While much of the northern part of the U.S. copes with blizzard conditions, in Florida, it’s raining iguanas. Florida residents have been sharing pictures of the reptiles belly up in backyards and on the side of roads. The effect is brought on by the abnormally cold weather hitting the East Coast of the United States. […]
Not all storks migrate to Africa. Many stay for the winter in the Iberian Peninsula, where landfills have become a permanent source of food. Scientists from Extremadura have analysed the presence of pollutants and pesticides (some prohibited in Spain) in the blood of nestlings from three colonies, two of which are close to landfill sites. […]
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 […]
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, amphibians are the most threatened group of animals on Earth: currently around 30 percent of the world’s amphibians are listed as threatened with extinction. However this percentage doesn’t include those species about which too little is known to evaluate (26 percent). Amphibians face many threats but […]
Expansion of the palm oil industry in Malaysia is destroying key habitat for endangered frogs, putting them at greater risk, finds a new study published in the journal Conservation Biology. Over a two-year period, Aisyah Faruk of the Zoological Society of London and colleagues documented the impact of oil palm plantations on the peat swamp […]
Over the past 30 years, amphibians worldwide have been infected with a lethal skin disease known as the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). “The disease can cause rapid mortality, with infected frogs of susceptible species dying within weeks of infection in the laboratory.” Jodi Rowley, a herpetologist with the Australian Museum told mongabay.com. “This disease […]
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 […]
New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) is facing a backlash over plans to aerially drop a controversial poison, known as 1080, over the habitat of two endangered, prehistoric, and truly bizarre frog species, Archey’s and Hochsetter’s frogs, on Mount Moehau. Used in New Zealand to kill populations of invasive mammals, such as rats and the […]
In 1853 Edward Frederick Kelaart, a physician and naturalist, collected a strange frog on the island of Sri Lanka then a British colony known as Ceylon. The specimen was a large shrub frog (about 2 inches or 5.5 centimeters long) with black-outlined white specks on lime-green skin. He dubbed it “starry” after its pale specks, […]
Two surveys in the mountainous forests of Sri Lanka’s Peak Wilderness Sanctuary have uncovered eight new species of frogs, according to a massive new paper in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. While every year over a hundred new amphibians are discovered, eight new discoveries in a single park is especially notable. Sri Lanka is an […]
The feeder where I photographed the most, just happened to be next to the bar. Yes, before dinner, a cold Costa Rican beer goes just fine with bird photography. Over three days, some species were common at the feeders, but each day a species that I hadn’t seen before would also appear. When hiking the […]
As we checked into the Lodge, we were asked if we wanted to do a “frog tour” that evening. Not having a clue what to expect, I said: “sure, why not”. Being the only participants, this turned into an hour and a half of me photographing nine different species of frogs. Luckily, we had headlamps […]
. Silent Spring, the ground-breaking book by Rachel Carson on the negative effects of DDT and other pesticides, celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Carson’s genius, in part, was in personalizing a difficult and somewhat esoteric subject using a humble and ubiquitous example—nearly everyone, regardless of age, education or political leaning, could easily grasp the […]
