Sunday, August 10, 2008

Tiny

Readers of The Song of the Dodo know that Islands are often homes to very large (as in the Dodo, the largest pigeon, on Mauritius or Dragons on Komodo) or very small animals.

Case in point: the latest herpetological discoveries from the Caribbean.

A small island off the coast of Dominica harbors the World's smallest lizard whilst Barbados, the smallest snake.
So far, that is - as always in science, new discoveries are bound to loom.



Like this one: researchers report the discovery of more than 100,000, hitherto unknown Western Lowland Gorillas (the kind mostly kept in Zoos) from two areas in the northern part of the Congo. Yes, they remain threatened by habitat degradation, the hunt for bush meat and Ebola, but it triplicates the estimates for the species nevertheless.

Alas, no such good news for Sharks.
But still, a good day for anybody interested in Nature.

No comments: