In Part I of this blog, I suggested that it is not just the high numbers of plants and animals that are endemic to these islands that is striking; it is also the fact that many of them are particularly poor dispersers over salt water and, according to dogma, they just shouldn’t be there! A scientist would never predict the presence critters like amphibians on oceanic islands. Don’t believe me? Even Darwin himself made the observation:

 Courtesy Dr. M. Vences, University of Braunschweig.

Amphibians and burrowing reptiles are among the most obvious of the unlikely inhabitants on the two islands but there are more subtle oddities as well.  The plant group Acanthaceae (shrimp plants), which are the specialty of Dr. Tom Daniel (GG III – see May 2, “News From the Flower People”) is another group whose presence is surprising.  

Dr. Tom Daniel. Lagoa Amelia, Sao Tome (RCD phot. GGIII) 

Heteradelphia  paulowilhelmina– an endemic genus? Weckerphoto GGIII  

The seeds of this group have no “wings” or other morphological adaptations allowing them to be blown by winds (wind dispersal is very common among plants – think of dandelions).  They do not float, they are too heavy, and anyway they are not salt-tolerant. If that were not enough, shrimp plant seeds do not have endosperm; i.e. they are not nutritious and thus are very unlikely to be routinely eaten by birds or mammals, then transported as stomach contents.  In fact, seed dispersal in this group is accomplished by the capsule that bears the seeds “exploding” and casting the seeds a matter of a few meters away from the parent plant.  Yet, there are 15 species native to the islands (non-introduced), two of which are endemic.  How did they get there across the water? 

I think the most likely answer to this question is that in the distant past these species crossed the marine barrier between Africa (the source) and the islands by floating on rafts.  My colleagues and I published this “rafting hypothesis” about a year and a half ago, largely based on the study of one group of frogs; however, the more I learn about the island endemic fauna, the more I am convinced that this is the most likely scenario.  

The first thing to remember is that two of the mightiest rivers on earth feed directly into the Gulf of Guinea - the Congo and the Niger. The Congo especially has an enormous drainage from deep within the African interior, and we know that the Niger flowed from current Lake Chad not so long ago; these might be considered amphibian freshwater highways from the interior to the coast.  It is not difficult to envision rafts of matted vegetation, tree trunks etc., floating downstream on one of these great rivers and being discharged into the Gulf of Guinea.  But we propose rafts composed of huge chunks of riverbank, chunks large and diverse enough to harbor burrowing forms and amphibians. 

Illustration by Richard E. Cook, San Francisco.

Such rafts might be many acres (hectares) in size such as in this drawing by my artist friend, Richard Cook. Rafts of this size might be expected to have rotten logs, trees, bushes rocks etc.  Does this actually happen? Yes, such huge rafts containing all manner of wildlife are fairly common breaking off and floating down the Amazon and the La Plata (they are called Camalotes); however, in the case of the Amazon, they are not often discharged into the Atlantic. Rather, they tend to accrete together at the delta, forming large masses. 

Satellite image, from World Wide Web.  

In the satellite image above, the red star indicates a large accretion island in the Amazon Delta called Marajó – it is about the size of Belgium! I can think of two possible explanations for why islands formed in the Amazon accumulate at the delta rather than float out to sea. 

RCD phot. 

First, notice above that the water remains relatively shallow for a great distance seaward from the Amazon Delta; this is because the continental shelf is about 200 miles wide before dropping off into great depths.  By contrast, the continental shelf off the Niger and Congo Rivers is much narrower (arrows on the right); moreover, just offshore from the Congo Delta is a deep abyss called the Congo Canyon.   Second, I think the water velocity in the Amazon is significantly lower in the Amazon than it is in the Congo, at least.  In fact the Congo is only navigable for about 80 miles inland.  The yellow star in the image below is the town of Matadi, which is as far inland as one can get by boat.

 Matadi, D.R.C., as far as you can go.  (RCD phot. 1984 

Upstream from Matadi are a series of rapids or cataracts formed as the river cuts though the African coastal uplift. 

Congo cataract. Google Earth image.

Rapids below Stanley Pool, D.R.C. -  Souljah phot.  WWW.

 These rapids increase the water velocity so that I suspect the river is much swifter overall than the Amazon, and it is far more likely that floating objects would be ejected out over deep water from the mouth.  How such floating objects would survive the cataracts themselves is an open question.  Given a large chunk of riverbank being ejected out into the Atlantic Ocean from the mouth of the Congo, what happens next?

Google Earth, RCD composite.

 The image above shows the mouths of the Congo and Niger (yellow stars) and the directions of the dominant ocean currents in the region.  Note that any floating object ejected from the Congo River will immediately encounter the Benquela Current and be carried north; such an object from the mouth of the Niger will be carried East by the Guinea Current.  It so happens that these two major currents converge to form the South Equatorial Current which flows due west, right through the central Gulf of Guinea Islands!  Conditions being perfect, we estimate that a floating object would take less than two weeks to reach São Tomé or Príncipe from the mouth of the Congo.     But, given our knowledge of the physiology of amphibians, what about the effects of the saltwater during the voyage.  Well, it seems that at predictable times of the year, the surface water of the Gulf of Guinea is not all that salty. 

From Measey, et. al. (2007). Journal of Biogeography

Notice that during the rainy season (around February) the surface salinity around the islands drops to around 31 parts per thousand of salt (technically it is brackish). Recall that because of differences in density, freshwater floats upon salt water. This sharp decrease in surface salinity is due to massive freshwater discharges of both the Congo and the Niger into the Gulf, plus the extremely high precipitation in the area as a whole.  And of course, with high flow rates and the two mighty rivers in spate, this would be the time of year when pieces of riverbank would be most likely to break off and flow downstream.  So a combination of factors, the locations of the rivers, the directions of the dominant ocean currents and periodic surface salinity changes, all point to rafting as the most likely way the amphibian ancestors of the current endemics actually arrived on the islands. We cannot prove this happened; we simply claim it is possible and likely.  Moreover, , one must bear in mind  that there has been a 13 million year period during which it might have in the case of São Tomé; as for Principe, it has been sitting out there “available for colonization for over 30 million years! 

Here is the parting shot: 

Angle of Repose on Principe. Weckerphoto, GG III.

