Giant Salamanders

An interesting BBC news article on giant salamanders in Japan, here.

Toad News

An Australian man has searched East Timor for rumored cane toads, and only found Asian toads. (News source.)

Cane toad "sausages" are being made in Queensland, and laced with harmless but noxious chemicals, to feed to quolls, in the hope that they don't try to eat live toads. (News source.)

Toad survival traits are making the news after a recent study.

Toads Released

Endangered captive-born Houston toads have been released into the wild by the Houston, TX, Zoo. (News source.)

Spadefoots

The Great Basin spadefoot is profiled here.

Amphibian News

Frog deformations may be the result of dragonfly nymphs, according to some researchers. (News source.)

A pic here of a recently discovered transparent frog in Ecuador.

A fish-surfing frog photographed in the UK, here.

Axolotls are being studied for limb regeneration research. (News source.)

Utah: Frog Conservation

Utah wildlife officials are creating new marsh areas for the rare Columbia spotted frog. (News source.)

Conservation News

Mountain chicken frogs are being flown from the Caribbean to the UK in order to protect them from fungal disease. (News source.)

Malaysian wildlife officers seized 210 poached monitor lizards. (News source.)

Columbia: New Herps

Ten new amphibians have been discovered in Columbia. Nat Geo has pics of several.

Amphibians

A new (strange-looking) toad found in Tanzania, pictured here.

Researchers are looking at a compound in tadpoles as a potential resource to prevent skin cancer. (News source.)

New Herps from Tanzania

17 species of reptiles and amphibians have been discovered in the South Nguru Mountains in Tanzania. (News source.)

Strange Fossil Amphibian

An armored amphibian was able to gape by lifting the top of its head, unlike most vertebrates today. (News source.)

Chemicals Aid Parasites

A new paper supports the idea that chemical pollution helps increase parasitic infections in amphibian populations. (News source.)

Amphibian Malformity Study

Inbreeding appears not to be a factor in the increaste in amphibian deformities/mutations. (News source.)

Herp Conservation

Mexico City axolotyls are in danger of disappearing. (News source.)

The Western Australia government is giving $1.2 million to a toad busting group to fight cane toads. (News source.)

Amphibians are dying off at Yellowstone. (News source.)

Amphibian Diversity Fights Parasites

Parasite load in American toads dropped when they raised in the same tank as gray tree frogs. Gray tree frogs could fight off infestations better than toads. Not sure why the researcher is saying the two amphibians are competitors -- they obviously are in different niches, unless they're referring to the tadpole stage. (News source.)

New Herps from Zootaxa, September 2008

The papers aren't accessible (subscription required), but you can view the pdf abstracts.

1) A new frog, Adelophryne patamona, is described from Guyana.
2) A new skink, Oligosoma pikitanga, is described from New Zealand.
3) A new lizard, Bachia oxyrhina, is described from Brazil.
4) A new gecko, Cnemaspis biocellata, is described from Thailand/Malaysia.
5) A new lizard, Scriptosaura catimbau, is described from Brazil.
6) A new lizard, Leptodactylus cupreus, is described from Brazil.

Also, chromosomal analysis of some frogs (Pristimantis spp.) from Brazil suggests an undescribed species. And, there's a paper on foam-generating tadpoles.

New Toad in Ecuador

From Zootaxa:

A new species of Osornophryne (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Andean highlands of northern Ecuador
Andrew G. Gluesenkamp (USA) & Juan M. Guayasamin (Ecuador)
Zootaxa 1828: 18-28 (23 Jul. 2008) 5 plates; 15 references
Abstract here.

New Frog

The Southern Sandhill Frog is a new species in Australia, distinguished from the Northern species. (News source.)

Amphibian News

Researchers are investigating how toads use their muscles to quickly snatch insects with their tongue. (News source.)

More tests show that probiotic bacteria may help frogs fight skin diseases. (News source.)

Two New Books

Georgia herpetologists have published two new books of interest:

Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia (University of Georgia Press)
Turtles of the Southeast (University of Georgia Press)

(News source.)

Clawed Frog

"'Amphibian horror' isn't a movie genre, but on this evidence perhaps it should be. Harvard biologists have described a bizarre, hairy frog with cat-like extendable claws.
"Trichobatrachus robustus actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog's toe pads, probably when it is threatened."

Details at New Scientist.

Reproductive Plasticity

Here is a study on a neotropical treefrog that can lay its eggs in water or on land...

Newt Fiasco

The great crested newt is protected in the UK, and the Leicestershire Council spent 1 million pounds protecting them in ponds near a major road construction. Turns out, though, that the newts in the ponds are common newts, not the protected species. (News source.)

Albino Frogs (Almost)

Albino tadpoles have been reported from a pond in Wales. (News source.)

100 Weirdest

The Zoological Society of London has released a top 100 list of the weirdest and rarest amphibians. (News source.) A sample gallery of species is here.

