EXOTICS NEWS

The latest from the world of exotic animals

the youngster at a boost. Nick-named “Dobby” – the calf has now been sexed as a female. Dave White, team manager at the zoo, said: “This is the very first aardvark to be born at the zoo and so it’s a momentous landmark for us and a real cause for celebration. We’re overjoyed”. There are 66 aardvarks in European zoos, with 109 in world zoos.

The Closure of the Fifth Oldest Zoo in the World

After 186 years, Bristol Zoo - the fifth oldest zoo in the world announced that it will permanently close on the 3rd September 2022. During the past 18 months over 100 species have left the iconic collection, leaving mainly species that will be retained for the “new Bristol Zoo” to be created at the Wild Place Project (the zoo`s sister-site) in 2024. Species such as the Lowland gorillas will be provided with a new woodland facility along with cherry-crowned mangabeys, African grey parrots and slender-snouted crocodiles. In due course black rhinos will be also brought into the new collection.

Rare Ape Born

At Twycross Zoo a bonobo named “Upendi” was born to 25 year-old female “Cheka”, the infant is the first born at the zoo since 2019. Twycross Zoo`s group numbers 13 individuals and is the only place in the U.K. where you can see this species.

Snakes Hatch at Dudley Zoo

Beaded Lizards at Beale

Two Rio Fuerte beaded lizards (Heloderma exasperatum) – named “Tequila” and “Jalapeno” have arrived at Beale Wildlife Park in Pangbourne, the species is native to Western Mexico and is one of the less commonly seen of the four species of beaded lizard species to be seen in U.K. collections, it was given full species status in 2013.

Aardvark Baby

Chester Zoo have successfully bred their first aardvark. Born on the 4th January to 8 year-old female “Oni”, and sired by six year-old male “Koos”, the calf was only half the normal body weight of new-born aardvarks at 2lb. So staff commenced supplementary night feeds for five weeks to help build give

Two red-tailed green rat snakes (Gonyosoma oxycephalum) have hatched in Dudley Zoo`s Reptile House. The tiny hatchlings, who are native to Southeast Asia, have been named “Noodle” and “Ramen” and are currently off-show.

A female can lay a clutch of three to eight eggs up to four times a year and incubation takes between 13 – 16 weeks, with the babies measuring around 45cm in size. They can live up to 20 years, but they are decreasing in number due to being poached for their colourful skin.

New Species - The “Tapir-Frog”

The people of Peru’s Comunidad Nativa Tres Esquinas have long known about a tiny, burrowing frog with a long snout; one local name for it is rana danta, “tapir frog” for its resemblance to the large-nosed Amazonian mammal. But until now, this frog has remained elusive to biologists. Now thanks to the help of local guides, an international team of researchers was able to find the frog and give it an official scientific name and description.

“These frogs are really hard to find, and that leads to them being understudied,” says Michelle Thompson, a researcher in the Keller Science Action Center at Chicago’s Field Museum and one of the authors of a study describing the frog in Evolutionary Systematics. “It’s an example of the Amazon’s hidden diversity, and it’s important to document it to understand how important the ecosystem functions.”

“Frogs of this genus are spread throughout the Amazon, but since they live underground and can’t get very far by digging, the ranges each species is distributed in are fairly small. Since we found this new species in the Amazon peatland, it wouldn’t be strange for it to be restricted to this environment. Its body shape and general look seems to be adapted to the soft soil of the peatland, rather than the robust and wider shape of species in other environments, ”says Germán Chávez, a researcher at Peru’s Instituto Peruano de Herpetología and the study’s first author.

But while the frogs are hard to see, they’re not hard to hear. “We just kept hearing this beep-beep-beep coming from underground, and we suspected it could be a new species of burrowing frog because there had recently been other species in its genus described,” says Thompson. Local guides who were familiar with the frogs led the researchers to peatland areas-- wetlands carpeted with nutrient-rich turf made of decaying plant matter. The team searched by night, when the frogs were most active. “We could hear them underground, going beep-beep-beep, and we’d stop, turn off our lights, and dig around, and then listen for it again,” says Thompson. “After a few hours, one hopped out of his little burrow, and we captured it’”

The researchers used the physical specimens of the frogs, along with the recordings of their calls and an analysis of the frogs’ DNA, to confirm that they were a new species. They named them Synapturanus danta -- Synapturanus is the genus they belong to, and danta is the local word for “tapir.”

New Frog Found in India

A study led by Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), has described the discovery of a new frog species in freshwater sources along all the states that the Western Ghats.

The Jaladhara skittering frog (Euphlyctis jaladhara), was actually first spotted in the Deccan plateau and the western ghats in India over two centuries ago. In 2017 this frog was spotted in the Thattekad Bird Sanctuary in Kerala, then the species was later spotted during subsequent forest surveys focusing on freshwater bodies in Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

But the latest scientific study, published in the journal Zootaxa, involved the researchers adopting an integral taxonomic approach, examining the morphology, the genetics and geographical mapping of the species. Among the characteristics that distinguish Jaladhara from other skittering frogs are larger sized females than the males, equal head size and width, and colour patterns on the ventral-side. Since the newly discovered amphibian survives in freshwater, water pollution and drying of the sources remain a threat to their existence, the researchers said.

Chimpanzees Observed Treating Wounds with Crushed Insects

Findings published in the journal Current Biology contribute to the ongoing debate about empathy among animals.

The project began in Gabon in 2019, when an adult female chimpanzee named “Suzee” was observed inspecting a wound on the foot of her adolescent son. “Suzee” then suddenly caught an insect out of the air, put it in her mouth, apparently squeezed it, and then applied it to her son’s wound. After extracting the insect from the wound, she applied it two more times.

Scientists observed this behaviour in chimpanzees in the West African nation of Gabon, noticing that the apes not only use insects to treat their own wounds, but also those of their peers. The research, published in the journal Current Biology, marks an important contribution to ongoing scientific debate about the ability of chimpanzees – and of animals in general – to selflessly help others.

The scene unfolded in Loango National Park on Gabon’s Atlantic coast, where researchers were studying a group of 45 central chimpanzees. Over the following 15 months, scientists saw chimpanzees administer the same treatment on themselves at least 19 times.

And on two other occasions they observed injured chimpanzees being treated in the same way by one or several fellow apes. The wounds, sometimes several centimetres wide, can come from conflicts between members of same or an opposing group. Far from protesting against the treatment, the bruised chimpanzees were happy to be tended to.

Researchers have not been able to identify what bug was used on the wounds, but they believe it to be a flying insect given the chimpanzees’ rapid movement to catch it.