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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=amphibians&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/amphibians/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:33:47 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Amphibians</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/amphibians/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Rising seas could reshape habitats for more than 40% of world’s land vertebrates</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/rising-seas-could-reshape-habitats-for-more-than-40-of-worlds-land-vertebrates/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/rising-seas-could-reshape-habitats-for-more-than-40-of-worlds-land-vertebrates/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2026 02:01:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/10150256/Proboscis-monkey_RhettAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=335395</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Global, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Reptiles, Research, Sea Levels, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea level rise driven by climate change could see more than 42% of terrestrial land vertebrates lose parts of their habitats to the ocean by the end of the century, according to new research. The global study, recently published in Science, overlaid habitat suitability maps calculated for 34,120 land vertebrates — roughly 90% of all [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea level rise driven by climate change could see more than 42% of terrestrial land vertebrates lose parts of their habitats to the ocean by the end of the century, according to new research. The global study, recently published in Science, overlaid habitat suitability maps calculated for 34,120 land vertebrates — roughly 90% of all known amphibian, reptile, bird and mammal species — with sea level rise projections associated with five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change scenarios, ranging from low to high emissions outlooks. “Conservation planning needs to consider not only where species occur today, but also which parts of their habitat are projected to remain above water in the future,” co-author of the study Zhong-Wen Jiang, a postdoctoral researcher at Sun Yat-sen University in China, told Mongabay in an email. The study found between 14,325 and 15,324 of the species examined would be exposed to habitat loss due to coastal inundation by the year 2100, depending on the climate scenario. Yet only 5.9% of these species are considered at risk from climate change, according to their IUCN Red List assessments. Up to 63% of birds, 52% of mammals, 36% of reptiles and 24% of amphibians will likely be affected, the study found, with reptiles, narrow-ranging species and already threatened species particularly vulnerable. Overall, reptiles are likely to experience nearly double the amount of habitat loss of birds or mammals. The finding that such a significant number of species will be affected by sea level rise highlights&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/rising-seas-could-reshape-habitats-for-more-than-40-of-worlds-land-vertebrates/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/rising-seas-could-reshape-habitats-for-more-than-40-of-worlds-land-vertebrates/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-335395</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Investigation: Fungus may have killed Atlantic Forest amphibians in the 1970s and &#8217;80s</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/investigation-fungus-may-have-killed-atlantic-forest-amphibians-in-the-1979s-and-80s/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/investigation-fungus-may-have-killed-atlantic-forest-amphibians-in-the-1979s-and-80s/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Nov 2026 21:24:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/10171203/Image_1-scaled-e1794331436398-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=335418</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Conservation, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Frogs, Rainforests, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the 1970s and ’80s, frogs in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest began dying off. Researchers have proposed various causes, from severe cold snaps to acid rain. Now, scientists believe they have solved this decade-old amphibian “cold case.” The culprit, it seems, may be the highly contagious pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). It causes a deadly infectious skin [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the 1970s and ’80s, frogs in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest began dying off. Researchers have proposed various causes, from severe cold snaps to acid rain. Now, scientists believe they have solved this decade-old amphibian “cold case.” The culprit, it seems, may be the highly contagious pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). It causes a deadly infectious skin disease, chytrid, in amphibians. The investigation was recently published in the journal Molecular Ecology. Researchers from the U.S. and Brazil studied specimens collected from Boracéia research station in the Atlantic Forest. William Ronald Heyer, a former curator at the Smithsonian in the U.S., had gathered and preserved 370 frogs from 17 species for scientific study during the 1970s and ’80s. But no one collected the amphibians from 1979 to 1982 — a period when there was a drastic decline in frogs. “There&#8217;s a gap right when the decline happened,” said Jack Boyette, who is first author on this new study, a Smithsonian graduate fellow and Pennsylvania State University Ph.D. candidate. “So, we have this really amazing temporal collection before and after the decline.” When the team analyzed the specimens, they found no trace of Bd in 1978. But from 1983 onwards, it was widespread, indicating a “really rapid expansion,” Boyette said. In science, there’s sometimes a “detection lag” — and this was one of those cases. Though the pathogen wasn’t described until 1999, it began devastating populations in the 1970s after emerging in Asia. Bd/chytrid has driven declines in more than 500 species across the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/investigation-fungus-may-have-killed-atlantic-forest-amphibians-in-the-1979s-and-80s/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/investigation-fungus-may-have-killed-atlantic-forest-amphibians-in-the-1979s-and-80s/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-335418</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Legal gaps allow rampant pet trade, poaching reptiles and amphibians towards extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/legal-gaps-allow-rampant-pet-trade-poaching-reptiles-and-amphibians-towards-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/legal-gaps-allow-rampant-pet-trade-poaching-reptiles-and-amphibians-towards-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2026 15:55:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/15152757/Lehmanns-poison-frog-Oophaga-lehmanni.-Credit_-%C2%A9%EF%B8%8FJonathan-Vanegas-WCS-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332764</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Herps, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Pet Trade, Pets, Poaching, Reptiles, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Spain’s law enforcement agency, the Civil Guard, announced on Sept. 25, 2026, that it seized 209 reptiles from breeding facilities in Jérica and Sot de Ferrer (Castellón), including critically endangered iguanas endemic to Fiji. Nearly half of the reptiles were protected under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty. They also seized unlicensed handguns and nearly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Spain’s law enforcement agency, the Civil Guard, announced on Sept. 25, 2026, that it seized 209 reptiles from breeding facilities in Jérica and Sot de Ferrer (Castellón), including critically endangered iguanas endemic to Fiji. Nearly half of the reptiles were protected under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty. They also seized unlicensed handguns and nearly 200 rounds of ammunition. Authorities arrested three individuals — two men aged 48 and 51 and a 37-year-old woman — on a litany of charges: Belonging to a criminal organization, wildlife-related offenses, smuggling, money laundering and illegal weapons possession. The alleged traffickers reportedly smuggled reptiles from the wild in the Americas, Africa and Asia, and then bred them without permits, the authorities said. They added that these reptiles were then sold at European reptile and trade fairs, mixing smuggled animals with legally acquired animals — a practice called laundering that’s prevalent in wildlife trade. In this way, traffickers exploit the “legal gray area surrounding documentation that certifies the animals&#8217; origins,” the authorities said in a press release. The Spanish case is just one recent example among a slew of seizures and arrests involving rare tortoises, endangered turtles, poisonous frogs, endemic iguanas and many other protected reptiles and amphibians worldwide. The trade is lucrative — estimated to be worth some $2.5 billion — and comes with little risk. It’s often unregulated. Smugglers are rarely caught, and if they are, they get off by paying a small fine, which is absorbed as the cost of doing business.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/legal-gaps-allow-rampant-pet-trade-poaching-reptiles-and-amphibians-towards-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/legal-gaps-allow-rampant-pet-trade-poaching-reptiles-and-amphibians-towards-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332764</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New releases a leap forward for endangered frog in southern California</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-releases-a-leap-forward-for-endangered-frog-in-southern-california/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-releases-a-leap-forward-for-endangered-frog-in-southern-california/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2026 19:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/30104452/Image-3_-Adult-southern-mountain-yellow-legged-frogs-inside-tank-at-L.A.-Zoo-bio-secure-amphibian-headstarting-facility_photo-co-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Frogs, Habitat, Herps, Invasive Species, Reintroductions, Research, Rewilding, Science, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Frog release days always start early, at about 4 a.m., so that staff can get up to the site before the day gets too hot, said Erin Lundy, manager of conservation initiatives at the Aquarium of the Pacific in the U.S. The first challenge is catching the frogs. A newly morphed southern mountain yellow-legged frog [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Frog release days always start early, at about 4 a.m., so that staff can get up to the site before the day gets too hot, said Erin Lundy, manager of conservation initiatives at the Aquarium of the Pacific in the U.S. The first challenge is catching the frogs. A newly morphed southern mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) is about an inch long, fast, and very good at squeezing into cracks, Lundy said. It can take a couple of hours for staff to scoop them all up from the tanks. Lundy prefers grabbing them with gloved hands, though others use nets. The aquarium has been rearing southern mountain yellow-legged frogs since 2021, as part of a multi-agency, 20-plus-year conservation effort for the species, a Southern California amphibian listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Head-starting the frogs by ushering them through metamorphosis in captivity boosts their odds of survive, Lundy said. This year’s cohort arrived at the aquarium late last summer as 2-month-old tadpoles from the Los Angeles Zoo, where they were bred. Through winter and into spring, aquarium staff watched as their limbs erupted and tails slowly reabsorbed. By August, most were ready for life in the wild. (Metamorphosis for this species takes from one to five years in the wild, and is highly variable in captivity. Those that did not fully metamorphosize by the release date will be held back and released as larger adults next summer). Developing southern mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) embryos inside eggs at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-releases-a-leap-forward-for-endangered-frog-in-southern-california/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-releases-a-leap-forward-for-endangered-frog-in-southern-california/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331219</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Inspiring young herpetologists in Sri Lanka: Interview with Anslem de Silva</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/inspiring-young-herpetologists-in-sri-lanka-interview-with-anslem-de-silva/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/inspiring-young-herpetologists-in-sri-lanka-interview-with-anslem-de-silva/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 14:53:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25122934/3.