A blast from the past: Western Leopard Toads and microsatellites

Stephen Doucette-Riise submitted his MSc thesis (Zoology, UCT) on Western Leopard Toads back in 2012 while I was working at SANBI. Stephen worked hard on trialing a number of microsatellite candidates to profile WLTs in the Overstrand area (Stanford to Aghulas). 

Despite completing his MSc, the microsatellite study wasn't finished as Stephen didn't have enough time to profile enough microsatellites for the project. Jessica da Silva recently stepped into the breach and produced this microsat note on the toad. 

da Silva, J.M., Feldheim, K.A., Measey, G.J., Doucett-Riise, S., Daniels, R.J., Chauke, L.F. & Tolley, K.A. (2017) Genetic diversity and differentiation of the Western Leopard Toad (Sclerophrys pantherina) based on mitochondrial and microsatellite markers. African Journal of Herpetology 66: 25-38 

How threatened are South Africa's reptiles?

The IUCN Red List needs people to make assessments, and then those assessments need reviews. Reviewing over 400 assessments took place this week at SANBI's Kirstenbosch Research Centre.

Some well know faces from the world of South African herpetology were present. How many do you recognise?

Goodbye Ana!

It's always sad to say goodbye, and today we celebrated the departure of Ana Nunes, post-doc and crayfish researcher extrordinaire, who spent 2 years working in the lab. 

Ana (pictured here with crayfish collaborator Tsungai) got engaged while in South Africa to Joe. They get married in Portugal later this month. 

We really enjoyed having you with us, and look forward to continue working with you.

Back in Cape of Good Hope for some more Xenopus trapping

As we found quite a lot of Xenopus laevis when we trapped at Bordjiesdrif in February, I decided to go back and do some more trapping there and at Buffelsfontein Visitors Centre. 

The water levels in the Cape of Good Hope continue to get lower, and I've never seen GEPs looking so empty. A night heron flew away both times we visited, suggesting that opportunistic predators are taking advantage of the animals concentrated in a small space.

It was good to find Xenopus gilli at Bordjiesdrif, but only a single female was caught.

Thanks to the SANParks interns who accompanied me. Thanks also to Marisa de Kock for continuing to support the work on  Xenopus at the Cape of Good Hope section of Table Mountain National Park.

Interview with Tim Neary on Sappi Nature Journal 

Tim was intrigued to learn more about platanna hybridisation following the publication of Furman et al (2017) and the buzz around that. He called early on Saturday to chat about the conservation consequences of the most recent findings.