Finding Fynbos Frogs II

Monitoring the Rough Moss Frog

High up in the mountains, a critically endangered frog is making music...let's hope it's never silenced.

I went with Debra again to sample several Arthroleptella rugosa populations on private land near Caledon. It's quite a hike to get to them, but let me tell you...

It was worth it.

And who knew you could get sunburned in midwinter?!

The day was so pleasant, in fact, that our field assistant took advantage of the downtime during our 40 minute recordings to take naps. During our second recording, we decided to attempt a hike up to the peaks behind us. The climb up to what turned out to be a false peak was so steep that Debra and I opted to sit and savor the views from where we were. Phil the mountain goat clambered up out of view. When it neared time to head down to pick up the microphones, Phil was still nowhere to be seen. Debra called several times. Suddenly Phil appeared, stretching from his power nap. I couldn't blame him.

 

 

Photo credit: Debra Stark

 

From these high slopes, surrounded by beautiful sun-swept fynbos, we could see the bakkies and cars slowly trundling across the highway, through lands transformed from vibrant renosterveld to smooth green pastures. None of those people knew we were up there. None of them knew that they were speeding past a mountain that harbors a critically endangered frog. A species that only lives on this mountain. And only in a few places on that mountain.

 

But we knew. And we sat on the rocks near these sunny seeps, listening to the chirps of the rough moss frog.

 

 

 

Later in the day we heard a troop of baboons hollering from one of the other peaks. We were fearful that they may have stolen our TUCS crackers….

The Search for Study Populations...

In the last week I've made several visits out to my field site, the Berg River catchment near Franschoek.

 

Part of the lower slopes in the mountain area of the catchment had been in planted pine since the 1930s, up until about 2000, when the plantations were abandoned. These were mostly Pinus pinaster and Pinus radiata. During that time, pines invaded the mountains, and acacias invaded along the river. Around 2005 , Working for Water began clearing efforts in the catchment. In 2008, the dam was constructed.

 

Well, apparently on the weekends you can't drive vehicles inside the gate upstream of the dam, so I shouldered my bag and strode inside.

It was something, wandering out into completely new territory in a new country to look for a species I had never seen or heard in the wild. The tricky thing about this area is that it is quite rugged. That about sums it up. There might be a few paths for hikers or dirt bikers, but most of the trails would be old logging roads that had eroded or washed out in places.

 

 

If I wanted to head for a particular area, it generally entailed some bushwhacking; because these areas have been cleared, logging debris and weedy brackenfern and other bushy plants are everywhere. These slopes are steep too. Steep and stony and just…rugged. And I couldn't always just walk right off the road. Sometimes there would be a solid rock wall, barbed wire fence, eroded gully, or any combination.

But the views of the solitude are beautiful. And I can see that some components of the native fynbos have persisted or returned.

 

 

So, not only was access to any slope rather difficult (unless a decent logging road remained), but it was also difficult to hear chirping frogs unless you were close. The Berg river was quite loud, and unless frogs were calling right next to the road, or in exceptionally high densities, it was hard to hear them.

But finding fynbos frogs is amazing.

A chorus of buzzing chirps.

It's a bit like hide and go seek.

You hear one or two calling, and you follow the sounds until you crash the whole party. Often it is somewhere much closer to your origin than to where you were heading... But you couldn't necessarily hear them from where you started!

It seems that these frogs tend to call from areas where seeps trickle down and the substrate forms a little pan, a little flat area.

Here is an interesting view. Note the pines high on the upper slopes. Difficult to clear...and if a fire rolls through, a seed source for ongoing invasion.

My next step is to get recordings of the several populations I have found in these cleared areas. In the meantime, I am working on getting access to a reference site where there has been little to no invasion.

Oh, and I met some friends while I was out there...

 

A klipspringer.

 

A rock hyrax!