World's smallest frog discovered

By Richard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC News

A frog species that appears to be the world's smallest has been discovered in Papua New Guinea by a US-based team.

At 7mm (0.27 inches) long, Paedophryne amauensis may be the world's smallest vertebrate - the group that includes mammals, fish, birds and amphibians.

The researchers also found a slightly larger relative, Paedophryne swiftorum.

Presenting the new species in PLoS One journal, they suggest the frogs' tiny scale is linked to their habitat, in leaf litter on the forest floor.

Finding the frogs was not an easy assignment.

They are well camouflaged among leaves on the forest floor, and have evolved calls resembling those of insects, making them hard to spot.

"The New Guinea forests are incredibly loud at night; and we were trying to record frog calls in the forest, and we were curious as to what these other sounds were," said research leader Chris Austin from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, US.

"So we triangulated to where these calls were coming from, and looked through the leaf litter.

"It was night, these things are incredibly small; so what we did after several frustrating attempts was to grab a whole handful of leaf litter and throw it inside a clear plastic bag.

"When we did so, we saw these incredibly tiny frogs hopping around," he told BBC News.

Littering the leaves

The Paedophryne genus was identified only recently, and consists of a number of tiny species found at various points in the eastern forests of Papua New Guinea.

Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16491477

12 new species of frogs discovered in The Amazon

Colorado State University biologist discovers new and wider varieties of frog species in Amazon basin than previously recorded

December 2011. The diversity of frogs in the Amazon Basin is much greater than previously recorded, according to a new paper by Colorado State University and Ecuadorian biologists that could lead to greater understanding of how to save the frogs from extinction.

Chris Funk, assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Colorado State, and his team found a diversity of one- to two-inch-long tree frogs and toadlets that was anywhere from 150 percent to 350 percent greater than originally estimated, according to the paper published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

12 new species
The scientists sampled specimens in six countries within the Amazon Basin but focused their research in Ecuador. They found an estimated 12 new species. More significant, Funk said, is the percentage increase of new species found using DNA sequences and recordings of frog calls to more accurately identify species.

Potential 1,900 new species
And if the results of the study are applied to all amphibians in the Amazon, as many as 1,900 new species could be unveiled, which is significant given that amphibians are one of the most threatened groups of animals on Earth, Funk said.

"One of the greatest challenges for biodiversity conservation is a poor understanding of species diversity," Funk said. "Although the Amazon Basin is already recognized as a global centre of biodiversity, we provide new evidence that its diversity is still vastly underestimated. These species have been around for millions of years, but we're just uncovering them now because we have new technology to do that."

DNA and morphology
The team uncovered new species by collecting DNA, measuring physical size and shape, and recording and analyzing frog calls. Differences in calls were more pronounced than size and shape, the study found.

An increase in diversity in species doesn't equate to less concern for the welfare of amphibians, Funk said. In fact, it could be the opposite: Each frog species has a small range and one event such as a natural or manmade disaster could wipe out an entire species.

Still, the research gives scientists more information about mapping the patterns of diverse frog species so they can begin to understand how to protect them from extinction.

"Given that frogs and other vertebrates are relatively well-studied, there may be even higher levels of undiscovered biodiversity in other understudied taxonomic groups like insects and fungi," Funk said. "While the Amazon has one of the most species-rich amphibian populations in the world, much is still unknown about the diversity of species there. This is a pressing issue with roughly 41 percent of amphibian species classified as globally threatened with extinction. With this study, we're showing that, with improved species sampling, that percentage is almost certainly higher worldwide."

Funk conducted the study with Marcel Caminer and Santiago R. Ron, his counterparts at the Pontifica Universidad Católica del Ecuador.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/amazon-frog-species.html

Stinky Frogs Are a Treasure Trove of Antibiotic Substances

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — Some of the nastiest smelling creatures on Earth have skin that produces the greatest known variety of anti-bacterial substances that hold promise for becoming new weapons in the battle against antibiotic-resistant infections, scientists are reporting. Their research on amphibians so smelly (like rotten fish, for instance) that scientists term them "odorous frogs" appears in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.

Yun Zhang, Wen-Hui Lee and Xinwang Yang explain that scientists long have recognized frogs' skin as a rich potential source of new antibiotics. Frogs live in warm, wet places where bacteria thrive and have adapted skin that secretes chemicals, known as peptides, to protect themselves from infections. Zhang's group wanted to identify the specific antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), and the most potent to give scientists clues for developing new antibiotics.

They identified more than 700 of these substances from nine species of odorous frogs and concluded that the AMPs account for almost one-third of all AMPs found in the world, the greatest known diversity of these germ-killing chemicals. Interestingly, some of the AMPs have a dual action, killing bacteria directly and also activating the immune system to assist in the battle.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Basic Research Program of China and The National Natural Science Foundation of China.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111130100449.htm

Extinct frog rediscovered in Israel

Thought extinct when marshes were drained in 1950's
November 2011. Two specimens of a frog that was believed to be extinct have been found in Israel. The Hula painted frog (Discoglossus nigriventer) was declared extinct in 1996 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"The species now has another chance to survive," said a representative of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority. An inspector from the Authority found the frog in the Hula Valley and is has now been placed in a protective facility.

