Latest Zoological Society of London Stories

Nearly one out of every five vertebrates in the world are currently threatened with extinction--and things would be worse were it not for the efforts of conservationists across the globe--a new study set to be published in the journal Science has discovered.The research, carried out by a team of 174 international scientists, analyzed data from some 25,000 species currently listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species to discover the...

Common frog (Rana temporaria) populations across the UK are suffering dramatic population crashes due to infection from the emerging disease Ranavirus, reveals research published in the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) journal Animal Conservation.Using data collected from the public by the Frog Mortality Project and Froglife, scientists from ZSL found that, on average, infected frog populations experienced an 81 per cent decline in adult frogs over a 12 year period."Our findings show...

With a simple click of the camera, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Zoological Society of London have developed a new way to accurately monitor long-term trends in rare and vanishing species over large landscapes.Called the "Wildlife Picture Index," (WPI) the methodology collects images from remote "camera traps," which automatically photograph anything that lopes, waddles, or slinks past. These virtual photo albums "“ sometimes containing thousands...

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) are requesting that the Government of Tanzania reconsider the proposed construction of a commercial road through the world's best known wildlife sanctuary"”Serengeti National Park"”and recommend that alternative routes be used that can meet the transportation needs of the region without disrupting the greatest remaining migration of large land animals in the world.At issue is the proposed Arusha-Musoma...

The first ever pictures of the Horton Plains slender loris, a rare and endangered breed of primate that had long been thought extinct, have been captured by scientists at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), according to a Monday press release from the conservation organization.According to the ZSL, there were only four sightings of this loris subspecies from 1939 through 2002, which led many scientists to believe that they had all died out. However, as part of the ZSL's "Edge of...

Parks need urgent support to halt loss of key speciesAfrican national parks like Masai Mara and the Serengeti have seen populations of large mammals decline by up to 59 percent, according to a study published in Biological Conservation.The parks are each visited by thousands of tourists each year hoping to spot Africa's 'Big Five' "“ lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino "“ but the research shows that urgent efforts are needed to secure the future of the parks and their role in...

Fewer males than females are surviving the negative effects of inbreeding in a reintroduced population of a rare New Zealand bird, reports new research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.Studying a population of the endangered New Zealand Hihi, researchers from the Zoological Society of London found that male survival rate was 24 per cent lower than their female siblings during early development, and as chicks.The researchers analysed 98 clutches on Tiritiri Matangi Island, a...

The world's most ancient frogs may soon be mined to extinction, if the New Zealand government's plans to open up a conservation area for mining go ahead.The primitive Archey's frog (Leiopelma archeyi) and Hochstetter's frog (Leiopelma hochstetteri) are two of the species that inhabit the area of 'high conservation value' on New Zealand's North Island where the mining is planned to take place.Archey's frog is currently ranked top of the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) EDGE of Existence...

Common toads (Bufo bufo) can detect impending seismic activity and alter their behavior from breeding to evacuation mode, suggests a new study in the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) Journal of Zoology.Researchers from The Open University reported that 96 percent of male toads in a population abandoned their breeding site five days before the earthquake that struck L'Aquila in Italy in 2009. The breeding site was located 74 km from the earthquake's epicenter.The number of paired toads at...

A new assessment of the Arctic's biodiversity reports a 26 percent decline in species populations in the high Arctic.Populations of lemmings, caribou and red knot are some of the species that have experienced declines over the past 34 years, according to the first report from The Arctic Species Trend Index (ASTI), which provides crucial information on how the Arctic's ecosystems and wildlife are responding to environmental change.While some of these declines may be part of a natural cycle,...