reptiles news from mongabay.com

Photo: Stunning new pit-viper discovered in Honduras

2013-05-15T02:05:00Z

A stunning new species of pit-viper has been discovered in the cloud forest of Honduras. The venomous snake is described in the journal ZooKeys.

Five percent of ploughshare tortoise population perishes after botched smuggling attempt

2013-05-14T16:39:00Z

In March, two people were caught attempting to smuggle 54 ploughshare tortoises (Astrochelys yniphora) into Thailand. Listed as Critically Endangered, the tortoises' wild population is down to approximately 400-500 animals in its native Madagascar, meaning the smugglers were attempting to move over 10 percent of the total population. Now, the Scientific American blog Extinction Countdown reports that nearly half of the smuggled tortoises have died of unknown causes.

Climate change to halve habitat for over 10,000 common species

2013-05-13T15:01:00Z

Even as concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history last week, a new study in Nature Climate Change warns that thousands of the world's common species will suffer grave habitat loss under climate change.

Cobra bust in Vietnam

2013-04-23T05:16:00Z

Authorities in Vietnam arrested a man who they say was transporting 53 king cobras — a protected snake species — in his car, reports the Associated Press.

Future generations to pay for our mistakes: biodiversity loss doesn't appear for decades

2013-04-15T18:58:00Z

The biodiversity of Europe today is largely linked to environmental conditions decades ago, according to a new large-scale study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Looking at various social and economic conditions from the last hundred years, scientists found that today's European species were closely aligned to environmental impacts on the continent from 1900 and 1950 instead of more recent times. The findings imply that scientists may be underestimating the total decline in global biodiversity, while future generations will inherit a natural world of our making.

How many animals do we need to keep extinction at bay?

2013-04-15T16:32:00Z

How many animal individuals are needed to ensure a species isn't doomed to extinction even with our best conservation efforts? While no one knows exactly, scientists have created complex models to attempt an answer. They call this important threshold the "minimum viable population" and have spilled plenty of ink trying to decipher estimates, many of which fall in the thousands. However, a new study in Conservation Biology shows that some long-lived animals may not need so many individuals to retain a stable population.

Market figures out that geckos don't cure AIDS, but killing continues

2013-04-12T18:53:00Z

Millions of tokay geckos continue to be traded for traditional medicine, despite waning belief that the colorful lizards are a cure for AIDS, reports a new study from TRAFFIC.

Madagascar's chameleons came from African mainland

2013-03-29T03:14:00Z

Madagascar's color-changing chameleons originated in Africa and crossed over to the island some 65 million years ago, concludes a study published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Over ten percent of a species' total population found in smuggler's bag

2013-03-25T14:34:00Z

On Friday, March 15th Thai authorities arrested a 38-year-old man attempting to collect a bag containing 54 ploughshare tortoises (Astrochelys yniphora) and 21 radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) in Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Found only in Madagascar both species are listed as Critically Endangered and protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but have become lucrative targets for the black-market pet trade given their scarcity and beauty.

Scientists discover two new remarkably-colored lizards in the Peruvian Amazon (photos)

2013-03-21T20:07:00Z

Scientists have discovered two new species of woodlizards from the Peruvian Amazon. Woodlizards, in the genus Enyalioides, are little-known reptiles with only 10 described species found in South and Central America. Described in a new paper in ZooKeys, both new woodlizards were found in Cordillera Azul National Park, the nations third-largest.

Crocodilian competition may hinder conservation efforts in Amazon

2013-03-11T17:57:00Z

In the slow-moving freshwater of the Amazon River basin, a dark, scaly crocodilian known as the black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) is attempting a comeback from near extinction, but another crocodilian may threaten the recovery process, according to a new study in the journal Herpetologica.

Turtles win greater protection at CITES meeting

2013-03-08T18:30:00Z

Dozens of freshwater turtle and tortoise species won greater protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), reports the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Leatherback sea turtles suffer 78 percent decline at critical nesting sites in Pacific

2013-02-27T19:40:00Z

The world's largest sea turtle, the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), is vanishing from its most important nesting sites in the western Pacific, according to a new study in Ecosphere. Scientists found that leatherback turtle nests have dropped by 78 percent in less than 30 years in the Bird's Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea. Worryingly, these beaches account for three-fourths of the western Pacific's distinct leatherback population; globally the leatherback is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List, the highest rating before extinction.

15 percent of Guyana's reptiles and amphibians found nowhere else

2013-02-21T03:34:00Z

Fifteen percent of Guyana's 324 known species of reptiles and amphibians are found nowhere else in the world, reports a comprehensive new assessment published in the journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.

