Chile takes new steps to save endangered Darwin's frog
The initiative from the Chilean government's climate change and sustainability committee seeks to protect habitats and reproductive areas, including by working with private landowners.
The goal is to discover new populations, if possible, of Darwin's frog and substantially increase the area inhabited by current populations.
The frog, originally thought to be a single species, actually comprises two: the endangered Rhinoderma darwinii (Southern Darwin's frog) and the Rhinoderma rufum (Northern Darwin's frog), which is categorized as "critically endangered" and has already virtually disappeared.
The frog, which measures 3 cm (1.18 inches), was discovered in Chile's southern Chiloe islands by Charles Darwin during his 1834 trip around the world.
Forest fires, climate change, invasive species and urbanization have hurt the humid forests of southern Chile and Argentina where the Darwin's frog typically lives.
Charif Tala, head of the Environment Ministry's Species Conservation Department, said the fragmentation of Chile's forests has caused the number of populations in Chile and Argentina to decline to 62. The monitoring of frog populations only began in recent years, the ministry said, after a dramatic decline.
Andres Valenzuela, director of a Chilean advocacy nonprofit called NGO Ranita de Darwin, said he hoped the initiative would bring more awareness of the frog's plight to people throughout Chile.
"We are very hopeful that this will allow us to improve conservation ... and that the people of our country will begin to appreciate these unique and important species we have in our native forests," Valenzuela said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
Evangelists once used guns to convert the Amazon. Their new tool is deadly too
Five hundred years ago it was the horse, the plough and the gun that helped convert millions of indigenous people in South America to Christianity. Now evidence has emerged that 21st-century missionaries are, like their predecessors, using modern technology to proselytise. Last week, a joint investigation by the Brazilian newspaper O Globo and The Guardian revealed that solar-powered devices reciting biblical messages had been found by members of the Korubo people in the Javari valley, near the Brazil-Peru border. The discovery was troubling because of where it was made. The exceptionally remote valley is home to an estimated 6,000 people, including several thousand members of 11 'uncontacted' tribes living their lives in stone-age conditions. All are acutely vulnerable to diseases such as measles, which affects other societies less having gained partial immunity over hundreds of years of exposure. Since 1987, the Brazilian government has stipulated that no non-indigenous people can enter the area at all. Interaction with the uncontacted tribes is permitted only if they initiate the process. The situation is precarious, with loggers, miners, poachers, drug traffickers and missionaries all known to be active on the fringes of the region. The yellow and grey device found by the Korubo was, O Globo reported, the size of a mobile phone. It broadcast passages — apparently in Spanish and Portuguese — from the Bible, along with lectures by the late American Baptist evangelical Charles Stanley. It does not run out of power thanks to an built-in solar panel. 'This is very serious,' Ivaneide Bandeira of the Kanindé Association told The Sunday Times. The association lobbies for the rights of the people of the Amazon basin. The fact that a man-made device had been left so close to otherwise isolated people raised the risk of spreading diseases to them, she said. 'That radio has already passed through many hands and can itself lead to contamination.' Unfortunately, Bandeira said that deploying such gadgets was a highly effective way of attracting the uncontacted. 'They arouse curiosity — all human beings are curious.' • Amazon's last uncontacted tribes 'withdraw for their own survival' Any object that makes 'musical sounds' holds a particular allure to indigenous people, she added. The 16th-century missionaries used musical instruments when they first made contact, a practice fictionalised in the 1986 film The Mission when the Jesuit Father Gabriel, portrayed by Jeremy Irons, plays the oboe to a Guarani community. What can appear innocent or well intentioned is often a prelude to something far darker, she warned. 'It opens the door to people who will destroy the culture of indigenous people, their spirituality and eventually their lives. All contact, however well done, kills a lot of people.' She said that across the Amazon indigenous rituals were already being edged out by western culture, often introduced by missionaries. 'They learn the indigenous language and then the whole, powerful evangelisation process begins.' She described how the missionaries — in recent decades most often Protestants rather than Catholics — would bring clothes as gifts, which the local people would then be persuaded to wear 'to cover their shame'. She said they were also encouraged to marry, like good Christians. Weddings were often conducted 'in the white man's tradition' complete with veils and wreaths. Bandeira added that modern technology could give outsiders the appearance of possessing supernatural powers. 'They usually arrive in the villages and forests with a lot of antibiotics,' she said. 