PARTNERS We gratefully acknowledge the support of the G. Lindsay Field Research Fund,  Academy Research Venture Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/, Arlindo de Ceita Carvalho, Director General, and Victor Bomfim, Salvador Sousa Pontes and Danilo Bardero  of the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe for permission to export specimens for study, and the continued support of Bastien Loloumb of Monte Pico and Faustino Oliviera, Director of the botanical garden at Bom Sucesso. Special thanks for the generosity of four private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom, Timothy M. Muller and Mrs. W. H. V. Brooke for making these expeditions possible.             

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Cross-section of G of G Islands and mainland highlands (RCD compiled image)

As I established in the first blog below, “Islands at the Center of the World,” São Tomé and Príncipe, and also tiny Annobón are classic oceanic islands; they have never been attached to mainland Africa.  This is obvious from the island cross-section above – you can see that the first island, Bioko, is separated from the mainland by very shallow water (arrow), and it was clearly connected to the mainland perhaps numerous times during the Holocene as sea levels rose and fell.  However our oceanic islands are surrounded by water depths of up to 4,000 meters and could never have been connected to the mainland.  This means that everything living on the islands had to get there from the mainland (or somewhere else?) across several hundred kilometers of deep salt water.  As described in the first blog, this happens by random chance and  we call it dispersal. In the case of the Gulf of Guinea, there has been a lot of time for this to happen: São Tomé and Príncipe are very old as islands go (the Seychelles are a special case).

Island ages. (RCD  combined image)

Once established, colonist species begin to accumulate genetic changes and ultimately become endemic, that is physically and genetically isolated from their ancestors on the distant source continent.  We are able to predict the sorts of plants and animals we are most likely to find present and established on oceanic islands.  Distance from the source is a limiting factor and, of course, so is island area— the larger and more diverse the island the greater the array of suitable niches for colonizers.  But for an individual species the most important parameter has to do with behavior, morphology and physiology in determining “who gets there successfully.”  It is a fact that some species are better able survive crossing broad saltwater barriers than others; these, we call good dispersers.  Good dispersers include many plant species with either resistant seeds (e.g. palms) or seeds that are wind-dispersed. Spiders, notably species that disperse by “ballooning,” are also good dispersers; as tiny juveniles, they spin a single long strand of silk that is caught by air currents, enabling them to be carried great distances. Some lizards such as geckos and skinks commonly make good dispersers and successful colonizers of oceanic islands. 

A salticid spider of the genus Eris. (B. Marlin phot. on www)

Plants like dandelions have wind-dispersed seeds and are good colonizers. (C. Higgins phot. www) 

Hemidactylus greefi, a gecko endemic to both islands (D. Lin phot. GG II)

Conversely, there are poor dispersers, species we would never expect to cross expanses of salt water; a classic example is primary freshwater fish (species that evolved in freshwater, as opposed to some groups that are anadromous, spending part of their life cycle in both) There are groups that evolved in saltwater but have members that readily adapt to freshwater; these are called secondary freshwater fish.  All of the fish we have found in the many streams on Sao Tome and Principe are secondary freshwater fish, most gobis.

 Sicydium bustamanei, a secondary freshwater fish from Rio Micondo, Sao Tome. (RCD phot. GG I)

São Tomé and Príncipe are remarkable for the large number of endemic species that live there, but it is the nature of some of these species that is even more fascinating to me.  Some of these endemics fall into the category of “poor dispersers”; I mean really lousy dispersers.  Amphibians, because of the structure of their skin, freshwater aquatic larvae and unshelled eggs, are second only to primary freshwater fish in their lack of tolerance to saltwater. They are never predicted as successful colonizers of oceanic islands.  Think of it: there are no native amphibians whatsoever on either the Hawaiian or the Galapagos Islands.  Prior to our work in the Gulf of Guinea, the only other frog group shown to have crossed saltwater barriers are populations of rocket frogs (Ptychadena) on Madagascar; this was not dicovered until genetic work was completed in 2004.  But São Tomé and Príncipe are not limited to just one amphibian endemic colonizer; there are fully seven species there belonging to five families, each of which must have somehow crossed the broad expanse of saltwater separating these islands from Africa.

The Amphibians of Sao Tome and Principe. (RCD compliled photos of D. Lin (GG I, II, Weckerphoto, GG III; light green=Sao Tome only; light blue=Principe only; white=both islands)

The fact that there are any amphibians at all on these islands is surprising enough, but that such a diverse fauna exists there which also includes a legless burrowing caecilian, the cobra bobo (found only on São Tomé), is truly mind-boggling.  How does such a creature get across the ocean?  

“Cobra bobo,” Schistometopum thomense. Sao Tome. (Weckerphoto - GG III). 

Before we try to answer this question, there are some other endemic species on the islands whose presence we would not  predict.  Except for bats (especially of the Family Vespertilionidae), mammals are considered very poor dispersers, largely for physiological reasons.  We mammals have to continually eat (stoke the fire, so to speak) in order to maintain our constant body temperatures; for this reason, mammals cannot tolerate long periods of exposure and are unlikely to survive long ocean passages before succumbing to hypothermia (unless, of course, there is food available).   And among mammals, the critters that have the largest heat loss problems are the shrews; these tiny creatures have such a large surface area relative to their mass that they lose heat constantly and rapidly, to the point that an individual shrew has to eat continuously just to avoid dying by hypothermia.  These would be the very last sorts of mammals we would predict to successfully colonize an oceanic island; yet there is an endemic shrew on São Tomé, Crocidura thomensis (we have not yet seen it, although I am informed there are scientists currently looking for it), and an species assumed to be from the mainland, the White-toothed shrew (C. poensis) inhabits Príncipe.  We have to consider the possibility that this latter species was brought in by man, but if not and if C. thomensis is a naturally occurring endemic, how on earth do such fragile creatures survive an ocean crossing?

Crocidura suaveolens, an Old World Shrew.