-in-the-field-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327246</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Education, Herps, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Lizards, Reptiles, Science, and Tropical Conservation Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lankan-born conservation biologist and National Geographic explorer Ruchira Somaweera is internationally recognized for his award-winning wildlife research, photography and storytelling. Despite his global achievements, Somaweera treasures an old journal copy containing a prophecy. When he was 13 years old, Somaweera received a copy of the research journal Lyriocephalus with a handwritten note [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lankan-born conservation biologist and National Geographic explorer Ruchira Somaweera is internationally recognized for his award-winning wildlife research, photography and storytelling. Despite his global achievements, Somaweera treasures an old journal copy containing a prophecy. When he was 13 years old, Somaweera received a copy of the research journal Lyriocephalus with a handwritten note which read: “One day you will be a great herpetologist,” signed by Anslem de Silva. “Almost 30 years ago, I got hooked into herpetology after reading a series of newspaper articles written by de Silva on Sri Lankan snakes in a local science publication. Those articles inspired me to prepare a small booklet on snakes as my school science project. Most of the herpetologists of my generation were groomed by de Silva, and hundreds, if not thousands, of students have been inspired by him, just like I was,” Somaweera told Mongabay. In 1995, Ruchira Somaweera received a copy of the research journal Lyriocephalus from Anslem de Silva with the signed inscription: “One day you will be a great herpetologist.” Image courtesy of Ruchira Somaweera. Anslem de Silva is widely regarded as as the father of modern herpetology in Sri Lanka, having dedicated more than six decades to studying the island’s reptiles and amphibians. His pioneering research, publications and conservation efforts have transformed scientific understanding of Sri Lanka’s remarkable herpetofauna. Sri Lanka’s herpetofauna represents the island’s extraordinary diversity of reptiles and amphibians, including snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, frogs, toads and caecilians, with many species found nowhere&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/inspiring-young-herpetologists-in-sri-lanka-interview-with-anslem-de-silva/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327246</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why a New England city is building tunnels to protect an imperiled salamander</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/why-a-new-england-town-is-building-tunnels-to-protect-an-imperiled-salamander/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/why-a-new-england-town-is-building-tunnels-to-protect-an-imperiled-salamander/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2026 18:29:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex Megerle]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/22153217/original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324331</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Forest Fragmentation, Habitat, Herps, Infrastructure, Roadkill, Roads, Salamanders, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S. — It’s a mild March night in Keene, New Hampshire, and the salamander brigade is out in full force. A constellation of flashlight beams wink and flash along a dark street, as rain falls onto the jackets and reflective vests of the assembled crew. Tonight, a veritable army of amphibians is trekking [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S. — It’s a mild March night in Keene, New Hampshire, and the salamander brigade is out in full force. A constellation of flashlight beams wink and flash along a dark street, as rain falls onto the jackets and reflective vests of the assembled crew. Tonight, a veritable army of amphibians is trekking from the upland forests, where they spend the winter, toward the wetlands where they breed. In their path lies a two-lane asphalt road, North Lincoln Street. Animals need to move for a variety of reasons, but in a world crosshatched by motorways, that’s not an easy task. Each spring in Keene, wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus), spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) and spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) must navigate roads to reach their natal spawning grounds. This particular road in Keene is routinely closed to cars during nights of amphibian migration. At other crossing sites in the region, volunteers are the only thing standing between these slow-moving critters and the danger posed by passing traffic. Carrying animals across the road by hand gets the job done, but it’s limited by human availability and energy. The hope has always been that “crossing brigades are the first step, not the last step,” said Brett Amy Thelen, who organizes these efforts and serves as science director for the Harris Center for Conservation Education, a regional nonprofit. That hope is being realized: Thelen and her salamander squadron are at the center of a new initiative to build small&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/why-a-new-england-town-is-building-tunnels-to-protect-an-imperiled-salamander/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324331</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists race to study the Amazon’s frogs before they disappear</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/scientists-race-to-study-the-amazons-frogs-before-they-disappear/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/scientists-race-to-study-the-amazons-frogs-before-they-disappear/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2026 19:45:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago da Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/12192320/fc4a5294-9326-47c3-ab99-0eeae5c82be9-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319270</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Freshwater, Frogs, Rainforests, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MANAUS, Brazil — Crouched over the leaf litter, where dry leaves accumulate on the forest floor, a researcher tries to capture a distinct croak using a directional microphone. Identifying the sound of a small frog is often one of the conclusive proofs that a new species has been found. It’s nighttime. He wears long clothing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MANAUS, Brazil — Crouched over the leaf litter, where dry leaves accumulate on the forest floor, a researcher tries to capture a distinct croak using a directional microphone. Identifying the sound of a small frog is often one of the conclusive proofs that a new species has been found. It’s nighttime. He wears long clothing as protection against mosquitoes and ants, and boots to keep his feet dry. Finding amphibians in the Amazon doesn’t require high-tech equipment; it actually dates back to explorations by early-20th-century naturalists. That’s how biologist Igor Kaefer, a professor at the Federal University of Amazonas in Brazil, describes a typical day of fieldwork in search of amphibians in the Amazon. Kaefer was part of a group responsible for describing Amazophrynella bilinguis in 2019. The very description of the little toad gives an idea of ​​how difficult it is to find: females measure about 2 centimeters (less than an inch), and their brown head and back make them “disappear” among the leaves and branches. Home to an estimated 1,525 species of amphibians, the Amazon Basin is the most diverse ecosystem in the world when it comes to frogs, an order that includes toads and tree frogs. However, occurrence records have been confirmed for only about 810 of those. So going into the field and finding a new-to-science species is not unlikely. “In almost every inventory conducted in a remote area, you come back with more than one new species for synthesis,” Kaefer says. But finding a species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/scientists-race-to-study-the-amazons-frogs-before-they-disappear/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/scientists-race-to-study-the-amazons-frogs-before-they-disappear/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319270</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Linking habitats strengthens wildlife microbiomes, helps fight disease: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/linking-habitats-strengthens-wildlife-microbiomes-helps-fight-disease-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/linking-habitats-strengthens-wildlife-microbiomes-helps-fight-disease-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2026 14:29:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/23133143/4-Atlantic-Forest-frog-Dendrophryniscus-haddadi-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318009</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Conservation, Diseases, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Freshwater, Frogs, Fungi, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat Loss, Microorganisms, Planetary Health, Research, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study has found that when deforestation and land use change break up key habitats vital to amphibian life cycles, those disconnects can play havoc with the animals’ microbiome, leaving them more susceptible to disease. This troubling finding could also apply to a host of other species, the study researchers say, but may also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study has found that when deforestation and land use change break up key habitats vital to amphibian life cycles, those disconnects can play havoc with the animals’ microbiome, leaving them more susceptible to disease. This troubling finding could also apply to a host of other species, the study researchers say, but may also have positive implications for conservation to counteract the problem. Habitat split, first associated with amphibian decline in a 2007 study, occurs when multiple “classes” of aquatic and terrestrial habitat — such as forests, streams and ponds — vital to a species’ life cycle are separated by human activities (such as agriculture), causing the species to decline. Studies have