There’s a new organization in the science world, the Ugly Animal Preservation Society (UAPS), “dedicated to raising the profile of some of Mother Nature’s more aesthetically challenged children.” The organization’s president, Simon Watt, is fed up with pandas getting all the attention.

From Discovery News:

Watt, who is also an evolutionary biologist, and his team definitely did not showcase cute and furry pandas at recent UAPS events held at the Edinburgh Science Fest and Bristol’s Big Green Week. Media attention instead was paid to animals such as the appropriately named blobfish.

“Our society needs a mascot, one to rival the cute and cuddly emblems of many charities and organizations,” shares Watt.

At the end of each UAPS event, the audience votes on a mascot.

One contender is the Chinese giant salamander, with a head resembling an angry block of concrete.

Read the rest, and show some uglies the love, here.

Photo: H. Zell, Wikimedia Commons …read more

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A previously unknown species of bird has been found hiding in plain sight after scientists photographed what was thought to be more abundant species at a construction site on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capitol and largest city. Subsequent analysis revealed the species to be distinct.

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Environmental award winner Hermann Frank of Timaru says he’s pleased to be recognised, but mostly he’s pleased with the local awareness of lizards and the way conservation of them has increased over the last four years.

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CHURUBUSCO, Ind. – Deep beneath the murky waters of Fulk Lake, a giant turtle – a monster, they say – trolls along the muck, looking for food and avoiding humanity.

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A Timaru man’s efforts to research and protect lizards has received national recognition. Hermann Frank is one of six people to receive Forest and Bird’s Old Blue Award for services to conservation this year.

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The eccentric animal presided over a lonely desert some 260 million years ago, when Earth was home to a single continent, Pangaea.

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SEATTLE, June 25 (UPI) — U.S. paleontologists say a bizarre reptile with knobbly growths on its head roamed a vast, isolated desert about 260 million years ago.

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What region of the world has the most imperiled mammals? Where are the most bird species found? And where are new amphibians being discovered? Indonesia and Malaysia is the answer to the first question; the Amazon, the second; and the Andes, the third. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has used global data on 21,000 mammals, birds, and amphibians to create magnificent maps that highlight missing priorities for conservation.

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Plants possess receptors which are similar to the glutamate receptors in the brain of humans and animals. Biochemists have discovered that these receptors do not, however, recognize the amino acid glutamate, but many other different amino acids.

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Environmental contamination is causing some alligator populations to have difficulty reproducing.

From Living Alongside Wildlife:

When the sizes of penises were compared between lakes, alligators in Lake Apopka had on average 24% smaller penises than alligators in Lake Woodruff. When the time came for these juveniles to reproduce, this significant reduction in penis size made it difficult to mate and certainly didn’t impress the lady alligators.

This study showed that male alligators in Lake Apopka, which is contaminated with endocrine disruptors, were significantly different than alligators from a lake that had relatively little pollution. In order to help determine the physiological drivers, in other words the chemical pathways in the body that shape these physical differences, behind this reduction in penis size, Dr. Guillette also looked at plasma testosterone concentrations. Plasma testosterone is responsible for the formation and development of male external genitalia. He discovered that juvenile alligators in Lake Apopka had 70% lower concentrations of plasma testosterone than those at Lake Woodruff. Abnormal hormone levels like these are associated with decreased sperm counts and reduced fertility. This can be disastrous for maintaining healthy wildlife populations. The results of this study inspired Dr. Guillette to continue to look at the physiological effects of endocrine disruptors on reproductive systems.

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Byline: The Lizard RNLI host moving ceremony for families remembering the loss of the coaster Ardgarry Page Content: The Lizard RNLI lifeboat station has played host to an extraordinary gathering of families who lost relatives in a shipping disaster in December 1962. Around a hundred people came together for the first time since the Ardgarry capsized off The Lizard in a ferocious gale with the …

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The Lizard Wizard visited the Hacienda Heights Library on Wedneday. The show offered a hands-on journey into the fascinating world of reptiles, amphibians and arthropods.

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Sea turtle nesting season is in full swing here in the Lowcountry and a nest of turtle eggs is like gold at the end of the rainbow for one group of volunteers on Kiawah Island.

