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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/frogs/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 13:22:05 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Frogs</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/frogs/</link>
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				<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>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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312381</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>
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					<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>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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/deforestation-in-the-philippines-may-have-caused-infertile-hybrids-of-endemic-frogs-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<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>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>
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					<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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291991</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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/frog-saunas-may-help-threatened-frogs-fight-off-deadly-fungus/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284166</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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/a-tale-of-two-frogs-the-tough-uphill-battle-for-rediscovered-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Java’s frogman reflects on half-century dive into amphibian world</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/javas-frogman-reflects-on-half-century-dive-into-amphibian-world/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/javas-frogman-reflects-on-half-century-dive-into-amphibian-world/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2024 03:07:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Donny Iqbal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/06153317/Fejervarya-iskandari-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278625</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, New Discovery, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANDUNG, Indonesia — Nearly 50 years have passed since Djoko Tjahjono Iskandar began his early scientific expeditions to uncover new species hidden across Indonesia. In that time, Djoko has described several of the 400 species of frogs so far cataloged in the world’s largest archipelagic country. “Ever since I began my research in 1975, I [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANDUNG, Indonesia — Nearly 50 years have passed since Djoko Tjahjono Iskandar began his early scientific expeditions to uncover new species hidden across Indonesia. In that time, Djoko has described several of the 400 species of frogs so far cataloged in the world’s largest archipelagic country. “Ever since I began my research in 1975, I have always been drawn to the conclusion that the universe was created as unique,” Djoko told Mongabay Indonesia at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the university where he started teaching 45 years ago. Over the course of his career, Djoko has waded through marshes in Sumatra, hiked forests in Java, ascended peaks in Sulawesi, tracked rivers in Borneo, and led expeditions through Papua — covering a remarkable amount of ground across Indonesia’s 17,000 islands. “I usually start by tracing a river,” he said. Djoko counts several species descriptions made during his five-decade career for which he was named, from lizards such as Gekko iskandari in 2000 and Draco iskandari in 2007, to frogs like Fejervarya iskandari in 2001. Born in Bandung on the island of Java, Djoko published Amphibians of Java and Bali in 1998, widely seen as the successor to The Amphibia of the Indo-Australian Archipelago, published in 1923 by Dutch zoologist Pieter van Kampen. Djoko’s book featured 35 newly described frog species. To date, he has 163 publications and more than 20 books to his name. In Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, Djoko located Barbourula kalimantanensis, a frog without lungs that breathes through its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/javas-frogman-reflects-on-half-century-dive-into-amphibian-world/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/javas-frogman-reflects-on-half-century-dive-into-amphibian-world/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278625</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Three new species of frogs found nestled in Madagascar’s pandan trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/three-new-species-of-frogs-found-nestled-in-madagascars-pandan-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/three-new-species-of-frogs-found-nestled-in-madagascars-pandan-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Feb 2024 16:44:36 +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/20/2024/02/01163320/rianasoa_COVER-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278458</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Amphibians, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Frogs, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, New Discovery, Rainforests, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have described three new frog species that dwell exclusively in the spiky leaves of pandan trees in Madagascar&#8217;s eastern rainforests. Lead researcher Hugh Gabriel, from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, described the frogs&#8217; sounds as “soft clicks that sound like rain falling on leaves.” And he would know. Gabriel and his team [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have described three new frog species that dwell exclusively in the spiky leaves of pandan trees in Madagascar&#8217;s eastern rainforests. Lead researcher Hugh Gabriel, from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, described the frogs&#8217; sounds as “soft clicks that sound like rain falling on leaves.” And he would know. Gabriel and his team spent years braving the razor-sharp leaves to reveal not just the new frogs but entire communities dependent on the water that collects in the grooves and nooks of Pandanus trees. “Each tree was like a treasure chest; once we got past the jagged, barbed leaves, there was a wealth of biodiversity within each plant,” Gabriel told Mongabay in an email. &#8220;I spent my research days crashing towards the center of these trees where the water collects, alongside my guide Evariste.” While the frogs are new to science, many locals, including Gabriel’s local guide Evariste Desire were already aware of the frogs. &#8220;They&#8217;ve been seen by Malagasy people for thousands of years, known as the secretive Sahona vakoa, or &#8216;frogs of the Pandanus,'&#8221; Gabriel said. One of the newly named frogs, Guibemantis ambakoana. Ambakoana means ‘living within Pandanus&#8217; in Malagasy. Image courtesy of Hugh Gabriel. The newly named Guibemantis vakoa. Vakoa is the word for the Pandanus tree in Malagasy. Image courtesy of Hugh Gabriel. Recognizing the frogs as new species, Gabriel said, was “a gradual event — a slow assembly of different observations that culminated in the declaration that it was, indeed, a new species.