Amphibian monitoring in Kakamega Forest, Kenya

Magister Scientiae (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology)Since the late 1970 there has been increased concern of amphibian decline and extinction. Several causes for the worldwide declines have been suggested and include ultraviolet radiation, predation, pollution, climate change, diseases and habitat modification. To counter this, more research on the subject has been encouraged of which long term monitoring has been suggested as a research method. The study was conducted in Kakamega Forest in Kenya, which is the country's remnant of the once vast Guineo-Congolian forest. A rectangular transect whose sides measured 600 m in total was established and transect walks were carried out every two weeks for two consecutive days between 2002 and 2006. 24 species were targeted in the study and were sampled through VES and AES and data recorded in a GPS and later downloaded. In this study I examined the influence of rainfall, temperature, habitat and moon phases on the activity of frogs in Kakamega Forest. I also determined under which weather conditions sampling was more efficient. When monitoring was carried out by two observers I tested whether their data were similar. Data were analysed using non-parametric methods (Kruskal-wallis and Tukey test), species abundances analysed using EstimateS..Out of the 24 targeted species only 14 were recorded, with a total of 535 specimens being counted mostly at night. Most frogs in Kakamega Forest were more active in temperatures between 20 and 25oC. There was not much variation and there was no frog activity when the temperature was extremely high. There was rainfall throughout the year and there was no significant differences in the number of frogs counted in rainfall above 200 mm or below 200 mm. There was no significant difference in the number of specimens found in the different vegetation segments in the forest. More amphibians were caught under cloudy, rainy and clear conditions at night than under any weather condition during the day. During the day, more amphibians were caught during cloudy conditions than when it rained or when there was no cloud cover. There was no difference in catch among night conditions and there was no difference between clear and rainy days In Kakamega Forest, night is the best time to sample amphibians. In terms of weather it is best to sample when it is cloudy both during the day and at night. There were no differences in sampling abilities between two observers tested under similar weather conditions

Kitobo Forest of Kenya, a unique hotspot of herpetofaunal diversity

Herpetologically, the remoteness of Kitobo forest in south-eastern Kenya has partly contributed to it remaining virtually un-explored until 2007. Three surveys were conducted in December 2007, December 2009 and April 2010 aimed at generating a comprehensive list of the forest amphibians and reptiles. Using largely timed-species count method, 13 species of amphibians representing eight families and 32 reptiles belonging to 11 families were recorded. Overall species diversity was highest during the 2007 sampling. The richness and abundance of amphibians was highest during the April 2010 sampling period when the amount of rainfall was also highest. The results of species accumulation curves of the three sampling periods did not plateau demonstrating that more species occur in this forest. Pressure on this forest fragment from the adjacent local people is high which in addition to the annual floods threatens its long-term survival. For example the distribution and abundance of some forest associated species such as the tree frogs Leptopelis flavomaculatus and Hyperolius puncticulatus appear to fluctuate with flood events and may decline in future. Considering the forest associated herpetofanua recorded, Kitobo forest is zoogeographically assignable to the East African coastal forest biodiversity hotspot. The documentation of high species richness and diversity in this small forest fragment strongly highlight its biodiversity importance and place it among the most important sites for the conservation of reptiles and amphibians in Kenya

Rediscovery of Boulengerula denhardti Nieden 1912 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) in Meru County, Kenya

The dearth of information on caecilian amphibians is most likely due to a lack of directed field studies. Here we report the rediscovery of a population of Boulengerula denhardti nearly a century after its description by Nieden in 1912. Morphological examination of seven specimens suggests that they are closer to the type of B. denhardti than to any other member of the genus. Nieden’s type locality has been widely interpreted as the Tana River Delta, although searches there have not revealed specimens of this species. The locality of the material described herein comes from Ngaia Forest, Meru County, Kenya, approximately 420 km, northwest of the Tana Delta. We discuss dispersal in caecilians and their likely use of riverine corridors.We speculate that more species in this genus are likely to be found in Kenya.Key words: Gymnophiona, East Africa, Kenya, soil megafauna, body elongation

FIGURE 3 in New species of reed frog from the Congo basin with discussion of paraphyly in Cinnamon-belly reed frogs

FIGURE 3. Bayesian phylogram of Hyperolius species including Cinnamon-belly reed frogs inferred from nucleotide sequence data from 16S mitochondrial rRNA. Bayesian posterior probabilities> 0.95 each are marked by an asterisk on branch. We here apply species names as given in Table 1; in the Cinnamon-belly reed frog clade, numbers in parentheses give sample size of the same haplotype, which corresponds with localities. Note that Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris is paraphyletic. Topotypic material of H. olivaceus (#) and H. cinnamomeoventris (##) are indicated. Hyperolius sp. 'Salonga' is H. veithi sp. nov. Both the Hierarchical Likelihood Ratio Tests and Akaike Information Criterion implemented in MrModeltest selected a GTR+I+G model with a gamma distribution of 0.5912 and a proportion of invariable sites of 0.2291 (estimated base frequencies: A: 0.3294, C: 0.2260, G: 0.1813, T: 0.2633; rate matrix: A-C: 3.0708, A-G: 7.4382, A-T: 5.3616, C-G: 1.5864, C-T: 21.7283, G-T: 1.0000)

The status of flora and fauna in the Nzoia River drainage basin in western Kenya

The species richness of flora and fauna in the Nzoia River drainage basin is documented through a study of museum specimens,  catalogues and databases. The catchment area and basin covers 2.2% (12900/580367 km2) of Kenya’s total land area with an altitudinal range of 1140 to 4300 m and varied ecosystem and land uses. We recorded approximately 9.3% (3239/34677) of Kenya’s current known species of vascular plants, invertebrates (insects and spiders), fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Bird species made up the highest proportion 58.3% (650/1114) of the national total followed by amphibians 37.3% (41/110), reptiles 45.0% (86/191), mammals 31.3% (122/390), vascular plants 17.9% (1251/7000), fish 6.7% (58/872) (32.2% (58/180) for freshwater fish only) and invertebrates (insects and spiders) 4.1% (1031/25000). Ninety-five species recorded in this area are endemic to Kenya and 42 globally threatened. The species recorded contribute to several ecosystem services including pest control, pollination, bio-indicators, medicine and cosmetics, building materials, ecotourism, research and education. Data available differed substantially across counties and taxon groups with gaps apparent in five counties (Bungoma, Busia, Elgeyo Marakwet, Siaya and Usain Gishu) and four taxa plants, invertebrates, fungi and bacteria where a dearth of information exists. To fill these gaps we recommend prioritisng future survey effort on taxa and counties with fewer than 10% of the total numbers of records