Pictures: 20% of the world's reptiles endangered

2013-02-15T02:38:00Z

Nearly a fifth the planet's reptiles are threatened with extinction, warns a new assessment published in the journal Biological Conservation.

Beyond the resorts: traveling the real and wild Dominican Republic (photos)

2013-01-29T17:28:00Z

For its stunning variety of ecosystems, the Dominican Republic is like a continent squished into half an island. Lowland rainforests, cloud forests, pine forests, dry forests, mangroves, savannah, coastal lagoons, salt lakes, a rift valley, karst land formations, four mountain ranges—including the highest mountain in the Caribbean—and not to mention some of the best beaches, snorkeling, and scuba diving in the hemisphere can all be reached within just a few hours drive of the capital, Santo Domingo. Yet, bizarrely, most tourists who visit the Dominican Republic never venture out of their all-inclusive resort, missing out on some of the most stunning landscapes—and accessible wildlife viewing—in the Caribbean.

Telling the story of the father of sea turtle conservation

2013-01-21T14:55:00Z

In 1959, visionary Archer Carr founded the world's first conservation group devoted solely to sea turtles. Working with these marine denizens in Costa Rica, Carr was not only instrumental in changing local views of the turtles—which at the time were being hunted and eaten at unsustainable rates—but also in establishing basic practices for sea turtle conservation today. Now a new film by Two-Head Video, Inc. tells the story of Carr's work and the perils still facing marine turtles today.

Photo: Subterranean 'Moby Dick' mermaid lizard discovered in Madagascar

2013-01-16T02:44:00Z

An international team of scientists have described a bizarre new species of worm-like lizard that lives underground. Strangely, they named it the 'Moby Dick' mermaid skink.

Photos: Neon blue dragon discovered in Vietnamese rainforest

2013-01-15T19:05:00Z

German and Russian biologists have discovered a stunning new species of lizard in Vietnam. The species, dubbed Calotes bachae, is described in a recent issue of the journal Zootaxa. Calotes bachae is a type of agama, a group of lizards commonly known as 'forest dragons.'

Picture gallery of the day: Day geckos

2013-01-07T02:38:00Z

Day geckos are the jewels of the gecko family.

Animals of the Masai Mara - book review

2013-01-06T19:27:00Z

Animals of the Masai Mara is the first illustrated guidebook to the Masai Mara region along the Kenya and Tanzania border. This is the world famous region of wildebeest migrations, large felines, towering African elephants, fascinating cultures, and great flora and fauna diversity. This is the guidebook for every child, and child inside of us, between the ages of 5 and 105 that has ever dreamt of learning about the fascinating animals seen on a safari in Africa.

Photos: one of the world's rarest turtles hatches at the Bronx Zoo

2012-12-21T18:36:00Z

Turtle conservationists received some good news this week when five critically endangered Chinese yellow-headed box turtles hatched at Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo.

Photos: 3 colorful lizard species discovered in Australia

2012-12-19T18:20:00Z

Researchers in Australia have described three new lizard species from the northwestern part of the continent.

Pictures: 126 new species discovered in Greater Mekong region last year

2012-12-18T18:26:00Z

Some 126 new species were described in Asia'a Mekong region last year, notes a new report published by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Long and thin with a big head: new snake adds diversity to a bizarre group (photo)

2012-11-28T14:55:00Z

There's no question that blunt-headed vine snakes are an odd lot: a thin body tapers into an even thinner neck which expands suddenly into a broad head with massive eyes. Until now only six species were recognized from this genus, known as Imantodes, but a new study in Zookeys describes a seventh species: Imantodes chocoensis from the Chocó Forests in northeastern Ecuador.

Climate change threatens population of Earth’s largest sea turtle

2012-11-19T14:30:00Z

A drier, hotter climate in Central America could wipe out the population of leatherback sea turtles from the eastern Pacific Ocean by the year 2100, according to a grim projection published on July 1 in Nature Climate Change. Already critically endangered from fisheries by-catch and historic egg poaching, leatherbacks can hardly accommodate another human-related threat. Yet scientists still hold out hope for interventions that could save the turtles.

Indonesia remains epicenter for illegal wildlife trade in reptiles and amphibians

2012-10-24T15:06:00Z

Demand for exotic pets is driving the illegal harvest and trade of herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians) in Indonesian New Guinea, according to a recent study published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. Between September 2010 and April 2011, Daniel Natusch and Jessica Lyons of the University of New South Wales surveyed traders of amphibians and reptiles in the Indonesian provinces of Maluku, West Papua and Papua.

