Simbithi Eco-Estate in Ballito is living up to its name as one of the area’s most environmentally responsible commercial housing estates through a small but significant initiative to protect its indigenous wildlife.
Since 2013, Simbithi environmental manager, Peter Coulon and the Environmental Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Jeanne Tarrant have been leading a ‘citizen science’ project to identify, study and protect a rare species of frog recently found in the estate.
According to Coulon, the Pickersgill’s reed frog was only recently discovered on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast and is not very well known to the scientific community.
“The discovery of the Pickersgill’s is fantastic for the area, as it was never previously believed to exist on our shores, but they have been found in our backyard, quite literally,” said Coulon.
Coulon added that a team of Simbithi residents passionate about conservation meet every Sunday evening in season to search for the little amphibians.
“The season for this species of frog is relatively short, with them emerging around the beginning of October and then disappearing at the end of February, and no one knows where the frogs go for the rest of the year,” said Coulon, who highlighted that this is one of the challenges in studying the animals.
The massive 145 hectares of land that makes up Simbithi Eco-Estate means that it is way too large to extensively search on foot, which is why Simbithi, together with the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Jeanne Tarrant and students from North-West University have installed acoustic monitoring equipment called ‘song meters’ in the wetlands.
These song meters automatically record all frog calls during the night and have been placed in the heart of Pickersgill’s habitat to assist in producing a population estimate for the frogs within the estate.
Coulon said that in January, a team of scientists from Cape Town are visiting Simbithi to look at the work they are doing with these mysterious frogs.
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