Cane toad control in a can

The cane toad (Bufo marinus) is one of Australia’s worst introduced pests.

Initially introduced to help control the native cane beetle, cane toads quickly established themselves in ecosystems across north Queensland and have spread south to New South Wales and west into the Northern Territory.

Attempts to control the pest have often been thwarted by the toad’s ability to reproduce at an alarming rate and toad numbers across Australia are now estimated to be as high as 200 million (that’s approximately ten toads for every man woman and child in the country). However, the tide could be about to turn with the release of a new piece of Australian ingenuity - toad-spray.

Dr. David Dall is a scientist who has developed the aerosol-based pesticide, which he says euthanases cane toads and creates and exclusion zone around the family home or business.

Dr. Dall says that the product is non-toxic and will dispatch toads on to the next world in a peaceful manor.

“This material is a combination of things that you would find around you house… our advance has been to combine them in particular proportions,” he said.

“One of the components in the mixture acts as an anaesthetic for cane toads so it immobilises them very soon after treatment and another one of the components then basically kills the toad before they can wake up again so it’s safe, it’s humane and it’s very effective.

Dr. Dall says that the product is not currently available as it still has to pass through Australia’s regulatory process, but he hopes to have it on the market within the year.

“Were it has to go now is through the regulatory process that takes a little while and there’s very good reason why that has to be done even though I trust my work it has to be verified, obviously. We are looking for this to be on the shelves of about April next year.”

From ABC

Rare species of frog, snake in Orissa

Kendrapada (Orissa), June 26: Two highly endangered species, the crab-eating frog and the white belly mangrove snake, have been spotted in Orissa.

The rare species were seen at the river mouth of Dhamra, five kilometres from the Bhitarkanika national park in Kendrapada district, some 170 km from Bhubaneswar, Sushil Kumar Dutta, a herpetologist, told IANS.

Dutta, a zoology professor with the North Orissa University at Baripada, and his team found the frog and the snake during a recent study.

“We stumbled upon this frog and snake while studying the area to prepare an environmental impact assessment report for Greenpeace,” Dutta said.

“They were properly documented and photographed before they were released again in the swampy areas of the river mouth. A team of researchers will again visit the area to search for more rare frogs and snakes,” he said.

The crab-eating frog, scientifically known as ‘fejervarya cancrivora’, is native to Southeast Asia. It inhabits mangrove swamps and is the only known modern amphibian that can tolerate salt water.

The white belly mangrove snake is scientifically known as ‘fordonia leucobalia’. It stays in mangrove swamps and tropical tidal wetlands from Southeast Asia to the coasts of Northern Australia.

The snake hangs out in crab-made holes, after eating its occupants. It is an estuarine species and has all the adaptations necessary for survival in a fully marine life.

From NewKerala

Gila Monster Spit Could Be a Weight-Loss Hit

Overweight people with diabetes may not find the Gila monster quite so monstrous anymore, thanks to a new weight-loss drug that mimics a compound in the creature’s spit.The drug — a synthetic form of a hormone called exendin-4 found in the lizard’s saliva — helped people with type 2 diabetes shed pounds, a three-year study found.

The Gila monster is a venomous lizard that lives in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.

This study of 217 patients found that three years of treatment with the drug exenatide (brand name Byetta) resulted in sustained, progressive weight loss averaging 11 pounds. Many of the patients also showed sustained reductions in blood sugar levels and in blood biomarkers that indicate liver injury.

The findings were to be presented Monday at the annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association, in Chicago.

“Overweight and weight gain is an almost universal problem for people with diabetes,” lead researcher Dr. John Buse, chief of endocrinology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement. Buse is also the ADA’s president-elect for medicine and science and will become president in September.

The study was funded by two drug companies — Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Company — collaborating on the development and commercialization of exenatide. Many of the researchers involved with this study work for Amylin or Eli Lilly.

Exenatide was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April 2005 for treatment of type 2 diabetes patients who are unable to get their blood sugar under control with one or both of two other drugs, metformin and sulfonylurea.

From Forbes

Aquarium’s 2-Headed Snake Dies At 8

The 8-year-old rat snake died of natural causes during the weekend. Experts said most two-headed snakes survive for only a week or two.

