Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World

My Tumblr

• 
  

  rhamphotheca:

  Four-Foot Salamander Arrives in London as Face of New Conservation Effort

  Dubbed Professor Wu, the new arrival could help the Zoological Society of London’s efforts to save the critically endangered animal.

  by Mary Bates

  With his tiny eyes, sly grin, and slimy skin, Professor Wu may sound like an odd poster child.

  But the Chinese giant salamander, which recently arrived at the Zoological Society of London’s London Zoo, is the face of a new effort to save the world’s largest amphibians by, in part, working with China’s salamander farmers to discourage hunting and establishing a breeding facility in the country.

  Habitat destruction and a Chinese appetite for the creatures has led to an 80 percent decline in their numbers in recent decades, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists them as critically endangered.

  The 19-year-old Professor Wu—named after one of the conservation project’s partners in China—is the only Chinese giant salamander in the U.K…

  (read more: National Geographic)

  photograph by Ben Tapley

• 
  

  rhamphotheca:

  Chinese Giant Salamander Conservation

  The Chinese giant salamander is ranked second of more than 4,000 amphibians on the EDGE amphibians list, which prioritises Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species for conservation attention.

  The Chinese giant salamander has been identified as the EDGE amphibian most in need of conservation action.

  The Critically Endangered Chinese giant salamander is the world’s largest living amphibian, reaching lengths of more than 1.8m. It belongs to a small and ancient group of salamanders that diverged from their closest relatives during the Jurassic period over 170 million years ago…

  (read more: Zoological Society of London)

  
  
• 
  

  howtoseewithoutacamera:

  by Willy Ronis

  Paris, 1954. Les chats de Willy Ronis (via)