Remarkable comeback: blue iguana downgraded to Endangered after determined conservation efforts

2012-10-23T23:42:00Z

The wild blue iguana population has increased by at least 15 times in the last ten years, prompting the IUCN Red List to move the species from Critically Endangered to just Endangered. A targeted, ambitious conservation program, headed by the Blue Iguana Recovery Team, is behind this rare success for a species that in 2002 only numbered between 10 and 25 individuals.

Endangered turtle urinates through its mouth

2012-10-11T15:49:00Z

One of China's most commonly farmed turtles for consumption, the Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis), has a unique ability: it urinates out of its mouth. Researchers in Singapore, writing in The Journal of Experimental Biology, have discovered that the Chinese soft-shelled turtle excretes most of its urine from its mouth instead of its kidneys. They hypothesize that the turtle developed this ability in order to survive in brackish waters, which contain considerably more salt than freshwater.

Scientists name new snake species to criticize mine plans in Panama (photos)

2012-09-18T17:15:00Z

While scientists increasingly name new species after celebrities in order to gain much-needed attention for the world's vanishing biodiversity, researchers describing a new snake species from Panama have taken a different route. Dubbing the new serpent, Sibon noalamina ('no to the mine!' in Spanish), the scientists are hoping the multicolored snake's unusual name will draw attention to mining and deforestation issues in Panama's remote Tabasará mountains.

Arachnopocalypse: with birds away, the spiders play in Guam

2012-09-17T21:41:00Z

The island of Guam is drowning in spiders. New research in the open-access journal PLOS ONE has found that in the wet season, Guam's arachnid population booms to around 40 times higher than adjacent islands. Scientists say this is because Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, has lost its insect-eating forest birds. Guam's forests were once rich in birdlife until the invasion of non-native brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) in the 1940s decimated biodiverse bird communities. Now, the island is not only overrun with snakes, but spiders too.

Turtle knowledge in Africa shows significant gaps

2012-09-17T20:24:00Z

Sometimes turtles fall through the cracks: a new study in the open access journal Tropical Conservation Science, has uncovered a number of 'gap species' in the turtle families inhabiting Africa. 'Gap species' are those that are recorded in one country or another, but not in adjacent countries which could be due to a lack of data, a change in ecosystems, or human impacts.

Vote for the world's seven wonders of vanishing species

2012-09-11T14:38:00Z

The seven wonders of the world is an ancient tradition going back to the 2nd Century BCE. But where those first lists focused on manmade marvels, many 'seven wonders' today also take note of the natural world. Now, a new program by the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) hopes to use the 'seven wonders' concept to highlight imperiled species by allowing people to vote for their favorites.

Animal pictures of the day: booming captive breeding for Mauritius skinks

2012-08-14T16:44:00Z

Three female orange-tailed skinks skinks have produced 16 skink babies in just four months, according to the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT), which is captive breeding the Critically Endangered species. The breeding efforts are all the more remarkable since the females only produce two eggs at a time.

Massive snake found in Florida (photos)

2012-08-14T14:58:00Z

Researchers in Florida have documented the biggest snake ever found in Florida. But the snake is an invader — it's not native.

Cute animal picture of the day: baby Yemen chameleons

2012-07-23T15:21:00Z

Ten Yemen chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) were recently born at the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) Whipsnade Zoo. A popular pet species, the chameleons, also known as veiled chameleons, still thrive in the mountainous wilds of Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN Red List.

Pictures of the day: sea turtle and whale shark release in China

2012-07-18T20:31:00Z

Earlier this month, Sea Turtles 911, a conservation organization in China, released two green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and a juvenile whale shark (Rhincodon typus) back into the wild.

'Beautiful' new snake discovered in Cambodia (photo)

2012-07-16T13:55:00Z

Scientists have discovered a new snake species in the biodiverse rainforests of the Cardamom Mountains, reports Fauna & Flora International (FFI). The new reddish-hued serpent has been named after its country of origin by native herpetologist Neang Thy: the Cambodian kukri (Oligodon kampucheaensis).

Meet the world's rarest snake: only 18 left

2012-07-10T14:35:00Z

It's slithery, brown, and doesn't mind being picked up: meet the Saint Lucia racer (Liophis ornatus), which holds the dubious honor of being the world's most endangered snake. A five month extensive survey found just 18 animals on a small islet off of the Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia. The snake had once been abundant on Saint Lucia, as well, but was decimated by invasive mongooses. For nearly 40 years the snake was thought to be extinct until in 1973 a single snake was found on the Maria Major Island, a 12-hectare (30 acre) protected islet, a mile off the coast of Saint Lucia (see map below).

