New species of frogs in Panama are being lost nearly as fast as they are being found to a deadly fungal disease that is sweeping through the region.In an effort to document the diversity of frogs in Central America before the disease sweeps through the entire region, scientists are discovering new species, some of which are going extinct, and some of which are surviving.In Panama’s Omar Torrijos National Park, 11 new species of frogs...
Nearly 150 of the 882 land bird species in North America are in sharp decline, especially in Mexico, Greg LawatayA resplendent quetzalaccording to a new report. The report, issued by Partners in Flight — a consortium of academics,conservationists, government agencies, and philanthropists — said that 124 of the 148 imperiled bird species spend much of their time in Mexico, where habitat destruction is occurring more rapidly than in the U.S. and Canada. The threatened...
We’ve been decimating fish populations, and few seem to care. How “inter-generational amnesia” leads to complacency. Read the whole story…
The Golden Frog of Panama. The cute little Golden Frog was a national symbol of Panama. It fell victim of the chytrid fungus which wiped it out in 2007. The Panamanian golden frog declared extinct by BBC Natural History crew Thankfully Panamanian authorities along with several zoos around the world were able to collect a few specimens to start a breeding program and preserve the species until a cure is found. Houston Zoo makes...
(source) WASHINGTON – Two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will be killed off by 2050 — and the entire population gone from Alaska — because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday. Only in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland are any of the world’s 16,000 polar bears expected to survive through the end of the century, said the U.S. Geological Survey,...