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/three-new-species-of-frogs-found-nestled-in-madagascars-pandan-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/three-new-species-of-frogs-found-nestled-in-madagascars-pandan-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278458</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New volcano toad from Mount Kenya reveals an ancient lineage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/new-volcano-toad-from-mount-kenya-reveals-an-ancient-lineage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/new-volcano-toad-from-mount-kenya-reveals-an-ancient-lineage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2023 17:24:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/04172640/kenya_0985-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276236</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Frogs, Mongabay Data Studio, New Discovery, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Eight years ago, a research team from the National Museums of Kenya stumbled upon an unfamiliar frog on the eastern flanks of Mount Kenya. The small green toad has now been identified: it&#8217;s not only a species new to science — it belongs to a group of toads whose origins extend back long before the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eight years ago, a research team from the National Museums of Kenya stumbled upon an unfamiliar frog on the eastern flanks of Mount Kenya. The small green toad has now been identified: it&#8217;s not only a species new to science — it belongs to a group of toads whose origins extend back long before the mountain was formed 3 million years ago. The researchers had been looking for other species in the mist-shrouded Chogoria Forest Block at an elevation of around 2,400 meters (7,900 feet) when they found the toad, now named the Kenyan volcano toad (Kenyaphrynoides vulcani). They caught just one specimen, a male, in a pitfall trap on the forest floor in September 2015. The discovery has only just been reported in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Mount Kenya. Image courtesy of Ninara via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Herpetologist Victor Wasonga took a photograph of the toad the morning he collected it from the trap. It had long toe tips, a rough-skinned body blotched with green and brown, and dark and light bands on its legs. He sent the photograph to a colleague in Nairobi, Patrick Malonza. “When they sent the photograph I told them, ‘This doesn’t look like an ordinary toad, it looks more like the forest toads that occur in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania,’” Malonza recalls. The Eastern Arc Mountains comprise a string of isolated, forest-clad massifs that stretch across eastern Tanzania. They’re thought to be much older than Mount Kenya. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/new-volcano-toad-from-mount-kenya-reveals-an-ancient-lineage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/new-volcano-toad-from-mount-kenya-reveals-an-ancient-lineage/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276236</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No animals harmed as wildlife specimen collection goes digital in 3D</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/wildlife-specimen-collection-goes-digital-in-3d/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/wildlife-specimen-collection-goes-digital-in-3d/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2023 02:16:10 +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/20/2023/11/27031904/gastrotheca_beauty_render_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275917</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Ecuador, Panama, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animal Behavior, Animals, cameras, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Frogs, Research, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Imagine you’re leading an expedition in the depths of a forest. You discover a species of frog that piques your interest. Conventional rules of taxonomy dictate that you capture the animal, euthanize it, and take it back to a lab or museum. But what if it’s a rare or threatened species? What if the animal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Imagine you’re leading an expedition in the depths of a forest. You discover a species of frog that piques your interest. Conventional rules of taxonomy dictate that you capture the animal, euthanize it, and take it back to a lab or museum. But what if it’s a rare or threatened species? What if the animal you’re holding is one of the few remaining on the planet? Like scientists and researchers around the world, Scott Trageser faced this conundrum for years. The conservationist and photographer often found himself wondering: is it worth euthanizing the animal to take it back to a lab? Around July 2020 — at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when most people with an office job were checking in virtually, their digital presence on Zoom making up for their physical absence — a realization dawned on him. “I thought the technology was finally there to really push for digital specimens,” Trageser, executive director of Arizona-based nonprofit The Biodiversity Group, told Mongabay in a video interview. A digital specimen, in this sense, would be the animal’s digital avatar, a three-dimensional, high-resolution, true-to-life virtual model of the creature (but with the mic still muted). Trageser got to work, collaborating with Japanese electronics powerhouse Sony. The result: a 3D scanning system that can capture digital samples of animals in the wild, releasing them unharmed at the end of the process. While the technology is still in the early stages, Trageser and his team have used it to create