Picture: Blue-tongued monitor lizard

2012-07-01T17:20:00Z

Water monitor photographed in Sabah, on the island of Borneo.

With the death of the world's rarest creature, ranger loses his best friend, Lonesome George

2012-06-29T13:28:00Z

With the death of Lonesome George, the world lost the last member of a subspecies and Ecuador its greatest symbol of the Galapagos Islands, but Fausto Llerena lost his best friend.

96 percent of the world's species remain unevaluated by the Red List

2012-06-28T12:23:00Z

Nearly 250 species have been added to the threatened categories—i.e. Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered—in this year's update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. The 247 additions—including sixty bird species—pushes the number of threatened species globally perilously close to 20,000. However to date the Red List has only assessed 4 percent of the world's known species; for the other 96 percent, scientists simply don't know how they are faring.

Lonesome George passes, taking unique subspecies with him

2012-06-25T15:11:00Z

Lonesome George, the sole surviving member of the Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni), was found dead on Sunday by staff at the Galapagos National Park. With George's passing, the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies officially falls into extinction. First found in 1972, Lonesome George became famous for representing the last of his kind. He was believed to be around 100—middle-aged for a Galapagos tortoise which can live to 200 years old. Staff plan to do an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Conservationists successfully hatch world's fourth most endangered turtle

2012-06-11T16:16:00Z

The world's fourth most endangered turtle has received a happy boost from breeding efforts, reports the AFP. Bangladeshi scientists have successfully hatched 25 northern river terrapins (Batagur baska) using an artificial beach constructed in the country's Bhawal National Park.

Herp paradise preserved in Guatemala

2012-05-29T19:48:00Z

Fifteen conservation groups have banded together to save around 2,400 hectares (6,000 acres) of primary rainforest in Guatemala, home to a dozen imperiled amphibians as well as the recently discovered Merendon palm pit viper (Bothriechis thalassinus). The new park, dubbed the Sierra Caral Amphibian Reserve, lies in the Guatemalan mountains on the border with Honduras in a region that has been called the most important conservation area in Guatemala.

New armored lizard discovered in landmine-riddled region

2012-05-21T12:18:00Z

A new lizard has been discovered in a war-torn area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to a paper in the African Journal of Herpetology<, the new species was found hiding under a rock in the high grasslands of the Marungu Plateau, an area known for landmines.

Jaguar v. sea turtle: when land and marine conservation icons collide

2012-05-16T14:47:00Z

At first, an encounter between a jaguar (Panthera onca) and a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) seems improbable, even ridiculous, but the two species do come into fatal contact when a female turtle, every two to four years, crawls up a jungle beach to lay her eggs. A hungry jaguar will attack the nesting turtle, killing it with a bite to the neck, and dragging the massive animal—sometime all the way into the jungle—to eat the muscles around the neck and flippers. Despite the surprising nature of such encounters, this behavior, and its impact on populations, has been little studied. Now, a new study in Costa Rica's Tortuguero National Park has documented five years of jaguar attacks on marine turtles—and finds these encounters are not only more common than expected, but on the rise.

Wildlife in the tropics plummets by over 60 percent

2012-05-15T15:32:00Z

In 48 years wildlife populations in the tropics, the region that holds the bulk of the world's biodiversity, have fallen by an alarming 61 percent, according to the most recent update to the Living Planet Index. Produced by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the index currently tracks almost 10,000 populations of 2,688 vertebrate species (including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish) in both the tropics and temperate regions.

Skink biodiversity jumps 650 percent in the Caribbean

2012-04-30T15:30:00Z

In a single paper in Zootaxa scientists have rewritten the current understanding of lizard biodiversity in the Caribbean. By going over museum specimens of skinks, scientists have discovered 24 new species and re-established nine species previously described species, long-thought invalid. The single paper has increased the number of skinks in the Caribbean by 650 percent, from six recognized species to 39. Unfortunately, half of these new species may already be extinct and all of them are likely imperiled.

New reptile discovered in world's strangest archipelago

2012-04-25T15:37:00Z

Few people have ever heard of the Socotra Archipelago even though, biologically-speaking, it is among the world's most wondrous set of islands. Over one third of Socotra's plants are found no-where else on Earth, i.e. endemic, while 90 percent of its reptiles are also endemic. Adding to its list of unique life-forms, researchers have recently uncovered a new skink species that is found only on the island of Abd al Kuri, which is slightly smaller than New York City's Staten Island. Dubbed the "the other Galapagos," the four Socotra islands are under the jurisdiction of Yemen, although geographically speaking the islands are actually closer to Somalia.