already shown that this phenomenon is a driver of localized frog extinctions in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. In the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists investigated the effect of “habitat split” on the microbiome of four frog species (Haddadus binotatus, Rhinella ornata, Boana faber and Ischnocnema henselii), all dwelling in the highly fragmented Atlantic Forest. They found that where forest and aquatic habitats are linked, frogs are more likely to host skin microbes that inhibit the deadly fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This fungus, known as chytrid, is responsible for large-scale declines of hundreds of amphibian species across the globe. Importantly, the skin microbiome of frogs living in areas where these habitats were split hosted fewer pathogen-fighting microbes, leaving the frogs more susceptible to infection. Two of the frog species sampled also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/linking-habitats-strengthens-wildlife-microbiomes-helps-fight-disease-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/linking-habitats-strengthens-wildlife-microbiomes-helps-fight-disease-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318009</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Justin Claude Rakotoarisoa, a guardian of Madagascar’s amphibians, has died, aged 45</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/justin-claude-rakotoarisoa-a-guardian-of-madagascars-amphibians-has-died-aged-45/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/justin-claude-rakotoarisoa-a-guardian-of-madagascars-amphibians-has-died-aged-45/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Mar 2026 00:04:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/01181835/Justin-Claude-Rakotoarisoa-Project-Leader-de-lAssociation-Mitsinjo-et-membre-fondateur-de-celle-ci-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315023</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Ex-situ Conservation, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Herps, In-situ Conservation, Obituary, Reintroductions, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Madagascar, frogs are not background noise. They are a measure of how much forest still functions. The island holds an outsized share of the world’s amphibian diversity, and almost all of its frog species occur nowhere else. That concentration is both a wonder and a warning. When habitat thins, wetlands silt up, or disease [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Madagascar, frogs are not background noise. They are a measure of how much forest still functions. The island holds an outsized share of the world’s amphibian diversity, and almost all of its frog species occur nowhere else. That concentration is both a wonder and a warning. When habitat thins, wetlands silt up, or disease arrives, there is often no second refuge on another continent. Conservationists worry about many pressures at once: deforestation, fragmented marshes, wildlife trafficking, and the global spread of chytrid fungus, which has driven amphibian declines on several continents and has been detected in Madagascar. In such a setting, saving a frog can look like a technical exercise. It is also an organizational one. Keeping a species alive may require breeding rooms, quarantine protocols, and a steady supply of insects, plus patient negotiations with local communities and, at times, with the companies reshaping landscapes. Green Bright-eyed Frog (Boophis viridis) near in Andasibe, Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler Justin Claude Rakotoarisoa was born in a village near Andasibe, an area inhabited by the indri lemur, whose haunting, whale-like song carries through the forest. As a young man he trained as a guide, part of a generation that saw ecotourism as a way to earn a living without dismantling the forest that drew visitors. Mitsinjo, the community organization he joined in the late 1990s, began as a local effort to manage a forest station and channel tourist income into conservation and development. It became more than that. As&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/justin-claude-rakotoarisoa-a-guardian-of-madagascars-amphibians-has-died-aged-45/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/justin-claude-rakotoarisoa-a-guardian-of-madagascars-amphibians-has-died-aged-45/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315023</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Helping Cape Town’s toads cross the road: Interview with Andrew Turner</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/helping-cape-towns-toads-cross-the-road-interview-with-andrew-turner/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/helping-cape-towns-toads-cross-the-road-interview-with-andrew-turner/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jan 2026 19:48:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Barry Christianson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/08151257/09949-TK-Clemo-friend-measure-toad-on-road-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312726</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Cities, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Development, Endangered Species, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, In-situ Conservation, Interviews, Roads, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN — Western leopard toads have been listed as endangered since 2016. Andrew Turner, scientific manager for CapeNature, the government body that manages protected areas and conservation in South Africa’s Western Cape province, says the species was once more widely found across the Cape Peninsula as well as Kleinmond, Betty’s Bay and the Agulhas [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN — Western leopard toads have been listed as endangered since 2016. Andrew Turner, scientific manager for CapeNature, the government body that manages protected areas and conservation in South Africa’s Western Cape province, says the species was once more widely found across the Cape Peninsula as well as Kleinmond, Betty’s Bay and the Agulhas Plain. But over the last 20 years, much of its habitat has been lost to urban development, though no quantitative data exist. Leopard toads spend most of their time away from water, but during the breeding season, from late July until September, the amphibians need to reach ponds where they mate and lay their eggs. In an urban environment, this now requires them to cross busy roads. “Roads and toads are not a great combination,” Turner told Mongabay. “A lot of people don’t see them, or are traveling too fast to avoid them, and then you end up with squished toads.” Turner spoke to Mongabay in Cape Town. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Western leopard toad. Image by Barry Christianson. Mongabay: Western leopard toads are threatened because of extensive habitat loss in the past two decades. Has that stabilized now? Andrew Turner: So, I wouldn&#8217;t say it&#8217;s stabilized. Habitat loss has continued, but it has obviously decelerated a lot, because over time, the opportunities for further development have declined. There&#8217;s not that much natural habitat left that can be developed, so applications for development that do happen within the western leopard toad’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/helping-cape-towns-toads-cross-the-road-interview-with-andrew-turner/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/helping-cape-towns-toads-cross-the-road-interview-with-andrew-turner/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312726</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation climbs in Central America’s largest biosphere reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deforestation-climbs-in-central-americas-largest-biosphere-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deforestation-climbs-in-central-americas-largest-biosphere-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 20:09:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/31195758/2048px-Bairds_Tapir_Tapirus_bairdii_captive_specimen-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312462</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Cattle, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Herps, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mammals, Pasture, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Ranching, Salamanders, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Encompassing some 7,400 square kilometers, or 2,860 square miles, along the Honduran border, Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is the largest biosphere reserve in Central America. It’s home to the Miskito and Mayanga Indigenous groups as well as countless species; endangered Geoffrey&#8217;s spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) and Baird&#8217;s tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) inhabit Bosawas, as do critically [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Encompassing some 7,400 square kilometers, or 2,860 square miles, along the Honduran border, Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is the largest biosphere reserve in Central America. It’s home to the Miskito and Mayanga Indigenous groups as well as countless species; endangered Geoffrey&#8217;s spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) and Baird&#8217;s tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) inhabit Bosawas, as do critically endangered Saslaya moss salamanders (Nototriton saslaya), that are found nowhere else in the world. But, increasingly over the past several decades, Bosawás has also become host to cattle ranches and gold mines, at the cost of its rainforest. Despite its designation as a UNESCO site, Bosawás Biosphere Reserve has lost more than 30% of its primary forest cover since the turn of the century, according to satellite data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery lab and visualized on the monitoring platform Global Forest Watch. Deforestation surged to a record high in 2024, with 740 km2 (286 mi2) — 10% of the reserve’s land area — cleared in a single year. A satellite image captured April 2025 by Sentinel 2b shows recently deforested areas in Bosawás Biosphere Reserve. The data show fire activity in Bosawás also rose in 2024, with 35% of annual tree cover loss caused by fire, representing a 700% jump from 2023. Preliminary data for 2025 indicate forest loss has continued this year, with satellite imagery showing telltale patches of brown spreading ever deeper into Bosawás’s remaining old-growth rainforest. Cattle ranching is one of the main drivers of forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deforestation-climbs-in-central-americas-largest-biosphere-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deforestation-climbs-in-central-americas-largest-biosphere-reserve/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A new frog species emerges from Peru’s cloud forests — and it’s already at risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 22:32:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30222607/O.shunkusacha-768x466.