AN IMPORTANT RAINY-DAY RESIDENT AT UKUWELA — Wild Tomorrow Fund

This summer time was a particularly moist one at Larger Ukuwela Nature Reserve, with heavy rains inflicting the river to flood seasonal wetlands and huge quantities of standing water in puddles and swimming pools proper throughout the reserve. This has resulted in a loud explosion of frogs together with the good-looking African Bullfrog, hiding round each nook and behind each tuft of grass.

African bullfrogs (Pyxicephalus edulis) are often known as lesser bullfrogs or edible bullfrogs…the latter being a most unenviable nickname. Other than being on the menu for quite a lot of birds, snakes, and different animals, they’re additionally eaten by people. They love flat, low-lying areas in open, grassy woodland that turn into flooded after heavy rain or comprise shallow, seasonal pans. This precise habitat sort at Ukuwela makes our reserve a wonderful breeding habitat for this particular bullfrog.

Apparently, the African bullfrog has the flexibility to enter a hibernation-like state of dormancy inside a cocoon of cornified pores and skin, surviving underground for as much as 10 months. This helps them to climate the drier months of the yr however when the rains do fall in abundance, African bullfrogs spring to “life” in virtually swarm-like numbers.

Breeding is a loud and aggressive course of as males compete with one another for breeding privileges, typically combating to the loss of life. After eggs are laid in shallow, well-vegetated our bodies of water, the males guard the eggs after which the tadpoles from predators and different males. Regardless of the bullfrogs’ finest efforts, total inhabitants numbers are declining on account of habitat loss outdoors of specifically protected areas however for now, their standing stays listed as least concern by the IUCN.