Older Findings
How Do Snakes Climb Vertical Surfaces?
School physics tells us that in order to climb, the friction force between the snake and say a tree trunk, must be equal to the weight of the snake. How does a snake achieve this?. At a recent American Physical Society conference in Boston, Hamid Marvi, and colleagues at Georgia institute of Technology, Atlanta, reported that sedated snakes are much more likely to slip down a slope than when awake. ( I can report that this can happen in humans too!) Further, video evidence showed that snakes can control the tilt of their scales so as to increase friction with the surface, thus defying the gravitational force. Presumably they are not as good at this when dozy.
Chytrid Infection
1. A recent paper analyses the genomes of 20 strains of the fungus isolated from around the world. The findings rule out the hypothesis that Bd has always been present, but has come to the fore, because of environmental stress, such as climate change. Bd has emerged in it's severe form in the last 300 years almost certainly as a result of humans bringing isolated strains into contact. The highly dangerous strains around the world constitute a single clade, in which several close relatives have undergone complex genomoc rearrangements
Multiple emergences of genetically diverse amphibian-infecting chrtids include a globalised hypervirulent recombinant lineage R A Farrer et al Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, 18732-18736 (2011)
2. Between 2003 and 2010 populations of two frog species, in the Sierra Nevada, crashed, due to chytrid fungus infection. Vance Vredenburg of San Francisco State university has found that 2/3rds of Pacific tree frogs are infected, but probably tolerating the fungus. These animals may spread infection to other areas and complicates conservation efforts to reintroduce the badly affected species ( New Scientist 17 Mar 2012, page 4)
Multiple emergences of genetically diverse amphibian-infecting chrtids include a globalised hypervirulent recombinant lineage R A Farrer et al Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, 18732-18736 (2011)
2. Between 2003 and 2010 populations of two frog species, in the Sierra Nevada, crashed, due to chytrid fungus infection. Vance Vredenburg of San Francisco State university has found that 2/3rds of Pacific tree frogs are infected, but probably tolerating the fungus. These animals may spread infection to other areas and complicates conservation efforts to reintroduce the badly affected species ( New Scientist 17 Mar 2012, page 4)
Mysterious Toad Deaths in Cornwall
Gruesome finds of mutilated toad bodies at several sites in Cornwall are thought to be the work of predators that have discovered they can avoid the bad taste of toad skin by attacking the belly of the animal. Details at ARG UK
Toads on Roads
At the recent Froglife conference, roads were identified as a major problem for amphibian survival throughout Europe.
Habitat fragmentation on road networks leads to huge mortality and risk of local extinction
Read the full statement here
Habitat fragmentation on road networks leads to huge mortality and risk of local extinction
Read the full statement here
Adders in County Durham
There are concerns that adder populations in County Durham may lack the necessary genetic diversity to maintain a healthy population caused by loss of natural habitat and breeding grounds
As adders emerge from hibernation, in Teesdale, Weardale and upper Derwentside and shed their skins, a group set up by Durham County Council, Durham Wildlife Trust and Sunderland university, will carry out a genetic survey. They will also collect dead adders looking for deformities such as missing eyes and spinal abnormalities, which could be a sign of inbreeding depression. More details at:
The Northern Echo, University of Sunderland and BBC1 Countryfile 1 April, available on i player until 8 April.
As adders emerge from hibernation, in Teesdale, Weardale and upper Derwentside and shed their skins, a group set up by Durham County Council, Durham Wildlife Trust and Sunderland university, will carry out a genetic survey. They will also collect dead adders looking for deformities such as missing eyes and spinal abnormalities, which could be a sign of inbreeding depression. More details at:
The Northern Echo, University of Sunderland and BBC1 Countryfile 1 April, available on i player until 8 April.
