The Ghosts of Table Mountain
The short film, The Ghosts of Table Mountain, was recently released and stars SANParks’ very own Ruth-Mary Fisher.
The film highlights the novelty and plight of the Critically Endangered Table Mountain ghost frog, Heleophryne rosei, and the collaborative effort that is being undertaken to restore the freshwater ecosystems that are critical to the ghost frog’s survival. When a species is classified as Critically Endangered, it means that it faces an extremely high risk of extinction, which the Table Mountain ghost frog does, as it only occurs in eight perennial streams on the slopes of Table Mountain at 250-850 m above sea level, and over an area of about 13 km².
Ruth-Mary Fisher features in the new short film, The Ghosts of Table Mountain.
The survival of the ghost frogs of Table Mountain depends on continuous stream flow and suitable water quality. The scientists in the film explain that some of the threats to maintaining stream flow and good water quality include alien plants that use precious water, erosion, leading to sedimentation, and water extraction from the dams on Table Mountain. Ruth explains that one of the sites in the film is impacted by the dams on top of the mountain, which impacts on the natural flows of the river, and that sometimes in summer, all the water is taken up by the dam, so there’s no flow in the system. She further explains that “there’s erosion under the alien trees, then you get more sedimentation in your streams.”
Adult Table Mountain ghost frog, Heleophryne rosei (Photo credit: Joshua Weeber).
Ghost frog tadpoles use their sucker mouth parts to attach to rocks and feed on algae on these rocks. When there isn’t enough water flow and sedimentation covers rocks, algae doesn’t grow on the rocks and ghost frog tadpoles cannot attach to the rocks or feed on algae.
The tadpole stage of the Table Mountain ghost frog can last up to two years (Photo credit: Joshua Weeber). Note the small bio-compatible tags on the tail of this individual, which are used to track tadpole movement.
Staff of the Cape Research Centre, including Ruth-Mary Fisher, Zishan Ebrahim and Trevor Adams conduct research and monitoring as part of SANParks’ Biodiversity Monitoring Programme: Freshwater and Estuarine Ecosystems. In the film, Ruth explains that SANParks collects information on selected biological aspects of rivers, for example the freshwater macroinvertebrate families. This information is then used to inform park management of the ecological state of rivers. Ruth also describes some of the macroinvertebrates found in Table Mountain’s streams, “the simulids have little suctions at the bottom of their bums, and they sit and filter out their food from the current; you get your predators, like your dragonfly larvae; the cased caddisflies use the material around it to make a little shell for itself. The Glossosomatidae use sand grains while the Pisulidae and Leptoceridae use pieces of leaf. These are protection methods against fish and other invertebrates that are predators.”
The film also includes interviews with scientists from the Endangered Wildlife Trust, CapeNature and the South African National Biodiversity Institute. SANParks is collaborating with these and other organisations, who monitor and conduct research on Table Mountain’s freshwater ecosystems. SANParks scientists take recommendations from the different institutions and together with park management implement the research recommendations, where possible.
Zishan Ebrahim from SANParks’ Cape Research Centre has been conducting water quality and tadpole monitoring and will continue some of the monitoring that Joshua Weeber from the Endangered Wildlife Trust has been doing.
Joshua Weeber, of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, surveying adult ghost frogs (Photo credit Jeremy Shelton). It is hoped that photographs can be used to identify and track individuals over time.
At the end of the film Ruth notes that “protecting it and making people aware that we have this critically endangered frog species in our national park [is] important.”
Do yourself a favour and check out the film by Fishwater Films to find out more about elusive ghost frogs and the people working to protect them.
