Mollem national park has long been the emerald in Goa’s crown. The verdant jungle which covers this steep area of India’s Western Ghats mountain range is home to leopards, Bengal tigers, pangolins, black panthers and hundreds of endemic species of flora and fauna found nowhere else on the planet. The muscular state animal of Goa – […]
Tag: western ghats
Western Ghats – 3rd December (Day 9)
We were up at 05:45, loaded the car and then drove to Cairn Hill Park just outside of Ooty to get better views of a couple of the endemics to be found here after our last visit on 1st December when the weather was terrible. As we entered the park there were three Black-and-Orange Flycatcher […]
Selective logging hurts rainforest frogs
Selective logging in India’s Western Ghats forests continues to affect frogs decades after harvesting ended, finds a new study published in Biotropica. The research, conducted by K. S. Seshadri of Pondicherry University and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, assessed frog communities in logged and unlogged forests in Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger […]
First video footage of 2 EDGE amphibians in the Western Ghats, India!
The Zoological Society of London’s “EDGE (Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered) of Existence programme is the only global conservation initiative to focus specifically on threatened species that represent a significant amount of unique evolutionary history” Mammals, Amphibians and Coral Reefs on a global scale have been prioritized in this manner. Of the Top 100 EDGE […]
New Bush Frog species discovered from Western Ghats of India
Researchers have described a new species of shrub frog Raorchestes ghatei from the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, in India. According to them, the species differs from its close relatives based on a combination of characters including small to medium-sized adult males, snout slightly projecting beyondmouth ventrally, tongue without papilla but with a lingual pit, nuptial […]
Scientists identify 137 protected areas most important for preserving biodiversity
Want to save the world’s biodiversity from mass extinction? Then make certain to safeguard the 74 sites identified today in a new study in Science. Evaluating 173,000 terrestrial protected areas, scientists pulled out the most important ones for global biodiversity based on the number of threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians found in the parks. In […]
Two new frog genera discovered in India’s Western Ghats, but restricted to threatened swamp-ecosystems
The misty mountains of the Western Ghats seem to unravel new secrets the more you explore it. Researchers have discovered two new frog genera, possibly restricted to rare and threatened freshwater swamps in the southern Western Ghats of India. The discoveries, described in the open-access journal Zootaxa, prove once again the importance of the mountain […]
Photographers threatening the already-maligned slender loris
Caught in a beam of torchlight, the eyes of the slender loris reflect back a striking glow. In an effort to better understand these shy, nocturnal primates, a team of researchers set out to the Western Ghats of India. The resulting paper: Moolah, Misfortune or Spinsterhood? The Plight of the Slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus) in […]