Keep an eye out for these animals

The Greater Kyalami Conservancy (Gekco) is encouraging Kyalami residents to report sightings of giant bullfrogs and South African hedgehogs on their website as the organisation can use this information in future conservation plans.

Residents have the opportunity to fill in the details of a sighting of either of these creatures on the Gekco website, and can even submit photographs that they may have taken at the same time.

“The City of Johannesburg makes sure that ecologists go into an area to gather biodiversity data [before decisions about the area’s future in terms of development are made],” explained Tyrone Mckendry, who is in charge of wildlife sightings and research for Gekco.

“And while these professionals do the best that they can in the two or three days that they have in the area, what we wanted to do was create a collection of comprehensive biodiversity data for the area over a long period of time.”

Although Gekco has encouraged the public to notify them of animal spottings in the area since 2012, participation was low and feedback was not as high as was hoped. So Mckendry decided to try again, this time only asking people to report sightings of two specific species. It seems to have worked, as there were between 15 and 20 reports of hedgehog sightings, alone, in the first week after Mckendry reached out to the public.

“I chose to include hedgehogs because mammals are a good indicator of the condition of a habitat. Also, they’re cute,” Mckendry explained when asked why he chose these two species to track.

“The presence of bullfrogs is an excellent indicator of the condition of the wetlands. I think that most people who move into the [Kyalami] area wanted to be in the country, and with this sort of information we can help preserve this environment in the future.”

He also had some advice for residents with electric fences who were concerned that smaller animals such as hedgehogs would get hurt by the electrical current.

“You can place short pieces of PVC piping at the bottom of the fence, perpendicular to the lines of the fence. It won’t affect its ability to work, and will allow the animals to travel through it under the fence unharmed.”

If you are a Kyalami resident and want to report a sighting of either a bullfrog or a hedgehog, you can email Tyrone at tyrone.mckendry@gmail.com, or you can visit Gekco’s website.

But even if you live outside Kyalami and want to report a hedgehog you’ve sighted, you can still report it to the I Found A Hedgehog website, which is connected to research at Wits University do so here.