Fish and Amphibians

The legend of salamanders, shown in this illustration from 1350, is that they crawl out of fire. Alas, it’s not true. (Illustration from the Royal Netherlands Library, Wikimedia CC) What salamanders live in the Bay Area? Ahh yes, salamanders. The under-appreciated amphibians, second to their more well-known and vocal (if slightly obnoxious) cousin the frog. For these slimy critters, existence under the forest floor or in murky bodies of water often hides them from even the most enthusiastic of hikers. This is true even in the Bay Area, despite the droves of people who go out into our many parks on the weekends. Nevertheless, the relatively urban Bay contains a surprising diversity of salamander species, each with their own flair! Read below to find out more about our Bay Area salamanders, and see if any of their unique personalities resonate with you. California slender salamander ( Batrachoseps attenuatus ) A California slender salamander. (Photo by Tony Iwane, iNaturalist CC...

Allowing cats to roam outside without human supervision is illegal according to European rules for nature protection, lawyers and Tilburg University researchers Arie Trouwborst and Han Somsen conclude. The domestic cat is a danger to nearly 370 endangered species and is considered one of Europe's top three most harmful exotic animals. The domestic cat is originally from Africa, Trouw reports based on interviews with Trouwborst, an associate professor, and Somsen, a full professor at the Tilburg Law School. In the Netherlands alone, an estimated 140 million animals are killed by cats each year. The Netherlands counts between 2 and 3 million pet cats and tens of thousands of strays. Among the victims are birds, small mammals, reptiles, fish and amphibians.  Even without hunting, cats can damage other species' populations. The mere presence of a cat can cause so much stress to birds that they breed less or feed their young less, according to the newspaper. Roaming domesti...

Biomes, which are distinct communities of flora and fauna that get formed in response to a shared climate, and tissue-specific microbiomes, which are a mix of organisms that coexist in tissues, have an intimate link with each other, jointly impacting human health. While Delhi is struggling with the issue of extremely poor air quality, the problem of poor water quality in rivers plagues the whole country. Water constitutes 70% of our total body composition. Apart from its use as an essential component for survival, water is required for agricultural and industrial activities, and power generation, thus playing a central role in global food supply, economic prosperity and the survival of all living organisms. Its importance can be gauged by the fact that all major civilizations in ancient times developed along the banks of major rivers. Our rivers and water bodies are life-supporting assets. But river pollution has become a major cause of concern across the world in the past few decade...

Amy Stocklein Dart Frog Amy Stocklein Dart Frog More Madison Magazine A Frog Fancier Wendy Young "I have always loved animals and have had quite a variety of pets over the years," says Wendy Young, an east side Madison resident. About six years ago, she attended her first Wisconsin Reptile Expo, or WIRE, at VFW Post 7591 on Cottage Grove Road in Monona.  "I saw more snakes and geckos than I had ever seen before," she says. "But as soon as I saw the brilliant colors of the dart frogs, I was hooked. I bought three." She now spends an hour a day feeding and caring for her 25 frogs and six tadpoles, which are housed in nine small vivariums.  Young tends to the eggs they lay and raises the tadpoles and frogs before selling them to pet stores and individuals. The money she makes goes toward the purchase of more frog-breeding supplies. Amy Stocklein In 2017, Young joined a group tour into the Amazon rainforest of Colom...

WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Animal cruelty is a federal felony. President Trump signed the bill,  Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act , into law Monday evening. He called the bill a “very important piece of legislation.” The PACT Act criminalizes specific acts of animal cruelty such as “animal crushing” or purposefully crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles or amphibians. The now law also makes selling, marketing, advertising, exchanging or distributing “animal crush videos” illegal. The legislation expands on a 2010 law that targeted videos depicting the crushing or torturing of animals, but that did not prohibit the underlying conduct. A person convicted under the PACT Act could spend up to seven years in prison. The bill was approved unanimously in Senate Monday afternoon, following the House’s lead, and passed to the President’s desk. Shortly before signing, President Trump noted the significance of the PACT Ac...

America's animals have new federal protections against abuse. 101cats/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption 101cats/Getty Images America's animals have new federal protections against abuse. 101cats/Getty Images Cruelty to animals is now a federal crime under a new law signed by President Trump Monday. The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT) is a bi-partisan initiative that bans the intentional crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impalement or other serious harm to "living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians." The law also bans "animal crush videos" meaning any photograph, motion-picture film, video or digital recording or electronic image that depicts animal cruelty. The penalty for violating the law can include a fine, a prison term of up to seven years, or both. The measure was introduced in the House by Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) and pushed through the Senate by Richard...

