That Grootbos Foundation is an asset to the Overberg is not debatable. Not only has it contributed to South Africa’s success at the world’s greatest flower show, the Chelsea Flower Show, but also to conservation in general.
Kurt van Wyk, a member of the Grootbos Foundation Conservation Research team, published a note in the African Herp News on his observations of amphibian “interspecies amplexus”, which is the phenomenon of frogs from two different species mating.
In this instance he observed Raucous Toad males, a very common Western Cape frog species, attempting to mate with females of the endangered Western Leopard Toads.
“This pairing is unlikely to result in viable offspring and can have adverse effects on the ability of Western Leopard toads to reproduce,” Van Wyk stated.
“These trysts may lead to physical exhaustion of the female Western Leopard toad, making it less likely to mate successfully with its own species, and may reduce the opportunities for the Western Leopard toad male to mate with its own species.”
Van Wyk said the Western Leopard toad faces many threats to its population, including habitat loss, road mortality and interruptions to its narrow breeding window, for example interspecies amplexus.Earth Rangers
The Grootbos Foundation’s Earth Rangers programme teaches its sports children to be ambassadors for nature.
“It is our children who bear the responsibility of protecting the landscape that has been damaged by the earlier generations who did not realise the degenerative repercussions of their actions,” a spokesperson said.
“Pollution, damaging farming practices and poor waste management have reduced our wild spaces and caused extinction and destruction. Protecting our planet and conserving our nature is key to ensuring a safe environment for future generations.”
According to the spokesperson, the Earth Rangers programme teaches children the importance of a healthy environment while also teaching the students how to respect and protect the landscape. “Our Earth Rangers cleaned litter and plastic from the Kleinbaai beach to restore it to pristine natural beauty as part of their Earth Rangers programme.”
