**3. Results**

#### **3.1 Status of wetlands in Kenya**

The major cause of decline in wetlands and amphibian habitats in Kenya is human activities particularly land use land cover changes. Other significant drivers include: natural calamities; drought, drop in ground water level, erosion, pollution resulting from industrial as well as domestic waste particularly Lake Nakuru and Agrochemicals from horticulture farms e.g. in Naivasha. Moreover, in other leading watersheds such as Tana River waste from urban centres and agricultural projects along the river channel contribute heavily to its pollution and decline in amphibian biodiversity. In most of these wetlands and lotic systems, characteristics of nutrient and chemical inflow is evidenced by the growth of invasive plant species for example *Salvinia molesta* in Lake Naivasha and Water Hyacinth (*Pontederia crassipes*) in Lake Victoria, algal blooms, prolific growth of macrophytes, frequent death of fishes, and emergence of murky foul water. Another cause of wetland degradation is over-exploitation through water abstraction, drainage to create land for agriculture, burning, timber and other wood species collection as well as fishing. All these activities are common in almost all wetlands in Rift Valley as evidenced by decline in papyrus cover in Loboi and Saiwa swamps, decline in fish harvest in Lake Naivasha, serious fluctuations of eater in Lake Elementeita, Naivasha and Lake Nakuru as well as frequent drying up of many swamps in the region. The major landform features in Kenyan biomes are central plains, coastal strip, the rift valley, ancient block mountains and rift valley lakes. Riverbanks and wetlands provides habitats for many amphibian species and among the notable rivers and wetlands in Kenya are shown in **Figure 1**. The

Ramsar Convention recognizes several wetland areas in Kenya as Ramsar wetlands of international significance such as Tana River Delta, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Lake Bogoria, Lake Elmenteita and Lake Baringo. Ramsar defined wetland as "an area covered by fen, marsh, water or peat and can be natural or artificially modified and

**Figure 1.** *Map showing major wetlands in Kenya © Munguti, KEMFRI.*

can be partly or throughout the year with static or free flowing water that are either salty, blackish and it include areas of marine water whose at low tide the depth does not exceed 6 meters" [4].

It is worth nothing that frogs require moisture of any kind during breeding, for eggs and larvae stage to develop (tadpoles) prior to metamorphosis [5, 6]. However, most species in Africa have evolved astonishing behaviors and lifestyle in face of perturbations from anthropogenic activities to avoid dehydration and manage breeding [7]. As a result, some are no longer reliant on the river banks, lake shores and marshes as those have been degraded and some are now breeding on land especially with little rain and often hibernate underground during dry spells where soil retain some moisture and some in fact developed wrapped cocoons [6]. However, in most undisturbed habitats, amphibians freely float their spawn in water or moist soil or reeds (see **Figure 2**). Unlike reptilian or bird eggs that have a protective outer layer, frog eggs are enclosed in a gelatinous envelope. Eggs then hatch into tadpoles, an aquatic stage that is completely dependent on water to survive and grow. Aquatic ecosystems are therefore key to the success of amphibian populations but, unfortunately, local freshwater systems are being degraded.