Only 5 have ever been found
Only five Hula painted frogs have ever been collected. Four were found in 1940 and one in the 1950s, when most the Hula Valley's marshes were drained to create arable land eradicate malaria. Parts of the valley were re-flooded three years ago, and it is believed that this has helped the frog cling on to existence.

In 2000, a scientist from the Lebanese nature protection organisation A Rocha claimed he had seen a frog species which could be Discoglossus nigriventer in the Aammiq marshes south of the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. Two French-Lebanese-British expeditions in the years 2004 and 2005 yielded no confirmation as to the further existence of this species. In August 2010, a search organised by the Amphibian Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature set out to look for various species of frogs thought to be extinct in the wild, including the Israel painted frog.

1/3 of world's frogs endangered or extinct
Blaming habitat loss and fungal disease, the IUCN believes nearly a third of the world's amphibian species are endangered or extinct.

Conservation International have launched a global search for "lost frogs". the announcement follows an expedition to the remote mountains of southern Haiti last October, led by CI's Amphibian Conservation Specialist Dr. Robin Moore in partnership with Dr. Blair Hedges of Pennsylvania State University.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/israel-hula-frog.html

Amphibians face spread of 3 threats

WASHINGTON — Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians might eventually have no haven left on the globe because of a triple threat of worsening scourges, a new study predicts.

Scientists have long known that amphibians are under attack from a killer fungus, climate change and shrinking habitat. In the study, appearing online in the journal Nature, computer models project that
in about 70 years, those three threats will spread, leaving no part of the world immune to one of them.

Several important U.S. amphibian species — such as boreal toads in the Rocky Mountains, and the mountain yellow legged frog in the Sierra Nevada — are shrinking in numbers, said zoologist Steve Corn, who is part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative. The problem is worse in the western United States.

About one-third of the world’s amphibian species are known to be threatened with extinction.
“It’s no fun being a frog,” said biodiversity conservationist Stuart Pimm of Duke University, who wasn’t part of the study or the USGS effort. “They are getting it from all three different factors.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2011/11/19/amphibians-face-spread-of-3-threats.html

Research team explores how microbial diversity on frogs defends against disease

Research team explores how microbial diversity on frogs defends against disease (Yes, Timing Of Release with Article #2 is Weird)
Press Release 11/8/11, Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech.

Amphibians are among the most threatened creatures on earth, with some 40 percent of amphibian species threatened or endangered. One of their primary threats is a rapidly spreading disease that attacks the skin cells of amphibians. "Chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease, has been a key factor in the extinctions of many species of frogs around the world," said Lisa Belden, associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Science at Virginia Tech.

Belden is leading a team of researchers from Tech, James Madison University, Villanova University, and the Smithsonian Institution who will study the microbial communities living on the skins of frogs that are surviving the fungal scourge. The effort is one of 11 new Dimensions of Biodiversity projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) with the aim of transforming, by 2020, "how scientists describe and understand the scope and role of life on earth," according to an NSF news release.

For Belden's team, the lofty goals will be achieved through hands on work in Panama, where the spread of chytrid fungus has been extensively documented. Researchers will swab the skin of frogs in areas with and without chytrid to collect samples of the microbes that live there. They will then release the frogs and assess the microbial community, both in terms of what microbes are there and what they are doing functionally on the skin. To see what microbes are there, researchers will examine their DNA. To see what the microbes are doing, researchers will examine how well they inhibit the growth of the chytrid fungus, and also assess what chemical metabolites are being produced by the microbes. "We expect that in the presence of chytrid fungus, there will be strong selection for the bacteria to produce anti- chytrid fungus metabolites, regardless of what bacterial species are present on the skin," said Belden.

It is all about appreciating the diverse roles of microbes, Belden said. "We are used to equating microbes with germs that make us sick, but, in fact, many microbes are critical to health. Healthy humans, for instance, carry around about 3 pounds of microbes, largely in our guts. These microbes help us absorb our food, break down toxins, and prevent pathogens from gaining a foothold."

Belden's team is interested in whether microbial communities on the skin of frogs have a role in disease resistance, in particular to the devastating chytrid fungus. And if there is such immunity, does it rely on the same mechanism from one frog to another, on different species of frogs, and in different locations?
"Our long-term goal is to try to develop probiotics" - to share the biochemistry employed by beneficial microbes with frogs who need it, she said.

To advance that goal, Belden's team is working with Brian Gratwicke, a research biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and Roberto Ibáñez, a scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. As leaders of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, they are maintaining captive colonies of endangered Panamanian frogs that are highly susceptible to the chytrid fungus. The hope is that the use of probiotics will someday allow release some of these species back into nature.

