How diverse are French populations of African clawed frogs?

Invasions are of populations and not species. This is a common trueism across many invasions of both plants and animals, and relates to the limitation of the original invading propagules. But sometimes, introductions are deliberate and the invasive population results from cultivated high genetic diversity. Knowing the origins of the invasion can be important in tackling the removal of the invasive population.

To date, every invasive population of Xenopus laevis investigated for genetic diversity has shown haplotypes consistent with their origin in the Western Cape, and more specifically from the areas collected for exports from around Jonkershoek. Now, a new study by De Busschere et al (2016) shows that this is also true for Portugal, but not for France. In fact, the diversity in France is so high that it rivals diversity seen in South Africa.

Unlike other invasions, the French population started from a CNRS breeding facility, so there may have been a deliberate intention to increase the genetic diversity of the breeding stock. Could this result in an increased hybrid vigor in the resulting invasive population? This question is currently being investigated in a collaboration funded by the European Union: INVAXEN.

Mac leaves the lab to start work at South African National Parks in their Garden Route Research Centre. We're all sad to see Mac go, but wish him all the best in his new position. 

Cape Herp Club Braai

The annual Cape Herp Braai was celebrated in good style in Jonkershoek. Can you spot the lab members below?

Can we provide evidence that conservation measures are effective? 

This is the major question behind articles in the journal Conservation Evidence. Today, Andre de Villiers published a short contribution to Conservation Evidence which shows that work over the last 5 years to remove African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) from an area they invaded in the Cape of Good Hope. Andre's article compares populations of the IUCN Endangered Cape platanna (Xenopus gilli) in an area near Kleinmond where there is no control of African clawed frogs. He found that when African clawed frogs were removed, the population of Cape platannas was healthier. In addition, he shows that regular monitoring of African clawed frogs is necessary to prevent invasion outbreaks, which are costly to remove.

Congratulations to Debra Stark...

Who graduated with a higher distinction for her MSc work based on acoustic Spatially Explicit Capture Recapture (aSECR) on Arthroleptella rugosa. Debra assessed the population size of the entire species on Klein Swartberg - the only mountain where this species exists. We said farewell to Debra in September when she went back to UQ to write up her project.