Crocidura poensis (?). A dead-on the road shrew on Principe Id. (J. Uyeda phot. GG III)

Newborns found on Principe, near Santo Antonio. (D. Lin phot. GG II) 

There are a number of ways species can be naturally dispersed across saltwater barriers: some can fly (bats, birds, many insects), they can be carried by winds and storms (seeds, insects, birds); some salt-tolerant species can float or swim (palm seeds, tortoises to Galapagos and Aldabra, the ancestors of the marine and land iguanas of the Galapagos).  Darwin postulated that amphibian eggs might be dispersed on the feet of wading birds, but to my knowledge this has never been demonstrated.   A mechanism of dispersal that is frequently invoked by biogeographers is rafting.  I remember as a student that it was not difficult to imagine a gecko or its eggs, being carried out to sea on a floating palm tree or chunk of riverbank and then ultimately washing up on an island shore.  This no doubt has occurred many times throughout history, but it of course requires that the hitchhiker have certain tolerances to exposure, potential starvation, etc.  My colleagues and I suggest that rafting is the most likely scenario for the colonization of the Gulf of Guinea Islands by the amphibians and reptiles, but on a much grander scale than a few pieces of floating matter over time.  I say “much grander” because along with the caecilian, Schistometopum thomense, nearly half of the endemic reptiles on the islands are also fossorial, legless, burrowing species.  Their continental relatives are all fossorial as well, so we know that loss of limbs has not occurred since these species arrived.  It is extremely difficult to imagine a mechanism by which burrowing species can cross a saltwater barrier unless they are floating on and carried by really large rafts.  

Legless endemic Reptiles of Sao Tome and Principe. (D. Lin phots. GG I, II)

The celebrated endemic “Cobra bobo”, a legless burrowing amphibian found only on Sao Tome Island (Weckerphoto - GG III)

I will explain our hypothesis in more detail in Strange Bedfellows, Part II. 

Here’s the parting shot: 

Willing helpers at Sao Nicolau, Sao Tome Id.  (Weckerphoto - GG III)

 PARTNERS 

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the G. Lindsay Field Research Fund,  Academy Research Venture Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ the staff of the Ministry of Environment, Republic os Sao Tome and Principe and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making these expeditions possible.   

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 M. Campbell (Willamette Univ.) and Dr. Iwamoto on Sao Tome GG II (Photo. RCD)

The offshore fisheries of São Tomé and Príncipe are very rich but poorly protected; I have been told that the government cannot afford to monitor the trawling of other countries within their exclusive economic zone, and this is a tragedy not only for economic reasons. The fact is that we still do not fully understand the inshore marine fauna of this unique archipelago.

Tomio off  the Jockey’s Bonnet, Principe. GGII (Photo RCD) 

Dr. Tomio Iwamoto, chair of the CAS Ichthyology Department was a member of both GG I and GG II.  Much of his work in 2001 and 2006 involved sampling the many freshwater rivers of both islands (which I will describe later); but he made some of his most interesting discoveries simply by interacting with the local fishermen.  

Fisherman way offshore, Principe. GG I (RCD Photo).

Fishermen off Ilhéu das Cabras, Sao Tome.  GGII (photo: R. Van Syoc)

For instance one day during GG I , Tomio and I watched a group of fishermen seining from Praia Lagarto on the northwest cove of São Tomé island.  Tomio asked them if he could examine their catch and discovered several species of fish not known to occur in São Tomé and Príncipe. He bought them from the fishermen on the spot and preserved them as specimens.

 [Beach seining, Sao Tome.   GGI (RCD photo)

 Each day in the afternoon , the fishing boats arrive on the beach of Baia de Ana Chavez, directly adjacent to the central market of São Tomé city. Many of the city’s citizens flock to the beach to buy directly from the fishermen.  

Arrival of the fishing fleet.  GG I (J. Ledford phot) 

  Buying directly off the boats. GG I (J. Ledford phot.)

 We discovered that the fishermen would allow us to examine the contents of their nets while they were sorting through their catch for sale and would sell us whatever we wanted.  Tomio employed the same “field technique” on Príncipe during in 2006 and as a result, he was able to add more than sixteen species of marine fishes to the current list of species known from the islands! 

 Tomio heads for the beach and the boats.  GG I (J. Ledford phot.)

 In 2006 (GG II), the team was joined by Drs. Gary Williams and Robert Van Syoc, both of the Academy’s  Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology.  Bob is a specialist on the world’s barnacles and Gary is one of the foremost authorities on various groups of corals. Together the two surveyed the waters of São Tomé with the expert help of Jean-Luis Testori, owner, divemaster and skipper of Club Maxel on the big island.  

Dr. Gary Williams. GG II B Van Syoc photo) 

[Gary (left) and Jean-Luis collecting, Sao Tome.  GGII (B.Van Syoc phot.)

Eunicella, a sea fan of Sao Tome.  GG II (B. Van Syoc phot.)

Gary collected twelve species of octocorals including eleven sea fans, also known as gorgonians; all of these species are endemic to the eastern tropical Atlantic.  At the same time, Bob Van Syoc made a synoptic survey of the São Tomé barnacles.  All of the barnacle species so far identified are known from oceanic islands (see the first blog on oceanic vs continental islands), none of the intertidal genera or species commonly associated with continental shores have been found on Sao Tome.  Bob and Gary will return to São Tomé and Príncipe on GG III(B) in January, 2009 and both are eager to sample and compare the same kinds of organisms inhabiting the much older inshore marine communities of Príncipe. 

Dr. Bob Van Syoc, barnacle specialist (R. Van Syoc phot!)

Stony coral with barnacle (arrow) Sao Tome.  GG II (B. Van Syoc phot)

One of the most exciting events during GG II was the discovery by Bob of what appears to be an undescribed species of barnacle of the genus Conopea, which may be symbiotic with one or more of Gary’s sea fans.  Dana Carrison, Dr. Van Syoc’s graduate student at San Francisco State University, is in the process of describing this new species for her MSc. degree and will join GG III(B) on the expedition to Príncipe to search for similar species and relationships. 

Gorgonian (sea fan) with Conopea (arrow).  GG II B. Van Syoc phot) 

Dana Carrison, Bob’s graduate student from San Francisco State U. (NOAA phot)

Dr. Marta Pola-Perez is an authority on nudibranchs, or sea slugs, and will be along on GG III (B) as well. Marta is a post-doctoral fellow of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology and will be making the Academy’s first survey of these spectacular creatures in the Gulf of Guinea. 