Members of the $2 million research project led by Belden are Virginia Tech colleagues Leanna House, assistant professor of statistics, and Roderick Jensen, professor of biological sciences; Reid Harris, professor of biology at James Madison University; Kevin Minbiole, assistant professor of organic and natural products chemistry at Villanova University; and the Smithsonian Institute scientists, Gratwicke and Ibáñez.

Jensen will guide the synthesis of the large amount of DNA sequence data that will be produced by the project, and House will develop new statistical methods to capture and analyze information from the DNA and metabolite datasets. "The bioinformatics and statistical analysis portions of the work are critical and provide the framework for advancing our knowledge in this system and also applying our findings to our systems," said Belden.

Minbiole has identified key antifungal metabolites from amphibians' skin bacteria. He will be doing the research on the metabolites the new project identifies. Harris, an ecologist, conducted the original experiments showing that amphibians' skin microbes are important in resisting chytrid fungus and will be involved with ecological surveys and experimental manipulations of the Panamanian frogs' microbes.
Contact: Susan Trulove
strulove@vt.edu
540-231-5646
Virginia Tech

Frog-killer disease was born in trade (Via Herp Digest)

Frog-killer disease was born in trade - The global amphibian trade spread the lethal chytrid fungus, which is decimating frogs around the planet, and it now looks like it may have created the disease in the first place.

November 7, 2011 by Michael Marshall, New Scientist

The team behind this finding are calling for an amphibian quarantine to help slow the disease's spread. Rhys Farrer of Imperial College London and colleagues sequenced the genomes of 20 samples of the offending fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), collected in Europe, Africa, North and South America and Australia.

They found that 16 of the 20 samples were genetically identical, belonging to a single strain called BdGPL that had spread to all five continents. Tests on tadpoles also revealed that the strain was extremely virulent.

BdGPL's genome showed that it had formed when two strains mated, some time in the past 100 years. The best and simplest explanation is that 20th-century trade, which shipped amphibians all over the world, enabled the mating, says Farrer's supervisor Matthew Fisher.

"We've got to restrict trade, or at least make sure that amphibians are not contaminated," says Fisher.

One approach would be for countries to quarantine all imported amphibians and only allow them to stay if they are uninfected.

When it emerged that trade was spreading chytrid, the World Organisation for Animal Health made the disease notifiable, meaning that countries must report whether they have it or not. But that doesn't stop it spreading.

The two places in most urgent need of protection are Madagascar and south-east Asia, says Fisher: "They're the last redoubts of uninfected amphibian species." Both are hotspots of amphibian diversity, and are clear of BdGPL. Madagascar remains uninfected despite rampant BdGPL in Africa, and a recent survey shows that Asian chytrid strains are not very virulent (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023179).

If BdGPL reaches these places, it could quickly devastate their frogs. Within months of it reaching Montserrat, in the West Indies, in early 2009, conservationists had to fly giant ditch frogs - also known as mountain chickens - out of the country to save them from extinction.

Countries that already have BdGPL should also institute quarantine, says Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance in New York. "This research shows that recombination can occur and give rise to new virulent strains," he says. "Blocking introduction of new strains will cut down on this."

Daszak adds: "It will be hard to stop the spread of new lineages of Bd, but if we look at the devastation that this pathogen has already caused, we desperately need to try."

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1111915108

Saving Ghana's vanishing frogs

One of Ghana's 78 recorded frogs: Leptopeles spiritusnoctis. Photo by: SAVE THE FROGS!.

Frogs need all the help they can get. With the IUCN Red List estimating that 41 percent of amphibians are endangered, frogs are currently the world's most imperiled animal family. Scientists estimate that around 200 amphibian species have been lost to extinction in recent decades to habitat loss, pollution, and a devastating fungal disease. Yet as the frog emergency worsens, there have been positive movements in conservation. The most recent comes from the small West African country of Ghana. Partnering with the enthusiastic US-based organization, SAVE THE FROGS!, two Ghanaian herpetologists, Gilbert Baase Adum and Caleb Ofori, have started a sister branch in their country: SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana. This is West Africa's first conservation group devoted exclusively to amphibians.

"Born to a hunting tribe in northern Ghana, my first and immediate interest in frogs was for their 'meat'. I feel ashamed to always confess it. It was not until my secondary school days when I repented of eating frog meat and then at university I developed another interest, this time to save them," Executive Director of SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana, Gilbert Baase Adum told mongabay.com.

Adum's says Ghana's 78 known species of frog are facing a number of impacts, including logging, mining, overconsumption, roads, herbicides, and a general lack of awareness among the people and policy makers.

Read on ...
Jeremy Hance

Two new frog species discovered in Australia

Boulder frogs found in remote areas of Cape York Peninsula

October 2011: Two amazing new species of boulder-dwelling frogs have been discovered by researchers exploring remote areas of Cape York Peninsula in North East Australia.

