As many of you will be aware, we are experiencing unprecedented declines in biodiversity globally in an event that biologists have named the sixth mass extinction. The two biggest obstacles facing the natural world are habitat loss and anthropogenic environment change, particularly for amphibians and even some species of reptiles. However, emerging infectious diseases are also partially responsible for large scale declines and the extinction of species, such as in the case with the amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) which was described formally in 1998 but has been identified to drive declines before this. In 2013, another pathogenic fungus in the genus was identified after causing an unprecedented decline in fire salamanders in the Netherlands: B. salamandrivorans (Bsal). Bsal threatens salamander species around the world, although for now it appears to be confined to Europe and Asia. Leer más.

—Amphibians in rural landscapes often utilize various types of artificial constructions originally designed for irrigation, livestock supply, or other purposes (e.g., water tanks or cattle troughs) as breeding sites. These sites potentially function as local refugia; however, their importance for amphibian communities has yet to be widely assessed. Here we evaluate the role of artificial constructions in the persistence of amphibian populations in rural areas of central Spain, focusing on two species of conservation concern: the Common Midwife Toad, Alytes obstetricans (Laurenti 1768), and the Parsley Frog, Pelodytes punctatus (Daudin 1802). Leer más.

The diversity of the tropical climbing salamander genus Bolitoglossa (Magnadigita) in Honduras has been underestimated historically, with 11 new species having been described in the past quarter-century. Bolitoglossa celaque is known to occur in three disjunct mountain ranges across the Lenca Highlands region of southwestern Honduras, and previous studies have independently demonstrated differences in mitochondrial genealogy and genome size between populations to the east and west of the Mejocote–San Juan Depression. Leer más.

he project, running from 2018-2020, created 43 breeding ponds and made numerous wildlife scrapes, hibernation spaces for reptiles and amphibians and provided foraging habitats and breeding areas for Willow Tits and Harvest Mice. It also ‘linked’ local and national businesses, encouraged collaborative partnerships with conservation bodies, land-owners and charities, and involved skill-sharing and education with local schools and the community on the importance of wildlife corridors and those species mentioned. Leer más.

We documented a >50% decrease in the estimated number of adults of both sexes between the breeding seasons of 2018 and 2019, probably associated with reduced rainfall in the latter. Estimates of Nb and the Nb/Na ratio were low in both seasons, with a 20–30% decrease in Nb and a 47% increase in the Nb/Na ratio in 2019. Based on the reconstruction of pedigrees from larval and adult genotypes, we provide the first genetic evidence of polygamy in males and females of D. galganoi and the first estimates of breeding success in the species. Leer más.