The African Green Toad, Bufo$ boulengeri Lataste, 1879 (sensu Stöck et al., 2006) occurs from the Western Sahara and the Moroccan Atlantic coast eastwards to the Nile valley in Egypt, including several Mediterranean islands (Stöck et al., 2008). In Morocco B. boulengeri is distributed throughout the country, from sea level up to 2670 meters altitude in the High Atlas, occupying a variety of habitats from cedar to argan forests and from brackish desert wadis to wet prairies, but is most common in open, relative arid areas (Bons and Geniez, 1996; Schleich et al., 1996). Despite its wide ecological niche and distribution, B. boulengeri seems to be absent in the Rif Mountains and a large part of the northern Atlantic lowland eastwards towards Fes (Schleich et al., 1996; Salvador, 1996; Mateo et al., 2003), excluding several doubtful records (see below). This absence is especially striking due to the occurrence of the species in sub-humid regions of the Middle Atlas (e.g. Tazzeka massif, Bons and Geniez, 1996; western Middle Atlas, Fahd et al., 2007) which are environmentally and climatically very similar to the mountain ranges of the Rif.

Three localities in the north-western Rif however have been published during the last decades (see fig. 1); Ceuta (Sebta) and Tetouan both from Bons and Geniez (1996) and the basin of the Oued Laou near Bab Taza (Fahd and Mediani, 2007). Because of the doubtful validity

of the first two records (Fahd et al., 2002; Mateo et al., 2003) and the discovery of several new localities of B. boulengeri by the authors we regard it noteworthy to present a distributional overview of this species from northern Morocco with emphasis on occurrence in the Rif Mountains. The new records correspond with the numbers displayed on figure 1.

New localities in the eastern Rif Mountains

Locality 1: On the 27th of February 2009, an adult male and female Bufo boulengeri were found during the night on the N2 motorway between Bni-Hadifa and Aït-Kamara (N 35.09, W 4.03), 500 meters altitude. The surrounding landscape consisted of open arid agricultural land with streams and few trees. Both individuals were included in the personal collection of Philip de Pous (SPHD0071 and SPHD0072).

Locality 2: On the 19th of April 2004 (N 34.58, W 3.87), 870 meters altitude a road killed specimen was found on semiarid agricultural landscape with few trees adjacent to the Oued Msoun between Aknoul and El-Kifane.

Locality 3: On the 1st of November 2004 (N 34.39, W 3.91), 659 meters altitude, a road killed specimen was found on semiarid agricultural landscape adjacent to the Oued Larbaa, on the road 505 between Ain Bou-Kellal and Es-Sebt.

New localities in northern Morocco

Locality 4: An individual was found near Souk-el-Arba-du-Rharb on the sub-humid sandy Atlantic coastal plain (N 34.62, W 5.97).

Herpetology Notes, volume 3: 071-074 (2011) (published online on 24 February 2011)

A distributional review of Bufo boulengeri Lataste, 1879 in northern Morocco with emphasis on occurrence in the Rif Mountains.

David Donaire1*, Wouter Beukema2, Philip de Pous3,4 & Raul del Canto Gonzalez5

1 C/ Mar Egeo 7, 11407 Jerez de la Fra., Cádiz, Spain; e-mail: daud.donaire@hotmail.com2 ITC, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Obser-

vation, University of Twente, Hengelosestraat 99, Enschede, The Netherlands.

3 Society for the Preservation of Herpetological Diversity, Oude Molstraat 2E 2513 BB, Den Haag, the Netherlands.

4 School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.

5 Asociación herpetológica Fretum Gaditanum, C/Santísima Trinidad 1, 11380 Tarifa, Cádiz, Spain.

* Corresponding author.

$ Although Frost et al. (2006) placed this species (as part of Bufo viridis) within the genus Pseudepidalea and Van Bocxlaer et al. (2009) provided new data supporting the recognition of the genus we follow the proposal of Vences (2007) and here forth maintain it in the genus Bufo s.l.

David Donaire et al.72

Locality 5: Several individuals (see fig. 2) were found on the 12th of February 2010 in a rocky valley near the Oued Mimoun in the lowland northwest of Fes (fig. 3) (N 34.13, W 5.03), 550 meters altitude.

Locality 6: On the 18th April 2004 (N 34.13, W 3.23), 566 meters altitude, a dried individual was found trapped in a man-made pool near Fritissa in the semi-arid Moulouya basin (fig. 4). This individual was included in the personal collection of Philip de Pous (SPHD0117).