Both frogs have now been named. The first is the called Kutini boulder frog (Cophixalus kulakula). The species name kulakula translates as ‘rocky place', and is a traditional name for the area where the species was discovered.

The species name of the second frog, the golden-capped boulder frog (Cophixalus pakayakulangun, translates as ‘belonging among the boulders'.

Habitat restricted to massive rocks in rainforestBoth names are derived from the local Kuuku Ya'u language and were formulated in consultation with indigenous custodians of the lands on which the frogs were discovered.

The frogs are interesting in that they are restricted to piles of massive boulders ‘hidden' in the rainforest. They are adapted to their rocky world in having long arms, long slender fingers and big triangular finger pads. These features enable them to climb among the labyrinth of rocks in which they live.

They only occur in the rocks and never in the surrounding forest. The frogs live down deep among the boulders and come to the surface only when it rains in the summer wet season. Therefore, to explore these remote areas for frogs, the researchers had to fly in during the wet season and hike through swamps to get to the boulder fields.

You can sit and watch these frogs emerge around youNot many species are found in the boulder piles - just the boulder frogs, a few species of lizards and various insects and spiders. The frogs are found in two different areas in the vicinity of Iron Range, near the township of Lockhart River.

Although highly localised to boulder piles in each area, the frogs are abundant where they occur. ‘You can sit there as darkness falls and watch these amazing frogs emerge from the boulders all around you,' said Dr Conrad Hoskin, who conducted the research alongside Kieran Aland.

‘Most Australian microhylid frogs are very small, about 2cm in length, but these are comparatively huge at about 5cm,' added Dr Hoskin.

‘It is exciting that in this day and age you can still go out in a fairly well explored country such as Australia and find frogs totally new to science.'
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/new-frogs2011.html

Frog killer immune genes revealed

Scientists have taken a big step toward understanding why some frogs survive the fungal disease chytridiomycosis while others quickly die.

A group from Cornell University, US, identified genetic factors that seem to make some individual frogs immune.

This could improve captive breeding schemes, the team writes in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read on...
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

"Frog Crossing" Signs Leave Taxpayers Hopping Mad (Via HerpDigest)

NBC Washington D.C. 8/23/11 by Greg Wilson

Would you slam on the brakes if a frog hopped in front of your car?


Taxpayers in an upstate New York country are jumping mad about new signs warning drivers of locations where frogs like to hop across the road. They say telling drivers to look out for the limber little amphibians is pointless and spending money on the signs is a waste of money.

"During these economic times, this is just absurd," Sodus Town Supervisor Steve LeRoy told WHAM-TV. "New York State is laying people off and we're trying to find money for water, and construction projects. It's ridiculous."

The signs have recently popped up near Chimney Bluffs State Park, in the Finger Lakes region, after a new state ordinance took effect, according to the Finger Lakes Daily News. State officials could not say if they were there to protect a particular species of frog.

"I just can't imagine anybody stopping their vehicle for a frog," LeRoy said.

A dozen new nightfrog species found in India - 3 'lost ' frogs rediscovered

Three 'lost' species rediscovered after decades September 2011: Scientists have discovered a dozen new species of nightfrogs in the forests of Western Ghats in India.
The 12 species were identified after a revision of the nightfrog genus Nyctibatrachus, following 20 years of field studies in the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot for wildlife richness and endemism. Morphological traits and molecular markers were used to recognize the new species.

Findings include the rediscovery of three ‘lost' species: Kempholey nightfrog, rediscovered after 75 years, Coorg nightfrog, found after 91 years and the Forest night frog, last seen 75 years ago. These frogs were first described in the 1920s and 1930s - but there had been no further reports since.

Frogs are environmental barometersFrogs are environmental barometers and are very sensitive to subtle changes in their environment. They lived alongside dinosaurs, which have long since disappeared, but amazingly frogs continue to exist. Unfortunately, their existence is precarious. If the present trends in extinction continue, many frogs could disappear for ever.

Thirty-two percent of the world's amphibian species are threatened with extinction.

‘Amphibians are popularly known as environmental barometers. They indicate the state of environmental health. Their conservation is extremely vital not only from an amphibian's point of view but also from the perspective of overall nature conservation,' explains Delhi University Professor S. D. Biju, who led the research.

Six of the newly species are from unprotected, highly degraded habitats and require immediate attention to conserve these species and their habitats. The nightfrogs require unique habitats - either fast-flowing streams or moist forest floor for breeding and survival. Further, it is the only group of frogs that can reproduce without any physical contact.

‘The major threat to amphibians in India is massive habitat loss. Taking any conservation effort for amphibians will indirectly conserve several other important biodiversities of that area,' said Prof Biju.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/nightfrog-new.html

MORE THAN 1,000 DEMAND TOY STORES STOP SELLING FROGS

Press Release 8/25/11----Campaign on Change.org calls on Learning Express toy stores to stop selling live frogs as toys, citing salmonella, environmental and animal welfare concerns.



