Archive for December 2011

Dec
15

Kids for Science, AND TOADS! @ Painted Dog Conservation- Zimbabwe

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,Field Research,Painted Dog,Rachel and Cullen in Africa

 

At the request of Painted Dog Conservation, I traveled to project headquarters in Zimbabwe to assist in the implementation of a new conservation education program called “Kids for Science”. Accompanying me on this visit was Cullen Geiselman PhD (HZI Board Member member and bat biologist), and her friend, Leighton Dancy, a professional photographer who documented PDC activities and programs. During our visit we would pilot the first ever Kids for Science program for eleven, 14 year old students from Nechilibi High School, the students’ full time teacher, their school’s Conservation Club Coordinator, the entire education staff from Painted Dog Conservation, Dr. Gregory, one master’s student, and a game warden from Hwange National Park.

It might seem unlikely that a conservation organization focused on a large charismatic carnivore would be interested in using frogs and toads to teach students about research, biology and conservation. Amphibians lend themselves to classroom study as they are an ecological indicator species in a habitat in which the Painted Dog depends on survival, are relatively abundant, easily handled, and observed by students. Amphibians are a model organism in which to cover taxonomy, biology, adaptations, ecological concepts, environmental threats and how students can help implement conservation action.

Before the students from Nechilibi High School were to arrive at the Painted Dog Conservation Iganyana Bush Camp, Dr. Cullen and I had to scout out potential study sites for the Kids for Science camp and become familiar with the native amphibians and bats we would be teaching the students about throughout the course. I conducted nightly visual and audio searches to document the presence of amphibian species in the area and became familiar with their natural history and behavior through observation and field guides. In addition to visual searches, I employed the use of a “Frog logger”, a wildlife acoustic recording device at a pan adjacent to our lodgin accommodations to record vocalizations for 10 minutes every hour throughout the day and night. I recorded close to 2,000 minutes of amphibian and bird calls over the course of our stay at Painted Dog Conservation and documented 16 species of amphibians.

Here are a few photos of some of the special frogs and toads that call Zimbabwe home.

 

Rain frogs, these are burrowing, frowny faced little frogs whose tadpoles develop directly from egg to small frog without metamorphosis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foam Nesting Grey Treefrogs, these frogs communally deposit their eggs into this rich foam that is whipped up by their back legs. The eggs are protected by this foam until they hatch and the tadpoles fall into the water below. Amazing adaptation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marbeld Shovel Nosed Frog. These pointy nosed little burrowing frogs are great moms. They protect their eggs in underground burrows and when they hatch, tadpoles are carried on moms back from the burrow to a nearby pond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More frogs photos coming over the next few days, I hope you can sleep until I post more!

 

Dec
06

The Houston Zoo is educating Painted Dog Conservation about bats

Posted by in Africa,Bats,community-based conservation,Conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Cullen with bat that lives in the roof of the guest housing at Painted Dog Conservation

Cullen Gieslman is a Houston Zoo conservation board member.  She has been studying bats for quite some time and volunteered to accompany Conservation Programs Manager, Rachel Rommel to Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe to educate staff there about bats.  Painted Dog Conservation’s (PDC) education program for the local communities focuses on the eco-system.  PDC was very eager to have Rachel  and Cullen contribute an amphibian and bat component to this program.   Enjoy Cullen’s bat update from PDC in Zimbabwe.

Cullen weighing bat

This is a brief bat update and photos that Rachel took of me and the bats living in our house. It’s really the only batting we have done besides wandering around with bat detectors. We’ll try to get more photos with the camp kids when we show them the bats next week. The housing for visiting scientists at Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe shelters a large colony of bats that we hear squeaking and moving about day and night. To find out what species we are cohabitating with, we devised a plan to capture a few.

Rachel, Cullen and Greg Mist-netting for bats

We taped a very short mist net (2.6 meters long and about 2.6 meters high) to some poles and, once it got dark, we observed the direction the bats were taking as they flew out of their roost. We quickly positioned the net right in their path and, after intercepting four, swung the net out of their way because we would only need a few to confirm species. I gingerly extracted each from the net and placed it in its own cloth holding bag. I could tell from the shape of the face and ears and presence of a free tail extending beyond the tail membrane more than one-third of its length that we had captured a species of free-tailed bat in the family Molossidae.

