For years, evolutionary biologists have been puzzled by the paradox of aposematism. This is the evolutionary process that sees animals, like frogs, develop bright colors to warn potential predators that eating them will make them sick or even kill them. It seems counterintuitive that such colors could evolve, as animals that stand out are usually […]
Tag: salamander
Secrets of California’s skydiving salamanders revealed by researchers
A new study is shedding fresh light into the incredible world of California’s temperate forests, and the daring survival techniques of one of its inhabitants: parachuting salamanders. The study, published on Monday in the journal Current Biology, shows how salamanders living in the canopy are able to parachute consistently, slowing their speed and controlling their […]
Petition: Lawsuit Filed to Stop Bulldozing Project at Ballona Wetlands on the Los Angeles Coast
A group called Defend Ballona Wetlands has sued the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW). Molly Bassler, a Climate Reality Project leader with the Los Angeles chapter, and Robert van de Hoek, a wildlife biologist, are joining it in the suit. The litigants are challenging the CDFW’s approval of a project they say would […]
Deadly Fungus Has Decimated More Than 500 Amphibian Species
One of the most threatening invasive species on earth is so small it can’t be seen with the human eye, but it’s ravaging amphibians around the world and has become one of the deadliest diseases known to science. Chytridiomycosis is caused by the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd as it’s become known, which kills […]
We’re Eating the Largest Animals off the Face of the Earth
We already know some of the earth’s largest animals are facing a range of threats from climate change and pollution to habitat loss, but according to a new study our demand for their meat is now one of the biggest threats to their survival. For the study, which was just published in the journal Conservation […]
POLL: Should Southeast Asian newts be protected under CITES?
A little-known group of amphibians — the Southeast Asian newts — are in high demand as pets, a new study has found. Large numbers of these semi-aquatic salamanders are being collected from the wild and sold in the United States and the European Union, researchers say. To understand the scale of trade in these animals, […]
Can Texas Protect Its Creepy, Tiny, Blind, Rare Wildlife?
San Antonio, Texas – A ritual of nature is happening in the woody hills around Austin and San Antonio. The first golden-cheeked warblers, with brilliant yellow faces streaked with black, have arrived from Mexico and Central America to raise their young. The Texas Hill Country is the only place on Earth where this little songbird, […]
Chinese Giant Salamander: millions farmed, nearly extinct in the wild
The world’s largest amphibian sounds like a work of fiction: virtually unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs, and reportedly growing as long as a man, the Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus) is clinging to survival in the wild in a few fast-flowing rivers scattered across the highlands of China. Meanwhile, the aquaculture industry is […]