WASHINGTON, DC - More than 1,000 people across the U.S. have joined a campaign on Change.org calling on Learning Express, the largest educational toy retailer in the U.S., to stop selling live frog "EcoAquariums."



Laura Goldman, an animal welfare blogger, launched the campaign on Change.org after learning that live African dwarf frogs were being sold in 4-square-inch plastic cubes.



"Not only was I surprised and appalled that living frogs were being sold as toys, but after reading about how the frogs were manhandled and abused by a distributor, I couldn't understand why a so-called 'educational' toy seller would carry and, in an email to Change.org members, actually defend these products," said petition creator Laura Goldman. "Other retail chains have already done the right thing by stopping the sale of these toys. Learning Express needs to learn to be equally compassionate about animals."



Learning Express has come under fire in the past for selling the EcoAquariums, which retail giant Target, Brookstone and several toy store chains have taken off their shelves. As families prepare for Back-to-School, Goldman hopes Learning Express will heed the concerns of activists, as well as parents, who are concerned about recent warnings linking African dwarf frogs to salmonella.



In July, the California Department of Public Health issued a warning that "certain pet aquatic frogs may carry bacteria that cause illness in people and should be withheld from sale to the public." On July 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of an outbreak of salmonella caused by African dwarf frogs.



"The concerns around these EcoAquariums range from preventing the spread of salmonella to teaching children compassion to protecting the environment," said Change.org Interim Director of Organizing, Stephanie Feldstein. "It has been remarkable to watch as this issue has attracted more than 1,000 people from across the country to take action on Change.org."



Live signature totals from the campaign:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-learning-express-that-frogs-are-not-toys



Journalists interested in contacting Learning Express should try:

Sharon DiMinico, Founder and CEO, Learning Express, Inc.

info@learningexpress.com

(978) 889-1000



Laura Goldman, Petition Author, lgoldman@change.org

Stephanie Feldstein, Director of Organizing (interim), Change.org (734) 395-0770, sfeldstein@change.org

New species of frogs found in Western Ghats

New species of frogs were discovered by a team of biodiversity researchers led by Dr. Anil Zachariah, Veterinary Surgeon, Dept of Animal Husbandry, during their recent exploration in the Western Ghats.


The discovery, published in the latest issue of the Biosystamatica, an international journal on animal taxonomy, ecology and zoo-geography, is a joint effort by the team of voluntary researchers and naturalists undertaken with the active help of the Zoological Survey of India. The team includes Prof. E. Kunhikrishnan, C. Radhakrishnan, K.P. Dinesh, Muhamed Jafer Palot, Sandeep Das, David V Raju, S Kalesh and C.K Vishnudas, apart from Dr. Anil Zachariah.

The discovery shows that the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot, still has many new species of amphibians waiting to be discovered.

It was found that the newly-found nine species belonged to the genus Raorchestes and one to the genus Polypedates (family Rhacophoridae). They were discovered in the hill ranges of Southern Western Ghats after several expeditions spanning the last few years. Four species were from Bonacaud, Thiruvananthapuram district; two from Kadalar estate, Idukki; one from Gavi, Pathanamthitta district; one from Ooty, Nilgiris, and one from Naduvattam, Nilgiris.

Six are bush frogs, one is a canopy bush frog and two species are associated with bamboo reeds. With the new species of frog of Rhacophoridae family discovered now, the total number of species of frogs known under genus Polypedates from Western Ghats has come to four, and from India eleven, till date. The genus Raorchestes is, however, restricted to Western Ghats only, with 30 known species till 2010, said Dr. Anil Zachariah.

The new species of frogs discovered are named after outstanding zoologists and conservationists: Polypedates bijui is named after Dr. S.D. Biju, Delhi University; Raorchestes agasthyaensis, after Agasthyamalai, the locality being an important part of the Agastyamalai Biosphere Reserve; Raorchestes crustai, after the Latin term ‘crusta’ meaning ‘bark’, which refers to the microhabitat preference of this canopy frog; Raorchestes johnceei, after late Prof. John C. Jacob (who was popularly known as ‘Johncee’); Raorchestes kadalarensis, named after the locality Kadalar; Raorchestes manohari, named after T. M. Manoharan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Kerala; Raorchestes ravii, named in memory of late Ravi Chandran, an enthusiastic nature lover from Wayanad who first found out the species and was a companion in many field expeditions of the research team; Raorchestes theuerkaufi, named after Wolfgang Theuerkauf, an ardent naturalist and Botanist, Director of Gurukula Botanical Garden, Periya, Wayanad, Kerala; Raorchestes thodai, a species found from Ooty, is named after the indigenous tribal community “thoda” of the Nilgiris; and Raorchestes uthamani, a small pinkish yellow bush frog found inhabiting in the high altitude (around 1000m) reed patches is named after two eminent conservationists, bird photographer P.K. Uthaman and Forest officer K.V Uthaman for their interest and support in nature conservation.