'They hand out medicines that cure illnesses faster than the ones the shamans give. This can convince people that the medicine comes from God.' The device reportedly found by the Korubo is one of a type distributed by a Baptist group, In Touch Ministries, based in Atlanta, Georgia. On its website the organisation describes its mission as being 'to lead people worldwide into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and to strengthen the local church'. The family of gadgets, known as Messengers, are distributed around the world. Some are specifically designed to bring the Gospel to places without reliable electricity or an internet connection. Seth Grey, chief operating officer at In Touch Ministries, told O Globo that his group used Messengers because they were effective. 'It's built for functionality, solar-powered, with a flashlight,' he said. 'Then they discover the content.' Grey said he personally delivered 48 of the devices to the Wai-wai people in the Amazon, four years ago. The Wai-wai are understood to have collaborated with American missionaries to convert other tribes since they were converted to Christianity in the 1950s. But Grey said Messengers should not be present in the Javari region. 'We don't go anywhere we are not allowed,' he insisted. Evangelism has been rising steadily in Brazil in recent decades. According to the country's latest census, released in June, those identifying as evangelical Christians now account for more than a quarter of all Brazilians. The country's historically dominant Catholic population saw its numbers fall in the same survey, from 65 per cent in 2010 to 57 per cent. Evangelicals have been especially successful in making inroads in the Amazon region. The former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing ex-soldier who was in office from 2019-23, actively courted the evangelical vote and was backed by several prominent pastors. In one of his most controversial moves as president, Bolsonaro sought to appoint a former evangelical missionary, Ricardo Lopes Dias, as the head of the government department tasked with protecting isolated and recently contacted indigenous tribes. Lopes Dias was linked to a missionary group whose explicit purpose was to convert 'unreached people' to Christianity. Appointing such a controversial figure purportedly to protect indigenous people was described by activists at the times as equivalent to 'putting a fox in charge of the hen house'. Eventually the appointment was blocked by the courts. By 2030 it is forecast that there will be more Brazilian evangelicals than Catholics. Pastors talk of the development as a 'revival' that should be duplicated around the world. But Bandeira questions whether this really is something to celebrate, especially if those numbers are being swelled by indigenous converts. She said her experience was that contact with evangelical missionaries eventually led to 'envy, and then division' inside the communities.
Telegraph
10 hours ago
- Telegraph
Rhino horns injected with radioactive material to deter poachers
Rhinos in South Africa will have their horns injected with radioactive material to deter poachers. A team from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) said the rhinos would not be harmed by a process that would allow smuggled horns to be tracked across the world. Hundreds of the animals are poached every year in South Africa, which has the largest rhino population in the world. The Rhisotope Project, which cost about £220,000, involved six years of testing and research, according to those involved. James Larkin, a Wits professor involved in the project, told the BBC: 'At least one animal a day is still being poached. ' I think the figures are only going to go one way if we don't watch out.... this is a significant tool to help reduce the numbers of poaching, because we're proactive rather than being reactive.' Prof Larkin said the study, which initially involved 20 rhinos, confirmed that radioactive isotopes could be stored inside their horns completely safely. The academics worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the project. They found that rhino horns stashed inside fully-sized metal shipping containers could be detected due to the radioactive isotopes – even at low levels. This could lead to the arrests of poachers and traffickers. The project was praised by animal rights activists, including Jamie Joseph, the director of the charity Saving the Wild, who said it was 'much needed'. He said: 'It's not the endgame – only better legislation and political will can bring an end to the rhino crisis. 'But it will certainly help disrupt the flow of horns leaving the country and help experts better map out the illegal channels by providing reliable data.' Around 500 rhinos were killed for their horns every year in South Africa since 2021, according to Save the Rhino, the conservation charity. Jessica Babich, head of the Rhisotope Project, said: 'Our goal is to deploy the Rhisotope technology at scale to help protect one of Africa's most iconic and threatened species. 'By doing so, we safeguard not just rhinos but a vital part of our natural heritage.' The International Union for Conservation of Nature has estimated that the global rhino population was 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century but has now declined to 27,000 due to continued demand for rhino horns on the black market.