digital specimens&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/wildlife-specimen-collection-goes-digital-in-3d/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275917</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sliver of hope as ‘mountain chicken’ frog shows resistance to deadly disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/sliver-of-hope-as-mountain-chicken-frog-shows-resistance-to-deadly-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/sliver-of-hope-as-mountain-chicken-frog-shows-resistance-to-deadly-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Oct 2023 19:51:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/19192419/16198445189_705875d2ab_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274432</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Surveying, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The mountain chicken isn’t a chicken at all, but a huge frog three times as heavy as a can of soup and about as long as a large banana. These animals, also known as “chicken frogs” or “giant ditch frogs,” used to be abundant across several Caribbean islands. Locals regularly ate them, and it’s said [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The mountain chicken isn’t a chicken at all, but a huge frog three times as heavy as a can of soup and about as long as a large banana. These animals, also known as “chicken frogs” or “giant ditch frogs,” used to be abundant across several Caribbean islands. Locals regularly ate them, and it’s said that the frogs tasted like chicken, which is likely how the species, Leptodactylus fallax, got its common name. But over the years, the species went extinct on several islands following the introduction of the invasive Indian gray mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii), which only left populations on the islands of Montserrat and Dominica. Then, 20 years ago, an infectious fungal disease known as amphibian chytridiomycosis — a disease responsible for the decline of more than 500 amphibian species and 90 species extinctions in the past 50 years — spread across the Caribbean. The disease first appeared in Dominica in 2002, and within 18 months, it eliminated 85% of the mountain chicken subpopulation. On Montserrat, a similar scenario played out: a subpopulation went from “thousands” to four known individuals within a year. Now, the mountain chicken is believed to be extinct in Montserrat. Researchers recently conducted a survey in Dominica and found 21 mountain chickens living on the island. Image courtesy of ZSL. The fungus affects the skin of the mountain chickens, making it thicker and unable to absorb water and electrolytes. Eventually, the fungus will cause the frogs to go into cardiac arrest, said Andrés Valenzuela-Sánchez, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/sliver-of-hope-as-mountain-chicken-frog-shows-resistance-to-deadly-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/sliver-of-hope-as-mountain-chicken-frog-shows-resistance-to-deadly-disease/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274432</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Frogs in the pot: Two in five amphibian species at risk amid climate crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/frogs-in-the-pot-two-in-five-amphibian-species-at-risk-amid-climate-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/frogs-in-the-pot-two-in-five-amphibian-species-at-risk-amid-climate-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2023 18:38:53 +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/20/2023/10/05183300/Screen-Shot-2023-10-05-at-11.32.43-AM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273999</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Herps, Marine, Oceans, Rainforests, Salamanders, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study published in Nature has found that more than 8,000 amphibian species are at a substantially higher risk of extinction than they were since the last assessment in 2004. Today, two in five amphibians are threatened with extinction, making them among the most imperiled animal groups. Between 2004 and 2022, climate change became [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study published in Nature has found that more than 8,000 amphibian species are at a substantially higher risk of extinction than they were since the last assessment in 2004. Today, two in five amphibians are threatened with extinction, making them among the most imperiled animal groups. Between 2004 and 2022, climate change became the primary threat for 39% of amphibian species that moved closer to extinction, according to lead author Jennifer Luedtke Swandby of the conservation NGO Re:wild. Amphibians are “becoming climate captives,” she said, “unable to move very far to escape the climate change-induced increase in frequency and intensity of extreme heat, wildfires, drought and hurricanes.” Boophis blommersae, a vulnerable frog species from Madagascar. Photo by Dr Mark D. Scherz, Natural History Museum of Denmark. Amphibians are highly vulnerable to climate change. Their permeable skin, essential for respiration and water absorption, makes them susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity, often leading to dehydration during droughts and heat waves. Their aquatic life stages, especially for frogs, are sensitive to changes in water conditions and precipitation patterns. Many amphibians have specialized habitats with specific temperature or seasonal requirements that can be disrupted by climate change. Furthermore, they face increased disease risks, such as from the deadly chytrid fungus (Bsal) disease, which thrives in altered climates. A gliding tree frog (Agalychnis spurrelli) perched on a branch with mushrooms in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Image courtesy of Robin Moore/Re:wild. The study shows salamanders are the world&#8217;s most threatened&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/frogs-in-the-pot-two-in-five-amphibian-species-at-risk-amid-climate-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/frogs-in-the-pot-two-in-five-amphibian-species-at-risk-amid-climate-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273999</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘What we need to protect and why’: 20-year Amazon research hints at fate of tropics</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/what-we-need-to-protect-and-why-20-year-amazon-research-hints-at-fate-of-tropics/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/what-we-need-to-protect-and-why-20-year-amazon-research-hints-at-fate-of-tropics/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2023 14:44:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/20142420/7.