More affordable and effective conservation of species

Date:  November 5, 2018

Source:  Stanford University

No one had reported seeing the strange creature -- a cross between a bear and a monkey -- since before the Great Depression. Then, this past summer, an amateur biologist stumbled upon the presumed-extinct Wondiwoi tree kangaroo while trekking through Papua New Guinea. The revelation underscored how little we still know about the natural world -- a major obstacle to conservation.

A new Stanford-led study supports one approach to protecting all species in an area -- the ones we know about and the ones, like the tree kangaroo, scientists don't even know need protection. That conservation scheme focuses broadly on what are known as ecoregions. These are geographically unique regions, such as deserts and rainforests, that contain distinct communities of plants and animals.

Scientists have long debated how well ecoregion borders separate species communities. If the borders are strong, protecting an ecoregion, like a rainforest, would effectively protect all of the species within. If not, each species would need to be managed separately -- a much more uncertain undertaking, especially when we don't even know some species are there.

Read on  

Yoda bat gets happy: New species officially recognized

Date: August 10, 2017

Source: University of York

Summary:

An unusual breed of fruit bat -- previously nicknamed 'Yoda' due to its resemblance to the Star Wars Jedi Master -- has now officially been registered as a new species and renamed the happy (Hamamas) tube-nosed fruit bat.

Continued

Long lost monitor lizard 're-discovered' on Papua New Guinean island

Date: May 2, 2017

Source: University of Turku

Scientists have recently found and re-described a monitor lizard species from the island of New Ireland in northern Papua New Guinea. It is the only large-growing animal endemic to the island that has survived until modern times. The lizard, Varanus douarrha, was already discovered in the early 19th century, but the type specimen never reached the museum where it was destined as it appears to have been lost in a shipwreck.

(Credit: Valter Weijola)

The discovery is particularly interesting as most of the endemic species to New Ireland disappeared thousands of years ago as humans colonized the island.

The monitor was discovered during fieldwork by Valter Weijola from the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku, Finland, who spent several months surveying the monitor lizards of the Bismarck Islands. It can grow to over 1.3 metres in length and, according to current information, it is the only surviving large species endemic to the island. Based on bone discoveries, scientists now know that at least a large rat species and several flightless birds have lived in the area.

"In that way it can be considered a relic of the historically richer fauna that inhabited the Pacific islands. These medium-sized Pacific monitors are clearly much better at co-existing with humans than many of the birds and mammals have been," says Weijola.

 

continued 

Dragon ants are coming: New 'Game of Thrones' species identified

Modern technology helps taxonomy to identify new ant species.

Date: July 27, 2016

Source: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University

The dragons from 'Game of Thrones' have come to life in insect form. New ant species that appear dragon-like due to their large and distinctive spines were recently found in the tropical rainforests of Papua New Guinea. Although they lack fire-breathing capabilities, the unique, spiny characteristics of the ants reminded the scientists who discovered them of the mythical dragons from the fantasy series and inspired them to name the ants after the 'Game of Thrones' dragons.

The researchers, Dr. Georg Fischer, Dr. Eli Sarnat, and Prof. Evan Economo from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), used cutting-edge 3D-imaging technology to help identify and document several new ant species in two different papers published in PLOS ONE.

The process of identifying, documenting, and naming new species, "taxonomy" is one of the oldest and most basic tasks in biology. Traditionally, new species are described with photographs, drawings, and verbal descriptions. In this study, the authors used new 3D imaging technology called X-Ray microtomography, which is similar to CT scans used in hospitals, only at a much higher resolution suitable for smaller objects, such as an ant.

Read on … 

The castaway: New monitor lizard fills top-order predator role on remote Pacific island

Date: February 24, 2016

Source: Pensoft Publishers

Separated by several hundred kilometres from its next of kin, a new species of blue-tailed monitor lizard unique to the remote Mussau Island has been described. Unknown to science until recently and formally termed the "isolated," it is the only large-sized land-living predator and scavenger native to the island.

Dubbed a "biogeographical oddity" by its discoverers, led by Valter Weijola, a graduate student from the University of Turku, Finland, the lizard species is also the first new monitor lizard to be described from the country of Papua New Guinea in over twenty years. The finding was published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Monitors play an important ecological role in many island ecosystems in the southwest Pacific. Predatory mammals have never colonized the region due to the isolation of these islands. Instead, these large, active and intelligent lizards fill the role of top-predators and scavengers. The Pacific monitor lineage to which the new species belongs have been so successful at oversea dispersal that a number of different species now occupy almost every island from the Moluccas in Indonesia to the eastern Solomon Islands and even Micronesia.