Dr. Marta Pola Perez in Cuba 

Tambja tentaculata, a nudibranch from Guam (M. Pola-Perez phot) 

Finally, the Gulf of Guinea III marine expedition of early 2009 will include two additional new scientists:   Dr. John McCosker, Chair of Aquatic Biology at the Academy, is perhaps most famous as an authority on great white sharks; in reality he is one the world’s leading experts on eels, his real love. After the group finishes work on Príncipe, John will probably return to São Tomé to look for eels.

  Dr. John McCosker, eel specialist (P. McCosker phot)

 Brachisomophis, a snake eel described from Principe. (P. Wirth phot)

Dr. McCosker will be joined and assisted by David Catania, Collections Manager of our Ichthyology Department.  David has collected fish all over the world, and while accompanying Dr. McCosker during SCUBA operations, he also plans to continue combing the São Tomé fish market and meeting the fishing boats as did Dr. Iwamoto during GG I and GG II. 

Catania electroshock fishing in Yunnan.  (D LinPhot)

Who knows how many undescribed species are caught each day by the hard-working fishermen of the Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe?  The islands continue to amaze and enchant– There is much more coming.

 The parting shot: 

 Nova Cuba, Principe.  GG III (Weckerphoto)

PARTNERS 

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the G. Lindsay Field Research Fund and the Research Investment Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making these expeditions possible.

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During our first expedition in 2001 (GG I), we were interviewed twice by the local television station in São Tomé.  In the second interview two weeks after our arrival, I had the whole gang prepared to show some of the specimens we had collected.  When we showed him the scorpions, the reporter, Gui Gui, went nuts!  Neither he nor any other citizen we have spoken to since, has ever seen nor heard of a scorpion.  And yet they are quite common at night (along with numerous geckos and crabs) on the basalt cliffs of the northwestern shore of the island near Laguna Azul.

Isometrus, widespread tropical. Sao Tome (D. Lin phot) GG I

Basalt Cliffs near Laguna Azul, Sao Tome.  GG I  (J.Ledyard phot)

Jens Vindum confronts crab on basalt cliffs. Sao Tome.  GG I (RCD phot)

   I am told that if the new hotel project at Laguna Azul becomes a reality, the coastal area will become inaccessible to local traffic, and the road will be re-routed higher, some 3 km through the dry, north end of the island from Laguna Azul to Neves.   What we call “Shipwreck Cove” (Praia Mutamba), one of our favorite study sites and the location of some remnant dry forest will become the marina for the new hotel.  

Praia Mutamba, Sao Tome. note basalt cliffs in background. GG III (weckerphoto)

Dr. Tomio Iwamoto negotiates old dry forest. Praia Mutambo, Sao Tome GG I (RCD phot)

 Yet another example of how little we know about these islands can be found in the insect order Neuroptera.  Neuropterans are world-wide and include the lacewings, mantis flies and antlions.  As kids, we western North Americans know antlion larvae as “doodlebugs”, the little critters that form funnels in the ground. One of the world’s leading experts on the Neuroptera is the Academy’s Dr. Norm Penny,who was with us on both GG I in 2001 and GG II in 2006. 

Dr. Norm Penny with a malaise trap, Principe. GG II (D. Lin phot)

 Prior to GG I, there were only four species of neuropterans known from São Tomé and Príncipe from as many specimens. All were lacewings; antlions had never been recorded from either island.  At the end of GG I, Norm had about 370 specimens, representing 14 species in three families! 

Apochrysa  leptalea  Sao Tome. GG I (D. Lin phot)

Borniochrysa squamosa Sao Tome.  GG I (D. Lin phot)

Ceratochrysa sp.  Sao Tome. GG I (D. Lin phot)

Glenochrysa sp. Sao Tome. GG I (D. Lin phot)

The distribution of these critters throughout the Gulf of Guinea archipelago refelects an old island biogeographic principe: the number of species supportable on an oceanic island can be predicted by the island area and its distance from the mainland.  As you can see below, island area seems more important in this case. One might predict that because Príncipe is closer to the mainland, it should support more species than São Tomé. But, put simply, the larger, more variable an island’s topography, the greater number of niches (read “jobs”) are available to be filled by colonizers.

As I mentioned above, antlions (Myrmeleon) are close relatives of lacewings and had not been recorded on either island prior to GG I.  Antlion larvae dig funnel-shaped pits and hide at the bottom, partially buried in sand and waiting for an unsuspecting ant or other arthropod to slide into the pit, whereupon the larva or “doodlebug” kills and eats it. We first noticed these pits across the road from where we were staying in São Tomé in 2001. 

Antlion (doodlebug) pits. Sao Tome GG I (D. Lin phot)

antlion larva (doodlebug) exposed (J. Robinson phot)

A doodlebug lies in wait at the bottom of his pit. (WWW phot) 

Now, the curious thing is that one does not have to capture the winged adults in order to study antlions.  It turns out that the larvae are very hardy, and you only need to winkle them out of the pits, put them in a small vial of sand, and they become quiescent, surviving for long periods of time.  Norm can then raise them to adulthood later in his doodlebug lab.  

Dr. Penny in his antlion lab (note cups) (RCD phot.)

First adult Sao Tome antlion raised in lab. New record for Sao Tome. (D. Lin phot)

Norm puts the newly arrived larvae in styrfoam cups, they revive, feed on tiny crickets he provides, and then pupate. He then covers the cup, because, obviously, the adult will be winged.  We have been quite excited because we brought back the first ever Príncipe antlion larvae and one pupated in Dr. Penny’s lab.  

First Principe antlion locality. Bombom Island. GG III (weckerphoto)

Note the doodlebug has pupated.  (RCD phot)

The hatching! Note hole in the old pupa ball.  (RCD photo)

First Principe antlion hatched in our lab and a new record for Principe (RCD phot)

Very exciting.  Norm says both are species of Myrmeleon but whether they are the same species or different species has yet to be determined… This baseline work we do takes time.  But again, our job is to discover, analyze (understand) and describe.  We cannot preserve what we do not know.  

Dr. Norm Penny on Praia Agulhas, Principe. GG I (RCD phot)

Here is our usual “parting shot”: 

The “race” on Sao Tome

PARTNERS We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Research Investment Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making GG III possible.

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Rich stalks an unsuspecting sea urchin on São Tomé. D. Lin phot. GG II. 

