Lucy Cooke, the ‘amphibian avenger’, really loves frogs. She travels to a remote region of Colombia’s wild west to look for one of the world’s most toxic animals: Phyllobates terribilis, the golden poison frog. Protecting it from extinction isn’t an easy job – it lives among gold mines, drug runners, guerrillas and local people sceptical […]
Calling all Muppets fans: A new species of see-through glass frog found in Costa Rica looks just like Kermit. The lime-green amphibian, which took the Internet by storm this week, has bulging white eyes with perfect black pupils, much like Jim Henson’s musical puppet. But this frog can’t carry a tune. In fact, it has […]
A supplement simply added to water has been shown to boost reproduction in nematodes (roundworms), molluscs, fish and frogs – and researchers believe it could work for humans too. Dr Keith Davies, senior lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire and his colleague Dr John Hart, CEO of Endocrine Pharmaceuticals Ltd, observed guppy fish (Poecilia reticulata) […]
Legend says that salamanders can spit poison and extinguish flames, but even such pyrotechnic powers would not be enough to save them from a new scourge. A fungus that arrived recently in Europe from East Asia is lethal to many salamander species, a study released on Thursday shows, threatening populations in Europe, Africa, and beyond. […]
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 […]
As of this year, scientists have named and described over 10,000 reptiles, marking a new milestone in cataloging one of the most diverse vertebrate groups. Last week, the Reptile Database, an online catalog of all the world’s living reptiles, announced it had passed 10,000 species. “Officially, we have logged 10,038 reptile species into the database, […]
Scientists have made a key discovery that may help to stem the loss of countless species of amphibians to a deadly fungus. Frogs and other amphibians have been among the worst hit of all species in recent years in terms of the numbers facing drastic declines or extinction: more than one-third of the more than […]
A team of Australian and Vietnamese researchers recently discovered a new species of frog in the high elevations of Vietnam’s Mount Fansipan, according to a new paper in Zootaxa. The amphibian was named Botsford’s leaf-litter frog (Leptolalax botsfordi) as a tribute to Christopher Botsford for his role in amphibian biodiversity research in Asia. “I had […]