MATT SALUSBURY IS BACK FROM INDIA

I recently returned from my investigation into alleged “kallana” pygmy elephants in and around Neyyar-Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, South India. These elephants are supposed to have a height of 5ft (1.5m) at the shoulder – or less – in adulthood, and are particularly nimble, scrambling over rocks at great speed. (Conventionally-sized adult Asian elephants on the Indian sub-continent start at around 7ft at the shoulder and up.)

A full write-up of my kallana reconnaissance will appear in my forthcoming book, Pgymy Elephants, to be published by CFZ Press later this year. Meanwhile, I will have to be a bit vague, and refrain from publishing some of my photos, as I’m in talks with BBC Wildlife Magazine about a possible travel piece for their August issue, and they want first dibs on pictures and the story.

Read on

DAVEY CURTIS WRITES

Dear Jon,

Whilst talking some "Arty Farty" shots of Hexham Abbey I accidently snapped this bird zooming passed. Is it a Kestrel? A Goshawk? I cannot tell. Help!


Regards Davey C

THE ORANGE TIP SAGA CONTINUES

As regular readers will know, Graham and I were very pleased last week to be able to confirm that the Orange Tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) has returned to the lanes around Woolsery after something like a thirty year absence. However, the plot thickens.

In North Devon the primary foodplant for Anthocharis cardamines is Cardamine pratensis, known as the Ladies Smock, or Cuckoo Flower (or locally, Meadowsweet, although this is generally used for a totally different flower).





It has always been locally common, but this year it is EVERYWHERE. Just check out these pictures of the bank next to Asda (below) and the corner of the CFZ lawn.

There must be some link between the population explosion in Cardamine pratensis and the re-occurence of the butterflies, but what is it? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?





Please give me your ideas on this because I am getting monumentally obsessed with the conundrum..

HURRAH! There is an Unconvention this year

It is in London on 12th and 13th November. More news as we get it..

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1963 Russell T. Davis was born. Davis was instrumental in the return of Doctor Who to television and the show-runner for the times of the 9th and 10th Doctors.
And now the news:

American bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus (Shaw, 1...
Ratting out Sydney's cane toad menace (Via HerpDi...
Austrian frogs pinched by Italians (Via HerpDiges...
Conservationists sound alarm over Madagascar's Rad...
Satellite tracking of sea turtles reveals potentia...
Olive Ridley baby turtles emerge from mass nesting...
Male snake choose to 'abandon food source than los...
Giant tortoises show rewilding can work (Via HerpD...
ARKive (Via Herp Digest)
Mitigating Amphibian Disease: Strategies to mainta...
Stalking the wild salamanders of Manhattan (Via He...
Future of Asian snakes at stake (Via Herp Digest)
Louisiana, Florida Residents Differ on Views of Lo...
Giant Fire-Bellied Toad's Brain Brims With Powerfu...
Impact of the experimental removal of lizards on L...
Researchers jump to a conclusion on toads' breedin...

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5qc-xPNp6k

POLY STYRENE (1957-2011) The world is once again a poorer place today.

DALE DRINNON: Muhuru, Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu and the Megacrocs of East Africa

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/04/muhuru-mbielu-mbielu-mbielu-and.html