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312381</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Cloud Forests, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Loss, Frogs, Green, Habitat Loss, Herps, Montane Forests, New Discovery, Rainforests, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep within the cloud forests of the San Martín region of Peru lie two places so high, cold and remote that they remained virtually unexplored for decades. In 2022, and again in 2025, monitors from three Indigenous and local associations guided a team of scientists from Peru and France on a series of expeditions to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep within the cloud forests of the San Martín region of Peru lie two places so high, cold and remote that they remained virtually unexplored for decades. In 2022, and again in 2025, monitors from three Indigenous and local associations guided a team of scientists from Peru and France on a series of expeditions to unravel their mysteries. It was there, within the Bosques de Vaquero Biocorridor, that one of the most striking discoveries emerged: a small, previously unknown frog hidden among the fallen leaves. They named it Shunku Sacha, which in Kichawa-Lamista means “heart of the forest.” The scientific name of the new species, Oreobates shunkusacha, honors the territory where it was discovered — a place that, along with the frog, is now threatened by the rapid destruction of the forest. O. shunkusacha was formally described in a study recently published in the German journal Salamandra. Due to the threats facing the species and its small known range, the study’s authors say it should be considered endangered. A collaborative effort The research was carried out by local associations and scientists from Nature Conserv’Action and the Ararankha Association–Ecology and Conservation, who have been working in the area since 2022, with the aim of bringing science closer to local organizations that protect the forests. The species has been named Oreobates shunkusacha, with Shunku Sacha meaning “heart of the forest” in Kichawa-Lamista. In their study, researchers propose “Shunku Sacha big-headed frog” as the species’ common name. Image courtesy of Nature Conserv’Action Perú.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312381</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Top new species from 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 14:22:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29141103/Screenshot-2025-12-28-at-5.12.22-PM-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312133</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Angola, Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, Cerrado, Global, Himalayas, India, Peru, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deep Sea, Deforestation, DNA, Ecosystem Services, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Farming, Forests, Fungi, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Invasive Species, Marine, Mining, Oceans, Old Growth Forests, Pollution, Protected Areas, Ranching, Research, Science, Snakes, Species, Species Discovery, Swamps, Threatened species, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean&#8217;s twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the human species. Every year, scientists find hundreds of new animals, insects, plants and fungi. This year, researchers described a tiny new marsupial, a new Himalayan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean&#8217;s twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the human species. Every year, scientists find hundreds of new animals, insects, plants and fungi. This year, researchers described a tiny new marsupial, a new Himalayan bat, an ancient tree, a bright blue butterfly, a parrot snake, and a fairy lantern plant, among others. &#8220;I think most people believe that we know most species on Earth,&#8221; Mario Moura, a professor at the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, told Mongabay, &#8220;but in the best-case scenario, we know 20% of Earth&#8217;s species.&#8221; Some estimate that only 10% of all the species on the planet have been described. Unfortunately, many species may be threatened with extinction before they’re even formally named — victims of human activities like development and climate change. Some of these species could be food or medicine for humans, but each plays a unique role in Earth’s interconnected web of life. “We’re understanding more and more that every species on the planet has a role, and in one way or another, is linked to our well-being through the part they play in ecosystems,&#8221; said Boris Worm, a marine conservation biologist who co-authored a study that quantifies the number of undescribed species on land and in the ocean. “We can’t protect them … if we don’t know them.&#8221; Atlantic manta ray (Mobula yarae) with a diver off the coast of Mexico. Originally&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312133</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2025 03:38:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/25135219/jay-m-savage-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312062</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Chytridiomycosis, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Herps, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the late 1980s, something began to go wrong in places that were supposed to be safe. Protected cloud forests, buffered from chainsaws and bulldozers, started losing animals that had persisted through far rougher times. Amphibians—often abundant, often overlooked—were vanishing in patterns that did not fit the usual explanations. Field biologists, trained to distrust drama, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the late 1980s, something began to go wrong in places that were supposed to be safe. Protected cloud forests, buffered from chainsaws and bulldozers, started losing animals that had persisted through far rougher times. Amphibians—often abundant, often overlooked—were vanishing in patterns that did not fit the usual explanations. Field biologists, trained to distrust drama, found themselves comparing notes with an unfamiliar unease. “A bunch of us got together and started comparing notes,” recalled Jay Mathers Savage, then a professor of biology at the University of Miami, in a 1992 interview with the New York Times. “People were struck by the fact it seemed to be occurring on a worldwide basis.” He had the credibility to make that observation land. For decades he had worked at the seam where taxonomy meets ecology, building arguments from specimens, notebooks, and repeated returns to the same humid places. His specialty was amphibians and reptiles, especially those of Central America—a region he came to know through sustained work rather than brief expeditions. One of those projects produced an animal that later became a symbol. In 1964, in what is now the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica, Savage and a colleague documented a toad that seemed almost designed to defy understatement. Its scientific name was Bufo periglenes. In life it was better known as the golden toad, the male an improbable Day-Glo orange. It spent most of its time underground and then surfaced for an annual, explosive breeding season—a brief, concentrated ritual that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312062</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The first amphibian to halt a hydroelectric dam now takes on the climate crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 10:19:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Thamys Trindade]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/22100957/Melanophryniscus_admirabilis-11-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311865</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Dams, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Frogs, Hydroelectric Power, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ARVOREZINHA, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil — The admirable little red-bellied toad is the size of a thumb, but it has achieved giant feats: In 2014, it prevented the construction of a small hydroelectric dam that threatened to alter its only habitat forever. Endemic to a small stretch of the Forqueta River, in the municipality [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ARVOREZINHA, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil — The admirable little red-bellied toad is the size of a thumb, but it has achieved giant feats: In 2014, it prevented the construction of a small hydroelectric dam that threatened to alter its only habitat forever. Endemic to a small stretch of the Forqueta River, in the municipality of Arvorezinha, Rio Grande do Sul, Melanophryniscus admirabilis is one of the rarest and most threatened species on the planet. Recently, after the floods that devastated the state in 2024, researchers returned to this refuge to assess whether the little toad that once halted the construction of a dam has survived the force of the waters. In October 2025, almost a year and a half after the biggest climate disaster in Rio Grande do Sul, I joined a team of researchers that would document what remained of the small habitat where just over a thousand little red-bellied toads used to live. The destination was Perau de Janeiro, a hidden fold of rocks and humid forest. Seen from above, the place, which is surrounded by tobacco plantations and pastures, looks like a common forest scene. But as we go down a steep trail, the atmosphere changes immediately. The smell of moss, the shining wet outcrop, the sound of the powerful flow of the river that ends in a waterfall: It was there that the little toad halted progress. And it was there where we wanted to find out if it still vocalized. Researcher Michelle Abadie with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311865</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uphill battle to save California’s endangered mountain yellow-legged frog</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2025 16:32:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10094533/Image_6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307350</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Drought, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, Frogs, Fungi, Habitat Degradation, Lakes, Pollution, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running battle fought by authorities, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and conservationists to stave [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running battle fought by authorities, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and conservationists to stave off extinction of this highly threatened species. The mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa), despite its name, can display a wide array of color variations, often a mix of brown and yellow, but also gray, red, or greenish-brown. There are two distinct populations of this medium-sized frog: one in Southern California and another up north in the Sierra Nevada. An endangered mountain yellow-legged frog leaps into its new home after being released into the lake. This release, a collaboration between Birch Aquarium, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, UCLA and Big Bear Alpine Zoo, is part of a long-running reintroduction program that began in 2010. Image courtesy of Birch Aquarium at Scripps/Alex Feltes. Biologists say this frog was once so common you couldn’t walk through its range without tripping on one. That’s far from the case today in Southern California. The last comprehensive surveys carried out in 2023 counted fewer than 200 adults in the wild. Though exact numbers are unclear, conservationists say the northern population is much more robust. The southern reintroductions began in 2010 in the San Jacinto Mountains. This year’s release is part of what Sean Bruce, assistant curator of fishes and invertebrates at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307350</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Regenerative fashion initiative in Indonesia wins 2025 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/regenerative-fashion-initiative-in-indonesia-wins-2025-pritzker-environmental-genius-award/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/regenerative-fashion-initiative-in-indonesia-wins-2025-pritzker-environmental-genius-award/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 