Speaking of Politics, Three New Species of Toads Discovered #Science #Biology #Environment

A recently discovered new species of toad, the Dixie Valley toad, was found by a team from the University of Nevada, Reno in a spring-fed marsh in the Great Basin of Nevada, which was once covered by large marshes and giant inland lakes during the Pleistocene Epoch and is now among the most arid regions in the United States with only one percent of the landscape containing water. 

Credit: Mike Wolterbeek, University of Nevada, Reno.

Phys.org:  Rare discovery of three new toad species in Nevada's Great Basin

What do you know, it's a pretty toad and definitely not one of those giant galumphing cane toads which plague Australia since it's only a few inches long.

Note:  introducing cane toads to Australia from Nicaragua was yet another ecological disaster clever humans perpetrated.


The Rockhouse digs these toads in part because they're such incredible survivors.  They started out in a time when water was plentiful in the Nevada region but it's nearly a desert now yet some of these toads still survive and the Dixie Valley toad is one of them.

The Rockhouse also digs toads because of Mister Toad in "The Wind in the Willows" since I've loved that maniac ever since I was a child and that was the first book I ever read.  There's been more than one of Mister Toad's Wild Rides in my own life ... and I'm glad.


There's likely to be an eco-battle coming since there's a power company which wants to build near the last habitat of the Dixie Valley toad and that construction will probably render them extinct by destroying the last of their habitat.  People have forgotten spotted owls but this will be the same story since the battle lines are readying themselves now.

Note to self:  must discover current status of the spotted owl.

Update:  the spotted owl survives but it's in near-threatened status due to habitat destruction.  (WIKI: Spotted owl)


There's a bit of the personal with this one since we saw how that sorry bastard of a dentist, Walter Palmer, killed Cecil the Lion and that was awful but some other game hunter just capped Cecil's son.  Those savage bestialities apparently weren't satisfied to kill Cecil and we see they want to wipe out his entire bloodline.