The Guttural Toad

Article by Nick Evans of KwaZulu-Natal Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.

The migratory birds are back, the flowers are out and the temperatures are rising, Spring is officially here, and Summer is fast approaching! It’s a busy time of the year for wildlife, as it’s the breeding season for many animals. This is the case with frogs too.

Guttural Toad

Many of us will have noticed that the frogs are now active, by hearing their choruses in full voice every night. Some of us love listening to it, others, who have ponds outside their bedroom window, might not appreciate it as much…

In South Africa we are lucky to have such a high diversity of frog species. The KZN Midlands has some rare and endemic frogs in the area, two of which are listed as Endangered (the Long-toed Tree Frog and Mistbelt Chirping Frog). What a privilege! Frogs are the fastest disappearing group of vertebrates (animals with a backbone) in the world, so we are very lucky to have so many in the area. This is why we need to do our part to conserve these wonderful creatures.

One of the most common frogs in the area, and one which starts calling earlier than most other species, is the Guttural Toad.

Guttural Toad photographed by Richard Booth

Guttural Toads are often labelled ‘Bullfrogs’, because of their large appearance. Bullfrogs are a completely different family and species, which do not occur in the Midlands. Toads are not a different animal to frogs, they are just a family of frogs.

Guttural Toads are quite infamous amongst people, with many who sadly dislike them. The reason? They often take-up residence in suburban gardens, and they make a loud croaking sound throughout the night. This choir of croaking lullabies often keeps people from a peaceful nights sleep, despite their best efforts.

Recent frog evening in the Karkloof. Teaching children to love and appreciate amphibian friends.

Unfortunately there are many cases where people have gone to cruel and drastic measures to get rid of this “problem”. This includes hitting the poor toads with golf clubs, shooting them with air rifles, or even pouring salt on them (which dries them up and kills them). This needs to end! If you can’t tolerate the presence of frogs, you’re going to have to get rid of your pond.

A more tolerant attitude, coupled with patience for them, may help you realise that they’re actually helping you out. Having frogs in your garden indicates that you have a healthy ecosystem in your backyard. They are a crucial link in the food chain, as they are predators and prey. Frogs keep insect numbers in check, especially the ones we don’t like so much, like flies and mosquitoes. They are also food for a whole host of animals, such as birds, snakes, and small mammals.

If you have a garden pond or a swimming pool, you may wake up one morning and find strings of eggs inside. Those strings of eggs belong to toads. Toads lay their eggs differently to other families of frogs, in that they lay their eggs in strings instead of clumps. If this does happen in your garden, kindly move the eggs out with the pool net, and transfer them to a nearby pond or dam. Often, most of the eggs do not hatch, due to damage from the move and chlorine. But it’s worth a try!

Let’s appreciate the toads in our gardens, and take delight in their unique calls. It’s one of the many privileges that we have living here in Africa. Wouldn’t you rather hear the ‘croaks’ of nature at night over the sounds of traffic and house parties? A lot of their habitat is being destroyed, so let them live and breed in your garden. No need to buy insecticides and poisons, let the toads and other frogs do the job for you!

Karkloof Wildlife Sightings – January 2015

I apologise for the delay in issuing this edition, I had a short break down the South Coast.  We have a real pot pourri (or should I say an Irish Stew!) this month, with flowers, birds and a toad. 

Karkloof Conservation Centre – Patrick Cahill

For several years after the Karkloof Conservation Centre opened I had the mutters because I had only once seen a Giant Kingfisher and when I did it was so camera shy I couldn’t get a good picture.  Last month a much braver bird put in an appearance and gave me the chance to take too many shots – that’s the problem with digital photography!

Giant Kingfisher

Twané had some great sightings in January. She managed to get a photograph of a Common Sandpiper that was a regular visitor to the distant muddy shore of the Gartmore pan.

Common Sandpiper

Twané was lucky to get this shot of a male Diderick Cuckoo feeding a female – the way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach. The male fed her 3 juicy caterpillars and offered them to her with a gentle bobbing motion. They flew off into the sunset after the third one.

Diderick Cuckoo

The butterfly that is photographed looks like it could be a male Window Acrea (Acrea oncaea). We would appreciate the correct ID from any Lepidopterists that might have a better idea of what it is.

Window Acrea

On a recent frogging expedition by the EKZNW Kids Club, the kids found plenty of these little Painted Reed Frogs in the wetlands and mealies.

Painted Reed Frog

We have often had queries from visitors about the effect of the centre pivots used by local farmers for irrigating crops on the wildlife in the area and particularly on the cranes. The pictures of the Wattled Cranes and the Grey Crowned Cranes taken this month show that they do not impact the local fauna negatively.  They act as excellent perches for  raptors while they keep the rodent population under control. Centre pivots are also an extremely water efficient method of irrigation.

Grey Crowned Crane

Wattled Crane

Denleigh – Ren and Britt Stubbs

We received some exciting news from Britt about a pair of African Grass-Owls that are nesting in their  grassland. They have seen a pair hang around before, but have finally confirmed that they have decided to breed on their farm. They have reported this sighting to Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife who keep an active record of nest sites of various species.

According to the Endangered Wildlife Trust, the African Grass-Owl (Tyto capensis) is a habitat specialist and is mainly restricted to the open, grassy  habitats of marshes, wetlands and floodplains. It is estimated that there are less than 5000 of these birds left in southern Africa.

 The need for farmer co-operation centred on grazing densities and burning regimes, as well as alien plant control and no longer ploughing up native grassland areas no matter how small is extremely important. 

Well done Ren and Britt on a fantastic sighting and for taking on the role as custodians of your land.

Gartmore Farm – Charlie and Robyn MacGillivray

Charlie and Robyn were very excited about this pair of Lesser Striped Swallows that decided to build a nest outside their kitchen window.