-Andean-motmot-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271176</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Andes, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, carbon, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Frogs, Migration, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Snakes, Tipping points, Trees, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Top tropical ecologists have spent two decades studying the impact of climate change on a single transect in the Peruvian Andes, an area unparalleled in its biodiversity. They find that every species studied there is struggling against warming temperatures.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PILLCOPATA, Peru — The trail through the lowland rainforest was dark and muddy. A half-dozen headlamps provided darting pools of light. An occasional creek bisected the path. Excellent conditions for frog spotting. Alessandro Catenazzi, a conservation biologist at Florida International University and a leading herpetologist, was joined on this nighttime excursion by his graduate students and me. Seeing only leaf litter and underbrush where I shone my lamp, Catenazzi unfailingly spied tiny amphibians. Aside from a gorgeous poison dart frog, most were as yet unnamed species. But then … “This is a map frog,” Catenazzi said, gently placing it in my open palm; it tucked calmly there, barely the width of two fingers. “Its mottled skin resembles a map,” he added. The frog tensed and leapt from my hand into the darkness, a fitting metaphor for the scientist’s findings. Earlier in the day, Catenazzi had delivered a grim presentation on surging frog mortality to about 40 scientists at Manu Biological Stationwhere he’s been conducting research and observing changes to the southern Peruvian Amazon for decades. The group gathered in this remote jungle outpost had come from Europe, Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Latin America for the 20th anniversary meeting of the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG). Alessandro Catenazzi, a leading herpetologist at Florida International University in Miami, hunts frogs with his graduate students in the lowland rainforest of the Manu Biological Station in early June. Regarding frogs at cloud forest elevations, he said, &#8220;We are witnessing a collapse&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/what-we-need-to-protect-and-why-20-year-amazon-research-hints-at-fate-of-tropics/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/what-we-need-to-protect-and-why-20-year-amazon-research-hints-at-fate-of-tropics/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271176</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Bangladesh, microplastic threat to frogs is also concern for rice farming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/in-bangladesh-microplastic-threat-to-frogs-is-also-concern-for-rice-farming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/in-bangladesh-microplastic-threat-to-frogs-is-also-concern-for-rice-farming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jun 2023 06:05:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Farhana Parvin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/21055143/Bengal-Whipping-Frog-Polypedates-taeniatus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Frogs, Herps, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, Rice, Waste, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DHAKA — Studies on the hazards of microplastics have tended to focus on their presence in the food chain and risks to human health. A new study now shows they also pose a threat to the quality of freshwater environments by impacting a wide range of frog species. The study of 27 frogs from nine [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DHAKA — Studies on the hazards of microplastics have tended to focus on their presence in the food chain and risks to human health. A new study now shows they also pose a threat to the quality of freshwater environments by impacting a wide range of frog species. The study of 27 frogs from nine species collected around the Bengal Delta in Bangladesh found a substantial presence of microplastics in the gastrointestinal tracts of 90% of them. Microplastic ingestion can cause severe health damage and even death, says the study, the first of its kind in the country. Plastics are ubiquitous in Bangladesh, as in many other Global South countries, and tend to be disposed of directly into the environment, including dumped in rivers and other water bodies As they move downstream, they break down into increasingly smaller pieces, ending up as microplastics that animals like frogs ultimately eat. &#8220;Ingestion of plastic damages the frog&#8217;s stomach and leads it to collapse. Frogs that have been exposed to plastic die as a result,&#8221; said study co-author Shafi Mohammad Tareq, a hydrobiogeochemist at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka. A yellow-striped frog (Hylarana tytleri), commonly found in pools, lakes, marshes, and artificially flooded agricultural areas. Image by abinashbiswal via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). Biodiversity and agriculture under threat Frogs are an essential component of a healthy wetlands ecosystem, protecting biodiversity and native ecological balance, and serving as an indicator of ecosystem health. In Bangladesh, they’re also essential for rice cultivation, serving as a natural&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/in-bangladesh-microplastic-threat-to-frogs-is-also-concern-for-rice-farming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As tourism booms in India’s Western Ghats, habitat loss pushes endangered frogs to the edge</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/as-tourism-booms-in-indias-western-ghats-habitat-loss-pushes-endangered-frogs-to-the-edge/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/as-tourism-booms-in-indias-western-ghats-habitat-loss-pushes-endangered-frogs-to-the-edge/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2023 23:15:40 +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/20/2023/05/22222354/Nasikabatrachus_sahyadrensis_Davidraju_IMG_3616-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268810</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Climate Change, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Erosion, Forests, Frogs, Global Warming, Green, Herps, Infrastructure, Mongabay Data Studio, Montane