Pygmy frog discovered in Peru – Lays just 2 eggs

European and Peruvian herpetologists have discovered the smallest frog yet known from the Andes, and one of the smallest amphibians known anywhere in the world, in the highlands of Manu National Park near Cusco in south-eastern Peru.

Very unusual to be so small at high altitude
It is among the smallest vertebrates ever found above 3000 m (9840 feet), where most species tend to be larger than congeneric or similar species inhabiting lowland areas.

Females only lay 2 eggs - Hatch as froglets, not tadpoles
Because of its minute size, the new species has been named Noblella pygmaea, or Noble's Pygmy Frog. Females measure less than half an inch (12.5 mm) in snout-vent length, whereas males are just a bit longer than 1 cm.

Despite their relatively larger size compared to males, females lay only two eggs. In contrast to most amphibian species, these eggs are laid in moist, terrestrial microhabitats, such as under mosses or the leaf litter, and embryos do not develop into aquatic tadpoles. Instead, minute froglets hatch from the eggs to lead a fully terrestrial life. The mother remain near the eggs to protect them from insect predators and dessication. Fully hydrated eggs, measuring approximately 4 mm in diameter, are about two-thirds of the size of their mother.

Cloud forest and montane scrub habitat
The new species inhabit the cloud forest, the montane scrub and the high-elevation grasslands of Manu National Park and of the privately-owned Wayqecha Research Station in the upper Kcosñipata valley, named after a river which is a tributary to the Madre de Dios River in the Amazon basin. Their altitude range seems to be restricted between 3000 and 3200 metres (9840-10500 feet).

Manu National Park
Manu National Park is well known for the exuberance and spectacular diversity of its lowland rainforests; however the Park also preserves vast areas of montane cloud forests, where the ever-present mists envelop and often hide a large number of plants and animals highly adapted to live in a cold and permanently humid environment.

The Wayqecha Research Station protects nearly 600 ha of a mosaic of cloud forest, scrub and grassland habitats, and hosts a growing number of scientists studying the biological diversity and the effects of global climate change on these delicate ecosystems.

10 frogs recently discovered
The Noble's Pygmy Frog is one among over 10 new frog species discovered over the past 2 years in the cloud forests of Cusco. The high level of endemism in amphibians living along the eastern slopes of the Andes explains the biological richness of the region, where researchers expect to find many more new species in poorly explored areas.

Lack of protection & deadly fungus
Despite living in a National Park and a private conservation area, Noble's Pygmy Frogs are not protected from many forces threatening Andean amphibians, such as habitat modification, deforestation, over-grazing by introduced livestock, the effects of global warming and the recent arrival of the highly virulent pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This fungus is the suspected cause of extinction for many frog species in Ecuador and northern Peru, and is currently decimating populations of high-elevation frogs in southern Peru.

Unfortunately there are no ways of stopping the wave of fungal infections in the region, but researchers hope that the large topographic heterogeneity of the Andean cordilleras will provide refugia where the fungus is unable to infect and cause massive population declines in amphibians.

German herpetologist Edgar Lehr from the Senckenberg Natural History Collections in Dresden and Swiss-Peruvian ecologist Alessandro Catenazzi from the University of California at Berkeley, USA are describing the new species in a paper to be published in the forthcoming issue of the journal Copeia. The new species was discovered during field work supported by the administration of Manu National Park, the Peruvian NGO Amazon Conservation Association, the UK-based Rufford Small Grants Foundation, the Chicago Board of Trade Endangered Species Fund and the IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group. Personnel from towns and native communities adjacent to Manu National Park assisted researches in the field and contributed to the discovery of Noble's Pygmy Frog.

New species of White-eye discovered in the Solomon Islands

The discovery of a new bird to science in a distant archipelago is providing evidence of how, in the absence of competitors, unique species can evolve rapidly to fill empty niches. But the archipelago is not the Galapagos, and the bird is not one of Darwin's finches.

As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, a paper in the leading scientific journal, Ibis, describing a new bird species in the Solomon Islands, has reinforced evidence that white-eyes evolve new species faster than any other known bird family - including Galapagos finches.

The new species has been named Vanikoro White-eye (or Zosterops gibbsi). The formal description was published in Ibis by Dr Guy Dutson of Birds Australia (BirdLife in Australia), who led a recent expedition to the island of Vanikoro to gather evidence about the bird. Its scientific name gibbsi is in honour of the first person to see the species - David Gibbs.