Interestingly, the study was conducted without funding from any agencies, but was carried out by the voluntary efforts of the researchers and nature enthusiasts through long years of dedicated work.

Frogs all over the world is facing high risk of extinction due to climate change, pollution and habitat destruction. The new discovery points to the hidden biodiversity wealth of the Western Ghats, which calls for high level research and conservation efforts in the region.

E. M. Manoj
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article2333502.ece

Frog Leg Trade Decimates Species And Causes Ecological Chaos (Via Herp Digest)

Frog Leg Trade Decimates Species And Causes Ecological Chaos
7/27/11

International wildlife conservation groups Pro Wildlife, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Animal Welfare Institute, issued a report today titled Canapés to Extinction: The international trade in frogs' legs and its ecological impact. The report is the first comprehensive study of the frog leg market ever conducted and reveals an industry that is systematically devastating frog populations throughout the world and, subsequently, causing severe environmental impacts to natural ecosystems.

"Humans have been eating frogs for ages. But today the practice is not sustainable on a global scale," said Alejandra Goyenechea, acting director of international conservation programs for Defenders of Wildlife. "Billions of frogs are traded internationally each year for human consumption, and that industry is responsible for depleting wild populations, spreading deadly disease, and allowing invasive species to destroy the health of native ecosystems."

In recent years, the United States has imported an average of 2,280 tonnes (4.6 million pounds) of frog legs each year-the equivalent of 456 million to 1.1 billion frogs-and another 2,216 tonnes (4.4 million pounds) of live frogs for Asian-American markets. Most frog and frog leg imports to the U.S. come from China, Taiwan, Ecuador, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Mexico and Indonesia.

During the last decade, the European Union imported an average of 4,600 tonnes (9.2 million pounds) of frog legs each year-the equivalent of 1 to 2.3 billion frogs. Indonesia is the world's leading supplier, providing 84 percent of total imports to the EU with the vast majority of frogs being caught in the wild. Belgium, France and the Netherlands are the top importers in the EU.

"The decline of many frog species is a global problem that is being greatly accelerated by just a handful of European nations," said Sandra Altherr, director of wildlife programs for Pro Wildlife in Germany. "The capture and killing of native frogs is prohibited within the EU, so it is incomprehensible that we would be supporting environmentally disastrous practices abroad."

Until the mid-1980s, India and Bangladesh dominated the international frog leg export market. Severe exploitation resulted in the collapse of many wild frog populations in those countries, including two of the most sought-after species, the green pond frog and the Indian bullfrog. In turn, the decline of those species resulted in a dramatic increase in the use of pesticides, due to an explosion of insects and other agricultural pests previously kept in check by frogs. In 1985, the two frog species were protected with an Appendix II listing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). India and Bangladesh subsequently banned exports, their native species have since recovered and the use of pesticides has been reduced.

However, in recent years, other countries have stepped in to fill the void and their frog populations appear to be headed for a similar fate. Indonesia, where billions of frogs are taken from the wild annually, and to a lesser extent China, Taiwan and Vietnam, where frogs are farmed very intensively, have now taken over the export market.

"We must take immediate action to protect frog species from being exploited for international trade," said D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute. "Wild populations across Asia are already in trouble, and unregulated trade puts native species in the U.S. at even greater risk from deadly diseases that have been wreaking havoc on amphibians worldwide. It will take a coordinated effort from governments and the world's conservation community to prevent the extinction of imperiled frog species and to protect our native species from harmful invasives."

The report will be distributed to key government decision-makers, including those responsible for the implementation of CITES, with a request that they take immediate action to bring this unregulated trade under control. Considering that the frog species dominating the frog leg trade are not currently protected under CITES, there is an urgent need for governments to secure CITES protections for them.
Here is the official report: go to bottom of page.

They didn't croak after all! World's rarest toads found in area less than half the size of a football pitch

The world's rarest toad has been found by scientists living in an area of just 300 square metres in the wild.


Living in a section of a forest reserve less than half the size of a football pitch in Tanzania, East Africa, the discovery that the population of Wendy's forest toad is still in existence has delighted zoologists who thought the species was dying out.

The toads are thought to be hyper-endemic - found in one very small area and nowhere else in the world.

Scientists from a project run by the the Whiteley Wildlife Conservation Trust - based at Paignton Zoo, Devon - and the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group have been carrying out a rapid ecological assessment of key sites along the Uzungwa Scarp forest reserve - a biodiversity hotspot threatened by deforestation and climate change.


Hamidu Seki, the project's team leader, found several critically endangered Wendy's forest toads while walking throughout the area. The species is thought to live in a range no bigger than 300 square metres in the Uzungwa mountains.


Mike Bungard, Paignton Zoo's curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates, said: 'This project is already paying off. These species are thought to be hyper-endemic, which means they are found in one very small area and nowhere else in the world.


'Sadly, there is no sign of the Poynton's forest toad in the area where it was seen ten years ago, though we are still searching.

