"We are some of the first researchers to attempt to breed these animals into captivity and we have very little information about how to care for them," said Brian Gratwicke, international coordinator for the project and a research biologist at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, one of nine project partners. "We were warned that we might not be able to keep these frogs alive, but through a little bit of guesswork, attention to detail and collaboration with other husbandry experts -- we've managed to breed them. The lessons we're learning have put us on target to save this incredible species and our other priority species in Panama."
The rescue project currently has 28 adult La Loma tree frogs and four tadpoles at the Summit Municipal Park outside of Panama City, Panama. In addition to the La Loma tree frog, the project also has successfully bred the endangered Limosa harlequin frog, Atelopus limosus. Keepers will continue to carefully monitor the tadpoles of both species.

The trust's executive officer, Sarah Holman, said the programme allowed people to get up close with two 10-year-old tuataras, and promoted a conservation message mixing science with stories from Ngati Koata, the Kaitiaki, or guardian, of the tuatara.
"We hope to leave children with an interest in nature and what can be done for endangered species and the environment.
"Most people involved are doing it in a voluntary capacity, so it's nice to be recognised. It's great that more people are finding out about what we do."

The initial reintroduction effort of this species occurred in April 2010 when about 500 eggs were released into the stream in hopes of successful hatching. The tadpoles from that release of eggs are so small that it has been difficult for scientists to determine how many survived.

The first-ever tadpole reintroduction for the species occurred in August. By “head starting” the tadpoles, partners hoped to increase survival in the wild. The release was conducted using both caged and free-swimming tadpoles. Eighteen tadpoles were released immediately into the stream while another 18 were put into a cage in the stream; the cage protected the tadpoles from predators and also allowed researchers to feed them. Each grouping was tagged with a different color marker. All 18 tadpoles in the cage survived the three-month period of reintroduction into the stream and were about 50 to 60 millimeters long (1 to 2½ inches) when they were released from the cage today. In the spring, scientists will go back to the stream and count the tadpoles to determine which of the release methods was most successful.

"Now is the time to act and show our support for these species of India before they shift from lost to extinct," said Conservation International's President, Dr. Russell Mittermeier.

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India has more lost amphibian species, 48 in total, than any other country in the world. Most of these species have not been seen by scientists for decades, with some missing for over 150 years. The majority of these species are known only by a single preserved specimen in a jar at either the Natural History Museum in London or the Zoological Survey of India. Worse yet, at least 17 lost species exist in name only, having been lost over the past century.

All of the information presented has been carefully prepared by some of the most experienced tortoise keepers in the world in close consultation with leading veterinary surgeons. The techniques described are in daily use at our own tortoise sanctuaries in Britain, the USA, and South Africa, and have been tried and tested over many years. The effectiveness of these techniques is such that despite hibernating possibly more tortoises each year than anyone else, we have never suffered a single hibernation fatality. In each case, the methods used were those described in this booklet. With proper care and attention to detail, you too can achieve similar results.

Tortoises are now under threat worldwide, mainly from habitat loss and in some cases from collecting for the pet animal trade. Fortunately, some active steps to conserve these animals are at last being taken. Much more needs to be done. The endless destruction of natural habitats must be controlled, and conservation reserves created where these animals can continue to breed and survive without human predation. Land tortoises fresh water, and marine turtles all need our help and consideration if they are to survive as species. They must not be lost forever.

Holmes says the telltale African vertebrae fossils belonged to a lizard that was about a metre- and-a-half long whose ability to swim may be key to figuring out how more than 30 million years later its ancestors turned up on the other side of the world.

Holmes says the ancient African Varanus specimen was found on land that was once the bottom of a river or small lake. "Whether the animals lived in the water or surrounding land, we don't know, but we do know that some modern day species of Varanus are comfortable swimming in fresh water."

The researchers agree that fresh-water swimming wouldn't get the African lizard all the way to Indonesia. Murray says the mystery of how the animals spread deepens when you consider ancient world geography. "From about 100 million years ago until 12 million years ago, Africa was completely isolated, surrounded by ocean, but somehow they got out of Africa during that period," said Murray. "That's why this paper is important because there was no known land connection."

Murray says one unproven theory of how Varanus moved out of Africa is that over millions of years, small land masses or micro-plates may have moved from one place to another, carrying their fauna with them.

Scientists were able to carry out a computer tomography or CT scan and used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the 5kg snake.

The images revealed the gradual disappearance of the rat's body. At the same time, the snake's intestine expanded, its gall bladder shrank and its heart increased in volume by 25 per cent.

The researchers, Henrik Lauridsen and Kasper Hansen, both from Aarhus University in Denmark, explained that the increase in the size of the snake's heart was probably associated with the energy it needed to digest its meal.

'It's a sit and wait predator,' explained Mr Lauridsen. 'It fasts for months and then eats a really large meal.