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A bizarre reptile with knobbly growths on its head roamed a vast, isolated desert about 260 million years ago, researchers say.

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A cow-like reptile that may have been one of nature’s ugliest beasts roamed an isolated desert before the age of the dinosaurs.

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upon veiws of my so far two comments the health of my turtle has soared and upon solving my fish problem i havemade a breakthrough. a couple days ago me and my family were having catfish and my little brother dropped a cooked piece in my turtles tank. trevor ate it immedently and i went onlineto see if that was ok apparently they can eat cooked foods even with seasinings it is now one of my wishlist items for him.Thanks to those who were kind enough to share their knowledge it has really helped!! …read more

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The Brazilian government offers tax relief to landowners who set aside areas for preservation. While this has expanded the system of private ecological reserves considerably, the Brazilian government currently lacks funding to enforce the protection of these lands from threats such as hunting, leaving the responsibility to the landowners.

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A comprehensive survey of the wildlife sold in the markets of Tuensang has resulted in a stunning record of the wildlife trade in the state of Nagaland in northeast India, as reported in a new study published in mongabay.com’s open-access journal Tropical Conservation Science. Once a week, researchers with the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History and the Near Chang Baptist group entered the Tuensang market and carried out intensive surveys and interviews of vendors selling wild birds or mammals.

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There are often many obstacles for scientists when gauging wildlife decline and forest loss, and one of the most difficult is civil conflict, like the situation in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in India. But a new study in mongabay.com’s open access journal Tropical Conservation Science (TCS) finds that local communities may be used to gauge forest loss and wildlife decline for baseline data when conflicts or other obstacle prevent long-term research and monitoring.

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Check out this video “Two headed bearded dragon,” submitted by kingsnake.com user RoachMei.
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Terengganu, one of the locations for turtle landing, should embark on a pro-active measure to protect the exotic animal from becoming extinct. Out of seven turtle species in the world, four of them, namely the leatherback, hawksbill, olive ridley and green turtles, land in Malaysia, making the Terengganu beaches their main location to lay eggs, …        

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A new species of ant has recently been discovered in the Hortarium of the Los Baños University in the Philippines. Scientists named it the pirate ant (Cardiocondyla pirata) due to the female’s unique pigmentation pattern: a distinctive stripe across the eyes that resembles a pirates’ eye-patch. The pirate ant belongs to a genus Cardiocondyla that are distributed worldwide, but mainly found in the tropics.

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New Haven A Yale University scientist has helped crack the mystery of how the turtle developed its shell.

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KUALA TERENGGANU, June 23 (Bernama) — Terengganu, one of the locations for turtle landing, should embark on a pro-active measure to protect the exotic animal from becoming extinct.

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Resident African Spur Thigh Tortoise at the Center!  

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Reptile enthusiast Ethan Meyers has performed reptile education shows at local high schools and hopes to inspire  young adults to engage with something outside of the norm and instill a feeling of wonder for animals people tend to fear Read more

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A new species of ant has recently been discovered in the Hortarium of the Los Baños University in the Philippines. Scientists named it the pirate ant (Cardiocondyla pirata) due to the female’s unique pigmentation pattern: a distinctive stripe across the eyes that resembles a pirates’ eye-patch. The pirate ant belongs to a genus Cardiocondyla that are distributed worldwide, but mainly found in the tropics.

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Resident African Spur Thigh Tortoise at the Center!  

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SEMPORNA: The Sea Turtle Week here, held in conjunction with the World Sea Turtle Day on June 16, […]

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Mainland Britain’s most southerly point is almost impossibly pretty, but there is a tougher side to the beauty What’s going for it? There are two sides to the Lizard, in many senses. Mainland Britain’s most southerly point has east and west coasts, which in their turn generate two distinct characters. The west faces the full force of the south-westerly prevailing winds: great for daredevil …

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Someone thought Mother Nature could be improved on with nail polish and glitter when it came to the shell of an Eastern Box Turtle — putting the turtle’s life at risk.

From care2.com:

Earlier this week, the good folks at the Wildlife Center of Virginia rescued an Eastern box turtle discovered at a nearby campground after it fell victim to an unscrupulous ‘artist’. According to staff, the reptile’s shell had been vandalized with several types of nail polish and glitter — threatening its survival by making it an easy target for predators.

