The Organisation for Tropical Studies (OTS) are back in the Cape region and this is our chance to do a Faculty Field Project (FFP) on movement of Xenopus gilli in the Cape of Good Hope. They were with us back in February.
The weather was great and we managed to catch and mark lots of new frogs.
Yes, it's here. The paper that we've waited for, for what seems like quite a few years now. So, genome duplication made it a little more difficult than the average genome, but that's what you might expect from African clawed frogs: Xenopus laevis
Skip to the full paper here: Session et al 2016
So it really helps to get out into the surrounding area to see the effect first hand. This is what Stellenbosch University's 3rd year students did this weekend with Profs Brian van Wilgen (top right) & Jaco le Roux (top left), in nearby Pringle Bay.
Brian showed them how pines are escaping private gardens and taking over the nearby mountain, while Jaco explains how below ground interactions of plants and symbiotic bacteria also involve invasions.
The students also got hands on experience with some domestic exotics, trapping and removing African clawed frogs from the breeding grounds of the Endangered Cape platanna.