Wildlife populations monitored across the globe have declined by a massive 69 per cent between 1970 and 2018, according to this WWF's Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022. Monitored wildlife populations - mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish - have seen a devastating 69% drop on average since 1970, according to …
Experts call for new conservation guidelines after research shows 90% of tropical amphibian and reptile species are affected by the 'edge effect' and forest islands less than 500m in diameter are putting many at risk. Breaking up the rainforest into small 'forest islands' means more species are being forced to …
Unfortunately, loss of plant and animal habitat leads to local species extinctions and a loss of diversity from ecosystems. Fortunately, not all of the extinctions occur at once. Conservation actions may still be able to save threatened species, according to William Newmark, a vertebrate zoologist at the Natural History Museum …
Using genomic data from three lizard species, researchers gleaned insights not available before on the impact of climate change on the distribution of animal populations in South American forests. The findings improve ways of modeling the distribution of biodiversity in the past and future. Using genomic data from three lizard …
The new lizard is a Greater Antillean anole named Anolis landestoyi after Miguel Landestoy, the naturalist who first spotted and photographed the species. Scientists previously believed there were no other species like the Cuban anoles from the Chamaeleolis group living on other Greater Antillean islands — that is, until Anolis …
Whether the Australian central bearded dragon grows up to be a male or a female depends not only on its genetics but also on the temperature of the nest in which it is incubated. What’s more, the females with male sex genes grow up to display many male behaviours – …
The biggest survey to date of nature along Britain’s coastline has uncovered a host of “wildlife firsts”. More than 3,400 species were recorded at 25 National Trust locations along the coastline of England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the charity’s largest ever wildlife survey. A handful have either been seen …
The discovery of a new Himalayan forest frog clade in Tibet has been confirmed. It will join 12 other Chinese amphibian families. After five years of field research, scientists from Kunming Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences confirmed the discovery of the rare frog that can breed …
Deep in the remote tropical forests of the northern Andes, scientists have discovered three new species of extremely rare snake. The discovery comes mere weeks after a separate team announced the discovery of a closely related snake in southwestern Ecuador. Taken together, the four newfound reptiles double the number of …
We report on illegal international trade in Indian Star Tortoises (Geochelone elegans), with a particular focus on India and Thailand.Within India, this species has received protection as a Schedule IV list species of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 for over 40 years. This study documents the illegal trade of 55,000 …
In an attempt to adjust to increasing climate temperatures, common lizards may start breeding more frequently but also start dying off at a younger age. To better understand retilian response to climate change, an international team of researchers closely examined how a warmer climate of just two-degrees celsius would affect …
Evidence has accumulated in recent decades on the drastic impact of climate change on biodiversity. Warming temperatures have induced changes in species physiology, phenology, and have decreased body size. Such modifications can impact population dynamics and could lead to changes in life cycle and demography. More specifically, conceptual frameworks predict …
THE number of fish, turtles and other wildlife in the world’s oceans has halved in decades, conservationists warn. Overfishing, pollution and changing climate are blamed for the ‘potentially catastrophic’ decline in marine life. From the temperate UK waters to tropical coral reefs, the planet’s seas are emptying fast, the World …
Invasive species are among the primary threats to biodiversity and risk assessment is one problem-solving approach that can prioritize and guide efforts to reduce the negative consequences of invasion. We used a nichemodeling framework to conduct a geographic risk assessment of exotic reptiles in the state of Florida, USA, a …
Scientists studying diseases threatening amphibian, reptile and fish populations now can report findings on a new online portal. This new wildlife disease reporting system is called the Global Ranavirus Reporting System (GRRS) and was developed by researchers from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA). Researchers from Purdue University …
Researchers have made a disturbing discovery about the impact of climate change on North American lizards. Due to high temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit, within minutes, lizard embryos die due to immobility and their inability to seek proper shade. When their surrounding soil becomes too hot, their dwelling simply becomes …
When it comes to vaccinating their babies, bees don't have a choice - they naturally immunise their offspring against specific diseases found in their environments, scientists say. Researchers from Arizona State University, University of Helsinki, University of Jyvaskyla and Norwegian University of Life Sciences studied a bee blood protein called …
Climate change may be turning male lizards into females. Scientists have examined Australia's bearded dragon lizards and have found that temperature plays a key role in switching a lizard's sex rapidly from one to another. "We had previously been able to demonstrate in the lab that when exposed to extreme …
Wild Australian bearded dragons are susceptible to climate-induced sex change when in the egg, a study has found. Domesticated lizards have been proven to be prone to climate-induced sex reversal before but the report, published in Nature, documents the swap happening in the wild for the first time, which is …
Sex determination in animals is amazingly plastic. Vertebrates display contrasting strategies ranging from complete genetic control of sex (genotypic sex determination) to environmentally determined sex (for example, temperature-dependent sex determination). Phylogenetic analyses suggest frequent evolutionary transitions between genotypic and temperature-dependent sex determination in environmentally sensitive lineages, including reptiles. These transitions …
The aim of this research was to identify the effects of Pleistocene climate change on the distribution of fauna in Tasmania, and contrast this with biotic responses in other temperate regions in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere that experienced glacial activity during this epoch. This was achieved by examining the …