Forests, National Parks, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rivers, Roads, Species, Tourism, Tropical Forests, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nestled within the lofty Cardamom Hills, which forms part of the Western Ghats UNESCO World Heritage Site, lies the picturesque town of Munnar in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Lush green tea gardens carpet the rolling hills of the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot, interspersed by coffee and cardamom plantations. Groves of eucalyptus, black [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nestled within the lofty Cardamom Hills, which forms part of the Western Ghats UNESCO World Heritage Site, lies the picturesque town of Munnar in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Lush green tea gardens carpet the rolling hills of the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot, interspersed by coffee and cardamom plantations. Groves of eucalyptus, black wattle and acacia—trees grown for firewood and timber—are peppered within these plantations. Patches of shola forests—stunted tropical montane forests which once covered all these hills—lie scattered across the landscape as remnants of the past. Today, forests blanket just over half of Idukki, the district where Munnar is located, and are mostly found inside protected areas, including Eravikulam National Park, Anamudi Shola National Park, and Periyar National Park. The cloud-kissed hills and verdant valleys of idyllic Munnar beckon many wanderlusts with love for nature. But as tourism booms in the town and around, roads, electric lines and other infrastructure have mushroomed, and forested land is increasingly encroached upon to make way for more resorts and plantations. While protected areas provide a safe haven to charismatic animals, like the elephants (Elephas maximus indicus) that often wander into tea plantations or the endemic Nilgiri tahrs (Nilgiritragus hylocrius), tiny frogs and toads—often inconspicuous but highly diverse—are at risk of being lost in the shuffle. “Kerala is home to more than 200 species of amphibians, including frogs, toads as well as caecilians,” herpetologist Sandeep Das, who has studied the taxonomy and ecology of many amphibian species in the southern Western&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/as-tourism-booms-in-indias-western-ghats-habitat-loss-pushes-endangered-frogs-to-the-edge/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/as-tourism-booms-in-indias-western-ghats-habitat-loss-pushes-endangered-frogs-to-the-edge/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268810</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No croak: New silent frog species described from Tanzania’s ‘sky island’ forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/no-croak-new-silent-frog-species-described-from-tanzanias-sky-island-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/no-croak-new-silent-frog-species-described-from-tanzanias-sky-island-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2023 17:43:23 +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/20/2023/02/09174010/Frog-Cover.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265453</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Frogs, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Rainforests, Research, Science, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Up in Tanzania’s Ukaguru Mountains, researchers have found a new-to-science frog species with a unique trait: it doesn’t make a sound. The small, silent Ukaguru spiny-throated reed frog (Hyperolius ukaguruensis) doesn’t croak, chirp, sing or ribbit. “It’s a very odd group of frogs,” said Lucinda Lawson, a conservation biologist and assistant professor at the University [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Up in Tanzania’s Ukaguru Mountains, researchers have found a new-to-science frog species with a unique trait: it doesn’t make a sound. The small, silent Ukaguru spiny-throated reed frog (Hyperolius ukaguruensis) doesn’t croak, chirp, sing or ribbit. “It’s a very odd group of frogs,” said Lucinda Lawson, a conservation biologist and assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati. The new species, a member of the Hyperolius genus of African reed frogs, was described in the journal PLOS ONE. Frogs typically use sounds to attract a mate, but the males of this species have tiny spines on their throats, which scientists think females might use to identify the males. “The male frogs don’t call like most other frogs do. We think they may use the spine as something like Braille for species recognition,” Lawson said. “Without a call, they need some other way to recognize each other.” A team of researchers described a new species of spiny-throated reed frog that they encountered while conducting an amphibian survey in Tanzania&#8217;s Ukaguru Mountains. Image courtesy of Christoph Liedtke. Lawson and her team first encountered the frog in 2019 during their search for another species, the elusive Churamiti maridadi tree toad, in the Ukaguru Mountains. Despite at least seven previous surveys in the area, C. maridadi has only been spotted twice in the wild by scientists and is feared to be extinct. Although Lawson’s team didn’t find the tree toad, their expedition led them to the silent Ukaguru spiny-throated reed frog. According to Lawson, describing a new&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/no-croak-new-silent-frog-species-described-from-tanzanias-sky-island-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265453</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Restore linked habitat to protect tropical amphibians from disease: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/restore-linked-habitat-to-protect-tropical-amphibians-from-disease-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/restore-linked-habitat-to-protect-tropical-amphibians-from-disease-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Feb 2023 17:07:40 +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/20/2023/02/08151410/1-Aplastodiscus-leucopygius-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265354</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Global, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Diseases, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Freshwater, Frogs, Fungi, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Herps, Microorganisms, Research, Restoration, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New research suggests travel between increasingly separated terrestrial and aquatic habitats may impact tropical amphibian microbiomes and immunity, leading to more disease, though more research is needed.