Dr.Rich Mooi is a Curator in our Department of Invertebrate Zoology, but more importantly to us (and to the blog title!), he is one of the world’s authorities on echinoderms, a large phylum that includes sea urchins, seas stars and what we Americans call “sand dollars,” the flat, disk-like tests (endoskeletons) of which we find commonly on our beaches.  One of the most fascinating, yet poorest known sand dollars in the world is Rotula deciesdigitata, known only from the Gulf of Guinea.  This species is probably not really rare but the places it occurs are remote and not frequently visited by scientists.  Hence, they are super-scarce in the world’s natural history collections; even more so in North America.

Technical photo.  Rotula deciesdigitata. 

The unit of currency in the Republic of São Tomé and Prìncipe is the Dobra; there are about 15,000 of ‘em to the US dollar.  Here is a photo of a bunch of dobras drying on my bed at Bom Bom Island on Principe.  Why? Well, the wonderful folks at Bombom Island and SCD allowed us to attempt to survey by boat the otherwise inaccessible southwest shore of Prìncipe; at a critical point, too many of us climbed into a small red dinghy and flipped in the surf.  Along with the dobras went a lot of equipment including cameras, my cell phone, ipod, etc.—more on this in another posting.

Drying dobras  RCD GGIII

The offending boat, post-flipping.  Weckerphoto GG III 

Anyway, once we finally found specimens of Rich’s Rotula, it was only natural that they become “sand dobras,” and the only beach we have found them on the west side of Sao Tome became Sand Dobra Beach– its real name is Praia Morrão.

Rotula deciesdigitata on Sand Dobra Beach.  D. Lin phot. GG II 

During GG II, Rich and I swam out beyond the surf line to try to secure a live specimen for DNA analysis (remember, the test you find on the beach is not the living animal, but rather its endoskeleton).  The undertow was so powerful that we both nearly drowned, but we did find one specimen that retained a greenish color, suggesting that there might be some remaining tissue to analyze; the jury is still out on this. The sand dobras present a rather interesting mystery, in that they appear to be wholly unrelated to those of the New World, while such might not be the case with other echinoderms. In his own words, Rich says “this strange pattern is further underscored by the fact that as I looked at all the other echinoderms around Sao Tome, the faunas were nearly perfectly Caribbean in nature.  There were times that I felt as though I was snorkeling around in Florida or Belize — at least as far as the sea urchins were concerned.  The rotulids were a glaring exception to that.”

Rich working.  D. Lin phot. GG II.   

Interestingly, there are many species with holes and notches in them throughout the Caribbean.  These are almost all members of a sand dollar family known as the Mellitidae. However, there are absolutely no mellitids on the west coast of Africa.  In fact, there are no “true” sand dollars at all.  The truth is that the Gulf of Guinea sand dobras are not even closely related to the Caribbean sand dollars, but belong not only to a different family (Rotulidae), but to a completely different major clade (suborder). This is perplexing. 

Rotula deciesdigitata on Sand Dobra Beach. Weckerphoto  GG III 

Dr. Rich Mooi is still working on the many fascinating echinoderms he collected on the beaches and tidepools of  São Tomé and Prìncipe in 2006, and I will report his discoveries as they appear.     

PARTNERS We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Research Investment Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making GG III possible.

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Some Island Giants

Think of potted plants for a moment… how large is a begonia? The central plant in this composite image is the largest species in the world, Begonia baccata. It is found only on the island of Sao Tome and reaches 10 meters in height! This particular specimen graces the southern shore of Lagoa Amelia at about 1480 m elevation - my head comes up to about flower level on this old friend (I am 6′ tall); these enormous plants are common at higher levels. The two birds figured are also giants: the yellow one on the right is the world’s largest weaver. Ploceus grandis,. and the one on the left is the world’s largest sunbird, Dreptes thomensis; both endemic to the larger island of Sao Tome. This is a good point at which to mention that island dwarfism is also an observable phenomenon  here as well, and the world’s smallest ibis, the Sao Tome Dwarf Ibis, Bostrychia bocagei is also an endemic.  The other critters in the collage, the frogs and the lizards, are all endemic giants but I will deal with them later. It is important to bear in mind that when we call a species a “giant”, we are describing its size compared to all of its other relatives only; such a species may not appear to be a giant at all, in our eyes.

The Sao Tome Giant Treefrog, Hyperolius thomensis, and I go back a long way; back to when I was writing my doctoral dissertation many years ago. This sapo (as all frogs are called on the islands) is endemic to Sao Tome only and is easily the largest member of its genus (Hyperolius)- females reach lengths of nearly 50 mm.from snout to vent!

Sao Tome Giant Treefrog, Hyperolius thomensis.GG I and GG II - D. Lin

Nearly all of the original material from which this species was described in 1886 was destroyed in the fire in Lisbon.  But I managed to find four remaining specimens, two in Vienna and two at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, allowing me to treat them in my dissertation.  In 1988 and again 1990 more specimens were reported by a Swiss worker, but her published locality data are very general, if not vague, and it turns out that most of the material she worked on was collected by locals at her request prior to her arrival.  During GG I, we visited most of her reported localities, finding nothing until we finally got lucky. Now, I can state that this most flamboyant of treefrogs is currently known for certain from only a single locality!  Our work in GG I, II and III has confirmed that this marvelous critter is known only from higher elevations (above 1000 m), inhabiting the canopy of old secondary or primary growth trees on steep slopes.  And it appears to breed only in the water-filled holes in trees with fluted bark or buttresses.  This is a rarity – in Africa, only 9 other frog species are known to breed in phytotelmata (scientific word for treehole). But it makes sense.  Most frogs lay eggs, which develop into free-swimming, gilled tadpoles, which then metamorphose.  Although there are many fast moving rivers on the steep slopes of Sao Tome, these are far to swift for breeding; still bodies of water simply do not exist. So, H. thomensis has adapted to breeding in ephemeral, rain-filled holes in the trunks of very large trees! All of the other frogs native to the islands utilize slow moving or still water for reproduction.

The tree - J. Clara, GG III

This is the only tree in which we have collected the Sao Tome Giant treefrog.  It is at about 1100 m on a high ridge, and we return each expedition to check its status. Adults are usually present but there are always eggs and tadpoles at different stages of development in the holes.  Tom and Rebecca, our botanists, could not identify this tree – it is simply too tall its see its canopy, and moreover it is festooned with epiphytes.