'Small populations in small areas are so vulnerable to disease or disaster.'

Mike and Andy Bowkett, overseas conservation officer for the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, spent a month working in Tanzania before Christmas.

Andy, who returns to Tanzania in June, said: 'There are species recorded in one spot in the world. 'That may be because no-one has bothered to look again, or they have become extinct.


'It is very strange for multiple species - our three target species - to be observed many times over the years in the same spot but never anywhere else.

'Having said that, we still need to find out for sure whether they are hyper-endemic, or whether they are found elsewhere.'

The target species are Nectophrynoides wendyae - Wendy's forest toad - and Nectophrynoides poyntoni - Poynton's forest toad (both listed as Critically Endangered) and Hyperolius kihangensis, the Kihanga reed frog, which is classed as Endangered.

Mike Bungard added: 'This project is already providing new information on which we can base our long-term conservation efforts.'



By Daily Mail Reporter

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1390244/Worlds-rarest-toad-area-half-size-football-pitch-Tanzania.html#ixzz1NYENyQFL

Penn research using frog embryos (Via Herp Digest)

Penn research using frog embryos leads to new understanding of cardiac development
April 22, 2011 Biology & Nature by Jean-Pierre Saint-Jeannet, University of Pennsylvania

During embryonic development, cells migrate to their eventual location in the adult body plan and begin to differentiate into specific cell types. Thanks to new research at the University of Pennsylvania, there is new insight into how these processes regulate tissues formation in the heart. A developmental biologist at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, Jean-Pierre Saint-Jeannet, along with a colleague, Young-Hoon Lee of South Korea's Chonbuk National University, has mapped the embryonic region that becomes the part of the heart that separates the outgoing blood in Xenopus, a genus of frog.

Xenopus is a commonly used model organism for developmental studies, and is a particularly interesting for this kind of research because amphibians have a single ventricle and the outflow tract septum is incomplete.

In higher vertebrates, chickens and mice, the cardiac neural crest provides the needed separation for both circulations at the level of the outflow tract, remodeling one vessel into two. In fish, where there is no separation at all between the two circulations, the cardiac neural crest contributes to all regions of the heart.

"In the frog, we were expecting to find something that was in between fish and higher vertebrates, but that's not the case at all," said Saint-Jeannet. "It turns out that cardiac neural crest cells do not contribute to the outflow tract septum, they stop their migration before entering the outflow tract. The blood separation comes from an entirely different part of the embryo, known as the 'second heart field.'"
"As compared to other models the migration of the cardiac neural crest in amphibians has been dramatically changed through evolution," he said.

Saint-Jeannet's research will be published in the May 15 edition of the journal Development.
To determine where the neural crest cells migrated during development, the researchers labeled the embryonic cells with a fluorescent dye, then followed the path those marked cells took under a microscope. "We label the cardiac neural crest cells in one embryo and then graft them onto an embryo that is unlabeled. We let the embryo develop normally and look where those cells end up in the developing heart," said Saint-Jeannet.

Knowing these paths, and the biological signals that govern them, could have implications for human health.

"There are a number of pathologies in humans that have been associated with abnormal deployment of the cardiac neural crest, such as DiGeorge Syndrome," said Saint-Jeannet. "Among other developmental problems, these patients have an incomplete blood separation at the level of the outflow tract, because the cardiac neural crest does not migrate and differentiate at the proper location."
DiGeorge syndrome is present in about 1 in 4,000 live births, and often requires cardiac surgery to correct.

"Xenopus could be a great model to study the signals that cause those cells to migrate into the outflow tract of the heart,' said Saint-Jeannet. "If you can understand the signals that prevent or promote the colonization of this tissue, you can understand the pathology of something like DiGeorge syndrome and perhaps figure out what kind of molecule we can introduce there to force those cells to migrate further down."

Austrian frogs pinched by Italians (Via HerpDigest)

Austrian frogs pinched by Italians

BigPond News, April 20, 2011 -Austrian Wildlife authoritiesare hopping mad that efforts to save the local frog population are being hampered by Italian poachers.

Officials in southern Austrian province Carinthia say poachers are collecting frogs from the roadside buckets they have been guided into to save them from busy highways, and are then smuggling them home to Italian dinner tables.

Frogs' legs are a delicacy in some parts of Italy and officials have told Austrian state television that the victims tend to be those with the meatiest thighs.

Frogs attempting to cross some Austrian highways are channelled by a series of fences into roadside buckets. Once a day, volunteers collect the buckets and carry the amphibians to the other side of the road and set them free.

But 'the Italians strike before the frog pickers come', says Carinthian environmental official Bernhard Gutleb.

The delicacy can be costly. Officials warn that those caught with their hand in the bucket face fines up to 3600 euros ($A4889).

Nearly one third of the world's 6485 frog species are on the brink of extinction, according to Save The Frogs - a nonprofit organisation dedicated to amphibian conservation.
_______________________________________________________

USF Study Finds Common Fungicide Lethal for Frogs (Via HerpDigest)

USF Study Finds Common Fungicide Lethal for Frogs

Researchers trying to determine the cause of worldwide amphibian declines turn to popular fungicide.