Lesser Striped Swallow

Lesser Striped Swallow Nest

During Robyn’s monthly walk, we found a few of these beautiful Asclepias albens (Cartwheel) flowers which seemed to be a favourite amongst the group.

Asclepias albens

Karkloof Roadside – Sears from Hillcrest

Geoff and Iris Sear from Hillcrest recently drove through the Karkloof Valley and sent us the following interesting sightings.

We passed by on our way to Rietvlei a few weeks ago when we were in search of the Forest Buzzard, which we saw just past the New Hanover turn off. We couldn’t get a good photo sadly. We also saw 9 pairs of Grey Crowned Cranes in the farmlands before we passed by your centre. There were also plenty of White Storks.

Mbona Private Nature Reserve – Richard Booth

Richard Booth from Mbona is a regular contributor and avid photographer. He sent us a picture of a Red-winged Francolin which had read about Chicken Licken’s phobia about the sky falling on her head and was keeping a weather eye on the stratosphere just in case.

Red-winged Francolin

Having gone through medical school, Richard doesn’t believe the ridiculous myth about frogs giving you warts, and he bravely photographed this Guttural Toad!

Guttural Toad

The Brunsvigia undulata, a rare threatened species, was found on Mbona and is a cousin to the more widely spread Brunsvigia radulosa or Candelabra flower.

Brunsvigia undulata

Brunsvigia undulata

Ringing at Gartmore Hide – Karin Nelson

Error correction: In the December 2014 Karkloof Sightings newsletter, we had incorrectly labelled this gorgeous Red-headed Quelea (photographed) as a “Red-headed Weaver”. Many thanks to Pam Nicol for pointing this out for us. We, Karin, Pat and Twané, will all need to go for an eye test!

Red-headed Quelea

Karin Nelson’s January ringing session produced 33 birds, with 8 re-trapped birds all ringed within the past 2 years, mostly African Reed-Warblers (7).  Karin read up on the Reed-Warblers and found that they spend their non-breeding time in drier vegetation, away from water. Some birds further north than KZN do move south.

At first glance, we had assumed one of the birds to be a Bronze Mannikin, however, it was too big and Karin had noticed a prominent gape. It turned out to be a ‘baby’ Pin-tailed Whydah. It was very interesting to see how similar it looked to the Mannikin.

Other birds ringed included:

• 14 x African Reed-Warbler
• 6 x Southern Red Bishop
• 3 x Pin-tailed Whydah
• 3 x Cape Weaver
• 2 x Fan-tailed Widowbirds
• 2 x Amethyst Sunbird.
• 1 x Barn Swallow
• 1 x Levaillant’s Cisticola
• 1 x Southern Grey-headed Sparrow

They Are All Frogs

Last night, a barefoot and gumbooted group of frog fans gathered at the Karkloof Conservation Centre for an evening of sploshing about in mud and finding frogs. “African Bullfrogs are my favourites” said John Robbins. “In Grade R a friend brought one to school and I have liked frogs ever since.”  One of the first questions asked was what the difference between frogs and toads is. “They are all frogs” said Charlene Russell who was leading the excursion.  She explained that the confusion had arisen long ago in Britain where only two frog genera occur naturally – Rana (frogs) and Bufo (toads).  Toads are types of frogs.

Zoe Goble had been reading a book about frogs and asked about poisonous ones. All frogs secrete a toxic substance from glands on the back of their neck, but in most cases the concentration is small and they are not very poisonous. It is the brightly coloured ones found in the rainforests which are dangerous.

Everyone was interested to hear about the Platanas (African Clawed Toads) which were used to test pregnancy until the 1960s.  Unfortunately, Platanas have a fungus on their skin which other South African frogs are immune to, but because they have been transported around the world, the fungus has spread to other frogs and is thought to have caused the decline of many populations.

We began by listening to recordings of frog calls so we’d be able to identify them more easily once in the wetland.  Frogs are more often heard than seen. None of the frogs we heard were calling “Ribbet”, because very few do. Apparently, there is a species of frog which does make that sound in the wetlands around Hollywood, so because we always hear that call in movies, we now say frogs go “Ribbet”!

Margaret and Barry Neuborn admitted to listening to frog calls in the car, rather than music!  “We hear lots of frogs at might in Mbona because a small stream runs next to our house,” said Margaret. “Often tiny frogs sit on the outside of the window and we can see their hearts beating. ”  Charlie McGillivray lead the way around the vlei so we could hear the real frogs.   We identified six by their calls:  Bronze Caco, Painted Reed Frog, Tinker Reed Frog, Guttural Toad, Platana and Yellow Striped River Frog.

Much splashing about and shining of torches followed.

The first frog we caught was a Guttural Toad.

We also found a number of pretty little Painted Reed Frogs.  Their markings are completely different in different areas of the coutry which causes confusion.  They also fade in sunlight, probably as a defence against the sun. We popped what we caught into plastic bags to observe them for a while. As their skins are porous, they will absorb any substances we had on our hands and we didn’t want to harm them.

John held this one gently by it’s pelvis so we could all have a look before it leapt away. Zoe tried to photograph hers in the plastic bag.  The children were definitely the best at finding and catching the frogs!

We also caught a Tinker Reedfrog and a Yellow Striped River frog. 

Great fun was had by all. We headed back  for coffee in frog themed cups which Twane Clarke had created especially for the occasion, and a braai at the Nick Steele picnic site.

A thoroughly interesting and enjoyable evening, celebrating wetlands and the special creatures which inhabit them. Thanks to Karkloof Conservancy for arranging it.  see: http://www.wwf.org.za/what_we_do/species/sa_frogs/