Frogs and eggs in treeholes -  WE, GG III

Wes Eckerman, our photographer tried to climb it, and then tried to climb an adjacent tree to see if there were more holes, but the tree is just too big in girth to handle; with our friend Jose Clara, we tried to erect a crude ladder to examine a hole farther up the trunk but to no avail.

RCD, GG III

I do not mean to imply that this species is restricted to this tree.  We have heard the species calling at night from high up in the canopy and reasonably certain that it is pretty widespread, at least in the high elevation forests we have visited – I suspect it is present on Sao Tome anywhere the trees are large enough and that. of course.  means upslope above the former Portuguese plantations.  What is different about this single documented tree is that it is the only one whose rain-filled holes are within our reach – there are undoubtedly more holes in many more trees that are too high for us to access.  I am left with the notion that given its restricted range and peculiar breeding biology, the Sao Tome Giant Treefrog is a classic indicator species; its presence means healthy mature forest.  If I were to choose an icon to symbolize the dogged persistence of pockets of nature in the face of man’s depredations and at the same time the attitude, beauty and whimsy of the citizens of Sao Tome and Principe, it would be this gorgeous island giant. Josef, my former student, informs me that he has already seen the name of this species on a price list in the pet trade in Europe.  If you  wonder why I have not described the location of this tree is in more detail, now you know. 

In the last posting, I promised you a picture of the cobra jita of Sao Tome. Here are shots of both island forms, which are currently considered to be the same species.

Sao Tome Jita - RCD, GG I

Principe Jita - WE, GG III

Not only do these critters look different from those on Sao Tome (stripes vs. patterned blotches), they act differently as well. On Sao Tome, cobra jita appears to be strictly nocturnal; during GG I and GG II we easily found them at night by first listening for the loud choruses of oceanic treefrogs (more about them later). So far as we know, the Sao Tome jita largely feeds on these frogs while they are breeding and is strictly nocturnal; to see at least ten of these snakes in a single night under the right conditions is not uncommon.

R. Stoelting, my grad student, with her first Jita - GG I, RCD phot. After our week on Principe, however, I am prepared to say that that jita is diurnal and although we will not know until we check stomachs, I think it feeds on lizards and small rodents. We even located a chorus of treefrogs behind Bombom but failed find a jita, nor did we ever find one during our night hunts. Only time and careful study of morphology nd DNA will tell us how closely related these two island snakes really are.Thanks to Caitlin D. for her generous donation. We are doing what we can!

PARTNERS We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Research Investment Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making GG III possible.

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Josef Uyeda on Principe. Weckerphoto GGIII

As I have said, the fact that there are amphibians here at all is astounding; amphibians, along with primary freshwater fish, are among the poorest dispersers across saltwater barriers known. They are the last kinds of critters one would expect to find on an oceanic island…. Think of the Hawaiian Islands and the Galapagos, perhaps the two most intensely studied oceanic archipelagos in the world… no frogs or other amphibians, right? But here on Sao Tome and Principe we have seven amphibian species, one of which is the famous caecilian, Schistometopum thomense. How can this be? How did they get here? More on this later, but one of the keys is time: remember that Sao Tome is at least 15 million years old, and Principe is more than double that, perhaps 31 million years. Hawaii and the Galapagos are but 5 million years max.

During GG I, we collected series of little brown frogs of the genus Phrynobatrachus from various locations on both islands; at the time all of them were considered the same species, P. dispar, originally described from Principe over 100 years ago. In 2005, a bright young intern from Willamette University named Josef Uyeda, spent the summer in my lab studying these preserved specimens and concluded that the frogs were quite different. Josef joined GG II and did a lot of collecting on both islands, recorded calls, did dissections and comparisons of DNA from the critters on both islands. The results are that the two island frogs are VERY different; in fact, there is nearly 21% DNA sequence difference between the two; indicating that they have not interbred in many millions of years, possibly predating the existence of Sao Tome (yet they still look virtually identical!). Moreover the two together appear to be more closely related to East African species than to more nearby West African species, but more on that later. In 2007, Josef, I and Breda Zimkus of Harvard described the Sao Tome brown frogs as a new species, Phrynobatrachus leveleve.

Phrynobatrachus leveleve. Sao Tome. Weckerphoto GGIII

Phrynobatrachus dispar Principe. Weckerphoto GGIII

from Uyeda et al. 2007. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 58

This brings me to cobra jita (pronounced “zheetah” – it means snake slow, as opposed to the other Principe snake, cobra sua sua, which means snake fast!). Here we have the same situation as we had with the small brown frogs, Phrynobatrachus. Jita (more properly known as Lamprophis lineatus bedriagae, or lined house snake) has always been considered to be the same species on both islands. After our frog studies, I am not so sure! They look different – regrettably I will have to post a picture of the Sao Tome form later… didn’t bring one in my zip drive—the Principe form is much more obviously patterned than the Sao Tome snake. During GG I and GG II we got very good samples of the Sao Tome population, but for some reason, only one specimen from Principe.

Lamprophis from Bombom Id, Principe. Weckerphoto GGIII

Lamprophis from Sao Tome. D. Lin photo. GGII

Josef is now a PhD candidate at Oregon State University and joined us a couple of weeks ago in our search for Jita (among other things I will describe later). Snakes, as you probably know, are where you find them… as primary predators, they are never very common but always around, and such has been the case here on Principe. It has taken us six days of trekking around in the forest, turning over logs, etc. to find six snakes. But I am delighted. This is certainly enough now to estimate the genetic distance between the two populations, and given the age of these islands, I will not be surprised at all to learn that they are distinct at the species level.

Josef and I looking for Jita on Bombom Id. Weckerphoto. GGIII

We have learned a lot about this critter. On Sao Tome, Jita is primarily nocturnal while the daylight hours on that island seem to be dominated by the endemic Sao Tome green bush snake, Philothamnus thomensis. This is the situation we would predict using island biogeographic theory—no niche overlap – they both seem to eat frogs and skinks, but at different times. But here on Principe, all of the jitas we have caught have been during the daylight hours, as was the single individual caught during GG II in 2006. Moreover, the green snake of Principe (yes there is a green sua sua here as well, but not related to the Sao Tome species) also seems to be diurnal! They are incredibly fast; we have seen two of them and missed both. So until we can look at stomach contents, we seem to have an ecological mystery.

