Focus On Biodiversity — The Sticky Tongue Project

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Biodiversity loss ranks with climate change and pollution in terms of impacts to environment

A recent study published by an international research team working at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) has found that loss of biodiversity impacts the environment as significantly as climate change and pollution. The study, titled, “A global synthesis reveals biodiversity loss as a major driver of ecosystem change,” was published May 2 in the journal Nature.

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Amazing Species: Yangtze Giant Softshell

The Yangtze Giant Softshell, Rafetus swinhoei, is listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species TM. This enormous softshell turtle, of which only four surviving individuals are known, can reach 120 kg in size and historically inhabited the Red River of Yunnan and Vietnam, and the lower Yangtze floodplain.

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Amazing Species: Purple Marsh Crab

The Purple Marsh Crab, Afrithelphusa monodosa, is listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN RedList of Threatened SpeciesTM. This species was first collected in 1947 in Guinea, West Africa,and not seen again until 2005 when a small population was found living in holes in marshy,waterlogged farmland in the Upper Guinea forest in northwest Guinea.

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Amazing Species: Mallorcan Midwife Toad

The Mallorcan Midwife Toad, Alytes muletensis, is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Endemic to the island of Mallorca, this species is also named for its unusual parental care, in which the male carries the developing eggs.

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Honey! I think I’ve found the cat!

Honey! I think I’ve found the cat!

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Amazing Species: Santa Catalina Island Rattlesnake

The Santa Catalina Island Rattlesnake, Crotalus catalinensis, is listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. As its name suggests, this rattlesnake is restricted to Isla Santa Catalina in the Gulf of California, an island covering just 40 square kilometres.

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Amazing Species: Black Rhinoceros

The Black Rhino, Diceros bicornis, is listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. Once found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, over 98% are now protected in state, private and communal conservation areas in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. There are also small re-established breeding populations in Swaziland, Zambia, Malawi and Botswana.

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Amazing Species: Ploughshare Tortoise

The Ploughshare Tortoise, Astrochelys yniphora, is listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a declining wild population of a few hundred animals. The elongated front spike of the undershell, used by males in breeding jousts for females, is the most remarkable feature of this spectacular tortoise.

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Amazing Species: Giant Garter Snake

The Giant Garter Snake, Thamnophis gigas, is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. The largest of the garter snake species, this highly aquatic snake occurs in the Central Valley of California, in the western United States.

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Experts Recommend Cutting Global Forage Fishing by Half

Fishing for herring, anchovy, and other “forage fish” in general should be cut in half globally to account for their critical role as food for larger species, recommends an expert group of marine scientists in a report released today. The Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force conducted the most comprehensive worldwide analysis of the science and management of forage fish populations to date. Its report, “Little Fish, Big Impact: Managing a crucial link in ocean food webs,” concluded that in most [...]

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Glass Frog Eggs (photo)

Glass Frog Eggs (Cochranella resplenden), photographed in Ecuador by Robin Moore

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Favorite Field Find #6: Bite-Sized Bufo bufo

Bite-sized Bufo bufo … aka Mini Toad! Whatever you want to call them (and technically this is a Common European Toad) … we can’t wait to find and photograph more of these guys.

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Amazing Species: Burnup’s Hunter Slug

Burnup’s Hunter Slug, Chlamydephorus burnupi, is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. This species of slug is endemic to South Africa where it lives in the leaf-litter of mist-belt and montane Podocarpus forests, and is largely confined to the midlands and Drakensberg foothills in KwaZulu-Natal.

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Conservation genetics of threatened Mexican axolotls (Ambystoma)

The loss of genetic diversity in small or isolated populations can increase inbreeding, decrease fitness and adaptive potential and increase a species’ probability of extinction. In species with life histories that naturally result in small populations and/or low levels of gene flow, patterns of anthropogenically induced genetic erosion can be obscured by evolutionary history; yet these species may still be susceptible to genetic loss.

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Guest Photos: Snakes Of Maharashtra, India

Today, we are excited to share with you some amazing field herping photos sent to us from Chaitanya Shukla in India.

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Amazing Species: La Gomera Giant Lizard

The La Gomera Giant Lizard, Gallotia bravoana, is listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. It is native to La Gomera Island (of the Canary Islands) and can grow to up to 1.2 metres in length.

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Amazing Species: Franklin’s Bumble Bee

Franklin’s Bumble Bee, Bombus franklini, is classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. Known only from southern Oregon and northern California, between the Coast and Sierra-Cascade Ranges in the USA, Franklin’s Bumble Bee has the most restricted range of any bumble bee in the world.

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Skinks, circa 1912

A contribution to the zoögeography of the East Indian islands /. Cambridge, U.S.A. :printed for the Museum,1912.. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36125193

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