A recent study from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) shows in 1998 there were 6,000 axolotls per square kilometer in Xochimilco. By 2008 that figure had plummeted to 100. And in 2014 researchers found less than one per square kilometer.

There are at least three major causes for its decline: urbanization, water pollution and the massive invasion of exotic predator fish like carp and tilapia, introduced by the Mexican government in the 1980s to help feed local communities. From the first few thousands they introduced, there are now an estimated 900 tons of fish in these canals.

“It’s an amazing amount. About 98 percent of the biomass in the water is made up of just these two fish, and they destroy everything,” said professor Luis Zambrano, an ecologist at UNAM who studies Mexican salamanders and the deterioration of their environment. “The government didn’t know what they were doing. They’ve altered the food chain and the whole ecosystem.”

By examining research on global patterns of amphibian diversification over hundreds of millions of years, De Lisle and Rowe discovered that “sexually dimorphic” species – those in which males and females differ in size, for example – are at lower risk of extinction and better able to adapt to diverse environments.

Their work suggests the ability of males and females in sexually dimorphic amphibian species to independently evolve different traits – such as size – helps them survive extinction threats that kill off others, says De Lisle.

He says classic ecological theory would not have predicted that about amphibians, a class of vertebrates that includes frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians.

The conventional school of thought believes different-sized sexes of the same species take up more resources and are less able to adapt and diversify than species where ecologically relevant traits like size are basically the same between males and females.

Venom research is a large field, especially due to the pharmaceutical potential of the venom proteins. The idea here is that venom proteins are capable of affecting the body's cells. Excessive amounts can be harmful and even lethal in some circumstances, but if the right dose is used, the venom proteins can be used to treat certain diseases. Snake proteins that normally cause prey to bleed can be used in small doses to treat blood clots, for example.

In the same way, work is currently being done to develop spider venom proteins to provide pain relief. The Aarhus researchers focused on gila lizards, and these are currently being used in pharmaceutical contexts. Gila lizards produce exendin-4, a small venom protein used in the treatment of diabetes and obesity, which is a competitor to Victoza - produced by Novo Nordisk.

To study the impact of these depressions on the reproductive success of the frogs, scientists based at the University of Vienna installed a series of plastic bowls to collect rainwater at regular intervals in a patch of rainforest in French Guiana and monitored frog populations in their test and control plots.

It was found that the frog populations expanded rapidly in both the areas with the bowls and nearby plots, from 148 frogs the season before the bowls were installed to 246 frogs two years later, while no increase was seen in plots far away from the man-made peccary wallows.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to work with the largest living reptile and largest terrestrial predator on the planet,” Robert tells me in the singsong tone of his television-ready family. “An awesome animal that roamed the primeval landscape for millions and millions of years.”

Daisy’s sawtooth tail whips the prone boy to the left. “The jaw pressure of the crocodile is incredible—3,000 pounds per square inch!”

Daisy’s tail whips him to the right. “I so admire the crocodile’s ability to kill with just its teeth. It’s quite amazing!”

Robert’s 16-year-old sister, Bindi, looks on solicitously. An actor, singer, game show host and, last year, a People cover girl, she’s confirming Daisy’s gender by inserting a finger into its cloaca and feeling around for genitalia. “It’s a girl!” she says. Her smile conveys a disarming buoyancy. “Here’s an animal that many people think is just a stupid, evil, ugly monster which kills people. That’s so not true!”

Lead author Bruno Ferronato said more than 100 animals died because the fence restricted their natural movement patterns.

"Usually they will move to other ponds, usually during springtime, looking for ponds to feed," the University of Canberra researcher told 666 ABC Canberra.

"The fence is interrupting with the migratory habits of turtles. When they're trying to move between ponds they're hitting the fence and some of the animals are dying there."

In a recent issue of GENETICS, Darin Rokyta and colleagues reported the results of a large survey of venom diversity across two snake species sharing nearly identical ranges and similar habitats in the southeastern United States. As expected, the mix in one species—the eastern diamondback rattlesnake—varied considerably from place to place. But the eastern coral snakes told a completely different story. In contrast to its rattlesnake neighbors, no matter where a coral snake came from, its venom was always the same.

Rokyta says the team was shocked by this lack of variation. “This is the first time anyone has looked at venom variation at this scale, and everybody has assumed that the co-evolutionary arms race would cause local populations to diverge quickly.”

The results not only challenge this assumption, they provide crucial information for rattlesnake conservation and coral snake antivenom development.

Clark County and the Nevada Department of Wildlife spent about five years trying to get the rare frog to thrive at a pond along the Muddy River. But nearly 2,000 frogs later, the county scuttled an agreement Feb. 3 with state wildlife officials after multiple failed efforts. It’s likely now that no frogs live at the pond, county officials say.

In a way, frogs and other amphibians are a barometer of an area’s overall environmental health. Their moist skin doesn’t take kindly to environmental hazards in the air. Nor will frogs survive if water, the lifeblood of their natural environment, disappears.

The relict leopard frog’s plight isn’t unusual in the amphibian world. Amphibians throughout the U.S. and worldwide are in decline, according to a 2013 federal report.

But don’t count out this particular frog just yet. Officials aren’t giving up on the tiny 2-inch frog, believed to be extinct in the 1950s.

The county hasn’t put all of its frogs in one pond.

No, this is no camera trick: this frog is indeed riding this rhinoceros beetle, cowboy-style.

Indonesian wildlife photographer Hendy Mp captured the scene near his house in Sambas in Kalimatan Barat in Indonesia, UK's Daily Mail reported.

The Daily Mail report said the "rodeo"—in which the Reinwardt's Flying Frog jumped on top of the woodboring beetle and put its front leg in the air—lasted no more than five minutes.