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As a precipitous global biodiversity decline escalates, forests across the tropics are increasingly becoming fragmented. This fragmentation can lead to multiple problems, including a process known as “habitat split” that could have consequences for disease among amphibians, according to a recently published study in the journal Biological Reviews. Habitat split occurs when multiple “classes” of habitat — such as forests, streams and ponds — that are important to some amphibian species’ life cycles are separated, Gui Becker, first author on the paper and a biologist with Pennsylvania State University, told Mongabay in an interview. In earlier work, Becker and colleagues concluded that habitat split was a driving force behind local extinctions of amphibians in South America’s highly fragmented Atlantic Forest. However, a link between habitat split and the role of disease, had not then been considered. Of particular concern when it comes to amphibian disease is the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which is linked to population declines in Brazil and to amphibian species losses across the globe. Also known as Bd, this fungus can cause the potentially fatal disease chytridiomycosis, with scientists already knowing prior to this research that habitat fragmentation can increase the risk of Bd infections among amphibians. A forest fragment in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Habitat split can occur when different “classes” of habitat, such as terrestrial and freshwater areas, are separated. In such cases, amphibian species that require water habitat as part of their life cycle must traverse altered habitat. In doing so, it is believed they&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/restore-linked-habitat-to-protect-tropical-amphibians-from-disease-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265354</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU demand for frogs’ legs raises risks of local extinctions, experts warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/eu-demand-for-frogs-legs-raises-risks-of-local-extinctions-experts-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/eu-demand-for-frogs-legs-raises-risks-of-local-extinctions-experts-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2023 05:15:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/20095109/crab-eating-frog-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264774</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, European Union, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Business, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Food, Food Industry, Frogs, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Each year, the European Union imports an estimated 4,000 metric tons of frogs’ legs. That sum is the equivalent of around 200 million frogs killed to feed demand, the majority of which are caught in the wild as part of a trade that’s unregulated and unsustainable, according to a group of conservationists and researchers. In [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Each year, the European Union imports an estimated 4,000 metric tons of frogs’ legs. That sum is the equivalent of around 200 million frogs killed to feed demand, the majority of which are caught in the wild as part of a trade that’s unregulated and unsustainable, according to a group of conservationists and researchers. In their recent paper, published in the journal Conservation, they underline that this trade is increasing the risk of local and regional frog extinctions in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey and Albania, the main source countries for the EU market. Between 2011 and 2020, the EU imported 40,700 metric tons of frogs’ legs, equating to between 814 million and 2 billion frogs; Indonesia accounted for more than 70% of that trade. This makes the EU the largest importer of frogs’ legs originating from wild-caught species in the world. A previous DNA analysis of frogs’ legs on the French market indicated that misidentification of species is common and that the previously exploited giant Javan frog (Limnonectes macrodon) had almost vanished from the trade. “Our conclusion is that probably because it&#8217;s so highly marketable, then it&#8217;s probably also declining in the wild,” Altherr said. Image by W.A. Djatmiko via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Amid a global decline of biodiversity, this trade is likely heavily involved in reducing populations of amphibians in source countries and is linked to increasing uses of pesticides due to the loss of ecosystem services provided by wild species, according to Sandra Altherr,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/eu-demand-for-frogs-legs-raises-risks-of-local-extinctions-experts-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264774</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>If you build it, the amphibians will come: Swiss researchers show new ponds boost species at risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/if-you-build-it-the-amphibians-will-come-swiss-researchers-show-new-ponds-boost-species-at-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/if-you-build-it-the-amphibians-will-come-swiss-researchers-show-new-ponds-boost-species-at-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2022 16:13:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elissa Welle]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/09160749/Bucal-P1070998-Kopie-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263420</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and Switzerland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecology, Environment, Frogs, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Restoration, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a rare triumph in amphibian conservation, researchers found that creating hundreds of new ponds in the midst of a bustling Switzerland landscape strengthened amphibian populations there. The effort, in which citizen scientists built and monitored ponds for 20 years, helped nearly three-quarters of the region&#8217;s populations of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders rebound or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[In a rare triumph in amphibian conservation, researchers found that creating hundreds of new ponds in the midst of a bustling Switzerland landscape strengthened amphibian populations there. The effort, in which citizen