The new endemic species was observed and studied during fieldwork by Weijola and local assistants in the relatively dry coastal vegetation of Mussau, but it is likely that it also persist in the remnants of intact forest in the interior of the island.

The formally described female lizard, or holotype, measures 1 m with the tail being one and and a half times the length of the dominantly black-coloured body covered with yellow and orange markings. The tail of the adults shows varying degrees of turquoise to bluish pigmentation. Another distinctive feature for the species is the pale yellow tongue, which is a trait shared only by three other species of Pacific monitors. The new species is known to eat crabs, other reptiles and their eggs, and small birds.

Continued ...

New species of freshwater turtle found in Papua New Guinea

17 February 2016

A new species of freshwater turtle has been discovered in Papua New Guinea, a mountainous and tropical country in the south Pacific Ocean.

The turtle is one of three distantly-related species found across Papua New Guinea and neighbouring parts of Indonesia.

The three species are thought to have evolved from a common ancestor about 17 to 19 million years ago.

One of the new turtle's unique features is its reddish colour.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/35593463

Spotted: Rare nautilus seen after three decades

AUGUST 28, 2015

by Chuck Bednar

A species of nautilus that has been called possibly “the rarest animal in the world” has been found in the wild for the first time in 30 years, and as fate would have it, one of the biologists who spotted was also a member of the research team that saw it three decades ago.

Peter Ward of the University of Washington identified the creature, Allonautilus scrobiculatus, off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 1984 along with colleague Bruce Saunders of Bryn Mawr College. He also briefly saw it again two years later, according to NBC News reports. That was the last time that any scientist laid eyes on the creature – until this past July, that is.

As part of an expedition to Ndrova Island, Ward and his fellow investigators set up “bait on a stick” systems hundreds of feet below the surface of the water every evening, and recorded the activity around the suspended fish and chicken for 12-hour periods. One night, the elusive creature finally made an appearance and was soon joined by a second.

They were ultimately scared off by a sunfish, and during the course of their expedition, Ward’s team used baited traps to capture Allonautilus and several nautiluses at depths of about 600 feet. They were quickly brought to the surface in chilled water, since the creatures dislike heat. Small tissue, shell, and mucous samples were taken from each, and they were measured and released.

Read more at

Papua New Guinea's new species

Presented by

Zoe Gough

Manus and Mussau are the northern most islands of Papua New Guinea. Their remote location means their forests, reefs, sea-grass beds and other important resources are largely unexplored.

Despite this pristine environment, both islands have experienced habitat destruction – particularly Mussau, which was heavily logged as recently as the 1990s.

Now a team of Wildlife Conservation Society(WCS) scientists has discovered that the islands are actually supporting a wealth of animals and plants including many that are thought to be new species.

The researchers will now seek to confirm their findings. Here are some of their discoveries:

Continued ...

The wasp with a face shaped like a knife blade

The newly-discovered insect has a large ridge in the middle of its face, which it might use to rip caterpillars open

Presented by

Michael Marshall

Meet Cyranorogas depardieui. It's a wasp, but not like any wasp you've ever seen. Its face has a sharp ridge, like the blade of a knife, sticking out of it.

The new wasp was discovered during an expedition to Mount Wilhelm, the highest mountain in Papua New Guinea, in 2012.

It has now been formally described in the Journal of Natural History by Buntika Butcher and Donald Quicke of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

"The wasp is very unusual," says Quicke.

The species name contains two jokes about big noses. "Cyranorogas" refers to Cyrano de Bergerac, a 17th-century French playwright who supposedly had a large nose, while "depardieui" refers to the actor Gérard Depardieu, who played Bergerac in a 1990 film.

Continued ...

Tiny wallaby among three newly discovered mammals in remote forest

An Australian-led expedition says it has discovered three new mammal species in Papua New Guinea, releasing for the first time a picture of one of the animals – a diminutive wallaby – to Guardian Australia.

More than 40 camera traps were set up in two little-studied mountains in the remote Torricelli range, in north-east Papua New Guinea, during the four-month study.

The Docopsulus wallaby, a small marsupial, was captured on camera, as well as a “Dumbo” mouse with giant ears, and an antechinus, a sort of shrew-like marsupial.

Euan Ritchie, an ecologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, partnered with the Tenkile Conservation Alliance, a group headed by Australians Jim and Jean Thomas which is dedicated to protecting tree kangaroos, for the project.