When considering both the suggested historical migration and gene-flow throughout northern Africa (Batista et al., 2006), and the wide distribution throughout the Maghreb (Schleich et al., 1996) the absence of B. boulengeri from the Rif Mountains would be at least surprising and raise a biogeographical question. The north-western part of Morocco is characterised by semi-arid coastal lowlands and sub-humid mountain ranges, where B. boulengeri is well-documented from the Mamora forest near Rabat (Bons and Geniez, 1996) northwards (locality 4) along the coast up to Tanger (Mateo et al., 2003) which we regard as natural occurrence in contrast to Mateo et al. (2003). Bufo boulengeri seems to stem from the coastal areas using rivers corridors such as the Oued Loukkos, Oued Sebou and Oued Laou inland to Fez (locality 5) and near Bab Taza in the Rif Mountains (Fahd and Mediani, 2007). The latter record is based on personal observation of both authors which moreover found B. boulengeri

near Ouezzane and Brichka (unpublished, pers. comm. S. Fahd) and therefore highly credible. A comparable migration strategy is shown by the gecko Saurodactylus fasciatus which uses the same Oued Loukkos corridor from Ouezzane, reaching as far north as Chefchaouen (D. Donaire pers. obs. in Mateo et al., 2003).

Despite the credibility of the recent occurrence record near Bab Taza, the close by records of B. boulengeri near Ceuta and Tetouan, already ignored by Fahd et al., (2002) and Mateo et al., (2003) must be considered as void for the following reasons:

They are neither accompanied by vouchers or photographs to prove them, and are not personal observation of the authors (pers. comm. Ph. Geniez).

Bufo boulengeri has not been found recently at these localities or their vicinity despite intensive herpetological surveys in this area (e.g. Martínez-Medina, 2001; Fahd et al., 2002; Donaire-Barroso and Bogaerts, 2003a and 2003b; Fahd et al., 2005; Guzman et al., 2007; Harris et al., 2008). Conclusively, B. boulengeri seems to be absent from the north-western mountain ranges of the Rif (the so called Jebala region).

Our findings (localities 1, 2 and 3) are the first records of Bufo boulengeri within the eastern part of the Rif Mountains. The nearest known localities are found to the east, in the Plaine de Gareb, southwest of Nador, (Bons and Geniez, 1996) and along the Moulouya basin near Guercif (locality 6). The climate in the Rif Mountains

Figure 1. Distribution of Bufo boulengeri in northern Morocco.

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and along the Mediterranean shore becomes increasingly arid towards the east (Bons and Geniez, 1996), which is reinforced by intensive agriculture and deforestation, leading to aridification and climate warming (Rimi, 2000). This, in combination with migration along river corridors via tributaries of the Oued Moulouya such as the Oued Msoun and Oued Larbaa can likely explain the occurrence of B. boulengeri in the eastern Rif Mountains. This distributional pattern is congruent with that of several other aridity-associated species such as Mesalina olivieri, Stenodactylus mauritanicus and Chalcides ocellatus which occur near human modified areas very close to those occupied by B. boulengeri, and seems to penetrate through the same river corridors (D. Donaire and R. del Canto unpublished pers. obs.).

Although the presence of a total of four records in the north-western and eastern Rif Mountains might suggest a wider occurrence of the B. boulengeri, the species seems to be limited to river corridors within these mountain ranges hitherto being absent from the mountains cores characterized by a more humid climate.

Acknowledgements. Fieldwork in Morocco was authorised under permit decision °84 issued to Philip de Pous and David Donaire by the Haut Commissariat aux Eaux et Forêts et à la Lutte Contre la Désertification, Rabat, Morocco, and former permits since 2004 for David Donaire. Sergé Bogaerts provided valuable comments to the article and company in field trips. Soumia Fahd and Philippe Geniez provided unpublished data on the occurrence of B. boulengeri. Thanks to many other companions of the many herpetological surveys carried out in Morocco since 1996, who helped indirectly in our findings.

Figure 2. Bufo boulengeri found near the Oued Mimoun, west of Fes.

Figure 3. Habitat of Bufo boulengeri near the Oued Mimoun, west of Fes (locality 5).

Figure 4. Habitat of Bufo boulengeri near the vicinity of Fritissa in the Moulouya basin (locality 6).

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Accepted by Sebastian Steinfartz; Managing Editor: Alexandru Strugariu