scientists built and monitored ponds for 20 years, helped nearly three-quarters of the region&#8217;s populations of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders rebound or stabilize by occupying more ponds, a team reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nearly 40% of the world&#8217;s amphibian species are threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN Red List. The culprits vary from fungal diseases and climate change to pesticide use, road traffic, and habitat loss in local ecosystems. In Switzerland, for example, more than 90% of the wetlands favored by amphibians disappeared in the last century. The question driving the project was simple, said first author Helen Moor, a quantitative ecologist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL in Birmensdorf: Without addressing other factors, could improving habitats alone help reverse the declining trends for amphibians? In the Swiss countryside, at least, the answer for frogs, toads, newts and salamanders was yes. “In spite of all the other things going on in the landscape, just putting habitat there and making that available for the species, they made use of that and they started increasing,” Moor said. “To see that in the data at the landscape scale, that was very exciting.” The European tree frog (Hyla arborea) near the town Riehen, Switzerland. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/if-you-build-it-the-amphibians-will-come-swiss-researchers-show-new-ponds-boost-species-at-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/if-you-build-it-the-amphibians-will-come-swiss-researchers-show-new-ponds-boost-species-at-risk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263420</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Toxic new frog species from Ecuador named after Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/toxic-new-frog-species-from-ecuador-named-after-family-guys-seth-macfarlane/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/toxic-new-frog-species-from-ecuador-named-after-family-guys-seth-macfarlane/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2022 12:23:32 +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/20/2022/10/10111217/Screen-Shot-2022-10-10-at-1.07.25-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261305</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Frogs, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Mountains, New Discovery, Rainforests, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On a mountaintop in Ecuador, a researcher spotted some spots. The polka-dotted frog, it turned out, was new to science and has now been named Hyloscirtus sethmacfarlanei in honor of Seth MacFarlane, the U.S. film and television creator responsible for the show Family Guy and a long-time supporter of the NGO Rainforest Trust. “It seemed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a mountaintop in Ecuador, a researcher spotted some spots. The polka-dotted frog, it turned out, was new to science and has now been named Hyloscirtus sethmacfarlanei in honor of Seth MacFarlane, the U.S. film and television creator responsible for the show Family Guy and a long-time supporter of the NGO Rainforest Trust. “It seemed perfect to name this frog, with its playful polka dots juxtaposed with its most likely threatened status, after Seth who is known more for his comedy than his dedication to science and conservation,” Rainforest Trust CEO James Deutsch said in a press release. The frog was found by Darwin Recalde, a local field technician, as part of an expedition to catalog and protect species in the Andes led by the EcoMinga Foundation, a partner of Rainforest Trust. The new species is described in the journal PeerJ. So far, researchers have only found four individual frogs, all within a few square meters of ridgeline atop Cerro Mayordomo, a mountain on the edge of the Amazon Basin. The area, which is protected by EcoMinga’s Machay Reserve, is described as steep and relatively inaccessible and has not been well studied. Scientists say they do not have enough data on the new frog species to assign a conservation status. “This is a very rare frog found only at high elevations in a remote part of Machay Reserve,” Lou Jost, president of EcoMinga Foundation, wrote in a blog post about the new frog. “It took us these four years to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/toxic-new-frog-species-from-ecuador-named-after-family-guys-seth-macfarlane/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261305</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tiny new tree frog species found in rewilded Costa Rican nature reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/tiny-new-tree-frog-species-found-in-rewilded-costa-rican-nature-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/tiny-new-tree-frog-species-found-in-rewilded-costa-rican-nature-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2022 18:36:46 +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/20/2022/09/09182737/cover2-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260089</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Frogs, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Rainforests, Reforestation, Rewilding, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nestled in a valley between two volcanoes, Donald Varela-Soto heard something unfamiliar. For six months, he searched for the source of a shrill frog call along the edge of a wetland in Tapir Valley Nature Reserve, a former cattle ranch in northern Costa Rica. “I kept hearing this different sound in the wetland but was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nestled in a valley between two volcanoes, Donald Varela-Soto heard something unfamiliar. For six months, he searched for the source of a shrill frog call along the edge of a wetland in Tapir Valley Nature Reserve, a former cattle ranch in northern Costa Rica. “I kept hearing this different sound in the wetland but was unable to find it,” Varela-Soto, co-owner of the private reserve, told Mongabay. “Then, on a particularly rainy day, the water rose in the wetland, pushing the frogs out to the edges, and that&#8217;s when I saw it in person. It was like, wow, this is amazing! This is beautiful!” The tapir valley tree frog (Tlalocohyla celeste) is only around 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) long, about the size of a bottle cap. Photo by Marco Molina. Valeria Aspinall and Varela-Soto and watching a Tapir Valley tree frog in the wetland at Tapir Valley Nature Reserve, its only known habitat. Photo by David Vela Muñoz. The brilliant-green frog, as