Vanikoro Island - Volcanic forest
The Vanikoro White-eye differs from other family members by having a distinctively shaped bill; along with different leg and eye-ring colours. Vanikoro is a small island in the south-west Pacific, in the Solomon Islands archipelago. The rugged volcanic island with steep, forest-covered hills was visited by Jules D'Urville in 1829 - six years prior to The Beagle landing in the Galapagos - who collected specimens of Vanikoro Flycatcher Myiagra vanikorensis and Uniform Swiftlet Collocalia vanikorensis.

13 species of White-eye in the Philippines
"Genetic research has shown that white-eyes evolve new species faster than any known bird family," said Guy Dutson. "Islands only 3 kilometres apart in the Solomons have their own white-eye species, and the Solomon Islands alone have 13 species of white-eye.

"Like Darwin's finches, these birds have evolved unique beak structures and feeding behaviours in the absence of competitors", Dr Dutson added.

White-eyes are small sociable birds of tropical forests. As their common name implies, many have a conspicuous ring of tiny white feathers around their eyes. The Vanikoro White-eye differs from the geographically closest white-eye, the Santa Cruz White-eye Z. sanctaecrucis, by having a longer bill, and different leg and eye-ring colour.

Habits
Vanikoro White-eyes are found in forest habitats, mostly above 350 m, and feed on insects and small fruits. "Vanikoro White-eyes were abundant towards the summit of the highest mountain", noted Dr Dutson, who observed an active nest during his expedition. "Up to three adults fed chicks at a single nest, suggesting cooperative breeding, which has only been documented in two other white-eye species".

Vanikoro White-eye displays different feeding behaviours to closely-related birds. "This new species forages in a slower, more methodical manner than similar white-eyes, suggesting they have evolved into an empty niche", commented Dr Dutson.

Threats
"Like Galapagos finches, Vanikoro White-eye have evolved perfectly to its surroundings in the absence of competitors", said Dr Nigel Collar, the Leventis Fellow in Conservation Biology at BirdLife International.
"Perhaps the biggest threat to Vanikoro White-eye is introduced alien species such as rats", Dr Nigel Collar warned. "Predators introduced by humans now pose a huge threat to native species across the Pacific."
"Elsewhere in the Solomon Islands, birds are threatened by logging which can extend from the coast high into the hills", added Dr Dutson.

"So little is known about biodiversity in the Solomon Islands", said Don Stewart - Director of BirdLife's Pacific Programme. "Who knows what is still to be found in the Solomon Islands? We need more expeditions like this throughout Melanesia before threats such as illegal logging wipe species out before we can help them".

Dr Guy Dutson
Dr Guy Dutson is a British-born veterinarian, ornithologist and a leader of birding tours, who is a world authority on the birds of the south-west Pacific region. He has rediscovered or described several bird species. Dutson was educated at Cambridge University where he studied veterinary science. In 1990 he led a Cambridge University expedition to the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, in the course of which he rediscovered the Superb Pitta Pitta superba on Manus Island. Further, expeditions to Indonesia and the Philippines led to the rediscovery of the Tanahjampea Monarch and the Cebu Flowerpecker Dicaeum quadricolor. In 2003 he rediscovered the Long-legged Warbler Trichocichla rufa in Fiji.

From 2000 to 2005, based in Fiji, Dutson established and managed the BirdLife International Pacific program, travelling extensively around the islands of Melanesia and the south-west Pacific. He now works for Birds Australia (BirdLife in Australia) as the manager of the Australian Important Bird Areas program. Dutson wrote most of the Pacific Islands species accounts in the BirdLife publication ‘Threatened Birds of the World'. He is also involved in editing the same species for the ‘Handbook of the Birds of the World'.

First recorded wild baby tuatara on mainland New Zealand in at least 200 years

Conservation staff at Wellington's world-first conservation attraction, Zealandia, have found what is almost certainly the first confirmed baby tuatara to have hatched in the wild on mainland New Zealand in more than 200 years.

The discovery came during routine maintenance work, when conservation officer Bernard Smith found the 8cm-long hatchling in an area where nests had previously been discovered. The animal is thought to be around one month old and is likely to have hatched from eggs laid around 16 months ago.

Unexpected find
Conservation manager Raewyn Empson said "This is an extremely significant discovery. We knew our tuatara were laying eggs, but we didn't dare hope to find any young. Monitoring the nests 24/7 just wasn't practical. We certainly didn't expect to see them so soon and perhaps not until they were adults. We are all absolutely thrilled with this discovery. It means we have successfully re-established a breeding population back on the mainland, which is a massive breakthrough for New Zealand conservation. He is unlikely to be the only baby to have hatched this season, but seeing him was an incredible fluke".

