Photo in the News: "Nonexistent" Flying Fox Discovered

This unusual species of flying fox was recently discovered in the Philippines not long after it was deemed not to exist.
Jake Esselstyn, a biologist with the University of Kansas, was among a team of researchers that found the animal, a type of fruit bat, last year while surveying forest life on the island of Mindoro (see Philippines map).
"When we first arrived on Mindoro, a local resident that we hired as a guide described the bat to me in great detail, and he asked me what it was called," Esselstyn said.
"I politely told him that there was no such bat. I was wrong."
Several days into the survey, the scientists accidentally captured a creature in a net that fit the guide's description: a large flying fox with bright orange fur and distinctive white stripes across its brow and jaw.
"Our guide's description of the animal was quite accurate, and I had to apologize for not believing him," Esselstyn said, adding that the animal is now known as the Mindoro stripe-faced fruit bat.
In his own defense, the scientist pointed out that the species' closest known relative lives some 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) away on an island in Indonesia.
"It makes you wonder if there are other related species on islands between [the two]," he said.
"It also makes you realize how there are probably many more species which have yet to be discovered—in the Philippines and elsewhere," Esselstyn added.
"This discovery emphasizes the need for a great deal more basic biodiversity inventory research."
—Blake de Pastino
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Photograph courtesy Harvey Garcia

"Golden" Poison Frog Discovered

The colorful new species of toxic frog can only be found in a patch of Colombian forest the size of ten city blocks.
It's a good thing this frog is small, because it doesn't have much room to maneuver.

This newly discovered species of poison frog is a mere 0.8 inch (2 centimeters) long and exists only in a patch of forest about the size of ten city blocks.

Scientists discovered the tiny amphibian in February while surveying the high-elevation cloud forests of central Colombia.

The animal, dubbed the golden frog of Supatá, has a range of just 50 acres (20 hectares), which experts say may explain why it had not been discovered earlier.

The new species belongs to a group of dart frogs, some of which are extremely toxic, said Giovanni Chaves, a biologist with the nonprofit Conservation Leadership Program that organized the expedition.

"They possess [compounds] that can be very toxic if they are ingested or have contact with any mucous [membrane] or open wound," he said.

But the real danger in the region is not the frog, Chaves said—it's the mounting environmental threats that are encroaching on the animal's slim habitat.

"This frog exists in a little fragment of cloud forest that is under intense anthropogenic pressure, mainly the destruction of the forest for cattle-raising and agriculture," he said.

"This discovery allows us to know a little more about the ecology of these beautiful animals, and it will also allow us to use it as a symbol to carry out campaigns of environmental education in this area, to show the need to protect and to conserve the fauna and flora of this region of Colombia."