The chytrid fungus has devastated frog populations worldwide, but some variants are especially dangerous. Researchers collected 222 frog skin swabs from six continents to map the global distribution of these strains. A new and targeted genetic screen uncovered an unknown lineage in Southeast Asia and regions where co-existing variants could combine into deadly hybrids. Rapid skin swabs could help scientists unravel how the fungus became so deadly in recent decades, leading to tighter laws restricting the international transport of frogs. Protecting frogs against the invisible killer called chytrid was never going to be easy. The fungus has already wiped out more species than any other known disease. But a recent study of the worldwide spread of the fungus shows that the task will be even harder than scientists expected. The study is the first to use skin swabs from amphibians to identify the major strains of the fungus. Researchers found regions where strains could combine int...

HOUSTON, Texas — The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a notice of intent to sue the Trump administration for failing to update a deficient, 35-year-old recovery plan for the Houston toad. These critically endangered toads are found only in the central coastal region of Texas. Despite being protected under the Endangered Species Act nearly 50 years ago, the Houston toad continues to decline across its range and suffer from further habitat loss and fragmentation. Fewer than 1,000 adults may remain alive in the wild. “It’s appalling that the Fish and Wildlife Service has allowed this little toad, which was the first kind of toad ever protected under the Endangered Species Act almost 50 years ago, to move closer to extinction,” said Jenny Loda, a Center biologist and attorney dedicated to protecting rare amphibians and reptiles. “Updating the plan with all the relevant new science and detailed recovery measures is crucial to saving these animals. Without more focus on recove...

A teenager at the end of the war, enthused by William Beebe’s descriptions of the underwater world, Ivor was determined to go diving. Scottish temperatures, lack of equipment and training did little to put him off. Instead he improvised with the materials to hand. He modified a Civil Defence gas-mask, and connected it to a motor car foot-pump with a length of rubber tubing. Then, together with his friend Hamish Gavin, he went to a farm dam on a wintry day with frost on the ground. They stripped off and took it in turns to submerge in the icy water, teeth chattering and almost paralysed with cold, to complete their inaugural dives. Following this experience there followed plenty more inventions and adventures. A 1920s-style diving helmet was made from a sheet of copper wrapped around a dustbin lid, with 60lb of lead weights bolted in place. Air was supplied via a garden hose connected to two pairs of car-tyre foot pumps. All of this gear was transported on push-bikes to Souterhead...

WASHINGTON — It seemed, in retrospect, a bit of a low point — a medium-size dog racing through an airplane at 30,000 feet, spraying diarrhea toward passengers throughout the cabin. But according to some transportation officials, it was an increasingly typical scene that has stemmed from the growing use of comfort animals on airplanes — a situation that some injured veterans say is making life harder on them. The airline industry, which has been working to curb the number of comfort animals onboard, has recently found an ally among the nation’s war wounded. Some veterans and service dog organizations say the overuse of untrained dogs, pigs, rodents and amphibians — and, at least once, a small sloth — as emotional support companions has made it difficult for veterans to get acceptance for their properly trained service animals on airplanes and beyond. “Fortunately and unfortunately, due to this extended war we’ve been having, service dogs have come to the fore to show the amazing b...

Traffic blaring on the ground, planes roaring through the sky, ships bellowing through the oceans—where humans go, they often make a lot of noise. Excess noise is known to have adverse health effects for humans, and according to a wide-ranging study published in Biology Letters , man-made noise should be considered a “major global pollutant” for animals, too. Previous research has shown how noise pollution impacts specific creatures. Seals, for instance, may be deafened by the underwater rumble of shipping traffic , while stressful noise levels seem to cut short the life expectancy of zebra finches . But the new study, co-authored by Hansjoerg P. Kunc and Rouven Schmidt of Queen's University Belfast, is a meta-analysis, combining data from multiple studies to take a broad look at how noise pollution impacts a variety of species. The analysis covered 108 studies of 109 species, which were divided into seven groups: amphibians, anthropods, birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and moll...