Cullen measuring bat

I then consulted Bats of Southern and Central Africa to determine the species based first on forearm measurement and then on description. Our cohabitants turn out to be Mops midas, or Midas free-tailed bat, a large species (forearm = 61 mm, mass = 45 g) associated with hot, low-lying savanna and woodlands in southern Africa. We captured two lactating females, one pregnant female, and one scrotal male suggesting that our house is being used as a maternity roost and that the noise we hear during the night are mothers coming back to feed their young.

Adults of this species eat insects, mainly beetles, which are very abundant in the area. After measuring and weighing our captives, we released them to go about their nightly forays.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Dec
02

The Houston Zoo is Toad (and Bat) Tracking with Painted Dog Conservation

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,Carnivores,community-based conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Houston Zoo Conservation Program Manager Rachel Rommel is in Zimbabwe with our partners at Painted Dog Conservation to bring the Houston Zoo’s Toad Trackers program to their evironmental education programing.

The Houston Zoos good friend, conservation board member and bat biologist, Cullen Geiselmen is also with me on this adventure with another colleague, and professional photographer from Austin, who will be photographing the kids in action during Toad Trackers. Cullen hopes to be able to mist net for bats so the kids will be able to learn about these creatures as well. She should have plenty of bats to choose from as there seems to be hundreds sleeping in the ceiling above our beds, sqeaking and chattering away. A little unnerving at first, but now quite peaceful when you are falling asleep. I wonder what they are saying to each other? Sounds important.

So first, things first, before the kids come, we need to do some reconaissance. The next several nights will be spent becoming aquainted with the local frogs, as I have never been here before! I have set up frog recording devices at local pans (ponds created by the wallowing of large animals). We are getting important data all day and night and will be able to identify many of the species from their calls. When the kids get here, they will go through this information as well and learn the frogs by sight and sound.

We have been out the last two evenings looking for amphibians and have been quite lucky thanks to the rains. Several unique and strikingly gorgeous species have been found. Whenever we go to the pans at night we go as a group and have a guard with us as well because of the likelihood of predators skulking about. Not something I generally have to worry about in Texas. Maybe thats why there doesnt seem to be too many herpetologists in this part of Africa…perhaps they were all eaten by lions?

Stay tuned for Amazing Amphibian photographs.  Here is one of our night guard who actually was a great frog spotter as well, he really got into it! Holding the Bocage’s tree frog that he found.

 

Tags: , , , , ,
Dec
01

The Houston Zoo shares Toad Trackers with Painted Dog Conservation

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,community-based conservation,Conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Houston Zoo Conservation Program Manager, Rachel Rommel is in Zimbabwe with our partners at Painted Dog Conservation to bring the Houston Zoo’s Toad Trackers program to their childern’s environmental education programing.  Enjoy Rachel’s update from Zimbabwe.

“It’s my first visit to Africa and I am honored to be able to visit and work with such a beautiful, happy and warm people…the Zimbabweans. I am visiting our partners here at painted Dog Conservation just outside of Hwange National Park.

The crew here have been joking that we brought rain with us as they have been in a drought and the wet season is starting very late. They got the first good rain not two days before our arrival. This is good news for crops and water collection and also lucky me because that means lots of frogs, and alas, that is why we are here!

When the night falls in the Savannahs of Zimbabwe, and most of the large mammals have hunkered down for the evening, a whole other host of small creatures emerge from their hiding places, shake their groove things, and one group in particular puts on the most amazing live orchestra you have ever heard, natures radio (as one local gentlemen called it) the frogs and toads.

I am here visitng to trial the Houston Zoos conservation education program, called Toad Trackers, with the local kids who have been through the PDC bush camp. The Director of the project, Dr. Greg Rasmussen, is hoping to identify science based and hands on kids programs that will eventually be a part of their Kids for Science program. Students will be visiting us from a local village where they will be spending three days with me learning all about native amphibians and actually going out in the field with us at night. The PDC education staff will be with us at all times, as well as two other guests that have joined me on this trip. The kids and the education staff are very excited about this opportunity. Who knows, perhaps we have some budding biologists amongst these students?”

 

 

Tags: , ,