Low chance of survival - But better than most
The youngster faces a tough journey to adulthood. Not only will he have to run the gauntlet of cannibalistic adult tuatara, he would also make a tasty snack for species like morepork (native owl); kingfisher and weka (New Zealand's endemic flightless rail).

"Like all the wildlife living here, he'll just have to take his chances" said Ms Empson

"However, hatching within the safety of mammal-proof fence has already given him a far better chance of survival than he would get outside our mammal-proof fence. Out there, the survival rate would be almost zero".

Extinct on mainland - killed by rats
Tuatara are the only surviving members of the Order Sphenodontia, and they are endemic to New Zealand. Every other species in this Order became extinct about 60 million years ago. Tuatara are thought to have been extinct as a breeding population on the three main islands of New Zealand for around 200 years. They were wiped out, primarily, by the kiore (Pacific rat) which arrived with the first Polynesian settlers around 700 years ago.

70 tuatara relocated to Karori
In 2005, 70 animals were translocated to the Karori sanctuary, New Zealand's first fenced mainland conservation project from one of their last offshore island refuges - Takapourewa/Stephens Island in Cook Strait, with the blessing of the animals' Maori kaitiaki (guardians) Ngati Koata. A further 130 animals were traslocated two years later. These two transfers marked a major breakthrough in re-establishing this species in the wild on mainland New Zealand. It has also made the species a lot more visible to the public.

Nests identified in 2008
In late 2008, staff identified a number of nest sites. At least two contained clutches of leathery, ping-pong ball-sized eggs. The eggs were immediately covered up again to avoid disturbing their incubation. Although only four eggs were unearthed, it is likely that there are more in the nest - an average clutch contains around ten.

Neglectful mothers
Other than guarding the nest for a few days after laying to prevent other females digging the nest up, that is the end of maternal responsibility. All being well, the tuatara could hatch any time between now and March. The hatchlings will break out of the eggs using a special egg-tooth that will fall off after about two weeks. For the first six months or so the legendary ‘third eye' for which the tuatara is most famous will be visible as a white patch on the forehead. This too will disappear as the tuatara grows.

As with some other reptiles, soil temperature will determine the animals' gender. Warm soil (over 21 degrees) results in males, and cool soil (under 21 degrees) females.

Zealandia
Zealandia, managed by The Karori Sanctuary Experience, was recently acknowledged as one of Australasia's top 25 ecological restoration projects by the Australia-based EMR Journal.

New species of ‘walking’ frogfish discovered in Indonesia

DNA evidence is in, newly discovered Psychedelic species of ‘walking' fish
"Psychedelica" seems the perfect name for a species of fish that is a wild swirl of tan and peach zebra stripes and behaves in ways contrary to its brethren. So says University of Washington's Ted Pietsch, who is the first to describe the new species in the scientific literature and thus the one to select the name.

Hop - Not swim
Members of Histiophryne psychedelica, or H. psychedelica, don't so much swim as hop. Each time they strike the seafloor they use their fins to push off and they expel water from tiny gill openings on their sides to jet themselves forward. With tails curled tightly to one side --which surely limits their ability to steer -- they look like inflated rubber balls bouncing hither and thither.

First recorded hopping fish
While other frogfish and similar species are known to jet themselves up off the bottom before they begin swimming, none have been observed hopping. It's just one of the behaviours of H. psychedelica never observed in any other fish, says Pietsch, UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences and curator of fishes at the UW Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. He's the lead author of a paper about the new species that's now online at Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. His work is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Forward facing eyes
It was little more than a year ago that the fish with rare, forward-facing eyes like humans and a secretive nature was the subject of worldwide news coverage after having been observed in the busy harbour of Ambon Island, Indonesia. An adult fish was observed in January 2008 by Toby Fadirsyair, a guide, and Buck and Fitrie Randolph, two of the co-owners of Maluku Divers, which is based in Ambon. They and co-owners Andy and Kerry Shorten eventually found Pietsch to help them identify the fish. Since the first sighting divers have observed a number of adults and juveniles, now that they know what to look for.

Leg-like fins
Adults of H. psychedelica are fist-sized with gelatinous bodies covered with thick folds of skin that protect them from sharp-edged corals as they haunt tiny nooks and crannies of the harbour reef. Fins on either side of their bodies have, as with other frogfish, evolved to be leg-like, and members of H. psychedelica actually prefer crawling to swimming.

Flat face
The species has a flattened face with eyes directed forward. It's something Pietsch, with 40 years of experience studying and classifying fishes, has never seen before in frogfish. It causes him to speculate that the species may have binocular vision, that is, vision that overlaps in front, like it does in humans. Most fish, with eyes on either side of their head, don't have vision that overlaps; instead they see different things with each eye.

