Venomous snakebites can be painful and expensive, says expert

April 17, 2012

Coming to an area near you: snakes, and plenty of them. With unusually warm temperatures and plenty of rainfall this spring, experts say this could be a bumper crop year for snakes. While Texas has never been short on the snake commodities list, people and pets should be aware that they are out and about, [...]

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Athletic frogs have faster-changing genomes

April 13, 2012

Physically fit frogs have faster-changing genomes, says a new study of poison frogs. Stretches of DNA accumulate changes over time, but the rate at which those changes build up varies considerably between species, researchers say.

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Traffic harms Asturian amphibians

April 12, 2012

Midwife toads and palmate newts are run over and their habitats are fragmented by roads in the Trubia valley (Asturias). According to a Spanish study, alleviating traffic is not enough to minimize the impact on midwife toad populations. The roads are the main cause of fragmenting the habitats of many species, especially amphibians. The toads [...]

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Global effort launched to save turtles from extinction

April 12, 2012

A global effort to take direct responsibility for the continued survival of some of the world’s most endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles has just been launched.

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New threat to birds posed by invasive pythons in Florida

April 6, 2012

Scientists have uncovered a new threat posed by invasive Burmese pythons in Florida and the Everglades: The snakes are not only eating the area’s birds, but also the birds’ eggs straight from the nest. The results of this research add a new challenge to the area’s already heavily taxed native wildlife.

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Robosquirrels versus rattlesnakes

April 4, 2012

Robot squirrels are going into rattlesnake country near San Jose, continuing a research project on the interaction between squirrels and rattlesnakes.

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Another vertebrate species reported extinct from the Hawaiian Islands

April 1, 2012

A species of lizard is now extinct from the Hawaiian Islands, making it the latest native vertebrate species to become extirpated from this tropical archipelago. The copper striped blue-tailed skink (Emoia impar) — a sleek lizard with smooth, polished scales and a long, sky-blue tail — was last confirmed in the Na’Pali coast of Kauai [...]

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Elusive Bururi long-fingered frog found after 62 years

March 27, 2012

Herpetologists have discovered a single specimen of the Bururi long-fingered frog during a research expedition to Burundi in December 2011. The frog was last seen by scientists in 1949 and was feared to be extinct after decades of turmoil in the tiny East African nation.

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Neurotoxin resistance in snakes around the world

March 21, 2012

Biologists have found that snakes from different regions of the world have evolved a similar, remarkable resistance to a deadly neurotoxin.

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Tracking Lake Erie water snake in fight against invasive fish

March 20, 2012

Researchers have used a surgically implanted device to record the habits of snakes in their natural environment for the first time. This particular study holds promise in “keeping score” as Ohio’s Lake Erie water snake defends its native habitat against an invasive fish species.

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