Herps News

In my lifetime, global wildlife populations have seen an overall decline of more than half. That’s a statement of such enormity that it’s hard to process. The evidence comes from…

A new map plots out the last known refuges of hundreds of highly threatened species around the world. The assessment updates work done by the Alliance for Zero Extinction, or…

Frogs are incredible creatures. Usually born in water, most live the first stages of their life essentially as a fish, before undergoing a radical metamorphosis that transforms them into an…

If it happens, it’ll likely go something like this: American parents decide to buy something special for their child’s birthday – a pet salamander. Although immediately excited, the child quickly loses…

On this episode, we discuss the global outbreak of the chytrid fungus, which might have already driven as many as 200 species of frogs to extinction, but there have been…

Turtles were once a tough group of animals. Sea turtles survived the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. But the modern descendants of this…

It’s like searching for a needle in a haystack — except the needle is invisible and the hay stretches for thousands of miles. Oh, and there may not actually be…

Exotic pets that grow to be big adults and are inexpensive to buy are more likely to end up in the wild, according to a recent study. “It is difficult…

In Morocco’s live animal markets, a wide variety of wildlife is available for sale. There’s the threatened spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca), going for around $1, and the endangered Barbary macaque (Macaca…

In 2016, a group of researchers set out to explore Serra da Neve Inselberg, an isolated mountain and Angola’s second-highest peak, in search of frogs and toads. Now, they have described…

The highly venomous forest cobra, the largest of Africa’s true cobras, is not one, but five separate species, according to a new study. At first glance, forest cobras, which can…

These were the most read stories published by our Spanish-language service, Mongabay-Latam, last week: Scientists in Colombia strive to understand what is happening with the Athelopus frog genus in order…

A researcher has identified a colorful tree frog as a new species and named the amphibian Sylvia’s tree frog, Cruziohyla sylviae, after his 3-year-old granddaughter. Andrew Gray, Curator of Herpetology…

A puzzling disease lurks among western pond turtles, one of only two native freshwater turtle species that live in the state of Washington in the U.S. The disease produces deep…

Peru has lost much of its dry forest in recent years, to the extent that only around 5 percent remains today. To stop further loss, residents of communities in northern…

A team of biologists researching sea snakes in the mining town of Weipa in Australia’s remote Cape York Peninsula have accidentally discovered a venomous snake that’s new to science. The black-and-white…

Rising temperatures and drying air pose problems for plants and animals around the planet. Amphibians, with their permeable skin and inability to travel far, are considered to be among the…

Blockchain has been one of the hottest sectors in tech over the past couple of years, with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum soaring in value as they captured the public's…

A fungus that has decimated frog populations around the world could get even deadlier, according to new research. The study found that hybridization of different types of the fungus creates…

Able to retreat into their hard shells, snails seem to have a pretty good defense against would-be predators. But there’s a type of snake that has evolved unique adaptations and…

On today’s episode, a special report on the community-based conservation and agroforestry operations known as ejidos in Mexico. Listen here:   I traveled to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in February to…

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has become a crisis for wildlife and zoo animals too, as a hungry, desperate population hunts wild species for food.

Researchers surveying Madagascar’s forests have discovered three new species of chameleons, including one that flashes rainbow colors and one that’s currently known only from a tiny patch of rainforest. A…

Scientists have discovered six new species of peeping frog in the western Mexican states of Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacán. All six frogs belong to the genus Eleutherodactylus and were described…

Scientists started to get worried in the 1970s when frogs in Australia and Central and South America began disappearing. The culprit seemed to be a chytrid fungus that colonized frogs’…

Authorities in Madagascar seized almost 10,000 critically endangered tortoises earlier this month from a house suspected to be a waypoint for funneling them into Asia’s pet trade. The Turtle Survival…

When Cu Rua, an old Yangtze giant softshell turtle, died in Vietnam in 2016, he left behind only three of his kind: an elderly pair in a Chinese zoo, and…

What do the world’s tiniest chameleon, a color-changing snake, and a turtle that breathes through its genitals have in common? Each of these reptiles sits perched on its own unique…

A deadly disease that has ripped through frog populations around the world, contributing to huge declines in many species and the outright extinction of several others, has shown little sign…

When Lonesome George died in June 2012, it was the end of an entire species. He was the last surviving Pinta giant tortoise (Chelonoidis abingdonii), a Galapagos conservation icon who…