By Vickie Chachere, USF News

TAMPA, Fla. (April 12, 2011) - Chlorothalonil, a common fungicide used around the world on farms and golf courses, has been found to be lethal to frog tadpoles at levels below what regulators have said are safe environmental concentrations, says a new University of South Florida study published in one of the nation's leading environmental journals.

In a study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, USF biologists Taegan McMahon and Jason Rohr found that nearly every frog exposed to chlorothalonil in their study either died or suffered elevated stress hormone levels and changes in their immune cell counts, conditions which could weaken the animal and leave them vulnerable to parasites.

The finding could offer insight to a worldwide investigation of factors that might be causing widespread declines of amphibians, a taxon which many scientists view as a harbinger of potentially dangerous environmental conditions for other living creatures.

Chlorothalonil was known to suppress the immune systems of oysters and fish, but was relatively untested on amphibians before the USF study, conducted in conjunction with researchers from the University of Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, Rowan University, and the Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Fla.

Unlike chlorothalonil, most previously tested pesticides have not directly killed frogs at or below expected environmental concentrations. The expected environmental concentration of a pesticide is a concentration expected to be found in a water body that is a standardized distance from an application site, is calculated using US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) software, and is the concentration typically used by the US EPA to determine the safety of pesticides.

Lab tests showed that, at the expected environmental concentration, the fungicide was lethal to nearly 100 percent of the tadpoles in all four amphibian species tested. Moreover, concentrations of chlorothalonil four orders of magnitude below the expected environmental concentration were associated with significant mortality in two of the four amphibian species. Outdoor field experiments generally matched the findings of the laboratory experiments, suggesting that these results might be relevant to effects in nature.

The experiments also showed that the chemical was nonlinearly associated with mortality, stress hormones, and immunity: low and high concentrations caused significantly greater mortality and stress hormone levels than intermediate concentrations and controls, a dose-response consistent with endocrine disruption. In addition, for the survivors of low-dose chlorothalonil exposure, chlorothalonil concentration was inversely correlated with the number of immune cells in their liver, suggesting potential immunosuppresion of the surviving frogs.

Chlorothalonil is the most commonly used synthetic fungicide in the U.S., with some 14 million pounds being used predominantly on peanuts, strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, and turf grass.

The fungicide is part of the same chemical family, organochlorines, as the pesticide DDT, which has been banned for decades but remains pervasive in the environment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has strict standards on the application of chlorothalonil, which is known to contaminate surface waters through runoff and soil erosion. Users are warned to not spray the fungicide near water. However, it should be noted that the concentrations tested in these experiments were based on appropriate product use.

The USF scientists are focusing their 2½-year research project on the effects of chlorothalonil on freshwater organisms. Chlorothalonil binds to glutathione, disrupting cellular respiration that can lead to cell death. "Cellular respiration is an essential process for almost all living things," said McMahon, a USF biology graduate student.

The researchers cautioned that their study has yet to determine the mechanism by which the fungicide affects frogs, only that its use raises red flags because levels expected to be found in the environment clearly have detrimental effects on amphibians, a taxon in global decline and an important biological indicator for the health of the environment. "We don't quite know its role in amphibian declines, but when the expected environmental concentration is associated with nearly 100 percent mortality across four amphibian species, it's a cause for concern," said Rohr, an assistant professor in USF's Department of Integrative Biology.

First record of tadpoles hatching and feeding on tree bark (Via HerpDigest)

First record of tadpoles hatching and feeding on tree bark 3/29/11 Wildlife Extra.com -Unusual frog behaviour discovered in India's Western Ghats

Written by Ben Tapley

April 2011. In July of last year we were working on an amphibian ecology study at the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) in Karnataka, India (http://www.agumberainforest.com/)

We found several egg clutches and tadpoles of the brown leaping frog (Indirana semipalmata). The 11 species of the genus Indirana are all endemic to the Western Ghats of India. It has been documented by several authors that the tadpoles of Indirana frogs breed on rock faces surrounding splashing water and that tadpoles are semi terrestrial. We were surprised one night when we heard a frog vocalisation we had not heard before.

After a short search we located a single Indirana semipalmata sitting by a clutch of eggs laid on the bark of a tree. These eggs later hatched and we found tadpoles from a previous clutch feeding on the bark of the same tree. In total we found three Indirana semipalmata egg clutches all of which were at least 3m away from any standing water. To our knowledge this is the first recorded case of tadpoles feeding on a bark substrate and subsequently metamorphosing on the bark of a tree. This may be a localised phenomenon as Agumbe has the second highest annual rainfall in India and therefore these semi terrestrial tadpoles do not desiccate. Living in Agumbe during the monsoon was literally like living in a cloud.

This work was funded by the Gerry Martin project (http://www.gerrymartin.in/).