Today’s World Animal Day, celebrated across the globe since a 1931 convention of ecologists in Florence, Italy, conceived of it as a way to highlight the plight of endangered species. They chose October 4 because it’s the Catholic Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. Since then, people have used the
Two important amphibian news items to report here…the first regards the spread of the lethal Chytrid fungus into Caecilians (a third major grouping of the Amphibia); the second item: a report on the recent USGS survey of US amphibian populations. Rare Amphibian Group Now at Risk from Frog-killing Fungus Frogs (and toads), salamanders, and Caecilians
A shocking number of bird species are becoming endangered and/or going extinct all over the world. Next to amphibians, our feathered friends — often viewed as agricultural “pests” — are perhaps suffering most from an existential triple threat: climate change impacts, land use changes, and habitat destruction (all inter-related impacts), though some, such as red-winged
Let’s face it, in the on-going battle between wild nature and climate change, the world’s amphibians have been on the front lines; as a taxa, more species of amphibian have gone extinct or become critically threatened or endangered than almost any other animal group. Many species of amphibian — which include frogs and salamanders —
The Global Amphibian Blitz project is an on-line information sharing hub for non-professional naturalists and biologists whose goal is to track and record sightings of amphibians the world over. This information will then help professional researchers to document and determine where protection efforts are most needed. Global amphibian distribution is quite lacking in documentation and data. The term ‘blitz’ is used here in the belief that this crowd-sourcing method of species inventorying will speed up research and conservation efforts for one of the world’s most vulnerable classes of animal life.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joins numerous conservation organizations to observe Endangered Species Day on May 20, 2011. The purpose of the special day is to “recognize conservation efforts underway across the nation aimed at helping America’s imperiled species.”
Wildlife conservation and restoration projects are happening all over this land, some maybe in your own neck of the woods/neighborhood.
Yasuni National Park, located 250 km inland along the Eastern most border of Ecuador, is a world record holder in biodiversity richness: The roughly 10,000 km² forest is home to 139 species of amphibians (besting Columbia’s Leticia Park with its 98 species) and an estimated 100,000 species of insects. This latter figure represents the highest
Lizards are fairly robust and adaptive creatures owing to their ability to tolerate high body temperatures and resist water loss, but warming trends seem to be pushing temperatures past the thermal threshold that these reptiles need for successful reproduction and long-term survival.
University of Georgia researchers discovered a two inch long salamander near Toccoa, Georgia. It is reportedly the first discovery of a new four-footed species in the US in fifty years. It was in the spring of 2007 that the salamander was first discovered, but the details have not been published until this year, in the Journal
University of Costa Rica scientists discovered a new species of frog in a mountainous region of their country. The frog is about 2 cm. in length and lives in the Altamira-Valle de Silencio area at an altitude of around 8,000 feet. The habitat there is rainforest with cool temperatures. The frog was named Diasporus ventrimaculatus. Females
A recent study documented the discovery of 100-200 new amphibian species in Madagascar. [social_buttons] One of the researchers, Dr. Miguel Vences, stated: “People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet. But the century of discoveries has only just begun – the majority of life forms on Earth is still
