I have just returned from three weeks at the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre (UEMC) in central Tanzania, just outside Udzungwa Mountains National park, where I have been teaching as one of four main lecturers on a Field Training Course, part of the Erasmus+ project ‘Developing curricula for biodiversity monitoring and conservation in Tanzania’ (CONTAN). This project has developed a strong e-Learning platform, with lecturers from numerous different universities contributing to a broad curriculum centred around the topic of biodiversity inventory and monitoring, and conservation. This portion of the project was aimed at providing hands-on teaching to both students, and a few professionals from relevant sectors from nearby areas.
Students and lecturers from Sokoine University of Agriculture, CONTAN lecturers, and park officials, outside the lecture hall at the UEMC.
30 students each from three different Tanzanian higher education institutions (Sokoine University of Agriculture, University of Dar es Salaam, and Mweka College of African Wildlife Management) received two weeks of training: one week at Kilimanjaro with one set of lecturers, followed by one week at the UEMC with another. At the UEMC, the team consisted of Professor Francesco Rovero of MUSE (Science Museum of Trento, Italy) and his PhD student Ilaria Greco, teaching mammal surveying and monitoring methods (including some hardcore hands-on R analysis of Distance sampling data); Associate Professor Thomas Pape, Curator of Diptera at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, teaching entomological diversity, classification, identification, and field methods; and me.
My lectures included a general introduction to herpetology, an intro to the herpetofauna of East Africa, an overview of surveying and capture techniques for various amphibians and reptiles, an introduction to bioacoustic recording and analysis, and an introduction to Citizen Science platforms and iNaturalist specifically. Not only were we teaching the students in the classroom, but we were also taking them out, both for day walks and night walks, and demonstrating many of the methods hands-on. Many had never been in the forest at night before.
Hands-on teaching about the frogs of Udzungwa Mountains National Park at night in a low-elevation stream.
A demonstration of snake behaviour with Dipsadoboa flavida, a rear-fanged but non-dangerous colubrid
Although exhausting, the experience was hugely rewarding, both for us the lecturers, and hopefully also for the students. Many students had never held a frog or a lizard before, but by the end, most had at least tried to catch one. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the students had a deep-seated fear of snakes. I tried to combat as many misconceptions as I could, while also keeping the clear message that I, too, am afraid to venomous snakes, but that understanding the animals and respecting their space is the safest way to avoid a dangerous encounter with them.
Although it was the dry season, we had fairly good success finding both squamates and anurans during the day and night walks. At low elevation we found at least 13 frog species (there may have been more than one Phrynobatrachus species), and 14 squamates.
The greatest surprises were Afrixalus stuhlmanni, A. fornasini, and Amietia tenuoplicata, apparently none of which were known from the area before (though I find that hard to believe with A. tenuoplicata, as it is very common indeed along waterways); and Arthroleptides yakusini, which was thought to be restricted to elevations above 600 m a.s.l., but which was fairly common (we found them on every night walk in a low-elevation stream) around 350 m a.s.l. Higher up, I found a couple rather interesting frogs; many Arthroleptis xenodactyloides, but also a curious Phrynobatrachus that I cannot immediately assign to a species. Unfortunately, I did not have more than a few hours at high elevation, so there is a great deal more exploration I need to do on this mountain.
Among squamates, there were many highlights, including Dipsadoboa flavida, a gorgeous treesnake; Mochlus afer, a stunning skink; Cordylus tropidosternum, a bizarre spiny lizard (at higher elevation); and of course the chameleons Rieppeleon brevicaudatus (also at higher elevation) and Chamaeleo dilepis.
On the whole, a very rewarding trip! I hope to be able to return to the Udzungwa mountains again, and especially the higher elevation reaches of the forest, to do some proper research on its fascinating and unique herpetofauna.