Gone frogging!

One of The Malilangwe Trust’s priorities is to make a meaningful contribution to conservation science through dedicated research. As such, herpetologist and PhD student Kurt van Wyk, has been conducting fieldwork on the reserve since 2021. He has recently been back to complete the final chapter of his thesis.

Following the recent heavy rains that have affected large parts of the region, Kurt has also been assessing frog diversity at permanent and temporary water points across the reserve. Malilangwe's frogs were last assessed as part of an MSc project in 1994, which investigated post-drought frog diversity on reserve and the surrounding communal lands. Over the past few weeks, Kurt has recorded 23 frog species. One of these, the water lily reed frog (Hyperolius pusillus) had never been recorded on Malilangwe before, bringing the reserve's total to 25 species. Another, the red-legged wot-wot (Hylambates maculatus), had not been recorded since the previous survey in 1994.

Our guiding department was fortunate enough to accompany Kurt on a two-hour frogging excursion in February. We met at Kwali at 6pm and shortly thereafter arrived at the first waterpoint in Banyini, where the night chorus slowly began to unfold. Frogs are such interesting creatures, and have such descriptive common names too! The first call we heard was from a dwarf puddle frog, which sounds much like a cricket. This was followed by the call of the mottled shovel-nosed frog, a species with fascinating breeding behaviour. They lay their eggs away from the water, and when it rains the flooding water carries the tadpoles into the pools. If the rainwater doesn’t reach the nest, the mother can help in a couple of ways – one being to transport her tadpoles on her back to the water – an incredible adaptation.

As darkness deepened, more species joined the chorus. At Chekwa Pan, we located numerous plain grass frogs, adults hidden in the grass along the water’s edge and their tiny juveniles close by.

We later returned toward the Banyini area where we recorded bullfrogs, foam-nest frogs, and finally the highlight of the evening – the Zimbabwe leaf-folding frog (Afrixalus crotalus), a stunning golden-yellow species perched delicately on a blade of grass.

Malilangwe previously had 24 confirmed frog species. However, Kurt made a discovery of the water lily reed frog (Hyperolius pusillus) at Chikwete, which now brings our total to 25!

It was such an engaging and memorable outing. Everyone participated, learned something new, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.