Articles for Houston zoo

Amphibians 'afloat and fighting' By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Barcelona Almost three years ago, I sat in a hotel conference room in Washington DC and heard that it would cost nearly half a billion dollars to save the world's amphibians. Cheaper than the Iraq invasion, tiny compared to the Wall Street crunch - but a lot of money nevertheless. Here at the World Conservation ...

Study: Insecticide decimates tadpoles Published: Oct. 6, 2008 at 4:02 PM Order reprints | Print Story | Email to a Friend | Post a Comment .content_embed { float: right; padding: 8px; width: 280px; margin: 0 0 8px 8px; border: 1px solid #ccc; background: #fff; } .photo_embed { float: right; width: 301px; margin: 0 0 8px 8px; background: #fff; } .video_embed { float: right; width: 301px; margin: 0 0 8px 8px; background: #fff; } PITTSBURGH, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A ...

The first images that come to mind may be unassuming brown newts or garden-variety green frogs, but amphibians cover a much grander spectrum. Among about 6,000 species of frogs, salamanders and caecilians (legless animals, pronounced like "Sicilians") are some of the world's most bizarre animals: Giant Chinese salamanders, two meters (6 feet) in length; the "hairy frog" of Cameroon, which not only looks like it sports hair, but also can break its own ...

The amphibians get some love from environmental groups trying to protect them. By BRENNA MALONEY, Washington Post Last update: June 13, 2008 - 3:39 PM document.write(''); document.write(''); var partnerID=252491; var _hb=1; window.onerror=function(){clickURL=document.location.href;return true;} if(!self.clickURL) clickURL=parent.location.href; It's tough to be a frog these days -- or a toad, for that matter: 2008 has been named the Year of the Frog by a ...

Many kinds of frogs – including toads – face extinction BRENNA MALONEY; The Washington Post Published: June 10th, 2008 01:00 AM It’s tough to be a frog these days – or a toad, for that matter: 2008 has been named the Year of the Frog by a number of environmental groups to raise awareness of the worldwide plight of amphibians. What, you didn’t know they were in trouble? Between one-third and one-half of all amphibian species are threatened with extinction, the conservation group ...

A new Cleveland Museum of Natural History exhibition takes a closer look at amphibians, the threat of extinction they face and the role of humans in both their decline and survival. The exhibition, "Toad-ily Frogs," will be on display in the museum's Corning Gallery through Sept. 28. Scientists have reported on the decline of amphibians for some time. But the situation is reaching crisis proportions - presently one-half to one-third of all amphibian species worldwide could become extinct ...

By FRAN HENRY , Newhouse News Service Sunday, April 6, 2008 LoadRelated(); Neither - just clever timing by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which is staging the Year of the Frog. Association members have committed this year to stirring up interest in the plight of the world's amphibians - frogs, salamanders, newts, toads and caecilians, which look like worms or eels and live in tropical areas. Nearly one-third of the world's 6,000 species are in danger of ...

Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians are sliding into oblivion by Sara Shipley Hiles © Brad Wilson/Atlanta Botanical Garden (captive) In a cloud forest in Panama, hundreds of frogs turn up dead, the life sucked out of them by a strange fungus. In the wetlands of northwest Iowa, where hunters once collected 20 million frogs a year for their meaty legs, there is only one leopard frog left for every thousand frogs the pioneers saw. In southern Missouri's mountain ...

EL VALLE DE ANTON, Panama: The golden frog is a symbol of Panama — revered by indigenous cultures in the past and the lucky emblem on lottery tickets today. Now threatened by a lethal fungus that has killed other species, the national treasure may be facing life in captivity. A pair of biologists have decided that plucking the frogs from the cloud forests and putting them in quarantine is the only way to save them. Their goal is to eventually return the frogs to the wild, but these ...

Corwin and Biologists from the Houston Zoo Find Harlequin Frogs, Thought to be the Last of Their Kind, In Dense Rainforest of Panama - SILVER SPRING, Md., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- While trekking through a remote rainforest in Omar Torrijos National Park in central Panama for the upcoming Animal Planet documentary THE VANISHING FROG, wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, along with biologists Bill Konstant and Edgardo Griffith of the Houston Zoo, uncovered a small population of a critically ...

By MARK DAVIS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 04/10/08 MONTICELLO — The moon was just a sliver of silver in the immense indigo when the chorus started. It came from the shadows, where hardwoods are in bud. Eep! Eep! Eep-eep-eep!... Mark Davis / AJC staff (ENLARGE) Biologist Kristina Sorensen keeps track of the temperature outside Wednesday 4/9/08. ...

2008: The year of the frog var storytitle = "2008: The year of the frog"; Biologists seek to raise awareness of amphibian extinctions BY BOB BERWYN summit daily news Summit County, CO Colorado April 14, 2008 Comments Print Email SUMMIT COUNTY — The endangered boreal toad is filing getting its awareness campaign, as zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums around the world have designated 2008 as the year of the frog. As part of the global campaign to ...

Zoo’s new tree frogs of value to humans By TOM GALUSHA SPECIAL TO THE CHIEFTAIN In 1790, John White first described these Australians in the book "Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales" and sent a few home to England. When the Aussies arrived there, they were given the scientific name Litoria caerulea. It proved to be a misnomer, for White's tree frogs are usually green and caerulea is Latin for blue. Damaged by preservatives, the specimens had turned bluish by the time they arrived ...

Exploring with the Zoo: Frogs on the brink of extinction By Jeffrey Bonner Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, doctors throughout Europe, Australasia and America relied on a single frog species to determine whether a woman was pregnant. The African clawed frog, harvested from the wild in Africa and exported all over the world, was preferred because both males and females could be used in the tests. But this amphibious workhorse carried a dark secret — a disease called amphibian chytrid. ...

ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2008) — New research from zoologists at Southern Illinois University Carbondale opens a bigger window to understanding a deadly fungus that is killing off frogs throughout Central and South America, and that could threaten amphibian populations in North America as well. The research, led by SIUC zoologist Karen R. Lips, and SIUC zoologist Michael W. Sears, underscores the dire circumstances facing up to 43 percent of known amphibian species in the world and points up ...

(Memphis 3/27/2008) An ongoing project at the Memphis Zoo could be the savior of the Mississippi Gopher frog. This is the first captive breeding of the endangered Mississippi gopher frogs that's taken place at the Memphis Zoo. 94 tadpoles are developing at the Zoo in off-exhibit areas. The zoo says this number is significant because there are approximately 100 adult Mississippi gopher frogs left in the wild. The zoo says, "This is the second time ever that a critically endangered ...

As many amphibians face the very real threat of being completely wiped out by disease, climate change and pollution, Emma Marris looks at a controversial approach to save some of them in glass boxes. Emma Marris With bright orange freckles and tiny proportions, the Carrikeri harlequin frog population spotted earlier this month delighted its discoverers with more than its good looks. The creatures (Atelopus carrikeri ), found in the remote mountainous Páramo region of Columbia, had not ...

Environment / Frog ‘census’ planned Help to protect our tree frogs They say young Bermudians, when leaving the island, used to take with them a tape recording of whistling frogs to remind them of home. True or not, the peep of the amphibian is certainly an iconic part of the island's atmosphere, for visitors and locals alike. Now the public is being asked to help safeguard the frog for future generations. In the first large-scale survey of the amphibian, volunteers will count the ...