CRITICALLY-ENDANGERED SPECIES: Extremely rare Guam Rails hatch at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Buck

The Guam rail (Gallirallus owstoni) is a flightless species of rail that was once found on the island of Guam. However, due to the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis), the rail, in addition to many other species, have been extirpated from Guam. Some species went extinct.

The Guam rail was saved from extinction due to the efforts of Bob Beck. Today, the rail is kept in zoos such as the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, and it has been released on the island of Rota. The rail has also been released back on to Guam in an area known as Area 50, which “is a 24-hectare plot of mixed forest on Anderson Air Force Base” where environmental recovery activities, like the removal of invasive species, are taking place. Nonetheless, ”due to predatory feral cats, it is believed that no Guam rails exist on Guam at this time.” Apparently, monitor lizards are a problem for Area 50 as well. More via the National Zoo:

As Washington, D.C.’s unseasonably warm winter turns into spring, a baby boom is underway at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Two Guam rail (Gallirallus owstoni) chicks hatched March 3 and 4; they join six others in the Zoo’s collection—three of which live at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. This brings the total population of these small, flightless birds to 162 individuals. Each hatching is significant—the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists these birds as extinct in the wild.

In about six weeks, keepers will separate the chicks from their parents, and Zoo veterinarians will perform a routine medical exam and take feather samples to determine their sexes.

To date, 82 chicks have hatched at the Zoo and SCBI, and each provides scientists with the opportunity to learn about the growth, reproduction, health and behavior of the species. The Zoo sent 29 Guam rails to the government of Guam for release and breeding, and an additional 25 birds have gone to other institutions to breed.

Via GrrlScientist on Twitter

All images are via the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on Flickr

NEW SPECIES of diminutive chameleon discovered in Madagascar

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Buck

Images: “(A) adult male on black background, showing orange tail colouration; (B) juvenile on finger tip; (C) juvenile on head of a match; (D) habitat along a small creek on western flank of Nosy Hara, where part of the type series was collected.” More on this remarkable discovery can be found at the journal PLoS ONE.

Brookesia is a genus of chameleons endemic to Madagascar. Recently, the smallest-known species of Brookesia was described — Brookesia micra — and it “reaches a maximum length of just 29mm.” It is known “only known from two sites . . . on the small island of Nosy Hara, northern Madagascar.”

The genus Brookesia contains some of the smallest-known reptiles on the planet, and they are leaf-litter specialists. Due to their diminutive size and the habitat in which they are found, these chameleons are very difficult to locate. Undoubtably, there are more species of leaf chameleons awaiting discovery, and perhaps there are even smaller Brookesia awaiting discovery. More via BBC:

The research team, led by Dr Frank Glaw from the Zoologische Staatssammlung in Munich, have a specialist knowledge of Madagascar’s dwarf chameleons having described other species in the past.

They conducted fieldwork at night during the wet season in order to find the easily overlooked animals.

“They mostly live in the leaf litter in the day… But at night they climb up and then you can spot them,” said Dr Glaw, explaining that the animals moved up into branches to sleep.

The scientists carefully scanned the most likely habitats with torches and headlamps to find roosting sites.

They found the smallest species on a remote limestone islet and believe it may represent an extreme case of island dwarfism.

This phenomenon occurs when a species becomes smaller over evolutionary time in order to adapt to a restricted habitat such as an island.

According to Dr Glaw there could have been a “two-island effect” in the case of B. micra.

“It is possible that the big island of Madagascar has produced the general group of dwarf chameleons and the very small island has produced the tiny species,” he told BBC Nature.

Continue reading this article at the BBC.

Video: Dr. Frank Glaw talks about the difficulty of finding the tiny leaf chameleons.

CAN YOU SEE ME? | ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Buck

A black-marble jawfish (Stalix histrio) camouflages itself against a mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus). According to LiveScience, the behavior of these jawfishes is unique:

“All jawfish are really specialized for living in burrows,” said researcher Luiz Rocha, an ichthyologist at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. “They’re almost never found outside their burrows.”

If it is difficult to find the fish in the image above, then perhaps it is easier to find in this video:

See more animal camouflage here on The Conservation Report.

CAN YOU SEE ME? | ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Buck

This hidden, camouflaged animal is probably easy for most viewers to find, but the viper represents a newly-described species that was discovered during biodiversity surveys in a Tanzanian forest. However, the viper’s existence is already threatened due to the diminutive size of its remaining-forest habitat. It’s thought “that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours.” The vast majority of those forever-lost species are certainly unknown to science. More via National Geographic:

The “beautiful, heavy-bodied bush viper” sports black and yellow zigzag markings and yellow, hornlike scales above its olive-colored eyes, Tim Davenport, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s country director for Tanzania, said in an email.

But few would be envious of this green-eyed creature’s rare status. Its forest habitat, already smaller than about 40 square miles (a hundred square kilometers), is declining due to human development and other factors, said Davenport, whose group made the joint discovery with the Science Museum of Trento, Italy.

Considering this, Davenport suspects the snake—described December 6 in the journal Zootaxa—will be listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.