An attempt to illegally export marine iguanas, an emblematic species of the Galapagos, has been stopped by the Ecuadorian Environmental Police's dog unit.
The police were conducting routine inspections of cargo and luggage when Willy, one of the police dogs, found a cardboard box containing two iguanas. Despite being kept in poor conditions, fortunately both are still alive. However, the body of a baby sea turtle was also found in the box.
After the police inspection, the marine iguanas were delivered to the authorities of the Galapagos National Park.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado says stresses on the Utah population, which occur only in Washington County, include declines in habitat because of increasing urbanization, illicit trade and poaching, as well persecution by humans.
WildEarth Guardians filed a petition with the agency, seeking protections for Utah Gila monsters in January, with a 90-day finding that was due in April.
With no such finding, the group argued that the agency acted contrary to law and "unreasonably" delayed compliance with sections of the Endangered Species Act.

The two western desert taipans (Oxyuranus temporalis) were found as part of a survey in October by the WA Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and the Spinifex People, in partnership with the WA Museum, the Adelaide Zoo, and Museum Victoria.
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The inland taipan has the most toxic venom worldwide, and the coastal taipan is the third most toxic. The venom toxicity of the western desert taipan is, as yet, unknown but likely to be extremely dangerous.
The adult male and female snakes, measuring more than one metre, are being housed at the Adelaide Zoo to allow the venom of the snakes to be assessed, and determine whether a species-specific antivenom is needed.

The initial production of antivenin (the clinical term for anti-venom) for treating coral snake bites is the function of an 11,500-square-foot facility Pfizer is building near the center of the 2,100-acre animal health research farm it has in Richland Township. The facility is being built at a cost of $3.75 million.

During the last week of October, ground was broken on it as well as a $6 million, 24,000-square-foot facility to research new medicines for horses. Both facilities are to be completed by summer of 2011.

“This investment by Pfizer underscores the important role that our Kalamazoo County site plays in both human and animal health,” said Pfizer spokesman Rick Chambers.
With the facility for horses, Chambers said, “This expands our capacity to research new treatments for horses.”

At low altitudes, the lizard's gender is determined by temperature, while at high altitudes where the climate is more extreme, it's all down to their genes, according to a study in Nature.
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The snow skink is a small six centimetre long lizard which lives in coastal and sub-alpine areas beneath rock slabs, eating insects and wild berries. It gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs, producing between one and six babies.
Previous research shows that the sex of baby skinks is determined during the first half of the pregnancy, depending on how long the mother remains in warm sunshine. Warm temperatures generally produce females, while cooler temperatures produce males.
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The researchers found that lowland mothers had very different ratios of boys to girls, depending on how much sunshine they had. By contrast, the highland mothers showed no difference in sex ratio of offspring, regardless of how long they spent in the Sun

"Legend goes that gunins and ojhas used to worship the snake goddess on this day. Snakebites were very common in these parts. The ojhas and gunins were the ones who used to treat the victims. During the fair, the goddess was worshipped and snakes were made to perform. That tradition has stayed on," said Subodh Patra, a descendant of Jhatunath Patra.
A postal department employee, Subodh is now one of leading figures in the fair and a rescuer of snakes. "We rescue the snakes, look after them throughout the year and then release them. Snakes are a very important part of our environment. Through the fair, we try to educate and inform the people about the different kinds of snakes. Not all snakes are poisonous but people have misconceptions," he explained.
During the year, Subodh and other villagers are on the lookout for poisonous snakes and cases of snakebites in the adjoining villages. The snakes are caught and their fangs taken out (in most of the snakes), they are kept for the rest of year and then released in forests or rivers.

Among the saddest images from BP Plc's three-month-long oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico were those of oil-slicked birds struggling to survive. US officials said preliminary information showed the disaster may have killed up to 6,104 birds and 609 turtles.

But on the positive side, the figures showed that more than 14,000 turtle hatchlings emerged from nests that were relocated to beaches away from the oil spill.
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The report was based on input from wildlife collection centres, government departments and other sources, but officials warned that the figures reflected "only the initial, field-level, evaluation".

More investigation was needed and not all of the injured and dead wildlife were "necessarily" caused by the BP spill, officials said.

While the traps were apparently put in place to capture snapping turtles, Audra Capps contends they were poorly assembled and instead were trapping and drowning another species of the aquatic reptiles — painted turtles, the report said.

A conservation officer with the New Jersey's Division of Fish and Wildlife caught Capps and a friend pulling out the traps, the report said. Both were issued four summonses each but Capps hopes to convince the judge she was just acting as a Good Samaritan looking out for helpless wildlife.

During embryonic development turtle eggs spend long periods covered by sand under conditions of high humidity and warm temperatures, which are known to favor the growth of soil-born fungi.
Dr Diéguez-Uribeondo's team focused their study on the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) population on Boavista Island, Cape Verde, off the West African coast. While Boavista Island represents one of the most important nesting regions for this species a high hatching failure rate is driving population numbers down.
The team sampled egg shells with early and severe symptoms of infection, as well as diseased embryos from sea turtle nests located in Ervatao, Joao Barrosa and Curral Velho beaches and discovered 25 isolates of F. solani associated with egg mass mortalities.
Although this fungal species has been previously described in association with different infections in animals, its relationship to hatching failure had not been investigated before this study.
The finding that strains of F. solani may act as a primary pathogen in loggerhead sea turtles represents an extremely high risk to the conservation of loggerhead sea turtles across the area.