The poison of the Colorado River toad is a schedule 1 drug, and people have been licking the toads for more than 100 years, apparently to achieve a hallucinogenic effect. Now, actually smoking the toad toxin has become a thing,…
The Nashville Zoo, in partnership with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency & Tennessee State University, last month released 29 zoo raised eastern hellbender salamanders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) into local waterways. The initial release of the 29 amphibians culminates a six year…
Zoos Victoria has announced that 15 of 100 giant burrowing frog (Heleioporus australiacus) tadpoles have grown legs and have metamorphosed, a first for the zoo since launching a captive breeding program for the rare amphibian back in March. “We got…
Exo Terra announced it has donated $5,000 to Wildlife Preservation Canada in an effort to help WPC’s conservation efforts to save the Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa). The amphibian, according to WPC, is the most endangered frog in Canada with…
The name is certainly peculiar, but the so-called penis snake is actually a caecilian and it was recorded living in Florida’s Miami-Date County in October 2019. The single, live amphibian was captured during a routine electroshock survey of a waterway,…
Researchers studying an emerging disease that is killing tadpoles in North America have found instances of the disease in tadpoles in Panama and the United Kingdom. The disease, called Severe Perkinsea Infection (SPI) has been killing tadpoles in the United…
A new frog species of the Litoria caerulea group has been discovered in Papua New Guinea that is chocolate brown in coloration. The frog, named Litoria mira, is native to New Guinea and its habitat consists of swampy lowland rainforests.…
The San Francisco garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia), a subspecies of Thamnophis sirtalis that is only known to exist on the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County, got a boost in it habitat May 22 when the San Mateo…
Researchers have discovered a new marsupial frog species in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest that is part of the Gastrotheca genus. The frog, Gastrotheca gemma, is green in coloration with a coarse, granular and patternless dorsal skin. Its irises are turquoise…
The habitat of the Illinois chorus frog (Pseudacris illinoensis) in the state is threatened by a proposed 30,000-acre wind farm project in Mason County, Illinois, that scientists say could change the way the frogs sense and capture their prey buried…
Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation announced March 23 that Susan (Su) Jewell is the recipient of PARC's 2021 Alison Haskell Award, for her contributions to herpetofaunal conservation. Jewell spent nearly her entire career with the US Fish and…
The Arizona Center for Nature Conservation and the Phoenix Zoo, along with the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AZGFD), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is celebrating 25 years of captive breeding of the Chiricahua…