Me, Josef and Ramos on Bombom Id. Weckerphoto GGIII

Our search has been greatly aided by an amazingly bright local naturalist; Jose Ramos Maria Vital Pires, or Ramos for short. Ramos has led us around this island searching for the elusive jita we have been blown away by his keen perception and observations of the local flora and fauna, and his delightful smile and sense of humor. The thing is everyone knows about this snake, most of the locals are to say the least, not exactly fond of snakes and one referred to as a “house snake” frequently comes a little too close for comfort, as you might imagine. But finding a snake when you are looking for it is entirely different matter. Our first success occurred on Bom Bom Island (not really and island, but sort of). I had just commented that the area Ramos was leading us through was too steep to find a snake, when he began excitedly shouting “snake!” only meters away. Within moments we had bagged our first jita.

There have been some rather ignominious moments for me personally. My two young compadres, Wes and Josef are willing to give me credit for catching but one jita, a dead one. The specimen had, in fact, been killed two hours earlier by a local woman who was delighted to have us remove it from along the road. This morning was the last straw. We had been combing Bom Bom Island again; Josef and Wes had taken a lower route than I and about an hour in, I heard Josef yell that they had caught a snake in the act of ripping a tail off a skink. Well and good, I thought, but where’s mine? So I am walking along, seeing snake food like skinks all over the place, when Wes and Josef come down the trail towards me. We stopped, admired the snake Josef had already bagged and the photos Wes took of it eating its skink tail, all three of us turned around…Josef stooped over and grabbed our largest jita of the expedition, about a foot behind me. I must have stepped right over it a moment beforehand. Perhaps it is not necessary to tell you that there has been much snickering among the younger members of this outfit ever since… Argh.

Josef collecting a jita on Bombom. Weckerphoto GGIII

Nova Cuba, near Santo Antonio, Principe. Weckerphoto GGIII

PARTNERS We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Research Investment Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making GG III possible. More anon.

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Rebecca and Tom among the baobabs at Lagoa Azul. Weckerphoto

GGIII.
There is already a book on the flora of the islands written by a man named A.W. Exell many years ago but there are still many groups that are poorly known on Sao Tome and Principe, including Tom’s and Rebecca’s acanths, and there is always the possibility of finding something new. Although these data are old, it is estimated that the flowering plants of Sao Tome and Principe are between 8 and 14% endemic, found nowhere else in the world. The numbers are a range because it depends upon which island and plant family you are talking about, but the endemicity is high.

Brillantasia, Sao Tome. Weckerphoto, GGIII
Tom and Rebecca have been working side by side with the cugumelo team but have been pressing and drying their plants at the small herbarium at Bom Sucesso, which is at about 1000 meters on the island of Sao Tome. The herbarium and delightful botanical gardens of Bom Sucesso were first built with support by ECOFAC, but now run by a local NGO called Monte Pico; their specialty is the endemic orchids, and there are guides for tours of the gardens, as well as guides available for hikes up into the “real” primary vegetation above. Our old friend, Bastien Loulomb, has been an advisor to Bom Sucesso and Monte Pico for a long time and has been of consistent help to me on the GG II and GG III expeditions.

GGIII team at Bom Successo, Sao Tome. Weckerphoto GGIII
I have always teased my botanical colleagues about the funny hats they wear in the field, and the fact that they never seem to get dirty like us herpetologists. Well, funny hats are a given (see the photo) but Tom and Rebecca get just as dirty as the rest of us. So far they seem to have collected whole samples, tissue for DNA and for karyotyping of all of the known endemics of their group, but have also collected great samples of a lot of other peculiar things, including the world’s largest Begonia, B. ebaccata, which grows to nearly 10 meters on Sao Tome. All duplicates collected by our botanists will reside at Bom Sucesso in the Herbarium.

Begonia baccata, largest in the world - Lagoa Amelia, Sao TomeWeckerphoto, GGIII

Tom at Bom Successo. Weckerphoto GGIII
A high point was when Rebecca finally found an example of her “questing beast,” a tiny little acanth growing along the side of track up Pico Papagaio on Principe. She let out a loud shriek and dove to the ground. I wish I could remember the name of the thing, but Tom and Rebecca are on there way back the US as I write. Apparently, she needed sequence data from this little plant critter in order to “root the tree” of her current MSc thesis (the scientists among you will understand). Here’s a photo of her with her discovery.

Rebecca Wenk with her “questing beast.” Weckerphoto GGIII

Rebecca’s acanth crittter (Elytraria marginata).  Weckerphoto, GGIII

Finally, thanks to SCD a couple of weeks ago, we were offered a boat ride to the inaccessible southwest coast of Principe The southwest exposures of all of the islands in this chain, Bioko, Principe, Sao Tome and Annobon are inaccessible by land because they receive the brunt of the incoming weather, hence erosive force comes from the southwest. For the same reason the Portuguese were unable to cultivate these areas during their 500 years of colonization here and on each island these exposures are pretty much untouched by man. In one sense the trip was a near disaster; our small rubber dingy flipped and a lot of our equipment was compromised, most of it temporarily. But the mushroom guys were able to collect a bunch of stuff on a virtually untouched steep slope, and Tom and Rebecca were able to establish that the dominant plant group in the southwest of Principe is the Rubiaceae, members of the coffee family.

A melastome from Sao Tome.  Weckerphoto GGIII

We are posting a bunch of images, mostly by Wes Eckerman, that are unlabeled. The reason for this is that in many cases we do not know yet what the stuff is. Stay tuned.

Fisherman at Lagoa Azul. Weckerphoto GGIII

PARTNERS We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Research Investment Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making GG III possible.
Next will be posting on my stuff, the creepy crawlies.

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The GG III team: Perry, Wenk, Desjardin, Eckerman, Drewes, Daniel on Principe.

