RTPI’s Twan Leenders Invited to Speak at Costa Rica’s International Herpetological Symposium IV
Costa Rica is home to 5% of the planet’s biodiversity. Though small in geographic area, the country has one of the highest densities of reptiles and amphibians species in the world with more than 440 species. From September 6 – 9, 2018, the Selva Verde Lodge and Private Reserve in the lowland tropical rainforests of Sarapiquí, Costa Rica hosted the fourth International Herpetological Symposium. This event featured presentations and lectures on the conservation, taxonomy, ecology, and biology of reptiles and amphibians. Symposium attendees participated in conferences and field...
Read MoreRTPI’s President Delivers Keynote Address at International Herpetological Symposium
Twan Leenders, president of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History (RTPI) and a conservation biologist with 25 years of experience working with endangered amphibians and reptiles will be the opening speaker of the 41st annual International Herpetological Symposium (IHS), which is held from June 20-23 at the Houston Zoo in Houston, Texas. “Some level of environmental awareness is everybody’s responsibility; this symposium will be a great gathering of the minds and we are all committed to finding ways to communicate our collective knowledge to other scientists, naturalists, and...
Read MoreBejeweled Journeyer
If you look closely, you will notice a metal band on the leg of this young Ruby-throated Hummingbird. It serves to identify unique individuals of these tiny birds and allows biologists to track their migration path. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds breed in the eastern USA during the summer, but they spend the winter in lower Central America. This bird was banded on an RTPI project in western Costa Rica and returned to the same site a year later, after it had made another successful trip to North America – a journey of at least 4,000 miles. Impressive for a bird that weighs not much more than a...
Read MoreRemarkable Recapture
Golden-winged Warblers are among the most imperiled birds in North America. Their numbers have plummeted nearly 70% in the past 50 years, and this species continues to decline at a staggering 2.5% each year. Outside of their core breeding range in the upper Great Lakes Region (mostly Minnesota and Wisconsin) they have just about disappeared altogether, and several northeastern states now no longer have viable populations of Golden-winged Warblers around. What causes these declines? Well, a number of factors play a role here. Golden-winged Warblers prefer to live in open, wet areas that are...
Read MoreA Frog that Few Have Laid Eyes On
Here is a frog that few have ever laid eyes on – Legler’s Tree Frog (Ptychohyla legleri). This is one of the target species of RTPI Director Twan Leenders’ recent trip to the mountains of Costa Rica where he joined RTPI Research Associate Alex Shepack in surveys of imperiled amphibian populations. Legler’s Tree Frog is an endangered species with a very small and highly fragmented distribution range. It is the only species in its genus in lower Central America; its nearest relatives are found in northern Nicaragua and countries north of there. This recently metamorphed individual was found...
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