More than 1 million people have seen “We” over the years. Children were especially fascinated by the snake, wondering how two heads could coexist on the same body.

“We” sometimes strained to slither in two directions at once.

Born with both male and female genitalia, “We” was bought from a snake breeder in Indiana for $15,000 when the reptile was just a few weeks old.

A taxidermist is preserving the snake’s body, which should be back on display within a week.

Video: 2-Headed Snake Dies

From KNBC

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Gecko glue may give drivers the brake they’ve been looking for

THE gecko is well known for its adhesive acrobatics and wall- and ceiling-scaling techniques.

Now this small, pretty lizard is helping scientists out of a sticky situation of their own.

Recent studies of the gecko’s spatula-tipped toe hairs, called setae, have revealed the secret behind the lizard’s uncanny sticking power - a quick-release mechanism that allows it to stick to surfaces.

Geckos can walk upside down on glass and smooth concrete, for example, without the aid of liquid or surface tension and then detach with minimal effort.

Researchers in the US say they can use this mechanism to manufacture advanced car braking systems that could stop a car travelling at 80kmh in a distance of just five metres, using only a third of a square metre of this reptilian “glue”.

A BBC documentary on this research suggested artificial gecko hairs could revolutionise how tiny things are stuck together and have uses in microsurgery and computer chips.

Robots with synthetic gecko feet could help in search and rescue missions and in space.

Geckos are already evolutionary wonders. They are the only lizard to make chirping sounds in social interactions with other geckos. When cornered, they can expel a nasty-smelling substance and faeces onto their attacker.

Some species are even parthenogenic, meaning the female doesn’t require the services of the male to reproduce.

Gecko stickiness is unlike any conventional adhesives, which often stick with ease but only detach with a great amount of force (as anyone who has tried peeling off those plastic wall hooks will tell you). By contrast, research has proven that gecko foot hairs adhere strongly and detach easily.

The attractive force that holds geckos to surfaces is a product of intermolecular interactions between the extremely fine and numerous setae on its toes (almost 500,000 on each foot) and the surface itself.

But the real trick, it seems, is some clever trigonometry on the part of this extraordinary creature.

Biologist Dr Keller Autumn, of the Lewis and Clark College in Oregon, and his colleagues were the first to look at the actual force that was required to detach gecko hairs from a surface, and how this force changed in relation to the angle at which it was applied.

For example, Autumn and his team found that when the hairs lay at an angle of 30 degrees to the surface, the gecko could resist weights up to 130kilograms, but at angles of more than 90 degrees the hairs would begin to peel off.

Due to the solidity of each seta, not a single one was damaged in this process, allowing the gecko a lifetime of Spider-man-like agility.

Autumn has no doubt the principle of gecko adhesive could solve a number of problems and, potentially, be used in car braking systems.

He told New Scientist magazine: “It’s such a bizarre solution to an engineering problem. No one would have ever thought of it if it hadn’t evolved in geckos.”

But don’t rush to the car parts store just yet. It could be at least 10 years before gecko glue becomes a viable option in automobile safety.

“Scaling things up creates big problems,” Autumn said. “We know it’s a challenge none of the virtual gecko adhesives are capable of doing.”

From The Sydney Morning Herald

The Amphibians of Mount Gede Pangrango and Mount Salak, Indonesia

By Mirza D. Kusrini, A. Fitri, W. Endarwin and M. Yazid

Although there is good evidence that amphibian declines are a global problem, most reported amphibian declines have occured in developed countries or in countries that have a strong research culture. Almost no declines have been reported in Indonesia. However this may be due to a lack of research and long-term monitoring in this country (Iskandar & Erdelen, 2006).  