“Box turtles have this great natural camouflage that just allows them to blend into their environment,” says staffer Amanda Nicholson. “And this is really sending a message to the world of, ‘hey, look at me.’”

The wildlife center isn’t certain whether the turtle is an abandoned pet, or if someone ran across it in the wild and decided to add this gaudy graffiti, but the tagged shell does offer some clues as to who might be responsible. Along with the word “Sheldon”, taken to be the female turtle’s name, are the initials “SKR” and “BDM” — perhaps belonging to the culprits.

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We began the training roughly six months ahead of the extension area being completed, using a target and the tortoises’ favourite foods.

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Something is slithering around this Vero Beach neighborhood, and one couple is determined to find out what it is.

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Field surveys show Canberra is home to some of the nation’s largest populations of the vulnerable striped legless lizard.

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Conservation work is often focused on the short-term: protecting a forest from an immediate threat, saving a species from pending extinction, or a restoring an ecosystem following degradation. While short-term responses are often borne of necessity, one could argue that long-term thinking in conservation and environmental work (as in all human endeavors) is woefully neglected, especially in the tropics. This is why programs like the Kasiisi Project are so important: by vastly improving education for primary kids near a threatened park in Uganda, the project hopes to create a “generation of committed rural conservationists,” according to founder and director, Elizabeth Ross.

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University of Texas at Arlington evolutionary biologists Todd Castoe and Matthew Fujita are part of the team unlocking secrets of the Western painted turtle genome to find ways to help humans.

From the Star-Telegram:

Castoe and Fujita were among nearly 60 co-authors of a paper published in the journal Genome Biology this spring that described the findings from the genome sequencing, only the second full genetic mapping on a reptile.

The researchers found that the painted turtle’s genes used for tolerance of extreme cold and oxygen deprivation are common to all vertebrates but that they are more active in turtles that experience the extreme conditions. One gene that humans share became 130 times more active in turtles subjected to low-oxygen environments.

Further study of the turtle genome could yield clues related to human health and well-being, particularly oxygen deprivation, hypothermia and longevity.

“It’s very hard to do research on people,” said Pamela Jansma, dean of the UTA College of Science, “but if you know that animals have a similar gene pairing, you can study how those genes trigger responses to environmental stimuli. You can map that to humans, and you can then imagine developing gene therapies to address certain diseases.”

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Tape and glue were used to repair cracks in the shell of this adult painted turtle after it was run over by a vehicle. It is being cared for at the SPCA and is expected to recover.

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A lizard the size of a German shepherd once roamed Myanmar, a new fossil analysis reveals.

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New camera-trap footage from the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge in Armenia,
has captured rare footage of a Syrian Brown Bear (Ursus arctos syriacus),
a subspecies of Brown Bear native to Eurasia. This is an important
recording as there may be just one or two bears in this reserve and are
listed as vulnerable in Armenia. The exact population of this subspecies is
unknown and likely to be declining due to poaching, habitat destruction
and diminishing sources of food in the wild.

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Frogs bearing Charles Darwin’s name are at risk of extinction in Chile.

From Live Science:

Charles Darwin first discovered the frogs while traveling in Chile in 1834. Scientists who later studied the mouth-brooding animals found that there are actually two species, naming one Rhinoderma darwinii (Darwin’s frog) and the other Rhinoderma rufum (Chile Darwin’s frog).

From 2008 to 2012, a team of researchers led by zoologist Claudio Soto-Azat surveyed 223 sites in the frogs’ historical range, from the coastal city of Valparaíso south to an area just beyond Chiloé Island. R. rufum has not been seen in the wild since 1980, and despite the recent extensive search effort across every recorded location of the species, no individuals were seen or heard during the four-year survey, the researchers said. R. darwinii, meanwhile, was found in 36 sites, but only in fragmented and small populations, each with likely less than 100 individuals.

The findings suggest Darwin’s frogs have disappeared from, or at least rapidly declined in, many locations where they were recently abundant, the researchers wrote in a paper published online June 12 in the journal PLOS ONE. Habitat loss and fragmentation may be the culprits.

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Photo: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066957.g001
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