it happens, is new to science. It’s minuscule, about the size of a bottle cap, and has a distinctive yellow line that runs halfway around its bright body. Soto and colleagues named it the Tapir Valley tree frog, with the scientific name of Tlalocohyla celeste in honor of the turquoise waters of a local river, the Río Celeste. A formal description of the species has now been published in the journal Zootaxa. After Varela-Soto found the first male frog on that rainy day in 2018, Valeria Aspinall, a biologist&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/tiny-new-tree-frog-species-found-in-rewilded-costa-rican-nature-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260089</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pumpkin toadlets can’t jump: The frog that gave up balance for size</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/pumpkin-toadlets-cant-jump-the-frog-that-gave-up-balance-for-size/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/pumpkin-toadlets-cant-jump-the-frog-that-gave-up-balance-for-size/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2022 12:13:33 +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/20/2022/06/24083541/Brachycephalus-ephippium-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257665</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Forests, Frogs, Rainforests, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Frogs usually land on their feet, but one group of tiny toadlets from Brazil are so small they can’t stick a landing. Pumpkin toadlets (Brachycephalus spp.) are teensy, about the size of an M&#38;M. These miniaturized frogs will jump when given a nudge or a scare, but lose their balance as they tumble through the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Frogs usually land on their feet, but one group of tiny toadlets from Brazil are so small they can’t stick a landing. Pumpkin toadlets (Brachycephalus spp.) are teensy, about the size of an M&amp;M. These miniaturized frogs will jump when given a nudge or a scare, but lose their balance as they tumble through the air, often landing with a graceless thud on their backs, bellies or wherever they fall. “They’re not great jumpers, and they’re not particularly good walkers either,” Edward Stanley, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Digital Discovery and Dissemination Laboratory, said in a statement. “They sort of stomp around in a stilted, peg-like version of walking.” Researchers discovered that this clumsy hopping has to do with a part of the inner ear that regulates balance. When frogs (and many other animals) move, fluid inside the spiraling chambers of the inner ear flows over microscopic hairs. As they’re moved, these hairs trigger electrical impulses to the brain that tell the animal how to distinguish up from down, balance, and position its body upright. A Brachycephalus pernix. When pumpkin toadlets jump, they lose their balance as they tumble through the air, often landing with a graceless thud on their backs, bellies or wherever they fall. Video courtesy of Richard Essner / Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. However, because toadlets are so minuscule, these fluid-filled chambers don’t send a strong enough signal to help the frog out during its daring leaps. Pumpkin toadlets, it turns out, have the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/pumpkin-toadlets-cant-jump-the-frog-that-gave-up-balance-for-size/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257665</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon frog highlights appropriation of Indigenous knowledge for commercial gain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/amazon-frog-highlights-appropriation-of-indigenous-knowledge-for-commercial-gain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/amazon-frog-highlights-appropriation-of-indigenous-knowledge-for-commercial-gain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 May 2022 10:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jennifer Ann Thomas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/31101221/Phyllomedusa_bicolor01a-e1652729264925.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256513</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Ecology, Environment, Forests, Frogs, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazonian giant leaf frog, or kambô (Phyllomedusa bicolor) has bulging eyes and bright green skin. It’s perhaps best known for its skin secretion, a mucous substance with medicinal properties that several Amazonian Indigenous groups have used for centuries — and which is also attracting the attention of foreign biopharmaceutical companies. A recent study by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The Amazonian giant leaf frog, or kambô (Phyllomedusa bicolor) has bulging eyes and bright green skin. It’s perhaps best known for its skin secretion, a mucous substance with medicinal properties that several Amazonian Indigenous groups have used for centuries — and which is also attracting the attention of foreign biopharmaceutical companies. A recent study by Marcos Vinício Chein Feres, a law professor at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, highlights the case of the kambô frog to illustrate a complex issue: the appropriation by companies in the Global North, through the patent rights system, of the associated traditional knowledge (ATK) that Indigenous peoples in the Global South have acquired over generations. As a starting point, Feres said, it was important to understand “not only the chemical properties of the frog’s secretion, but also the traditional uses practiced by the Indigenous people.&#8221; After reviewing the scientific literature on P. bicolor, Feres concluded that at least 15 Indigenous groups use the frog’s secretion for its analgesic, antibiotic and wound-healing properties, according to the study. He then looked through patent records, and found 11 patents that had been granted specifically in connection with P. bicolor — all of them in countries of the Global North, including the U.S., Canada, Japan, France and Russia. According to Feres, this shows how the process of appropriation of traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources of Brazilian biodiversity takes place: &#8220;This type of appropriation strengthens the inequality between developing countries, which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/amazon-frog-highlights-appropriation-of-indigenous-knowledge-for-commercial-gain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256513</doi>				</item>
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