SANBI

Rationale (Changed due to Same category and criteria)

Homopus areolatus is assessed at this time as Least Concern, as it is widespread and occurs in several protected areas. However, habitat availability and population numbers are declining, especially in the western part of the range, and it warrants close monitoring as it could easily decline into Near Threatened status.

Distribution

Homopus areolatus is endemic to South Africa, occurring along the south coast from Eendekuil and Fish Hoek in the Western Cape to Cradock and King William's Town in the Eastern Cape. Relic populations are known from the southwestern interior of the Roggeveld-Bokkeveld region in the Northern Cape (Boycott and Bourquin 2000).

Habitat View more ecological information

Population trend

Trend

Homopus areolatus has a relatively wide distribution, but urban and agricultural development has fragmented and degraded its habitat severely, leading to local population declines and extinctions. Most of the western range falls within Critically Endangered or Endangered ecosystems (Rouget et al. 2004), limiting available habitat. In some regions, the species is marginalised to suboptimal habitat (M. Hofmeyr pers. obs.), which threatens continued survival. In general, H. areolatus is still common in some areas, but declines warrant that its status be monitored periodically over its range.

Threats

Habitat destruction represents the most serious threat to Homopus areolatus. Large areas of the southwestern and southern range of the species has been transformed, with little remaining natural habitat (Driver et al. 2012). A future threat is climate change, which will have a large impact on the Fynbos Biome of the southern Cape (Driver et al. 2012, Schoeman et al. 2013). The small size of individuals makes them particularly vulnerable to predation by Pied Crows (Fincham and Lambrechts 2014) and small mammals. Furthermore, an increase in fire frequency decimates populations. Homopus areolatus is sympatric with Psammobates geometricus and Chersina angulata at some sites (M.D. Hofmeyr and B.T. Henen pers. obs.), indicating that many of the same threats impact, and conservation actions would benefit, all the sympatric species.

Uses and trade

The species is bred in captivity but the extent to which this contributes to trade is unknown.

Conservation

Homopus areolatus is included in CITES Appendix II and is protected in South Africa by provincial nature conservation ordinances and biodiversity laws at a regional level. It occurs in two national parks in the southwest and several provincial reserves in the southwestern and southern Cape. No special conservation measures are necessary at this stage, but the taxon should be re-assessed once its phylogeographic structure has been analyzed; the southwestern clade in particular may need attention. There is a small-scale captive breeding programme in Europe under the auspices of the European Studbook Foundation.

References

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,]

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