15:14:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/09151209/denica-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307322</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, California, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Amphibians, Bioacoustics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Green Design, Hope and optimism, Regenerative production landscapes, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a world defined by extraction, Denica Riadini-Flesch is proving that creation can heal instead. The Indonesian economist-turned-entrepreneur has won UCLA’s 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award for building a “farm-to-closet” supply chain—a system that regenerates land, restores heritage craft, and empowers rural women. Riadini-Flesch founded SukkhaCitta after an encounter that reshaped her view of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a world defined by extraction, Denica Riadini-Flesch is proving that creation can heal instead. The Indonesian economist-turned-entrepreneur has won UCLA’s 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award for building a “farm-to-closet” supply chain—a system that regenerates land, restores heritage craft, and empowers rural women. Riadini-Flesch founded SukkhaCitta after an encounter that reshaped her view of progress. As a young economist from Jakarta, she once equated development with growth—an upward line without end. That illusion unraveled when she visited a village where women labored for weeks over textiles only to earn a few dollars, their skin and lungs scarred by synthetic dyes. “It burns my hands, my eyes, my lungs,” one woman told her. The remark revealed what Riadini-Flesch calls “the true cost of convenience.” SukkhaCitta set out to invert that logic. Instead of sprawling factories, production takes place in courtyards and small farms across Java, Bali, Flores, and West Timor. Cotton is grown on mixed plots that regenerate the soil; dyes come from indigo and mahogany leaves; fabrics are woven on handlooms. The enterprise has restored more than 120 acres of degraded land, kept five million liters of toxic dye wastewater out of rivers, and raised women’s incomes by 60 percent on average. The environmental benefits are measurable, but the social ones may matter more. Through decentralized Rumah SukkhaCitta schools, women learn ecological literacy, entrepreneurship, and heritage techniques side by side. Younger generations—once drawn to city sweatshops—are returning home to earn dignified incomes. “Artisans and farmers are the missing link&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/regenerative-fashion-initiative-in-indonesia-wins-2025-pritzker-environmental-genius-award/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307322</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Panama, poison dart frog move brings hope amid amphibians’ fight with fungus</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-panama-poison-dart-frog-move-brings-hope-amid-amphibians-fight-with-fungus/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-panama-poison-dart-frog-move-brings-hope-amid-amphibians-fight-with-fungus/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2025 22:14:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sam Meadows]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/08220528/Pratts-poison-dart-frog-Colostethus-pratti-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307262</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Diseases, Endangered Species, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat Loss, Protected Areas, Research, Solutions, Threatened species, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Measuring a bit more than 20 millimeters (0.8 inches), Pratt’s poison frog (Colostethus pratti) is not the kind of frog that would get attention. Although part of the Dendrobatidae family, known for its bright colors and high toxicity that keep predators away, it can only boast a brown, stripy skin and low poison levels. It’s not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Measuring a bit more than 20 millimeters (0.8 inches), Pratt’s poison frog (Colostethus pratti) is not the kind of frog that would get attention. Although part of the Dendrobatidae family, known for its bright colors and high toxicity that keep predators away, it can only boast a brown, stripy skin and low poison levels. It’s not even endangered. But in Panama, a recent move of a dozen pairs of these tiny frogs may offer researchers new insights into how to help amphibians worldwide in a decades-long fight against a deadly disease. Pratt’s poison frog has been one of at least 500 amphibian species affected by the chytrid fungal disease, a pathogen that over the last 50 years, is estimated to have wiped out 90 species of amphibians and caused a 90% decline in population abundance in other 124, according to a 2019 study. The disease, caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, was only discovered in 1998 but is known to have peaked in mortality in the 1980s and early 2000s. Pratt’s poison frogs have been hit by chytrid too. Although their populations are not at risk, they have been declining, as the fungus, urban development and agriculture have been encroaching on them. The species can be found in several locations within its range in Panama, but it is believed to have been wiped by chytrid from Altos de Campana National Park, the country’s oldest national park, at least 19 years ago, according to Brian Gratwicke, a conservation biologist at the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-panama-poison-dart-frog-move-brings-hope-amid-amphibians-fight-with-fungus/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307262</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation in the Philippines may have caused infertile hybrids of endemic frogs, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/deforestation-in-the-philippines-may-have-caused-infertile-hybrids-of-endemic-frogs-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/deforestation-in-the-philippines-may-have-caused-infertile-hybrids-of-endemic-frogs-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2025 16:31:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16095049/kc-frog-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302611</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Philippines]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Frogs, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1996, when herpetologist Rafe Brown accompanied a few biologists to the Philippine island of Mindanao to study frogs, they heard a cacophony near their campsite. In a puddle that skirted the forest, hundreds of chubby frogs with big, bright eyes had gathered, looking for mates to breed with. Brown said he remembers hearing two [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1996, when herpetologist Rafe Brown accompanied a few biologists to the Philippine island of Mindanao to study frogs, they heard a cacophony near their campsite. In a puddle that skirted the forest, hundreds of chubby frogs with big, bright eyes had gathered, looking for mates to breed with. Brown said he remembers hearing two distinct croaks from that frog fracas — one from a tree-dwelling species and another from a burrowing species. On a closer look, he identified some of them as a subspecies of the truncate-toed chorus frog (Kaloula conjuncta meridionalis, also called the Philippine narrowmouth toad), based on the round, expanded tips — called pads — on their toes, typical of tree frogs. The other was the ground-dwelling slender-digit chorus frog (Kaloula picta, also called the painted narrowmouth toad), which didn’t have expanded toes. But also in the mix was a little-known third kind called the Leyte chorus frog (Kaloula conjuncta stickeli). “We found several additional frogs that seem to be physically intermediate between these two very different forms,” Brown, who is now at the University of Kansas, U.S., told Mongabay by email. These frogs had toe pads larger than those in ground frogs but smaller than those in tree frogs, and they were slightly bigger in appearance. “That started us thinking about whether these two distinct species sometimes interbred and hybridized,” Brown said. As new genetic analysis tools and techniques became available, Brown and his colleagues reinvestigated old specimens in the last few years to find&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/deforestation-in-the-philippines-may-have-caused-infertile-hybrids-of-endemic-frogs-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302611</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On a Patagonian plateau, a microendemic frog makes a hopeful comeback</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jun 2025 12:44:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/19144925/Federico-_Kacoliris-_2025_Argentina-Somuncura_Species_Frog-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301082</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, Patagonia, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Amphibians, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Invasive Species, Protected Areas, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A first look at Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau reveals features somewhat predictable for a Patagonian steppe: shrubs, grass, plains, and rocky outcrops. Only the occasional volcanic peak breaks the monotony of the landscape spanning an area larger than Switzerland across the provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut. But in this apparent monotony, life abounds as the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A first look at Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau reveals features somewhat predictable for a Patagonian steppe: shrubs, grass, plains, and rocky outcrops. Only the occasional volcanic peak breaks the monotony of the landscape spanning an area larger than Switzerland across the provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut. But in this apparent monotony, life abounds as the plateau’s conditions make it one of Patagonia’s key biodiversity areas and home to several endemic species.  Among those, one critically endangered species has caught the attention of researchers and, more recently, of the wider conservation world. Measuring less than 5 centimeters (2 inches) in length, the El Rincon stream frog (Pleurodema somuncurense) relies on the warm headwaters of the Valcheta stream, fed by the Somuncurá’s hot springs. Here, the microendemic amphibian, whose habitat measures no more than 10 square kilometers (3.7 square miles), finds refuge from the plateau’s large temperature variations.  The species was described by scientists in the late 1960s, but went on to be largely ignored by science until the early 2000s, when it became increasingly exposed to habitat loss, invasive species and cattle ranching. That earned it the status of critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, making it one of the world’s most threatened amphibians. Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau provides an unexpected haven for microendemic species. Image courtesy of Federico Kacoliris. Federico Kacoliris has long studied the El Rincon stream frog. Aside from adding knowledge about the species and its habitats, Kacoliris, who leads the Somuncurá Foundation, has mobilized a conservation movement&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301082</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Radio tags help reveal the secret lives of tiger salamanders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/radio-tags-help-reveal-the-secret-lives-of-tiger-salamanders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/radio-tags-help-reveal-the-secret-lives-of-tiger-salamanders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 May 2025 09:22:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/16091148/tiger-salamander-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[New York, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Research, Salamanders, Technology, Tracking, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Where are the salamanders hanging out? Answering that question has been Jake Kushner’s mission — especially in the face of a proposed project by an energy company that will lay a transmission line right through areas where these amphibians are thought to move. “The salamanders are only documented using a small area around vernal pools [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Where are the salamanders hanging out? Answering that question has been Jake Kushner’s mission — especially in the face of a proposed project by an energy company that will lay a transmission line right through areas where these amphibians are thought to move. “The salamanders are only documented using a small area around vernal pools after they&#8217;re done breeding,” Kushner, reptile and amphibian specialist at South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center in New York, told Mongabay in a video interview. “But we believe these salamanders use much larger areas around the ponds.” For want of concrete data to back up his observation, Kushner turned to radio telemetry. Now, just a year and a half into his fieldwork, Kushner said he’s been surprised by how much he’s discovered about the animals’ movements in Long Pond Green Belt Nature Reserve in the Hamptons in New York. Tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) are what’s known as an indicator species, one whose presence indicates how the ecosystem is faring. Since they breathe through their skin, even low levels of pollution can impact their health. “The declines or booms in their populations can tell us a lot about the health of the environment because they&#8217;re very sensitive to things like pollution,” Kushner said. The salamanders spend most of their time in burrows underground. They emerge during the spring season and move to vernal pools — depressions in the ground that fill up with rainwater and melted snow for part of the year — where they&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/radio-tags-help-reveal-the-secret-lives-of-tiger-salamanders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/radio-tags-help-reveal-the-secret-lives-of-tiger-salamanders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299180</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Warming climate is already too hot to handle for 2% of amphibians, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/warming-climate-is-already-too-hot-to-handle-for-2-of-amphibians-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/warming-climate-is-already-too-hot-to-handle-for-2-of-amphibians-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2025 14:45:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/08133000/Screenshot-2025-05-08-at-8.29.41-AM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298812</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Frogs, Green, Herps, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For about 2% of the world&#8217;s amphibian species, it’s already getting too hot to survive in their natural habitats, according to a new study in Nature. If the planet keeps warming unchecked, this number is expected to jump to 7.5% by the end of the century. &#8220;We found that currently, about 100 species [104 out [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For about 2% of the world&#8217;s amphibian species, it’s already getting too hot to survive in their natural habitats, according to a new study in Nature. If the planet keeps warming unchecked, this number is expected to jump to 7.5% by the end of the century. &#8220;We found that currently, about 100 species [104 out of 5,203 studied] are likely experiencing overheating events right now, where environmental temperatures exceed their physiological heat limits,&#8221; study co-author Alex Gunderson, an ecologist at Tulane University in the U.S., told Mongabay. Amphibians are an incredibly important part of the food web, Gunderson said. &#8220;They&#8217;re sort of the potato chips of the forest in many of these ecosystems where they serve as food for birds and bats and mammals and fish.&#8221; They also eat things that transmit diseases, including mosquitoes, so their loss can affect human health. For instance, a 2020 study showed that the decline of amphibians in Central America was linked to an increase in malaria. A turtle frog (Myobatrachus gouldii) in Australia. Amphibians are a critical part of the food web. Photo courtesy of Ross McGibbon The new research, led by scientists from the University of New South Wales in Australia, gives the most complete picture yet of how climate change affects the ability of amphibians such as frogs and salamanders to regulate their body temperature. The scientists used actual heat tolerance data for 524 species and then statistical methods to generate estimates for more than 5,000 species, representing approximately 60% of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/warming-climate-is-already-too-hot-to-handle-for-2-of-amphibians-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/warming-climate-is-already-too-hot-to-handle-for-2-of-amphibians-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298812</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Longer periods of drought threaten Brazilian amphibians</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/longer-periods-of-drought-threaten-brazilian-amphibians/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/longer-periods-of-drought-threaten-brazilian-amphibians/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2025 11:57:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suzana Camargo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/02115226/Dendropsophus_minutus_196150179-Reuber-Brandao-CC-BY-4.0-via-Wikimedia-Commons-e1742234595833-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296912</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Drought, Endangered Species, Environment, Frogs, Global Warming, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil is home to the world’s greatest diversity of amphibians: Of the more than 8,000 species known worldwide, some 1,200 are found in the country, mainly in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes. But their future is at risk due to longer dry periods in their habitats. Drought and amphibians are not a viable combination: [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil is home to the world’s greatest diversity of amphibians: Of the more than 8,000 species known worldwide, some 1,200 are found in the country, mainly in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes. But their future is at risk due to longer dry periods in their habitats. Drought and amphibians are not a viable combination: These animals depend on water and humidity to survive; without that, they may dehydrate in a few hours and die. “Amphibians have thin, permeable skin, unlike other land animals such as humans, birds, reptiles and insects. Their moist skin allows water and other substances to pass through, making it more sensitive to dry air. This is why you don’t see frogs exposed to the sun for long periods of time — they dry out much faster than other animals,” explains biologist Nicholas Wu, a researcher at Australia’s Western Sydney University. With the help of other scientists, Wu mapped areas of the planet where the group of water-sensitive vertebrates known as anuran amphibians — frogs, toads and tree frogs — will face drier and more arid conditions in the future, which could lead to a greater risk of population decline and even extinction. “We found that many parts of the world where anurans live are at risk of becoming more arid and suffering from increased droughts. We also found that the combination of higher temperatures and drier environments will have major impacts on their activity window; that is, the hours when the weather does not prevent&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/longer-periods-of-drought-threaten-brazilian-amphibians/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/longer-periods-of-drought-threaten-brazilian-amphibians/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296912</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Blob-headed fish and four mammals among 27 newly described species in Peru’s Alto Mayo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/blob-headed-fish-and-four-mammals-among-27-newly-described-species-in-perus-alto-mayo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/blob-headed-fish-and-four-mammals-among-27-newly-described-species-in-perus-alto-mayo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jan 2025 18:21:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/27174634/blob-fish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293475</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Fish, Forest Destruction, Forests, Frogs, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, New Discovery, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists and Indigenous community members documented 27 new-to-science species in Peru&#8217;s Alto Mayo region, including four new mammals and a bizarre &#8220;blob-headed&#8221; fish that was already well-known to local people. The findings came from a 38-day expedition conducted in 2022 by Conservation International in collaboration with local Awajún Indigenous communities. “Discovering four new mammals in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists and Indigenous community members documented 27 new-to-science species in Peru&#8217;s Alto Mayo region, including four new mammals and a bizarre &#8220;blob-headed&#8221; fish that was already well-known to local people. The findings came from a 38-day expedition conducted in 2022 by Conservation International in collaboration with local Awajún Indigenous communities. “Discovering four new mammals in any expedition is surprising — finding them in a region with significant human populations is extraordinary,” said Trond Larsen, who leads Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) in the Moore Center for Science. RAPs are intensive biological surveys designed to quickly document biodiversity in understudied areas. Members of Indigenous Awajun communities assisted the scientists with their research, such as throwing cast nets to capture fish. The RAP expedition was important for collaboratively exchanging traditional knowledge and scientific training. 