Natural History of the Mocha Island Ground Frog Eupsophus insularis, a Critically Endangered Species

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Lobos ◽  
Nicolás Rebolledo ◽  
Andrés Charrier ◽  
Claudio Correa ◽  
Felipe Rabanal ◽  
...  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 403-406
Author(s):  
José F. González-Maya ◽  
Diego A. Gómez-Hoyos ◽  
Rocio Seisdedos-de-Vergara ◽  
Iván Cruz-Lizano ◽  
Jan Schipper

Atelopus varius was believed to be extinct in Costa Rica until the rediscovery of a population within the Las Tablas Protected Zone (LTPZ) in 2008. This rediscovery represented a research and conservation opportunity, including contributing new information about the species´ natural history. There are few reported species that prey on A. varius. This report presents a new predation record by a species of water bug (Abedus spp.) on an adult harlequin frog (A. varius). This is only the second confirmed predator for the species. These water bugs have been reported to prey on anurans during reproductive seasons, but in this case, the event occurred on A. varius out of their reproductive season. The effects of water bug predation on the only known reproductive population of this Critically Endangered species needs to be assessed to consider appropriate conservation measures to prevent further decline of the species.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens C. Hegg ◽  
Breanna Graves ◽  
Chris M. Fisher

AbstractThe ecology of endangered and rare species can be difficult to study due to their low abundances and legal limits on scientist’s ability to catch, sample, and track them. This is particularly true of sawfish (family Pristidae) whose numbers have declined precipitously, placing all five species on the CITES list of critically endangered species worldwide. Best known for their distinctive, toothed rostrum the ecology, movement, and life-history of sawfish is poorly understood. Sawfish rostral teeth are modified placoid scales, which grow continuously throughout the life of the fish. This continuous growth, combined with their stable calcified makeup, makes sawfish teeth a potential source of temporal records of chemical and isotopic changes through the life of the fish. Rostral teeth can be removed non-lethally from living animals and are also often preserved in rostra housed in museums and as curios, potentially allowing both contemporaneous and historical sources of life-history data. Study of the potential for sawfish rostral teeth as endogenous chemical and structural records is extremely limited, however. Using archived samples of largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis) we show that multiple chemical tracers can be recovered from sawfish teeth, and that these tracers can be used to understand movement across salinity gradients and between freshwater and the ocean. We further show that sawfish teeth contain repeated structures and indistinct banding which could potentially be used for aging or growth analysis of fish.


Author(s):  
Akshay Tanna ◽  
Daniel Fernando ◽  
Ramajeyam Gobiraj ◽  
Buddhi M. Pathirana ◽  
Sahan Thilakaratna ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Michele Bertoni Mann ◽  
Janira Prichula ◽  
Ícaro Maia Santos de Castro ◽  
Juliana Mello Severo ◽  
Michelle Abadie ◽  
...  

Melanophryniscus admirabilis (admirable red-belly toad) is a microendemic and critically endangered species found exclusively along 700 m of the Forqueta River, in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil. One of the greatest concerns regarding the conservation of this species is the extensive use of pesticides in areas surrounding their natural habitat. In recent years, the adaptation and persistence of animal species in human-impacted environments have been associated with microbiota. Therefore, the present study aimed to characterize the oral bacterial community of wild M. admirabilis and to address the question of how this community might contribute to this toad’s adaptation in the anthropogenic environment as well as its general metabolic capabilities. A total of 11 oral samples collected from wild M. admirabilis were characterized and analyzed via high-throughput sequencing. Fragments of the 16S rRNA variable region 4 (V4) were amplified, and sequencing was conducted using an Ion Personal Genome Machine (PGM) System with 316 chips. A total of 181,350 sequences were obtained, resulting in 16 phyla, 34 classes, 39 orders, and 77 families. Proteobacteria dominated (53%) the oral microbiota of toads, followed by Firmicutes (18%), Bacteroidetes (17%), and Actinobacteria (5%). No significant differences in microbial community profile from among the samples were reported, which suggests that the low dietary diversity observed in this population may directly influence the bacterial composition. Inferences of microbiome function were performed using PICRUSt2 software. Important pathways (e.g., xenobiotic degradation pathways for pesticides and aromatic phenolic compounds) were detected, which suggests that the bacterial communities may serve important roles in M. admirabilis health and survival in the anthropogenic environment. Overall, our results have important implications for the conservation and management of this microendemic and critically endangered species.


2010 ◽  
Vol 151 (3) ◽  
pp. 627-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Monticelli ◽  
Ricardo Ceia ◽  
Ruben Heleno ◽  
Hugo Laborda ◽  
Sergio Timóteo ◽  
...  

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. e0139231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guohua Ding ◽  
Chunye Li ◽  
Xu Han ◽  
Chunyu Chi ◽  
Dawei Zhang ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Tengfei Shen ◽  
Youmiao Zheng ◽  
Zimou Sun ◽  
Meng Xu

With its unique square-shaped culm, Chimonobambusa hirtinoda C.S. Chao & K.M. Lan is a critically endangered species, and its natural habitat is solely restricted to Doupeng Mountain in Guizhou, China. Two small-insert libraries from C. hirtinoda were constructed and sequenced. Approximately 127.83 Gb of highquality reads were generated and assembled into 9,320,997 contigs with a N50 length of 213bp, thereby producing 8,867,344 scaffolds with total length of 2.01 Gb. An estimated genome size of C. hirtinode was 2.86 Gb on the basis of k-mer frequency analysis, with the GC content of 45.40%. The repeat rate and heterozygous ratio were 74.11 and 1.48% in C. hirtinoda genome, respectively. Finally, 65,398 SSR loci were identified in the assembled contigs, including 58.66% tri-nucleotide, 27.42% di-nucleotide, 7.94% tetranucleotide, 3.67% penta-nucleotide, and 2.31% hexa-nucleotide. Results of this study are useful not only for ecological conservation of C. hirtinoda, but also for phylogenetic studies.


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