Tag archives for frogs
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The top 10 stories on our radar today: Scientists have created stem cells from cloned human embryos, 1.5-billion-year-old water has been found in a deep Canadian mine, and…
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Finding tadpoles of the Príncipe Giant Treefrog will help identify what types of habitat this endemic species relies on, but after many years of searching for them, finding these elusive tadpoles has also become a matter of personal pride.
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A newfound fairyfly that’s 0.01 of a inch joins a crew of the world’s smallest, including a bumblebee bat and a mouse lemur.
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This week on National Geographic Weekend, join host Boyd Matson we go undercover to hunt for ivory poachers in Kenya, spy from the safety of a drone, hide from hippos while paddling down the Gambia River, learn to attract poison dart frogs for mates, and much more.
Ancient traditions and modern science team up to utilize frogs for hunting magic and biological research without causing them harm.
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Get a first-person view of life in the field from amphibian and reptile biologist, Edgar Lehr exploring remote areas of Peru for new species of frogs and lizards.
A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park: Wood Frog
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on August 24, 2012 
While volunteers and researchers record the science of the many species found at this year’s BioBlitz, writers across Colorado are putting down a record of their own as well.
Atrazine, a continued concern for all
Posted by IZILWANE on June 28, 2012 Research published earlier this year, detailing the effects of the popular herbicide atrazine on amphibians, reignited ongoing controversy over using chemicals to control our environment. Various scientific studies have shown that frogs that come in contact with the herbicide are often born hermaphroditic, which threatens frog populations and brings up further questions about the…
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Although the discovery of a previously unknown species is never routine, it is at least more expected in remote corners of the globe, from the deep Amazon to Pacific atolls. But few people expect to find a new species in New York City! (Except perhaps a mutated cockroach or sewer rat.) But scientists from UCLA,…
How a toad can turn you into a prince
Posted by Stuart Pimm on May 30, 2011 Do not, I repeat not, kiss frogs, toads, or anything similar. It’s after midnight. The forest is warm, damp, smells of rotting foliage, noisy with strange calls, and filled with creatures on the move. I’m with a madman. Bill Magnusson, an Australian ecologist, who has spent much of his life in the Amazon, is wearing…
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What’s in an animal’s scientific name? Tributes to dead presidents, professions of love, and sometimes even adolescent humor.
By Christine Dell’Amore In case you haven’t had your fill of genitalia news for the week, the Nature Conservancy is reporting the discovery of a new population of well-endowed frogs in California. The conservation nonprofit’s Larry Serpa, an aquatic ecologist, found the coastal tailed frog living in the Garcia River Forest (see map)–21 miles (34…
Posted by The Puerto Rico tropical frog known to hikers as the mountain coqui has been struggling for decades to survive against the onslaught of the frog-killer fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. But now, climate change may be tipping the balance against the embattled amphibian, according to research announced today by Cornell University. “Scientists studying disease and climate change…
Biologist Valerie C. Clark is a regular correspondent. Currently a candidate for a PhD at Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland, she is well known to us here at National Geographic headquarters, Washington, D.C., as a cheerleader for frogs. She sent this dispatch from Northern Ireland. By Valerie C. Clark Belfast, Northern Ireland–After two years of doctoral studies in…
Good news for a change for frogs: A consortium of conservation agencies and organizations recently celebrated the release into the Arizona wilderness of the 10,000th Chiricahua leopard frog reared at the Phoenix Zoo’s Conservation Center. The milestone was reached after many years of many people working hard to restore the native frog to habitat where it has…
The largest amphibian monitoring program in the U.S. may have flaws that, if uncorrected, could result in overestimates of frog populations, North Carolina State University said today. “Scientists track amphibian populations because these animals are sensitive to changes in their environment and can serve as ‘canaries in the coal mine’ to give researchers early warnings…
The demand for frogs for human consumption is rising dramatically in parts of West Africa, according to a paper published in the latest issue of the TRAFFIC Bulletin. African tiger frogs caught with a basket trap in shallow parts of the River Niger, northern Benin. The small fish are used as bait. Photo © Meike…
There are suspicious discrepancies in the numbers of South American poison arrow frogs reported in international trade, according to a new study published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. The green-and-black poison arrow frog Dendrobates auratus was the poison arrow frog species most frequently reported species in international trade, the wildlife trade monitoring organization, TRAFFIC,…
In an effort to encourage breeding in a critically endangered frog, scientists at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research have placed 24 mountain yellow-legged frogs into refrigerators. “The cold temperatures mimic high-elevation winter conditions that cause the frogs to hibernate. Typically, mountain yellow-legged frogs display mating behaviors after emerging from hibernation,” the zoo…
Over the last ten years in Australia, scientists have unearthed an average of at least two new species a week, WWF said in a recent report. “The extent of Australia’s rich biodiversity is astounding, to the point where science is regularly being used to describe new species,” Michael Roache of WWF-Australia said. Photograph courtesy Ross…
Guyana Frog Travelogue, Part 2
Posted by Ford Cochran on August 10, 2009 In my last post, I began the story of my trip up Guyana‘s Wokomung Massif to the summit of Mt. Kopinang in search of new frog species. In particular, I was on the hunt for frogs with funky odors that repel would-be predators. I literally had my eye on the one above, a red and…
Wildlife is under serious threat across the planet, despite the commitment by world leaders to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss by 2010, according to a detailed analysis of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Asian Wild Ass (Equus hemionus). Threat category Endangered Photo © Jean-Christophe Vié The IUCN assessment,…
Guyana Frog Travelogue
Posted by Ford Cochran on June 17, 2009 Last time I posted, I promised stories from my trip to Guyana in July 2007. I was on a quest for some of the country’s exotic (and toxic!) frogs with collaborator Bruce Means, Executive Director of the Coastal Plains Institute and an adjunct professor at Florida State University. Tropical rainforest covers more than 80 percent—80…
Same-sex behavior is a nearly universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, common across species, from worms to frogs to birds, according to a review of existing research, funded by the University of California, Riverside. “It’s clear that same-sex sexual behavior extends far beyond the well-known examples that dominate both the scientific and popular literature: for…
This is the official tally board of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore BioBlitz when the species count ended after 24 hours, at noon on Saturday, May 16. Species totals were expected to continue to come in throughout the weekend and coming weeks, raising the numbers seen here significantly. Photo by David Braun
