Otomys sloggetti clades

Otomys sloggetti clades

Our study reveals new distribution records for O. sloggetti that extend the range beyond the Drakensberg Range to the adjacent Sneeuberg region of the southern Great Escarpment. Otomys sloggetti was collected at the three localities that were sampled in the Sneeuberg Range ( AS, MZNP and SPNR). However, other mountain regions between the Sneeuberg and Drakensberg, such as the Winterberg and Stormberg, have not been sampled. The existence of three distinct clades of O. sloggetti from the Sneeuberg, Drakensberg and Maluti Ranges suggests that some vicariance and/or speciation might have occurred between these lineages.

CONCLUSION

Our study brings to six the number of Otomys endemic or near-endemic species occurring in South African mountains (across the Great Escarpment and Cape Fold Belt). The Sneeuberg Centre of Floristic Endemism is clearly also a hotspot of rodent diversity and endemism, with up to three of these endemic Otomys species co-occurring syntopically. Given the accelerating threats of anthropogenic and climatic change in temperate mountain grassland ecosytems, the conservation status of these montane endemic rodents needs to be reappraised urgently, particularly in the case of the newly described O. willani , which is restricted to the southern Great Escarpment. Given expected declines in grasslands owing to climate change and the consequent adjustment of O. auratus from Least Concern to Near Threatened (Taylor et al., 2015; Child et al., 2016), we propose that O. willani should be classified nationally and globally as Near Threatened under the A4C IUCN criterion.