The Herpetological Journal is the Society's prestigious quarterly scientific journal. Articles are listed in Biological Abstracts, Current Awareness in Biological Sciences,Current Contents, Science Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
ISSN 0268-0130
2021 Impact Factor from Clarivate for the Herpetological Journal is 1.194, an increase of 0.332 from 2020.
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pp.163-168
Authors: Gabriel Lobos And G. John Measey
Abstract: Invasive populations of Xenopus laevis are known from the UK, USA and Chile, although there is poor documentation of the latter. Currently, four administrative Regions in Chile are reported as having established populations. Fieldwork during the austral winter of 2001 was conducted in order to assess the density and diet of X. laevis populations in two localities. At one site, fewer than 30 adults were captured and a population 4 times this size was estimated. At the second site, nearly 2000 adults were trapped and a population of nearly 20000 was estimated. This yielded density estimates of 0.37 and 0.25 clawed frogs m·2 respectively. However, significant bias in the sex ratio of animals caught at each site suggests that the populations may be even larger. Stomach contents of a sub-sample of animals revealed a diet consisting primarily of zoobenthic and zooplanktonic components. Further work is required to assess the extent to which this anuran affects the biodiversity of indigenous aquatic invertebrate, fish and amphibian populations.
Keywords: African clawed frogs, exotic species, invasive amphibians, South America