Continued

‘Lost’ bat species rediscovered after 120 years in the wilderness

By The Conversation

Saturday, May 31, 2014 9:57 EDT

Topics: Catherine Hughes

More than a century after it was “lost”, the New Guinea big-eared bat has been discovered by Queensland researchers working in Papua New Guinea’s forests. The critically endangered bat was thought to be extinct, and the discovery shows there is still much to learn about biodiversity in our region.

On July 25, 2012, Catherine Hughes and Julie Broken-Brow caught a small, female bat in a trap at the edge of a forest in southeast Papua New Guinea (PNG). But the bat didn’t match any species known to exist. And so began a fascinating detective story about a species that hadn’t been spotted for more than 120 years.

The land of the microbats

As part of a fauna survey, Catherine and Julie ventured into the lowland forests 200 km southeast of Port Moresby, in a region known as the Cloudy Bay Forest Management Area. The survey was part of a University of Queensland study, carried out with the permission of local landowners and sponsored by Cloudy Bay Sustainable Forestry Ltd, which manages the area.

Continued

Ocean Acidification robs reef fish of their fear of predators

Date:

April 13, 2014

Source:

Australian Institute of Marine Science

Summary:

Research on the behavior of coral reef fish at naturally-occurring carbon dioxide seeps in Milne Bay in eastern Papua New Guinea has shown that continuous exposure to increased levels of carbon dioxide dramatically alters the way fish respond to predators. 

Continued

Three New Species of Tiny Frogs from the Remarkable Region of Papua New Guinea

Sep. 20, 2013 — Three new species of tiny frogs from Papua New Guinea are described in the latest issue of Zookeys. Dr Fred Kraus, University of Michigan, who in 2011 in Zookeys described the world's smallest frogs Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa, now adds another 3 species from the genus Oreophryne to the remarkable diversity of this region.

The three new species Oreophryne cameroni, Oreophryne parkopanorum and Oreophryne gagneorum are all rather minute, with total body lengths of around 20 mm. These tiny frogs, however are still substantially larger than the species that claimed the smallest frog prize in 2011. Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa are only half of the length of the three new additions to the frog diversity of Papua New Guinea, with an astonishingly small body size ranging between 8-9 mm.

The subfamily to which the new species belong is largely restricted to New Guinea and its satellite islands. Of the constituent genera, Oreophryne is presently one of the largest within the Papuan Region.

"Although the description of the new species treated herein now brings to seven the number of Oreophryne species reported from the north-coast region of New Guinea, the presence from these areas of additional specimens of uncertain identity suggests that additional species likely await description," explains Dr Kraus about the diversity of the genus within the region. "I have at least a dozen more new Oreophryne species remaining to be described from this region, and large portions of this terrane system remain unsurveyed."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130920111444.htm

New species of sea slugs, feather stars and amphipods discovered in Papua New Guinea lagoon

Expedition led by Nova Southeastern University's National Coral Reef Institute discovers wealth of wildlife

March 2013. When Jim Thomas and his global team of researchers returned to the Madang Lagoon in Papua New Guinea, they discovered a treasure trove of new species unknown to science. This is especially relevant as the research team consisted of scientists who had conducted a previous survey in the 1990s.

"In the Madang Lagoon, we went a half mile out off the leading edge of the active Australian Plate and were in 6,000 metres of water," said Thomas, Ph.D., a researcher at Nova Southeastern University's National Coral Reef Institute in Hollywood, Fla. "It was once believed there were no reefs on the north coast of Papua New Guinea since there were no shallow bays and lagoons typical of most coral reef environments. But there was lots of biodiversity to be found."

New species
Thomas and his team discovered new species of sea slugs (nudibranchs), feather stars (crinoids) and amphipods (genus Leucothoe). There was more variety of these indicator species found than there is in the entire length of Australia's 1,600-mile Great Barrier Reef.

Amphipod (genus Leucothoe), discovered by

 Nova Southeastern University Professor Jim Thomas, Ph.D. 

(PRNewsFoto/Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center)

"This was an astonishing discovery," Thomas said. "We returned to our labs and began to formally assess our collections. We had no idea this lagoon's bounty was so profound."

The international team Thomas led included researchers from and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, the California Academy of Sciences and the National Botanical Gardens of Ireland. Their 3-week expedition ended late last year. While in Madang, they joined a large French contingent of scientists from the Paris Museum of Natural History. The NSU-led research team's findings will be shared with the local villagers, as well as regional and federal governments. It will also be published in peer-reviewed journals.

Environmental threats
The Madang Lagoon faces many environmental threats by land-based pollution from a recently opened tuna cannery whose outfall is very close to the lagoon's reefs. "Hopefully, our discoveries will strongly encourage governing bodies to recognize the environmental importance of the lagoon and work to stop the pollution," Thomas said.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/papua-lagoon.html

New Pacific Species Include Shrimp in a Sponge

Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer

A vast array of new species was recently discovered in the world's most spectacular reef you've never heard of, Madang Lagoon in Papua New Guinea.

