They were imported from frog farms in Taiwan... environmental activist and former game warden [Miles Young] said.

The species is particularly susceptible to a skin fungus linked to vanishing amphibians around the world. And the conditions in which bullfrogs are raised, transported and sold are ideal breeding grounds for the fungus and its waterborne zoospores.

"It should be against the law to bring diseased nonnative animals into California," he grumbled. "But every time someone proposes a ban on bullfrogs, politics gets in the way and nothing gets done."

[....]

Opponents also said it unfairly targeted Asian American businesses because it did not affect the sale of turtles and frogs at pet stores.

In testimony before the panel, [Leland] Yee, an unsuccessful candidate in the Nov. 8 San Francisco mayoral election, said: "For over 5,000 years, it has been the practice of both the Chinese community and the Asian American community to consume these particular animals. They are part of our staple. They are part of our culture. They are part of our heritage."

Georgia state law requires that anyone who possesses a wild rattlesnake obtain a “wild animal license” from the Department of Natural Resources. For the sake of both animal welfare and public safety, the law requires those who keep wild rattlesnakes to buy liability insurance and treat the snakes humanely. The groups’ letter, sent by the Center, Coastal Plains Institute and Land Conservancy, and One More Generation, asks that appropriate law-enforcement measures be taken before and during the roundups to make sure sponsors and participants carry insurance and give the snakes humane treatment.

“Possession of wild rattlesnakes without a license is against the law in Georgia for good, common-sense reasons, and the state needs to make the law real by enforcing it,” said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity who works to protect rare and vanishing reptiles and amphibians. “But the best way to stop the abuse of animals, make sure no one gets hurt, and save the eastern diamondback from extinction is to just cancel these roundups. The bottom line is, they’re cruel.”

Rattlesnake roundups are depleting populations of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes: Analysis of data from four roundups in the southeastern United States shows a steady decline in the weights of prize-winning eastern diamondbacks and the number collected. This once-common species is being pushed toward extinction not only by hunting pressure but also by habitat loss and road mortality. In August, the Center and allies filed a petition to protect the snake under the Endangered Species Act.

"This thing would be many tens of metres (from) the surface" of the earth, said Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology curator Donald Henderson, who was at the site Thursday. "If it wasn't for the digging, we would never see this."

Heavy equipment operator Maggy Horvath was shovelling ore at the oilsands company's Mildred Lake mine site on Nov. 14 when her shovel exposed the neck and upper vertebrae of a plesiosaur.

A team from the Drumheller-based Royal Tyrrell was called in. But removing the fossil from its resting place, where it is now pushing through the face of a cliff about five metres above the mine pit's base, is a tricky job that hasn't even started.

"The rock is really crumbling and there's lots of fractures," said Henderson, noting there are safety and equipment issues. At this point, researchers have only begun to comb through the rubble removed from the cliff face in search of the plesiosaur's head and more of its neck.

Atrazine is the second-most widely used herbicide in the U.S. More than 75 million pounds of it are applied to corn and other crops, and it is the most commonly detected pesticide contaminant of groundwater, surface water and rain in the U.S.

The new review, compiled by 22 scientists studying atrazine in North and South America, Europe and Japan, appears in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
The researchers looked at studies linking atrazine exposure to abnormal androgen (male hormone) levels in fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals and studies that found a common association between exposure to the herbicide and the "feminization" of male gonads in many animals.

The most robust findings are in amphibians, said University of Illinois comparative biosciences professor Val Beasley, a co-author of the review. At least 10 studies found that exposure to atrazine feminizes male frogs, sometimes to the point of sex reversal, he said.

"This is really exciting. It’s the first confirmed sighting in B.C. waters," said Jennifer Yakimishyn, species at risk recovery planner at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

Olive ridleys, which are listed in the United States as threatened, are warm water turtles, but there have been sightings in Washington and Alaska, so it was suspected there could be some in B.C. waters, Yakimishyn said.

"So this is a pretty significant find. It is the third (species of) turtle found in B.C. waters," she said. "My email box is full of messages from excited biologists. It’s causing a real stir in the science world."

The other two species found in B.C. are green and leatherback turtles, but neither is common.

Lisa Spaven, a Fisheries and Oceans Marine Mammal Response biologist, said the closest nesting beaches for olive ridley turtles are Mexico and California. Like all sea turtles, populations are endangered because of years of hunting.

The JNF removed the water from the swamp and redirected the flow of water to the river Jordan with artificial estuaries. But the operation led to numerous knock-on effects — the reclaimed land was useless for agriculture, toxins invaded the river and dumped peat routinely caught fire.

The disastrous operation also led to huge destruction of ecosystems, wiping out water plants, tropical aquatic ferns, the ray-finned fish Acanthobrama hulensis and the cichlid fish Tristramella intermedia. Until this week, it was thought that the hula painted frog was among the lost species.

But a routine patrol at the Ha’Hula lake by Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority turned up a mysterious, unknown female frog and took it back to the lab for testing. It was soon confirmed that it was a Hula painted frog, and the rare species had hung on amongst the devastation of its habitat.

“Our study shows that more than two thirds of the global amphibian diversity hotspots will likely be strongly affected by at least one of the three threats considered”, says Miguel Araújo from the Spanish Research Council.
“With more than 30 per cent of all amphibian species already listed as threatened by IUCN and many rare species still being discovered every year, our results highlight the need for greater conservation research and action for this highly threatened group,” said Yale University’s Walter Jetz.