University of Costa Rica scientists discovered a new species of frog in a mountainous region of their country. The frog is about 2 cm. in length and lives in the Altamira-Valle de Silencio area at an altitude of around 8,000 feet. The habitat there is rainforest with cool temperatures.

The frog was named Diasporus ventrimaculatus. Females are black and the males are orange, or grey. 

1. Iberian Lynx

The Iberian (Spanish), Lynx lives in very small areas of central and southern Spain (Andalucia). It  used to live throughout Spain and Portugal but its numbers have been drastically reduced to the point where it is now one of the most endangered wild cats in the world.

In the early 1950s a virus named Myxomatosis was illegally introduced by a French scientist to wild rabbits on his estate to protect his vegetable patch. Tragically the virus spread rapidly, and killed about 90% of the wild rabbits in France.  Spanish rabbits also died  in huge numbers even going completely missing in some areas,  so thousands of lynx starved to death. Habitat loss, hunting and trapping also have decimated the lynx. They are protected now, but they still get caught in fox traps.  Another cause of death recently is getting hit by cars in Donana National Park.

In the Western Ghats mountain range of India researchers discovered a dozen frog species.

Sathyabhama Das Biju, from the University of Delhi and Franky Bossuyt from the Free University of Brussels discovered the tree frogs at night while hiking in mountain forests during the monsoon season. (The same researchers were responsible for the discovery of the ‘purple frog’ in 2003 in the same area.) All of the frogs are in the Philautus genus, which has no tadpole stage during maturation.

Scientists from Conservation International and the Ecotropia Foundation have discovered ten new amphibian species.

Their discoveries took place in a mountainous area near Panama called Tacarcuna. The newly identified species include three transparent, or ‘glass’ frogs, three poison dart frogs, and one frog with spiky skin and orange legs. Glass frogs have a partly transparent skin which makes some of their internal organs visible. Frogs with this type of smooth, absorbent skin are seen by some as indicators of ecological health because they are very sensitive to toxins. They live mainly in forests, except during the breeding season.

A new report shows that atrazine, the second-most widely used agricultural herbicide in America, poses a serious threat to amphibians.

For a long time now, I’ve been hearing about the worrisome disappearance of amphibians around the world.  One third of amphibian populations on Planet Earth are threatened with extinction.  A new study finds that atrazine, the second most widely used farm herbicide in the country, is partly responsible for this decline.

Scientists on a Conservation Leadership Programme expedition have recently discovered a critically endangered frog species that hasn’t been seen in nature for 14 years. The Carrikeri Harlequin frog was found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains of Colombia.

Photo courtesy of the Conservation Leadership Programme.

Today, Feb. 29, Leap Day, marks the official start of the “Year of the Frog,” a global campaign aimed at raising awareness of the threat of mass extinction facing one-third to one-half of all frogs and other amphibians around the world. Check out the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ events database to find out what froggy activities are [...]