"It is the most diverse reef in the world," said marine biologist Jim Thomas, a researcher at Nova Southeastern University's National Coral Reef Institute in Hollywood, Fla.

A new species of nudibranch discovered in

Madang Lagoon, Papua New Guinea.
CREDIT: Jim Thomas 

Madang Lagoon is also one of the world's most threatened coral reefs, Thomas added, imperiled by nearby industry. A World Bank-sponsored tuna cannery opened recently, drawing tiger sharks attracted to offal dumped offshore. Another 10 canneries are planned, Thomas said. Along the Ramu River, which drains into the lagoon, a massive nickel mine just started operation. The mining company dumps its sludge a mile offshore, but Thomas is concerned the sediment could contaminate the lagoon.

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/27592-new-reef-species-madang-lagoon.html

Papua New Guinea Alleged Cannibals Charged

CANBERRA, Australia -- Authorities have arrested 29 people accused of being part of a cannibal cult in Papua New Guinea's jungle interior and charged them with the murders of seven suspected witch doctors, police said Friday.

Madang Police Commander Anthony Wagambie confirmed a report in The National newspaper that said the cult members allegedly ate their victims' brains raw and made soup from their penises.

"They don't think they've done anything wrong; they admit what they've done openly," Wagambie told The Associated Press by telephone.

He said the killers believed that their victims practiced "sanguma," or sorcery, and that they had been extorting money as well as demanding sex from poor villagers for their supernatural services.

By eating witch doctors' organs, the cult members believed they would attain supernatural powers and literally become bullet-proof, he said.

"It's prevalent cult activity," Wagambie said. He said he believes there could be between 700 and 1,000 cult members in several villages in Papua New Guinea's remote northeast interior. All of them might have eaten human flesh, he said.

According to the report in The National, which is published in Papua New Guinea, 28 men and women appeared in a Madang court on Tuesday. Wagambie said they were charged with willful murder.

It was not clear what happened to the 29th suspect. Murder is punishable by death in Papua New Guinea, a poor South Pacific island nation.

Wagambie said the suspects were not required to plea to the murder charges and were being held in custody.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/papua-new-guinea-cannibals_n_1670688.html

Balls to that! Families stay out of popular rural lake after discovery of deadly fish 'that eats male genitals' - via Lindsay Selby

By James Nye

A popular Illinois lake is on guard after the discovery in its waters of the exotic pacu fish - infamous for killing men by ripping off their testicles.Families reported being wary of entering the waters of Lake Lou Yaeger after hearing that a pacu was caught by a fisherman on June 7 and that another one had been spotted two weeks later.Known in Papua New Guinea as 'The Ball Cutter', the pacu has reportedly been responsible for the deaths of two fishermen in the Pacific nation, who died from blood loss after the fish had bitten off their testicles.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2170276/Balls-Families-stay-popular-rural-lake-discovery-deadly-fish-eats-male-genitals.html#ixzz207AVDqsC

 

New 'Bumblebee' Gecko Species Creates Buzz

A new species of gecko with bumblebeelike black and yellow stripes has been discovered in Papua New Guinea.

Herpetologist Robert Fisher of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center found two bumblebee geckos in Sohoniliu Village on Manus Island in May 2010.

The lizard measures about 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) from head to tail, and in addition to its stripes, it sports rows of skin nodules, adaptations that enhance its camouflage on the tropical forest floor.

"We've officially named it Nactus kunan for its striking color pattern — kunan means 'bumblebee' in the local Nali language," Fisher said in a statement. "It belongs to a genus of slender-toed geckos, which means these guys don’t have the padded, wall-climbing toes like the common house gecko, or the day gecko in the car insurance commercials."

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/19768-bumblebee-gecko-discovered.html

World's smallest frog discovered

By Richard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC News

A frog species that appears to be the world's smallest has been discovered in Papua New Guinea by a US-based team.

At 7mm (0.27 inches) long, Paedophryne amauensis may be the world's smallest vertebrate - the group that includes mammals, fish, birds and amphibians.

The researchers also found a slightly larger relative, Paedophryne swiftorum.

Presenting the new species in PLoS One journal, they suggest the frogs' tiny scale is linked to their habitat, in leaf litter on the forest floor.

Finding the frogs was not an easy assignment.

They are well camouflaged among leaves on the forest floor, and have evolved calls resembling those of insects, making them hard to spot.

