Total South Africa has decided to develop South Africa’s first ever bullfrog reserve, right behind their newly developed Petroport, north of Johannesburg, soon after it discovered the Petroport had destroyed the frogs’ breeding ground.
In October last year, an environmental-impact assessment revealed that endangered Giant African Bullfrogs were living in their hundreds under the procured land that Total had acquired for its development.
Professor Graham Alexander, a zoology lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, who conducted part of the environmental-assessment report, told the Mail & Guardian Online that the nature reserve will help preserve the population of giant bullfrogs in the area.
”Total decided to work with environmentalists in reducing the negative impacts on the frogs at the site, and have begun developing a bullfrog reserve on the unused land next to the filling station in order to mitigate against negative impacts resulting from the development,” he said.
Several pans (”basin or depression in the earth, often containing mud or water” according to Dictionary.com) will be developed on the site and the public will be able to view breeding bullfrogs at the site during the rainy season.
Alexander said that wetlands are being hammered by development in Gauteng, and Total is the first company to have considered the environmental impact that their developments would have on the bullfrog population.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources’ (IUCN) conservation assessment on South African frogs listed the Giant African Bullfrog as ”near threatened”, and according to Alexander, the frogs are dependent on temporary pans to survive.
Reina Cullinan, Total’s former retail-marketing manager, says Total hasn’t allocated a specific budget for the reserve, but will fork out more than R200 000 on the pans and a walkway for the public.
She said Total has ”done everything possible to keep them away from the Petroport” by building a retainer wall so that the bullfrogs can’t leap onto the road and get run over.
”For Total it’s important to give back to the community, and conservation is very important. We care for the environment and I don’t believe we [would] benefit directly from the reserve,” said Cullinan.
Cullinan added that Total will offer free excursions to schools, and the objective of the reserve is to create and maintain ”awareness, education and conservation”.
She said she has seen the bullfrogs and they have the ”most beautiful 24-carat-gold eyelids”.
Bullfrogs are usually visible during the rainy wet season, and burrow underground during the dry seasons. Most breed in streams, wetland habitats, rivers and ponds and are harmless amphibians.