July 23, 2006
Katie Blackburn
and Marcel Talla being led across the Mt.
Manengouba
crater by two young girls. Sometimes when
you ask for directions,
instead of telling you, people will simply
send some kids along
with you to show you the right path!
We just returned from a trip
to the crater of Mt. Manengouba. In our
last update, we had just visited the southern
face of Mt. Manengouba, where we stayed
in the village of Nsoung. This past week,
we ventured into the Manengouba crater from
the northern side in order to visit the
two crater lakes and hike to the summit
of the mountain.
The crater is at an altitude of more than
a mile and is a truly beautiful place. Expansive,
rolling grassfields make fertile pastures
for the huge herds of cattle living there.
The crater contains two lakes and also a
large marsh—perfect habitats for frogs!
The crater is surrounded by extremely steep
walls; in some places they are nearly vertical.
In many places streams trickle down into
the crater, and these places are covered
with forest.
Dave and the
chief of the Fulbe village in the Mt. Manengouba
crater.
The chief kindly provided a house for the
team to sleep and cook
in while doing fieldwork in the crater.
During our time in the crater, we were
the guests of the chief of the local Fulbe
(“full-beh”) village. The Fulbe
people own the huge herds of cattle that
are found in the crater and also raise small
farms. When we arrived, Divine and I discussed
our plans with the chief in pidgin English.
The chief provided us with several rooms
in a small house where we could cook and
sleep. In the morning, we were greeted by
the friendly people of the village as well
as many cows, horses, goats, and chickens.
The Fulbe village
in the Mt. Manengouba crater where we stayed
during our fieldwork. The people of this
small village have large herds
of cattle that roam the grasslands of the
crater.
From the village, we could hike to streams,
lakes, and the marsh. We also hiked up the
steep sides of the crater in order to get
to the forests found at the very top of
Mt. Manengouba. While we were there, it
was cool and foggy. During the nights, we
had strong rain storms—sometimes it
sounded like the roof was going to blow
off in the fierce winds!
One of the most exciting parts of the our
trip was the discovery of a new frog species.
In 2004, when I last visited the forests
near the summit of Mt. Manengouba with Nono
Gonwouo and Joseph Diffo, we found a strange
little frog in the leaves near a stream.
It clearly belonged to the frog genus Cardioglossa,
but it did not look like any of the described
species. Because we caught only one specimen
and it looked a little bit like another
species, we couldn’t be sure whether
we had merely caught a weird looking frog
of an already known species. One goal of
this year’s trip was to revisit these
forests to see if we could find any more
of these odd frogs. Luckily, we caught three
more frogs of this same species, two males
and one female, and all are absolutely identical
to the one that we caught in 2004. This
is definitely a new species with a totally
unique color pattern. It is reddish brown
and has a pair of thin white lines extending
like racing stripes from the snout past
the eye. It’s a very cool little frog!
A new species
of the frog genus Cardioglossa
that is found only
in the
forests at the top of Mt. Manengouba. Dave
will describe
this new species when he returns to Harvard.
In order to formally announce that this
is a new species, I will publish a paper
in a scientific journal in which I (and
a few colleagues) will give it a name, describe
it, and discuss how it differs from other
related species in the same genus. Since
I have my computer with me in Cameroon,
I have already started writing the paper.
Our discovery at Mt. Manengouba is important
because it further emphasizes the amazing
richness of the biodiversity
of Cameroon’s mountains. Mt. Manengouba
is particularly important for frog diversity
because it has several species that are
found nowhere else and others that are found
only in a few places. In the future, I plan
to return to Manengouba in order to continue
surveying the forests and help promote local
awareness of biodiversity and conservation.
It is a real pleasure to work in this amazing
landscape with such friendly and gracious
people.
The team looking
for frogs in the grassfields in the Mt Manengouba
Crater.
While
we were there, there was usually dense fog,
but this didn't keep the frogs
from calling! Here the team is searching
for a very tiny frog,
Phrynobatrachus manengoubouensis, that
is calling from the wet grass.
In the coming week, we are headed north
to the montane
forests and grasslands of Tchabal Mbabo.
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