Anglerfish
DNA work revealed that H. psychedelica joins two other species in the genus Histiophryne, though the other two are very drably coloured in comparison. The genus is but one of about a dozen in the family Antennariidae, known as frogfish in most places in the world. The frogfish are, in turn, part of the larger order of Lophiiformes, or anglerfish. Pietsch is the world's foremost anglerfish authority and, when sent a photo last year of the newfound fish, he said he'd stake his reputation that it was an anglerfish. He was right. But what an unusual member it turned out to be.

Compared to other anglerfish, members of H. psychedelica have no lures. Most anglerfish have lures growing out of their foreheads. The other anglerfish sit right out in the open on the seafloor or coral reefs, often adapting their colouring so their bodies are camouflaged, but the lures are meant to be noticed so the fish wave, wiggle and sometimes blink the lures on and off in order to attract pray, Pietsch says.

Secretive
Instead of all that showiness, members of H. psychedelica are shy and secretive, probably one of the reasons they weren't previously spotted. When a member of H. psychedelica is uncovered by divers it usually seeks a new place to hide within 10 or 15 minutes.
And while other anglerfish change their colouring depending on the environment, the new species appears to maintain its wild striping no matter the surroundings.

Mimicking corals
The colouring led co-author David Hall, a wildlife photographer and owner of seaphotos.com, to speculate that the fish is mimicking corals. Indeed, Hall produced photos for the new scientific paper showing corals the animals may be mimicking.

The other co-author, Rachel Arnold, who is a UW master's student in aquatic and fishery sciences, did the DNA work on the new species. Arnold, who dived in Ambon Harbour last year, said the striping of each fish is distinctive, "like a fingerprint of patterning on their body so from whatever angle you look, you can tell individuals apart."

The scientists found, however, that the vivid colours faded in a matter of days once a specimen was preserved in ethanol. The flesh of the preserved specimen looks white, but with a microscope one can still see the striping, Pietsch discovered.

Unrecognised specimens
This got him thinking about two specimens sent to him in 1992 that he'd kept as part of the UW's fish collection. The Dallas Aquarium had sent him two frogfish, found in a shipment of live fishes from Bali that they said had unusual pigment patterns. The staff had nicknamed them "paisley frogfish." But the photograph Pietsch was sent was of poor quality and the preserved specimens Pietsch received were white, so he didn't give them much thought.
Pietsch retrieved the old specimens from the collection, put them under a microscope and found the striping distinctive to H. psychedelica. He'd had two specimen of a new species of fish for 17 years, but didn't know it.

Rare black leopard a new species?

Environmentalists yesterday said the discovery of a carcass of a rare black leopard in Deniyaya, Sri Lanka on Thursday may turn out to be a new species, but stressed a proper conclusion could be made only after full investigations.

Well known Environmentalist Jagath Gunawardene said that the melanin form of the carcass would make it a new species. “The bright black colour is something unusual and makes it different,” Mr. Gunawardene said.

Mr. Gunawardene said this was the third time that such carcasses had been found in recent times. One was found at Weerapana in the Galle District and the other one in Ratnapura.

The birth of a black leopard was also recorded at the Dehiwala Zoological Gardens in 1983.

Wildlife officials said the rare black leopard was found in a village bordering the Sinharaja forest on Thursday. They said the black wildcat similar to a leopard had been caught in a trap laid by a villager at Kolawenigama in Deniyaya.

The carcass is three feet and seven inches long with the tail extending to a further two feet four inches.

Wildlife officials said the skin appeared black from a distance but on closer inspection black spots could be discerned like that of a normal leopard.

Uda Walawa’s Ath Aturu Sevana veterinary officer Dr. Methmi Kumuduni said the age of the animal could not be established as it was the first time such an animal had been discovered.

She said the carcass displayed all the features of the Sri Lankan Leopard (Panthera Pardus Kotiya) and the discovery of a similar carcass was reported from another village bordering the Sinharaja forest in Kalawana several years ago.

But in that instance the carcass could not be identified as it was in a highly decomposed state.

Dr. Kumuduni said that there were reports of occasional sightings of similar animals from the Horton Plains and the Sri Pada forest reserves but nothing had been specifically recorded.

She said further examinations on the carcass were being conducted to find out whether the animal was a result of a gene mutation of the Sri Lankan Leopard or was a sub species of the variety. Wild Life authorities said a DNA test would also be carried out.

The carcass was brought to the Ath Aturu Sevana in Uda Walawa for examination and had been sent to the Kahawatta hospital mortuary for preservation.