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The Fort Worth Zoo and Mississippi State University have successfully hatched a toad via in-vitro fertilization utilizing frozen semen collected from the wild. His name is Olaf, and he’s a Puerto Rican crested toad. The Fort Worth Zoo and its partners from Mississippi State University came together this summer to continue their efforts with assisted reproduction technology (ART) for critically endangered amphibians. For the first time ever, they were able to successfully conduct IVF using the eggs from two Zoo females and frozen semen from six wild males. The Zoo said their efforts are a significant advancement for the critically endangered species as it will allow zoos, researchers and other conservationists to expand their population genetics used to increase the overall population while keeping the toads in their wild, natural habitat. These ART efforts will help maintain a genetically diverse, self-sustaining population of toads in the managed popul...

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The Fort Worth Zoo and Mississippi State University have successfully hatched a toad via in-vitro fertilization utilizing frozen semen collected from the wild. His name is Olaf, and he’s the world’s first Puerto Rican crested toad hatched from IVF. The Fort Worth Zoo and its partners from Mississippi State University came together this summer to continue their efforts with assisted reproduction technology (ART) for critically endangered amphibians. For the first time ever, they were able to successfully conduct IVF using the eggs from two Zoo females and frozen semen from six wild males. The Zoo said their efforts are a significant advancement for the critically endangered species as it will allow zoos, researchers and other conservationists to expand their population genetics used to increase the overall population while keeping the toads in their wild, natural habitat. These ART efforts will help maintain a genetically diverse, self-sustaining populat...

Bengaluru-based non-profit grantee to build citizen conservationist group for mapping, conserving Malabar Tree Toad in the Western Ghats The Malabar Tree Toad. Photo: Harikrishnan S A Bengaluru-based non-profit is working to train and equip residents of villages in the Western Ghats stretching from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu for mapping the range of an extremely rare species of toad. The Metastring Foundation a citizen-based conservation non-profit, was awarded a grant of Rs 15 lakh for one year for its project on the Malabar Tree Toad (MTT), a very rare species of amphibian endemic to the Ghats. The grant was awarded to the non-profit on November 14, 2019 in New Delhi by the Habitats Trust Grants, a programme designed to support work in the field in India to protect natural habitats and indigenous species. The MTT is an endangered species that spends most of its life on trees, coming to the ground only during the first monsoon showers to mate. The Western Ghats, where the MTT...

For most frogs, motherhood begins and ends with the release of hundreds of eggs into a sizable body of water and then hopping or swimming away. A Climbing Mantella tadpole with a recently laid unfertilized egg. (Image credit: Alexandre Roland) Two curious exceptions are the Little Devil frog of Ecuador and the Climbing Mantella of Madagascar. The females of both poison frog species lay only a few eggs at a time, depositing each one into its own tiny pool formed from the cupped leaves of native rainforest plants. The mothers then spend months painstakingly feeding each tadpole unfertilized eggs until they are ready to leave their aquatic nests. Why all the devotion? A team led by Stanford biologist Lauren O’Connell has discovered an intriguing possible answer. In a new study published Nov. 21 in the journal Current Biology , the scientists report that the nutritious eggs the frogs feed their hatchlings are also laced with poisons, likely as a way of passing chemical defenses on t...

Noise pollution is threatening the survival of more than 100 species, researchers have found. Academics from Queen’s University Belfast found that noise affects the behaviour of a wide range of species including amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptilians. This meta-study, published on Wednesday in Biology Letters, provides the first quantitative evidence intended for legislative bodies to regulate noise pollution more effectively, researchers said. The study analysed the effects of noise on seven groups: amphibians, arthropods, birds, fish, mammals, molluscs and reptiles. Dr Hansjoerg Kunc, from the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s, said they found clear evidence that noise pollution affects all of the seven groups of species. The research highlighted a number of threats caused by noise pollution to a range of species that could have implications for survival and population. Many species of amphibians, birds, insects and mammals communicate by producing acoustic sign...

MEDIA CONTACT Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise — Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have found noise pollution is threatening the survival of more than 100 different species. The researchers found that noise affects the behaviour of a wide range of species including amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptilians. This meta-study, published today in Biology Letters , provides the first quantitative evidence for legislative bodies to regulate noise pollution more effectively. The World Health Organisation has said noise is one of the most hazardous forms of pollution, but this new meta-study found it doesn’t just cause ill effects in humans, but on the biology and physiology of all animal groups studied: amphibians, arthropods, birds, fish, mammals, molluscs, and reptiles—terrestrial and aquatic—the researchers suggest that noise pollution affecting animals is the norm, not the exception. The study analysed the effects of noise in over one hundred spe...