Endangered
Western leopard toad
Sclerophrys pantherina
Western leopard toad is a toad in the family Bufonidae (order Anura) — Sclerophrys pantherina, recorded as Endangered and tied to South Africa.
The toad
Western leopard toad is a toad in the family Bufonidae (order Anura) — Sclerophrys pantherina.
Range and habitat
The species is not restricted to pristine habitat as much of its historical feeding grounds currently fall under residential suburbs, hence leopard toads are often found living in suburban gardens. Breeding habitat includes swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, urban riverine watercourses, natural ponds and garden ponds. The species is endemic to the low-lying areas of the Cape Peninsula, the Cape Flats and the Agulhas flats of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Calling males and egg sites define most frog field work. A species known from one ridge is as narrow as it sounds.
Eggs and damp skin make amphibians quick to vanish from a drained wetland or a forest stripped of litter.
In crisis
Two macro-populations exist, broadly referred to as the Cape Town and Overberg clusters. It is threatened by habitat loss, as well as other urban obstacles and barriers such as walls, electric fencing, canals and roads. Introduced or exotic fauna and flora like ducks, fish and algae threaten the quality of breeding habitat and the breeding success of populations.
Cape Town is an expanding city with a population of close to 5 million people. It is at this time when the highest number of individuals are threatened, as individuals cross busy roads to and from local breeding habitat.
Chytrid fungus, collection, and wet-forest loss are the usual pressures on frogs with a high threat category.
Western leopard toad is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Western leopard toad, Wikidata item Q28932736. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