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Google Maps users are baffled after spotting a mysterious FACE on a mountain top in Chile - as one claims it could be an 'alien base'
From UFOs buried in the Sahara Desert to mysterious doorways in Antarctica, Google Maps users have made dozens of wild discoveries over the years. But the latest sighting is one of the strangest yet. Eagle–eyed Google Maps users have spotted a mysterious face on a mountain top in Chile. The face is located on a remote island right at the south of the country – and some viewers claim it could be an ' alien base'. Scott C Waring, a UFO hunter who spotted the face, asked: 'Are these aliens? 'The oldest aliens in our universe might be seen as angels or demons with such even god or gods.' While Mr Waring believes this could be an alien base, not everyone is convinced. In fact, scientists say there is a much simpler explanation for this confounding illusion. Mr Waring spotted the face at the coordinates 55°32'35"S, 69°15'56"W while scouring Google Maps. He posted a video to YouTube revealing his finding, and many excited alien hunters were quick to comment. 'I found some in Antarctica I couldn't work out what they were or are at first I thought they were like some sort of digital error or random digital program issue but now I'm starting think your right and these could be like those ancient nasca glyphs but good find mate,' one user commented. Another added: 'This is truly the most significant find to date! Bravo!' And one wrote: 'You are the best. Thank you very much for your efforts.' There's a very good reason why all sorts of geological structures get mistaken for faces or skulls. When faced with a structure containing intricate and varied patterns, the brain turns this noisy, dynamic information into patterns and objects that we can understand. The brain gets this right most of the time, but sometimes certain predispositions cause errors which disturb our perceptions. Dr Robin Kramer, an expert on face perception from the University of Lincoln, told Daily Mail: 'Our face detection system has evolved to be great at detecting faces and it makes more sense to err on the side of caution by occasionally seeing faces where there aren't any, rather than missing faces where there are.' Scientists call this phenomenon pareidolia, which is a bias towards seeing meaningful patterns in inanimate objects. 'Face pareidolia explains why we might see faces in geological structures, as well as pretty much anything else,' Dr Kramer added. Scientists think that we evolved this sensitivity towards faces because it helped our ancestors find friends and spot enemies. For hunter-gatherers, it was better to briefly mistake a bush for your neighbour's animal than miss someone sneaking up on you. Professor Kevin Brooks, a psychologist at Macquarie University, told Daily Mail: 'We tend to classify anything vaguely face-like as a face until proven otherwise – it's safer that way. 'Evolutionary psychologists speculate that we evolved this mechanism to help our survival, and increase our chances of passing on our genes, bringing forth another generation of people who are also good at face detection.' Some people are more sensitive to faces and so might experience more pareidolia in their daily lives. Dr Susan Wardle, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, told Daily Mail that pareidolia isn't 'usually' a sign of any psychological or neurological issues. However, a high rate of pareidolia might be a sign of someone's bias towards believing in the paranormal. A Finnish study conducted in 2012 found that people with religious or paranormal beliefs were much more likely to see faces in random stimuli. This could explain why alien hunters seem to find faces or patterns in geological features so frequently. Dr Wardle concludes: 'Most people who see faces in things recognise that the faces are not real. 'Issues can arise when people interpret visual patterns to have meaning that they do not, or when they have difficulty distinguishing true perceptions from illusory ones.' WHY DO WE SEE FACES IN INANIMATE OBJECTS? Pareidolia is the psychological response to seeing faces and other significant and everyday items in random stimuli. It is a form of apophenia, when people see patterns in random, unconnected data. There have been multiple occasions when people have claimed to see religious images and themes in unexpected places. On the red planet, one of the most famous is the 'face on Mars' spotted by one of the Viking orbiters in 1976. This was later proven to just be a chance alignment of shifting sand dunes.
