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,…
Researchers in Australia have discovered an interesting trait in invasive cane toad (Rhinella marina) tadpoles in Australia not seen in their native South America; The Australian tadpoles cannibalize their younger counterparts, which the researchers say enhances their chance of survival.…
An oil seepage in Santa Barbara, California’s Toro Canyon Creek has caused more than 80 Baja California and California treefrogs and one western fence lizard to become soiled in oil. The Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (SBWCN) was called to…
The white-bellied frog (Geocrinia alba) has joined 25 other frog species in Australia on that country’s list of species at greatest risk of extinction, according to a researcher paper published in Pacific Conservation Biology. In the study, the researchers found…
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has designated more than 1,300 acres of critical habitat near Austin, TX for the Georgetown (Eurycea naufragia) and Salado Springs (Eurycea chisholmensis) salamanders. These amphibians were granted Endangered Species Act Protections in 2014,…
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…
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…
Hundreds of northern leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) were released back into the wild in Washington’s Columbia National Wildlife Refuge as part of an effort to bolster the wild populations from threats such as habitat loss and degradation, disease, the introduction of…
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was sued July 1 by the Waterkeeper Alliance and others for its decision against listing the Eastern hellbender salamander (Cryptobranchus a. alleganiensis ) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. It is…
Populations of the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), a threatened species and the official state frog of the Golden State, were bolstered with the introduction, in 2014, of frog tadpoles into the Santa Monica mountains by U.S. National Park Service…
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…
After more than a decade of petitions and lawsuits, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has protected the Neuse River waterdog salamander under the Endangered Species Act. The critical habitat in which the salamander is protected includes 779 river miles (up…
Poison frogs of the family Dendrobatidae get their poison from the leaf litter ants and mites that they eat. They aren’t born poisonous. Researchers with Stanford University, Harvard University, Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School in Cambridge, MA and Centro…
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…
If you haven’t seen a Solomon Islands giant webbed frog (Cornufer guppyi), you have got to see this beast of a frog. In April, pig hunters in the Solomon Islands captured what has to be one of the largest frog…
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has denied protections for the Samwel salamander (Hydromantes samweli), Shasta salamander, (H. shastae), and Wintu salamander (H. wintu), though it is asking for the public to submit any information that may be relevant…
The effort to return California red-legged frogs (Rana draytonii) to Southern California, which has been ongoing by Robert Fisher from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative Program for more than 20 years, began to move the needle…
The Wyoming toad, (Bufo baxteri) thought to have gone extinct in the wild in 1985, has made tremendous strides since a captive breeding effort began a few decades ago from just 10 toads as broodstock. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department,…
The fossil was found by Jorge Velez-Juarbe, associate curator of marine mammals at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
The loss of amphibians is having a negative cascade effect up and down the food web.
Thirty to 40 percent of the frogs in the program survived the fires.
Liurana vallecula, has a snout-to-vent length of 20.4 mm, a reddish brown body coloration with dark brown streaks and a marbled pattern on the top of its head.
The foothill yellow-legged frog was once widespread throughout much of Northern and Central California and down to Southern California.
The tiny frog is the smallest amphibian in the Hong Kong Territories.