68 fish species were collected, including eight that are new to science. Image by Trond Larsen courtesy of Conservation International. The team surveyed eight different zones across the 780,700-hectare (1.93-million-acre) landscape, which lies at the intersection of the Andes Mountains and Amazon Rainforest in northern Peru&#8217;s San Martín region. The region is home to more than 200,000 people, including 16 Awajún communities. &#8220;People tend to work more in the protected areas, but we thought, hey, we have this big landscape with all different types of land uses with diverse ecosystem types, and it lies right in the middle between two existing protected areas,&#8221; said Larsen, who led the Alto Mayo expedition, told Mongabay. &#8220;But nothing&#8217;s being done, so this is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/blob-headed-fish-and-four-mammals-among-27-newly-described-species-in-perus-alto-mayo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/blob-headed-fish-and-four-mammals-among-27-newly-described-species-in-perus-alto-mayo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293475</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New frog species show how geology shapes Amazon’s biodiversity</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/new-frog-species-show-how-geology-shapes-amazons-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/new-frog-species-show-how-geology-shapes-amazons-biodiversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2024 11:34:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/19113144/MTR30991_Neblinaphryne.imeri_-e1733411146885-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291991</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Frogs, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The frog’s loud croaking turned out to be a call to its own demise. The researchers walking along the steep muddy bank on a rainy November day in 2022 in the Imeri Range on the Brazil-Venezuela border were alerted by the unfamiliar sound. They found the frog sitting outside the opening to a tarantula’s burrow [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The frog’s loud croaking turned out to be a call to its own demise. The researchers walking along the steep muddy bank on a rainy November day in 2022 in the Imeri Range on the Brazil-Venezuela border were alerted by the unfamiliar sound. They found the frog sitting outside the opening to a tarantula’s burrow and captured it. They later named the frog Neblinaphryne imeri. “That was the most difficult expedition I’ve ever been on in my entire life,” says Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues, a herpetologist at the University of São Paulo (USP). Rodrigues has been doing fieldwork for more than 40 years, and this time he was leading a team of 14 researchers on a 12-day camping expedition at the top of a nearly 1,900-meter (6,200-foot) peak. Even the region’s Indigenous Yanomami don’t climb to the Imeri peak because of the treacherous route and the fact that there are no large mammals to be hunted at that altitude. Rodrigues’s team only managed to reach the spot with a Brazilian military helicopter. This was the second time Rodrigues had led an expedition of researchers, with the help of the military, in this part of Brazil’s Amazonas state. The first was to the Neblina peak in 2017, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Imeri. Both mountains are located inside protected areas: Pico da Neblina National Park and the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, respectively. The Neblina expedition also resulted in the discovery of a previously undescribed frog species, which they named Neblinaphryne mayeri after&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/new-frog-species-show-how-geology-shapes-amazons-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/new-frog-species-show-how-geology-shapes-amazons-biodiversity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291991</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal’s shifting biodiversity research landscape: Interview with Karan Bahadur Shah</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/nepals-shifting-biodiversity-research-landscape-interview-with-karan-bahadur-shah/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/nepals-shifting-biodiversity-research-landscape-interview-with-karan-bahadur-shah/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jul 2024 08:26:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/18081546/rat-snakes-nepal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284511</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Herps, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Reptiles, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Professor Karan Bahadur Shah is a distinguished researcher from Nepal, renowned for his extensive work in herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles. His career spans several decades and includes significant contributions to the understanding of Nepal&#8217;s rich biodiversity. Shah’s academic journey began at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, where he earned his Zoology [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Professor Karan Bahadur Shah is a distinguished researcher from Nepal, renowned for his extensive work in herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles. His career spans several decades and includes significant contributions to the understanding of Nepal&#8217;s rich biodiversity. Shah’s academic journey began at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, where he earned his Zoology degrees and later became a faculty member. His interest in herpetology led him to conduct pioneering research on the amphibians and reptiles of Nepal. Over the years, he has discovered and documented numerous species, contributing valuable knowledge to science. In addition to his academic and research accomplishments, Shah has been actively involved in various conservation initiatives. He has worked with various national and international organizations to promote the conservation of Nepal&#8217;s wildlife. Currently, he serves as the president of the NGO Bird Conservation Nepal. Throughout his career, Prof. Shah has also been dedicated to education and outreach. He has trained numerous students and young researchers, many of whom have gone on to make their own contributions to biodiversity research and conservation. His passion for teaching and mentorship has helped to build a new generation of scientists and conservationists in Nepal. Karan Bahadur Shah is a distinguished researcher from Nepal, renowned for his extensive work in herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles. Image courtesy of Karan Bahadur Shah. Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi talked to Shah about biodiversity research in Nepal, its past, present and future. Mongabay: Let’s start by reflecting on biodiversity research in Nepal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/nepals-shifting-biodiversity-research-landscape-interview-with-karan-bahadur-shah/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284511</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Frog ‘saunas’ may help threatened frogs fight off deadly fungus</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/frog-saunas-may-help-threatened-frogs-fight-off-deadly-fungus/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/frog-saunas-may-help-threatened-frogs-fight-off-deadly-fungus/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2024 20:32:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/09203153/Screenshot-2024-07-09-at-1.31.13-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284166</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Herps, Rainforests, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have developed simple, sun-heated shelters that allow frogs to raise their body temperatures and fight off infections. These frog “saunas” may bring hope for populations threatened by a deadly fungal disease, according to a new study published in Nature. Researchers found that providing artificial &#8220;hotspot&#8221; shelters allows frogs to quickly bake off infections by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have developed simple, sun-heated shelters that allow frogs to raise their body temperatures and fight off infections. These frog “saunas” may bring hope for populations threatened by a deadly fungal disease, according to a new study published in Nature. Researchers found that providing artificial &#8220;hotspot&#8221; shelters allows frogs to quickly bake off infections by raising their body temperatures. The shelters were constructed using simple materials like bricks and small greenhouses. &#8220;In these simple little hotspots, frogs can go and heat up their bodies to a temperature that destroys the infections,&#8221; lead author Anthony Waddle, a researcher at Macquarie University in Australia, said in a release. The research team focused on the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea), a species listed as vulnerable to extinction, which has disappeared from more than 90% of its native range in Australia since the fungal disease chytridiomycosis arrived in 1978. Adult green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) on brick in the sauna chambers. Photo courtesy of Anthony Waddle. &#8220;[The species] used to be very common across eastern Australia; they lived in letterboxes and backyards and really adapted to human settlements, before chytridiomycosis came and hammered the population,&#8221; Waddle said. Since it was first identified, Chytridiomycosis has driven at least 90 amphibian species to extinction. Another 124 species have seen population declines of more than 90%. &#8220;In the 25 years since chytridiomycosis was identified as a major cause of the global collapse of amphibian populations, our results are the first to provide a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/frog-saunas-may-help-threatened-frogs-fight-off-deadly-fungus/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284166</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Know your salamander: To conserve amphibians, study their intelligence (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/know-your-salamander-to-conserve-amphibians-study-their-intelligence-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/know-your-salamander-to-conserve-amphibians-study-their-intelligence-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2024 08:06:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deyatima Ghosh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/13073340/pawel-sroka-NFdCv-35V3I-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283184</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Ethics, Global Environmental Crisis, Herps, Research, Salamanders, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“We (humans) are trying to get under the skin of other species, trying to understand them on their terms. And the more we succeed, the more we discover a natural landscape dotted with magic wells.” — Frans de Waal. After years of questioning, skepticism and denial, we are finally ready to embrace the beauty of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“We (humans) are trying to get under the skin of other species, trying to understand them on their terms. And the more we succeed, the more we discover a natural landscape dotted with magic wells.” — Frans de Waal. After years of questioning, skepticism and denial, we are finally ready to embrace the beauty of the animal mind. Primates have contributed enormously to the understanding of mental abilities mostly for their “human-like” behaviors or close links to humans which made ethologists keen to study cognition in other animals such as birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes as well as invertebrates such as cephalopods. Although, initially, cognition has been compared on a single scale where humans occupy the top tier and moves downwards to other mammals, the more we started discarding our human standards of understanding capacities in animals, the more the scale was broken into bushes with several branches. Each such branch is unique and is occupied by a group of animals that expresses mental capabilities at their finest level. Salamanders are of interest, and here’s why Amphibians occupy one such branch which is least explored. Among the amphibians, Caudata, including salamanders, still remain a mystery at large. The etymology comes from Greek which means “fire lizard.” Salamanders, which occur in North America, Europe, Asia, northern parts of South America and north Africa, resemble lizards without scales. Around 60% of salamander species are threatened with extinction and are in urgent need of conservation. A California tiger salamander, which is listed as &#8216;Vulnerable&#8217;&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/know-your-salamander-to-conserve-amphibians-study-their-intelligence-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/know-your-salamander-to-conserve-amphibians-study-their-intelligence-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A tale of two frogs: The tough uphill battle for rediscovered species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/a-tale-of-two-frogs-the-tough-uphill-battle-for-rediscovered-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/a-tale-of-two-frogs-the-tough-uphill-battle-for-rediscovered-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2024 14:55:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Katarina Zimmer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/03140608/EIGHT_GuanujoAtJambatu-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282826</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, North America, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, New Discovery, Rainforests, Rediscovered Species, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When lost or assumed-extinct species are rediscovered, they often face a long rocky road to population recovery — especially if they’re an amphibian.