    In 2003, we conducted amphibian surveys in two mountainous areas in West Java province: Mount Gede Pangrango National Park (highest peak 3,400 m above sea level) and Mount Salak (part of Mount Salak-Halimun National Park; with the highest level of 2211 m). Both mountains represent some of the few remaining pristine areas of the heavily populated West Java province. Liem (1971) described 19 species of amphibians in the Cibodas Trail of Mount Gede from 1961 to 1964. Unfortunately, there are no further available reports of Mount Gede amphibians after this time. There are no comprehensive surveys of the amphibian fauna of Mount Salak region either, and only a few reports on amphibian biodiversity in adjacent areas. Surveys by The Indonesian Insitute of Science (LIPI) in 1999-2001 in Mount Halimun region found 27 species of frogs (Mumpuni, 2002).

    We conducted Visual Encounter Surveys (Heyer et al., 1994) in several locations inside the national park with different types of habitat encompassing the forest floor, water bodies and surrounding vegetation. The occurrence of a species was determined by finding adults as well as larvae and if possible by male vocalization. Surveys in Mount Gede were conducted from September 2004-February 2005, comprising nine locations ranging from 700-2740 m asl including locations reported by Liem (1971). A second series of monitoring surveys has been underway since November 2006.  Surveys in Mount Salak were conducted in 7 locations, ranging from 700-340 m asl from December 2005-June 2006.  Each location was visited once, for four days in a row.

    In total we found 19 and 21 species from five families (Bufonidae, Megophrydae, Microhylidae, Ranidae and Rhacophoridae) for Mount Gede Pangrango NP and Mount Salak NP respectively.  The number of species found in Mount Gede Pangrango NP were less than those found by Liem (1971) and species composition differed. Four species from Liem’s result were not found in the first survey: Fejervarya cancrivora, Bufo bipocartus, Microhyla palmipes and Rana nicobariensis. Instead, we found additional species: Rana hosii, Leptophryne borbonica, and Limnonectes macrodon. During our second year monitoring in Mount Gede Pangrango NP (November 2006-February 2007) we found the missing M. palmipes. A particularly important finding was of a caecilian Ichthyophis hypocyaneus in Bodogol (700 mm asl). This is the first record of a caecilian in Mount Gede Pangrango NP.  No mass mortalities were found on either mountain, however, an adult Limnonectes kuhlii was found dead, floating in a small pu!
ddle of water on the side of a walking trail in Chevron Geothermal Concessions in Mount Salak.

Study shows lizard moms dress their children for success

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, “dressing” their progeny in patterns they will wear for the rest of their lives. The mother’s influence gives her progeny the patterns most likely to ensure success under the conditions they will encounter as adults.

In a paper published June 10 in the online early edition of the journal Ecology Letters (and in a later print issue), the researchers reported that female side-blotched lizards give an extra dose of the hormone estradiol to their eggs in certain social circumstances. The extra hormone affects the back patterns of lizards that hatch from those eggs, creating either lengthwise stripes down their backs or bars stretching from side to side. Whether they get stripes or bars depends on the genes for other traits.

“This is the first example in which exposure to the mother’s hormones changes such a fundamental aspect of appearance. Even more exciting is that the mother has different patterns at her disposal, so she can ensure a good match between back patterns and other traits that her offspring possess,” said Lesley Lancaster, a UCSC graduate student and first author of the paper.

Coauthor Barry Sinervo, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is Lancaster’s adviser and has been studying side-blotched lizards for nearly 20 years. He said the lizards’ main predator, the coachwhip snake, is a highly efficient hunter, and the lizards need just the right combination of traits to avoid being eaten.

“The females are dressing their progeny for success, because they need a different back pattern in different conditions,” Sinervo said. “It’s like fashion–she wants to make the rare, fashionable progeny that won’t be caught by predators.”

Lancaster used a combination of laboratory and field experiments to tease apart a complex set of interactions involving hormones, genetics, social interactions, behavioral strategies, and predators. Previous studies by Sinervo and his collaborators have described three different behavioral strategies that correlate with throat color in side-blotched lizards. Orange-throated males are highly aggressive and usurp territory from other lizards; yellow-throated males sneak into the territories of other males to mate with females; and blue-throated males form partnerships and cooperate to protect their territories. In females, throat color correlates with different reproductive strategies.

According to Lancaster, the maternal effect on back pattern is important because survival in these lizards depends on different combinations of traits in different circumstances. Females use social cues to predict the circumstances their progeny will encounter. Maternal influences like this probably occur in many species, but are very difficult to detect, Sinervo said.

