TWO Hundred Kihansi Spray Toads which were reported to be homeless by The New York times newspaper of Washington in February this year are n...
TWO Hundred Kihansi Spray Toads which were reported to be homeless by The New York times newspaper of Washington in February this year are now expected to return home from United States of America, mid July this year after staying in the zoos of Bronx and Toledo, in Ohio, where scientists at the Wild Conservation Society and the Toledo Zoo are keeping them.
The Kihansi Spray Toads were taken to United States of America in order to rescue them disappearing from the world due to construction of Lower Kihansi dam that caused them to die.
In an interview with this reporter, Dr. Charles Msuya from The University of Dar es Salaam Department of Zoology and Wildlife conservation said Tanzania is ready to receive 200 Kihansi Spray Toads and keep them alive in the modern laboratory for experiment and later in their natural habitat in Kihansi.
He said they have completed a construction of modern laboratory which will be used to keep 200 Kihansi Spray Toads in their arrival and at the same time deliberate measures have been taken to construct another laboratory in Kihansi so that experiments will be carried out in two different laboratories.
Dr. Msuya explained that this type of toads is scientifically known as Nectophrynoides Asperginis and is one of the rare species in the world.
Adding that, this species is unusual among toads in that females give birth to live young, rather than lay eggs that hatch into tadpoles.
He said the toads will be coming in phases and the first batch has the aim of doing experiment to see if these toads can cope with Tanzania environment and finally if the exercise is successful all 6,000 toads which are in USA will be brought home.
He said at the moment his department in collaboration with Sokoine University of Agriculture have instruments that can detect any disease that will attack those toads compared with the time they were taken to America in 2000.
Dr. Msuya explained that a total of 500 Kihansi Spray Toads were taken to America in 2000 because they were in danger of disappear because of the Lower Kihansi Environmental Management Project (LKEMP) was constructing a dam to generate electricity.
“The problem then was how to keep them alive in that environment which a dam was being constructed and water was not environmental friendly to them,” he said.
The Lower Kihansi dam which is part of the Lower Kihansi Environmental Management Project (LKEMP) is being sponsored by World Bank, NORAD, SIDA and KfW from Germany.
During the construction of Lower Kihansi Dam population of this rare species declined due to the reduction of the amount of wetland habitat receiving natural spray.
When the spray irrigation system was installed, the toad’s population rebounded from thousands in 2001 to more than 20,000 in 2003.
He said three years later after commissioning of Lower Kihansi dam, the Kihansi Spray Toads population was decimated by a fungal disease known as chytridiomycosis that caused the decline of this rare species in the world.
Speaking on the precaution that has been taken to prevent any disease that will attack the toads, Dr. Joshua Malago from the department of Pathology in the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro said, all necessary precaution have been taken including installation of modern technology that can detect the problem in time and also have enough medicines to fight any disease.
He said this type of species eat insects like crickets and fruit flies which are available in the country.
He urged Tanzanians not to worry about Kihansi Spray Toads which are coming adding that those are the one which were taken from Kihansi in 2000, and if there is any change they have scientific methods to proof if they are the one or not. He said they will use DNA or Molecular Level Taxonomy to recognise this type of toads.
Dr. Malago said as soon as the toads arrive they will screen them to find out if they have any contagious disease that can harm other species in the country before releasing them to other group of toads which are in the laboratory.
“We are well prepared to make sure there will be no problem in Kihansi Spray Toads from their arrival and after arrival. We want the world to know that Tanzania is ready to face any challenges that will occur when this species is in the country,” he emphasised.
He urged Tanzania to build a habit of conserve and preserve environment so that rare species like Kihansi Spray Toads are not affected and left homeless.
The toads, previously unknown to science, were discovered in 1996 during the construction of a hydroelectric facility in central Tanzania.
The lower Kihansi Hydropower Project cost approximately $ 275 million with financing primarily from the World Bank, NORAD and the Germany bilateral credit institution, Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW).
The construction of the dam was undertaken by the engineering firm Norplan. The plant is run by TANESCO and can supply up to 180 MW of electricity to the national grid.
This dam is vital to the Tanzanian economic, generating one-third of Tanzania’s total electricity supply; however, its construction reduced the original size of the Kihansi falls, which provided a mist zone that formerly maintained the toad’s habitat.
Among the threatened species which were identified in the Kihansi Gorge ecosystem after construction of the hydroelectric scheme had commenced was a species of wild coffee that was also affected due to changes in the spray maintained wetlands.
source:
Paul Mallimbo
Journalist
Rural Development Media Communication
P.O Box 1727 Kampala, Uganda Ends.
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