Reptile News

Extinction outpaces evolution

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:53:00 +0000

Extinctions are currently outpacing the capacity for new species to evolve, according to Simon Stuart, chair of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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Flash flood sweeps away elephant research camp in Kenya

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:57:00 +0000

A research camp with environmental organization Save the Elephants (STE) in Samburu National Reserve in Kenya fell victim to a flash flood last week, after the Ewaso Ng’iro River broke its banks. Fortunately, none of the researchers or employees were hurt, but the camp lost most of the equipment—including tents, food, computers, and collars—and data in the flood.

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Frog in Australia goes from ‘extinct’ to very, very endangered

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:32:00 +0000

Facing habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and the devastating chytrid fungus, there has been little positive news about amphibians recently. However, a story out of Australia brings a much needed respite from bad news. In 2008 Luke Pearce, a fisheries conservation officer, stumbled on a frog that had been thought to be extinct for over thirty years. Not recorded since the 1970s, Pearce rediscovered the yellow-spotted bell frog (Litoria castanea) on rural Australian farmland in the Southern Tableland of New South Wales.

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Why seed dispersers matter, an interview with Pierre-Michel Forget, chair of the FSD International Symposium

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:52:00 +0000

There are few areas of research in tropical biology more exciting and more important than seed dispersal. Seed dispersal—the process by which seeds are spread from parent trees to new sprouting ground—underpins the ecology of forests worldwide. In temperate forests, seeds are often spread by wind and water, though sometimes by animals such as squirrels and birds. But in the tropics the emphasis is far heavier on the latter, as Dr. Pierre-Michel Forget explains to mongabay.com. “[In rainforests] a majority of plants, trees, lianas, epiphytes, and herbs, are dispersed by fruit-eating animals. […] As seed size varies from tiny seeds less than one millimetres to several centimetres in length or diameter, then, a variety of animals is required to disperse such a continuum and variety of seed size, the smaller being transported by ants and dung beetles, the larger swallowed by cassowary, tapir and elephant, for instance.”

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Photos: Madagascar’s wonderful and wild frogs, an interview with Sahonagasy

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:47:55 +0000

To save Madagascar’s embattled and beautiful amphibians, scientists are turning to the web. A new site built by herpetologists, Sahonagasy, is dedicated to gathering and providing information about Madagascar’s unique amphibians in a bid to save them from the growing threat of extinction. “The past 20 years have seen resources wasted because of a poor coordination of efforts,” explains Miguel Vences, herpetologist and professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig. “Many surveys and reports have been produced that were never published, many tourists found and photographed amphibians but these photos were not made available to mapping projects, many studies carried out by Malagasy students did not make use of literature because it was not available.”

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Website seeking ‘most wanted’ photos and videos of vanishing species

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:49:00 +0000

Many of the world’s most endangered species have never been photographed or caught on film. The not-for-profit website ARKive is hoping to change that. ARKive provides a collection of some of the best photos and video clips of the world’s species.

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Octopus pretends to be flounder to avoid predators

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:29:00 +0000

Marine researchers have discovered the Atlantic longarm octopus mimicking not only the color and appearance of the peacock flounder, but also its unique style of swimming in order to convince predators it’s something it’s not.

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National parks in India and Nepal hit by rhino poachers

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:44:38 +0000

The rare Indian rhinoceros is not safe from poachers even in national parks. In Nepal’s world renowned Royal Chitwan National Park, twenty-four Indian rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) have been poached since the last census was taken in 2008. The most recent one was killed last Thursday. Approximately 372 Indian rhinos survive in the park, and the population is in decline.

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Afghanistan protects 15 additional endangered species

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:44:38 +0000

Afghanistan’s National Environment Protection Agency (NEP) has added 15 species to its Protected Species List, totaling 48 species now under protection. The new species includes the large-billed reed warbler, which was only recently discovered in the Central Asian nation. Fortunately, by law newly discovered species in Afghanistan receive automatic legal protection.

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Prehistoric snake gobbled-up dinosaur babies

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:44:37 +0000

A fossilized snake has been discovered inside a titanosaur nest in India, leading researchers to conclude that the snake fed on newly-hatched dinosaur babies, rather than their eggs like modern snakes. Paleontologist and snake expert Jason Head says that the snake, known as Sanajeh indicus, lacked the wipe-jaws needed to swallow eggs, but just-hatched baby titanosaurs would have been perfect prey for the 3.5 meter (nearly 12 feet) long serpent. Titanosaurs belong to the sauropods, long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs which includes the world’s largest animals to ever walk the land.

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