“Maternal effects are a nebulous thing to study, because you know there are genes for these traits, and it’s really hard to tell the maternal effects apart from the effects of the genes,” he said.

Lancaster began by treating side-blotched lizard eggs with an array of different hormones. That revealed a striking influence of estradiol on back patterns. She also tested eggs from lizards captured in the wild and found a wide range of naturally occurring estradiol concentrations in the egg yolks.

Robot Reptile “Released” Into Wild to Aid Breeding Research

On Stephens Island in New Zealand’s storm-wracked Cook Strait, the tuatara—one of the most ancient reptile species on Earth—is getting a hand from distinctly 21st-century science (see a New Zealand map).Researchers have placed in the wild a very special male that, like its wild cousins, can put on physical displays to establish its dominance.

Enlarge Photo

But this reptile’s skin is made of rubber, not scales, and its “heart” is a nickel-cadmium battery.

The alpha male in question is “Robo-Ollie,” a robotic tuatara created to help researchers understand the behavior of these rare reptiles, the last species in a family that dates back 200 million years.

Specifically, postdoctoral student Jennifer Moore wants to know how male tuatara establish dominance—how they attract and keep females.

Understanding critical behaviors could help tuatara translocation and captive-breeding programs, perhaps by guiding conservation managers to the genetically fittest, most productive males.

(Related news: “Warming May Drive Gender-Bending Reptiles Extinct, Scientists Say” [November 10, 2006].)

“We needed a model we could manipulate in the field to look at aggression between males, which ultimately leads to reproductive success,” Moore said.

“That can give us an idea of who is winning the fights; who’s getting the ladies, who’s fathering the children—who is more successful, generally.”

To Bob or Not to Bob

To create a controllable tuatara, Moore enlisted aid from Weta Workshops, the Wellington-based animatronics company that fashioned monsters for such films as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Weta’s senior prosthetics supervisor, Gino Acevedo, first took a cast from the venerable corpse of Oliver, a captive tuatara that recently passed away at Victoria University in Wellington.

Quad Cities man discovers new snake

By ANTHONY WATT The (Moline) Dispatch & The Rock Island Argus

MOLINE, Ill. — There is a snake wandering around northwestern Venezuela named after a 14-year-old Quad Cities boy.

It’s called the Paraguanan blue whiptail, but the snake’s proper name is Atractus matthewi. The boy’s is Matthew Markezich. It’s his father’s doing. Allan Markezich, 57, is the snake’s discoverer.

“I do research on evolution, ecology and biological diversity in the tropics,” said Markezich, a biology professor at Black Hawk College.

That sentence sums up a career that involves tramping around the Western Hemisphere — mainly Venezuela — since the late 1980s, studying reptiles and amphibians and trying to conserve their habitat.

Atractus matthewi probably does not have a common name, Markezich said. It’s a secretive ground-dwelling animal that tends to live in cover in an isolated mountain range in northeast Venezuela.

“You don’t see this kind of snake often,” the 57-year-old said.

And there are other South American species that owe their human names to Markezich. The first was a tiny lizard — a dwarf gecko.

Its Latin moniker, Lepidoblepharis montecanoensis, might be bigger than it is.

“That is the first animal I ever collected, and it was this species,” he said.

It’s one of the smallest geckos in the world, Markezich said. It’s also critically endangered, existing in a habitat only a few hundred acres across.

And the threat of extinction for this animal, and others, is one of the reasons Markezich wanders.

“There’s a lot of extinction going on,” he said, “I think that’s what motivates me more than anything.”

Many species are going extinct before people have a chance to find and understand them, he said.

It is something, he said, for which expanding human populations and more efficient forms of harvesting natural resources can be blamed. Plant and animal populations are not being given enough time to recover.

By scientifically documenting new species, scientists give them some protection because it makes it easier to protect their habitats, Markezich said.

It also allows him to make people aware of what is out there and the fact that it is disappearing, he said.

He said the best part of the job is “making other people, like students, aware of the natural world.”

The natural, real world can be more fascinating than anything in a fantasy, Markezich said.

From The Hawk Eye