This suggests that there is no trade-off between some animals who do better in water, but worse on land.

Our findings did not meet our expectations, but what this shows us is that these animals do not have morphological specialisations that are exclusively for aquatic environments. Again this finding goes against the commonly held view that these are purely aquatic frogs, and instead shows that they are adapted well for moving on land.

This will not be the last we hear from Laurie or the products of her thesis.

Read more:

Araspin, L., J. Measey and A. Herrel (in press) Does aquatic performance predict terrestrial performance: a case study with an aquatic frog, Xenopus laevis. Journal of Experimental Biology   jeb.246545. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.246545 pdf

Measey, J. (2016) Overland movement in African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis): a systematic systematic review. PeerJ   4:e2474  https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2474