Volunteers Needed in NC

North Carolina WRC is looking for volunteers to join the Calling Amphibian Survey Program, to help map out frog/toad populations in the state. (News source.)

Bullfrogs in Oregon

Here's another article on the non-native bullfrog's impact on other species in Oregon. (News source.)

And on a similar topic, because bullfrogs are eating so many baby western painted turtles in Oregon, there are plans to raise the turtles in captivity for release after they are too big to be eaten. (News source.)

Ohio Species of Concern List Revision

Five herps will be added to Ohio's species of concern list, if a revision is approved: smooth earth snake, smooth green snake, queen snake, ground skink, and Blanchard's cricket frog. (News source.)

Golden Mantella Project

A conservation effort to preserve two newly discovered populations of the golden mantella in Madagascar is receiving a boost from the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund. (News source.)

Attenborough on Herps

David Attenborough has filmed his last wildlife documentary, to come out in 2008. It's on reptiles and amphibians, titled Life in Cold Blood. (News source.)

Nutrient Pollution Drives Parasitic Infections

Amphibian deformities derived from parasitic infections are driven by nutrient pollution (increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus), according to a new study. The nutrients cause algal blooms, which increase the number of snails, which release more parasitic trematodes, which form cysts in amphibians, causing developmental anomalies. (News source.)

Habitat Splits Hurt Amphibians

"Habitat split," or "human-induced disconnection between habitats used by different life history stages of a species" was recently identified as a primary cause for the decline in amphibian species diversity in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. (News source.)

OH: Bullfrog vs Salamander

Some students in Ohio are trying to push the Bullfrog candidate for state amphibian now that the Spotted Salamander has gained some political progress. (News source.) Seriously, how dumb are the teachers who are pushing for the bullfrog vote just to "get students involved"? If you're going to name a state amphibian, let it be imaginative, interesting, and worthy of the name. (For that matter, the spotted salamander is a bit mundane also, but it's at least a common emblem in various Ohio wildlife or wetlands groups.)

Smuggling to Ireland

A package of various common pet-store arachnids and herps from a US pet shop was confiscated by Irish customs. The package was labeled "aquatic plants." (News source.)

Ohio's Amphibian

The spotted salamander was approved by the state senate as Ohio's state amphibian; it now has to pass the House. (News source.)

Frog Exhibit

St. Louis Zoo is putting in a new exhibit, Awesome Amphibians, to celebrate the AZA's 2008 "Year of the Frog." (News source.)

India: New Caecilian

A new species of caecilian was discovered in Mahadayi Wildlife Sanctuary in the Western Ghats region of India. (news source.)

Misc. News

First, there's a brief profile on turtle specialist Jeffrey Lovich here.

Also, information on a new book, The Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians, here.

Amphibian Breeding Strategies

A researcher is suggesting that alternative breeding strategies by amphibians are an attempt to avoid parasites, etc. From the Eurekalert:

"Brian Todd, a researcher at the UGA Odum School of Ecology Savannah River Ecology Lab, explains that most amphibians start their lives in water (tadpoles are a good example), and then make their way onto land as adults and return to the water to breed. But there are other breeding strategies as well. Take, for instance, the Darwin’s frog, the species that swallows its eggs and, a few weeks later, regurgitates its young. Or the marsupial frog, a species that carries its eggs on its back until they hatch. Several species lay eggs in small puddles on land or high up in trees where they hatch as miniature versions of adults, bypassing the larval stage entirely.
"Researchers have hypothesized that natural selection favored these non-traditional breeding strategies as a way to avoid predatory fish or the risk of a breeding pond or stream drying up. In a review article published in the November issue of The American Naturalist, Todd argues that the diversity of reproductive strategies that amphibians employ might also be influenced by the benefits that come from avoiding viruses, fungi and other parasites."

Frog Malformations

The nutrients from farm runoff trigger a cascading series of events in the local ecology that increases frog deformities, according to a recent study. (News source.)

State Amphibian

A Middle School campaign is pushing to make the spotted salamander the state amphibian for Ohio. (News source.)

Frogs and Salamanders for Medical Research

Amphibian cell regeneration is being studied in the UK to find a way to treat burn victims. (News source.)

Australia: Hitchhikers Adopted

Tropical frogs that arrive in Australia via fruit and potted plants are tested for amphibian disease, and if healthy, adopted out to pet owners. [Bit of a double standard, compared to how some confiscated reptiles were treated not long ago, but nice to see the amphibians treated fairly.] (News source.)

Wisconsin Frog Call Survey

Volunteers for the La Crosse River Marsh amphibian monitoring survey are being solicited in Wisconsin. (News source.)

Golf Course Habitat

Turns out that drying ponds on golf courses in the off season can effectively create amphibian habitats usable by a wide range of species. Temporary ponds help eliminate bullfrogs (usually predators of other species) and releases nutrients into the soil. (News source.)