"The New Guinea forests are incredibly loud at night; and we were trying to record frog calls in the forest, and we were curious as to what these other sounds were," said research leader Chris Austin from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, US.

"So we triangulated to where these calls were coming from, and looked through the leaf litter.

"It was night, these things are incredibly small; so what we did after several frustrating attempts was to grab a whole handful of leaf litter and throw it inside a clear plastic bag.

"When we did so, we saw these incredibly tiny frogs hopping around," he told BBC News.

Littering the leaves

The Paedophryne genus was identified only recently, and consists of a number of tiny species found at various points in the eastern forests of Papua New Guinea.

Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16491477

Unique pig-nosed turtle is over-harvested in New Guinea

Unique pig-nosed turtle is over-harvested in New Guinea
By Matt Walker Editor, BBC Nature
Pig-nosed turtles are a unique species

Numbers of pig-nosed turtles have declined steeply over the past 30 years, researchers have discovered.

The unique reptile has become an international conservation icon, due to it having no close relatives and being considered the turtle most adapted to life underwater in freshwater ponds and rivers.
Yet demand for its eggs and meat in Papua New Guinea, one of the turtle's main homes, has led to the species being dramatically over-harvested by indigenous people.

Details of the decline are published in the journal Biological Conservation.

We estimated the decline in this pig-nosed turtle population to be more than 50% since 1981"
End Quote Biologist Carla Eisemberg University of Canberra

"Pig-nosed turtles are considered unique and unusual among freshwater species of turtles in many facets of their morphology, ecology and behaviour," Carla Eisemberg of the University of Canberra, Australia, told BBC Nature.

For example, embryonic pig-nosed turtles become male or female depending on the temperature of the ground their eggs are laid in, while fully developed embryos can delay their hatching.
The pig-nosed turtle is also of great interest to scientists because of its unique position in the turtle family tree.

It is the sole survivor of a once widespread family of turtles called the Carettochelyidae, and has a restricted global distribution, being only found in north Australia and New Guinea Island.
Despite living in freshwater, it is also resembles marine turtles.

"Similar to marine turtles, its limbs are paddle-shaped, but still possess movable digits," said Prof Eisemberg.

That means it might represent a stage of gradual evolution of turtles from freshwater to the sea, and the study of its ecology can help to understand the evolution of marine turtles.

"On the other hand, the similarities they share also make it vulnerable to the same threats that marine turtles face, such as harvesting of nests and adults," said Professor Eisemberg.

To find out what impact such harvesting may be having on the turtle, Professor Eisemberg surveyed the numbers of eggs and adult turtles nesting in the Kikori region of Papua New Guinea. Her team also studied how many turtles and eggs passed through local markets and were consumed in villages along rivers and the coast.

Scientist Mark Rose, now at Fauna and Flora International in Cambridge, UK, and a member of Professor Eisemberg's team, conducted a similar survey of pig-nosed turtle numbers between 1980 and 1982.
That allowed the scientists to directly compare how the turtle has fared over the past 30 years.

Pig-nosed turtle eggs and meat being sold by a lady from Lalau (Rumu Tribe) in the Sirebi Market in Kikori, PNG

Anecdotal evidence suggested that turtle numbers had fallen, but "we provided, for the first time, concrete evidence of a substantive decline in these pig-nosed turtle populations," said Prof Eisemberg.
The researchers found that villagers harvested more than 95% of monitored nests. Female turtles have also become smaller on average; bigger individuals have been removed from the wild population and the overall life expectancy of the species has fallen.

The team also discovered more than 160 adult female turtles that had been harvested in the study area.
Overall "we estimated the decline in this pig-nosed turtle population to be more than 50% since 1981," said Professor Eisemberg.

"Such a decline is likely to be widespread as the species is under similar pressures elsewhere in Papua New Guinea," she added.

"Highly prized as food, it is the most exploited turtle in New Guinea. Both turtle and eggs are collected for trade or consumption by local villagers.

"The pressure on pig-nosed turtle populations has increased in recent years, especially in Western Papua and Papua New Guinea."

Twenty three females caught in one night while nesting in a coastal island of Kikori
That is mainly due to the growth in human populations, a greater propensity for villages to establish on riverbanks following the cessation of tribal warfare and the introduction of new technologies, such as modern fishing gear, she said.

According to the scientists, conservation plans to save the turtle are urgently needed, and, even if implemented, it will take decades for the pig-nosed turtle to recover.

But these plans must be made sensitively, as the indigenous communities living in pig-nosed turtle habitat often rely on protein from the reptile to survive.

"We need to provide win win outcomes to both local and conservation communities," said Professor Eisemberg.