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2021, a group of scientists in Ecuador looked in disbelief at a photo of a chocolate-colored frog with an orange belly. The researchers wondered: Could it be Atelopus guanujo — the Guanujo stubfoot toad — a species of harlequin frog that hadn’t been seen since 1988 and thought to be extinct? At first, “you can’t really believe that you’re looking at a lost species!” said conservation biologist Andrea Terán-Valdez, a research team member from the Jambatu Center for Amphibian Research and Conservation in San Rafael. A. guanujo, once abundant across Ecuador’s central Andes Mountains, like many other harlequin frogs, had diminished and vanished as habitat degradation, climate change, and the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus intensified in the region. Fortunately, since 2018, a priest had been showing pictures of several so-called lost species to community members in case anyone chanced across them. And when in 2021, someone in the small town of Simiátug recognized a male frog in a pasture as one the priest had shown, the priest alerted the Jambatu Center’s director Luis A. Coloma. Finding this single male shone a beacon of hope for the species, Terán-Valdez said. But as efforts to find a female bore little fruit, A. guanujo’s future began to look more complicated. When they first looked in the area where the malle was discovered, “we couldn’t find anything else,” Terán-Valdez said. Technician Patricio Vargas, an expert in harlequin frog reproduction at the Jambatu Center, shows a number of lab-born individuals of the rediscovered species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/a-tale-of-two-frogs-the-tough-uphill-battle-for-rediscovered-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists and farmers restore Aztec-era floating farms that house axolotls</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/scientists-and-farmers-restore-aztec-era-floating-farms-that-house-axolotls/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/scientists-and-farmers-restore-aztec-era-floating-farms-that-house-axolotls/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 May 2024 09:08:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aminetth Sánchez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/31090145/FOTO-2-1-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282805</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Research, Restoration, Salamanders, Solutions, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It was the 1980s, and before sunrise, Basilio Rodríguez was ready to work. He was still young, and he’d already helped to prepare the land for crops, gathered harvests, pulled weeds and took care of the plants. In late October, when he spent his nights cutting Aztec marigolds for the Day of the Dead, he [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It was the 1980s, and before sunrise, Basilio Rodríguez was ready to work. He was still young, and he’d already helped to prepare the land for crops, gathered harvests, pulled weeds and took care of the plants. In late October, when he spent his nights cutting Aztec marigolds for the Day of the Dead, he would sleep on chinampas, or small artificial islands for developing agricultural systems. These were created by the Aztecs and are a large part of the identity of Xochimilco, a lake-filled area that has managed to survive in southern Mexico City. It’s now a hot morning in September 2023. Rodríguez — slender, with an easy smile and soft voice — is 54 years old. It’s his day off from work, but he doesn’t spend it relaxing at home. Instead, he’s set out to work on his chinampa, a floating piece of land measuring less than a quarter hectare, or half an acre, on which crops can be cultivated. These include everything from epazote, a Mexican tea, to mint, parsley, radishes and onions to pumpkins, chamomile, rosemary and Aztec marigolds. The harvest depends on the season. Right now, this land, located in the Xochimilco wetlands, is plastered green with rows and rows of lettuce, ready to be cut and sold at market. Rodríguez plans to sow 10,000 additional lettuce plants in the space he’s prepared. His chinampa, reachable only by canoe, is now unconventional in the area. In the past, these pieces of land were only used&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/scientists-and-farmers-restore-aztec-era-floating-farms-that-house-axolotls/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282805</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Haunting song pays tribute to Toughie, the frog whose extinction went unnoticed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/haunting-song-pays-tribute-to-toughie-the-frog-whose-extinction-went-unnoticed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/haunting-song-pays-tribute-to-toughie-the-frog-whose-extinction-went-unnoticed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2024 18:37:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/10175222/The-EndLing-video-still_-Yuan-Liu-768x429.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280830</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Arts, Biodiversity, Chytridiomycosis, Climate Change, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forest Destruction, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Herps, Mass Extinction, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When the last Rabbs&#8217; fringe-limbed treefrog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) died in 2016 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, its extinction garnered little media attention. Environmental journalist Jeremy Hance, a longtime Mongabay reporter and editor, expressed his outrage in a story for The Guardian, titled “Frog goes extinct, media yawns.” &#8220;It&#8217;s so rare to be able to know [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When the last Rabbs&#8217; fringe-limbed treefrog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) died in 2016 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, its extinction garnered little media attention. Environmental journalist Jeremy Hance, a longtime Mongabay reporter and editor, expressed his outrage in a story for The Guardian, titled “Frog goes extinct, media yawns.” &#8220;It&#8217;s so rare to be able to know when the last one goes,&#8221; Hance said. &#8220;When people didn&#8217;t cover that, it was so weird. This animal is not getting any coverage beyond the normal like, five paragraphs … I&#8217;m pissed off about this.&#8221; One person who did take note was musician Talia Schlanger. Late one night in 2019, Schlanger read Hance’s article in her Paris sublet and was moved to tears. She dove into researching the frog species. &#8220;I remember sitting at the little kitchen table and just sobbing. Absolutely sobbing,&#8221; Schlanger told Mongabay. &#8220;The song poured out of me.&#8221; That song, titled &#8220;The Endling,&#8221; appears on Schlanger&#8217;s debut studio album, Grace for the Going, and pays tribute to Toughie, the last known Rabbs&#8217; fringe-limbed treefrog. The term &#8220;endling&#8221; refers to the last known individual of a species or subspecies. When an endling dies, the species becomes extinct. The song&#8217;s haunting refrain, &#8220;You are the endling, the ending of a sound,&#8221; captures the finality of extinction. The first time she performed the song live, Schlanger said, she felt a bit nervous about how it would be received. &#8220;I was a bit shaky because I was like, ‘What are people going to think about&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/haunting-song-pays-tribute-to-toughie-the-frog-whose-extinction-went-unnoticed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280830</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study identifies species with a long history but short future amid threats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/study-identifies-species-with-a-long-history-but-short-future-amid-threats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/study-identifies-species-with-a-long-history-but-short-future-amid-threats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2024 09:05:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/28085326/Shoebill-c-ZSL-Claudia-Gray-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280376</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, South America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Elasmobranchs, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Extinction, Fish, Fisheries, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Overexploitation, Overfishing, Reptiles, Research, Turtles And Tortoises, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 4 billion years, lifeforms have evolved into the spectacular array of species that now inhabit the planet. While many species radiated into extensive families of closely related species, others are so unique that they alone embody millions of years of evolutionary history — sole representatives of entire lineages of the tree of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 4 billion years, lifeforms have evolved into the spectacular array of species that now inhabit the planet. While many species radiated into extensive families of closely related species, others are so unique that they alone embody millions of years of evolutionary history — sole representatives of entire lineages of the tree of life. Weird and wonderful species, such as the finger-probing aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) of Madagascar; the bulbous-snouted gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) of South Asia; and the prehistoric-looking shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) of Africa, fall into this latter category. But an increasing body of evidence indicates these evolutionarily distinctive species are frequently also those most at risk of extinction. Now, a new study estimates that the loss of such unique and threatened species from the jawed vertebrates alone could eliminate between 86 billion and 160 billion years’ worth of evolutionary history over the next 50-500 years. It’s an almost inconceivable amount of history to lose, according to Rikki Gumbs, a research fellow at the Zoological Society of London and lead author of the study. “The universe itself is only around 14 billion years old,” Gumbs said. “But [species are] so varied that it all adds up once you start combining all the evolution that has happened concurrently during our planet’s history.” Gharials diverged from other crocodilians more than 40 million years ago. This one was photographed in Nepal, where numbers have been slowly recovering in recent years. Image courtesy of Rikki Gumbs/ZSL. To arrive at their assessment, Gumbs and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/study-identifies-species-with-a-long-history-but-short-future-amid-threats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280376</doi>				</item>
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