Macambrara, Sao Tome.  RCD photo GGIII
Six of us arrived about three weeks ago, we were joined last week by a 7th and here’s what some of us have been up to:

As leader of the GG expeditions I have been very excited to have our first botanists join an expedition: Dr. Tom Daniel, and his graduate student, Rebecca Wenck from CAS. Also particularly important to our goals has been the return to the islands of a mycologist (or in this case, two of them): Drs. Dennis Desjardin and post-doctoral fellow Brian Perry of San Francisco State University. I try to recruit scientists who study plant or animal groups that are poorly known in the Gulf of Guinea, and herein lies a story:

Cookeina speciosa
At the time of our second expedition (GG II) in 2006, there were only four species of mushrooms known from the Island of Sao Tome, and no one had ever explored the smaller, much older Principe for mushrooms (or cugumelos, as they are known here). Dennis Desjardin, a world mushroom authority was kind enough to join us for the first two weeks of GG II. At the end of his two weeks, Dennis had made 98 collections of at least 80 species of perhaps 40 genera of mushrooms, all from Sao Tome!

Cyptotrama asprata
Needless to say, I was delighted to find this unanticipated level of diversity! Now, imagine how I felt two weeks later when, sitting in the steamy internet bar in Sao Tome, I read an email message from Dennis telling me that his luggage (and the mushrooms) had first been lost in Lisbon, and then later misdirected to the US through Newark, NJ instead of San Francisco where our institution is located. In Newark an agricultural/customs officer pulled the specimens out and promptly destroyed them (in spite of the permits, conspicuous labels, etc. on all of the packages). A devastating loss. I told this story in a public lecture a year ago, and thanks to the generosity of three private individuals in the audience, a grant from CAS and support from SCD we are back!

Part of our mission has been to recoup our mushroom losses from Sao Tome and to conduct the first survey of cugumelos on Principe. At time of writing, the whole team has walked up and down mountainous jungle trails from sea level to 1280 meters on Sao Tome, and with logistic support we did not have during GG I (2001) and GG II we have explored every accessible habitat type on Principe, once by boat. Turns out mushrooms grow in a lot of different habitats including not far from the high tide line on beaches.

Leucocoprinus sp.

Favolaschia thwaitesii

Calyptella sp.
Dennis and Brian tell me that the overall count of mushroom species so far, including both islands, is 220! We have 75 carefully dried and preserved specimens from Principe alone- this will be the first list ever. The number 220 includes some 30 species collected during GG II but not yet recollected during GG III. Every time I get really excited, Dennis and Brian are quick to say, “ Bob, this is only a snapshot in time! A couple of months from now, there may be a whole different group of cugumelos here.” It is way to early to tell what half of this stuff is, but Brian and Dennis were particularly excited about four mushrooms that were not expected in the Gulf of Guinea at all – these are ectomicorrhyzal (sp?); i. e. they form associations with living plants. Stay tuned.

Dr Dennis Desjardin on the hunt. Weckerphoto. GGIII

Dr. Brian Perry also hunting. Weckerphoto, GGIII
Our botanists (Tom and Rebecca), and herpetologists (me and Josef Uyeda, who joined us last week) have our own projects as well and Wes Eckerman has been photographing everything we do, every specimen we collect. More anon.

The Administration.  R. Wenk photo.  GGIII

PARTNERS We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Research Investment Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making GG III possible.

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Surprisingly, São Tomė and Príncipe have remained largely unstudied since the early 19th Century work of Portuguese biologists Fea, Greef and Newton. In spite of the wonderful but preliminary stuff discovered by these early biologists, São Tomė and Príncipe have remained “off the scientific beaten path”. Historically, the islands were used as major slave entrepots by the Portuguese and were of world importance in the production of sugar, coffee and then cacao. Lying 200 to 250 km off the coast of West African coast, the islands have always been rather remote, and even to this day, there is but one flight per week from Europe to São Tomė (via Lisbon) and only a couple from Libreville, Gabon. In spite of several hundred years of agricultural efforts, fairly large amounts of original forest remain in higher elevations that were simply too steep to be cultivated by the colonials. While the birds have been studied and a preliminary flora has been published, huge portions of the biodiversity of these unique islands remain completely unknown.

Drs. Iwamoto and Drewes sampling fish. Principe GG I (D. Lin phot)

Periopthalmus A Principe mudskipper GG I (D. Lin phot)

So what we are doing is the most basic work in science; we are hiking into these remaining natural areas and surveying them to find out what species live there, what their evolutionary relationships are and where they came from. Depending upon our different specialties, we work both by day and by night, collecting, sampling, photographing, recording, etc. Most of our material is brought back to the California Academy of Sciences for study, but much also goes out to specialists around the world. As systematists, our job is to explore and sample all of the elements of the fauna and flora. When new species are discovered, we must analyze and describe them. Systematics is the fundamental discipline upon which all other biological work depends, especially including conservation efforts. You cannot save what you do not know.

Grad student R. Stoelting. Night work on Sao Tome GG I (RCD phot)

Giant gecko (H. greefii) Principe GG II (D. Lin phot)

WHY A “RACE”?

Exclusive Economic Zone, Rep. Sao Tome and Principe.
As the title “Island Biodiversity Race” implies, there is a significant element of urgency in our work. The islands of the are about to undergo profound change, and the reason is oil. The exclusive economic zone of the Republic includes areas in the Gulf of Guinea where oil has been discovered. This means that at the very least, there will be a huge influx of revenue into this tiny republic of less than 300,000 people, and along with this revenue will come enormous pressure to expand infrastructure and a consequent burgeoning of the human population. History repeatedly shows us that such a phenomenon almost always affects natural wild areas negatively. Thus, It is our purpose to learn as much about the flora and fauna of the islands as quickly as we can, before the changes come. We hope to demonstrate to the citizens of the Republic of São Tomė and Príncipe the unique biological nature of their islands and enable them to make informed decisions down the road. We hope to show what they, and for(and for that matter, the rest of the world) stand to lose without adequate stewardship.

Kids at Santa Catarina, Sao Tome GG II (D. Lin phot)

Sao Tome GG II (D. Lin phot)

In this blog, I will describe the Third California Academy of Sciences Gulf of Guinea Expedition (GGIII) as it unfolds. Each expedition is made up of scientists chosen because their specialties are poorly known on the islands. The following URL describes our goals, the participants in the first two expeditions, and our scientific progress since the first expedition in 2001 (GGI).

PARTNERS We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Research Investment Fund of the California Academy of Sciences, the Société de Conservation et Développement  (SCD) for logistics, ground transportation and lodging, STePUP of Sao Tome http://www.stepup.st/ and especially the generosity of three private individuals, George F. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom and Timothy M. Muller, for making GG III possible. http://research.calacademy.org/research/herpetology/bdrewes/

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