Page 63 - Amphibian

DISAPPEARING NEWT WILL THIS SALAMANDER SURVIVE?
The crested newt is now on the protected species The gold-striped salamander from northern
list in the U.K. – a special license is Spain and Portugal depends upon natural
necessary even to examine it in brooks and streams for its larval develop-
the wild. Twenty years ago, it ment. The removal of large amounts
was abundant all over of water for agricultural and
Europe but by filling in human use has seriously
home ponds and using threatened its survival.
agricultural poisons,
people have taken
their toll.
A STEP IN
THE RIGHT DIRECTION
These tomato frogs (left) are endangered,
like many other frog species in Madagascar,
but they are listed as an Appendix I species,
which means they receive the highest level of
protection in law. They have, however,
been successfully bred in captivity.
Captive breeding and the protection
of the natural habitats in nature
reserves may permit the
reintroduction of this
and other frog species
back into the wild.

Crested
newt’s
tail is
almost as
long as
its body

AN UNREPEATABLE PHOTOGRAPH?
Gatherings like this group of male golden toads
(the females are olive brown with bright red spots)
in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa
Rica in 1985 may be a thing of the past. They have
not been seen at all in this region since 1990.

ISLAND FROGS
This is Hamilton’s frog,
the rarest of three native
species in New Zealand. It has
been found only on two offshore
islands in the Cook Strait. One
population lives among a
pile of rocks known as “Frog
Bank” on Stephens Island; a
second, larger population lives in
a small patch of forest on
Maud Island. If rats were
introduced by accident,
especially onto UNDER
Stephens Island, this rare THREAT
frog could easily be wiped out This golden
in a very short time. mantella (pp. 56–57) from
Madagascar is threatened by habitat
destruction as are many other species of frog (and
Typical stunning other animals) on the island. Madagascar has a high
golden color level of “endemism” – that is, most of its species are
found only there and nowhere else in the world.

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