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Searching for answers to the silent decline: first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered Rose's mountain toadlet, Capensibufo rosei
Includes bibliographical references.
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Biological Sciences
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613989178966016 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Becker, Francois Stephanus |
| author2 | Tolley, Krystal A |
| author_browse | Becker, Francois Stephanus Tolley, Krystal A |
| author_facet | Tolley, Krystal A Becker, Francois Stephanus |
| author_sort | Becker, Francois Stephanus |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12721 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:44:54.440Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Department of Biological Sciences |
| publisherStr | Department of Biological Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12721 Searching for answers to the silent decline: first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered Rose's mountain toadlet, Capensibufo rosei Becker, Francois Stephanus Tolley, Krystal A Altwegg, Res Includes bibliographical references. Capensibufo rosei, a critically endangered bufonid found only within Table Mountain National Park, has shown a silent decline over recent decades, despite being found within a protected area with apparently pristine habitat. I estimated the first survival and recruitment rates for the species, using Capture-Mark-Recapture (CMR) methods, over a 7-year period, in order to identify demographic trends over time. I also used covariate models to test whether any observed trends in these demographic parameters were significantly related to variation in rainfall or drought-stress. I found some evidence for an extreme rainfall-induced life-history plasticity, with both survival and recruitment rates covarying closely with rainfall parameters. Although recruitment rate showed a positive relationship with rainfall, the relationship between survival rate and rainfall, specifically during the start of breeding, was negative, with breeding season rainfall explaining 94% of the variability in survival rate over time. I also found evidence to suggest that higher adult survival during poorer breeding rainfall years may be a natural population buffering mechanism to a highly variable microclimate, and that variable rainfall during the start of the breeding season may elicit a variable response in breeding investment by adults. Finally, I found evidence to suggest that the population is small, range-restricted and highly unstable, and that disturbances at the breeding site during good breeding years may cause the population to crash. 2015-05-04T07:13:49Z 2015-05-04T07:13:49Z 2014 Bachelor Thesis Honours BSc (Hons) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12721 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Becker, Francois Stephanus Searching for answers to the silent decline: first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered Rose's mountain toadlet, Capensibufo rosei |
| thesis_degree_str | Bachelor's / Honours |
| title | Searching for answers to the silent decline: first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered Rose's mountain toadlet, Capensibufo rosei |
| title_full | Searching for answers to the silent decline: first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered Rose's mountain toadlet, Capensibufo rosei |
| title_fullStr | Searching for answers to the silent decline: first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered Rose's mountain toadlet, Capensibufo rosei |
| title_full_unstemmed | Searching for answers to the silent decline: first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered Rose's mountain toadlet, Capensibufo rosei |
| title_short | Searching for answers to the silent decline: first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered Rose's mountain toadlet, Capensibufo rosei |
| title_sort | searching for answers to the silent decline first estimates of survival and recruitment for the critically endangered rose s mountain toadlet capensibufo rosei |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12721 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT beckerfrancoisstephanus searchingforanswerstothesilentdeclinefirstestimatesofsurvivalandrecruitmentforthecriticallyendangeredrosesmountaintoadletcapensibuforosei |