Hula Painted Frog Bounces Back From Extinction

A species of frog that was thought to have been made extinct during the drainage of the Hula marshlands in Israel, has appeared again after more than 50 years of hiding.

 The Palestinian or Hula painted frog (Discoglossus nigriventer) originally went missing when the Jewish National Fund drained the marshlands around the Hula Valley in the 1950s. The swamp was a breeding ground for malaria, and the disease was killing off the population. The JNF removed the water from the swamp and redirected the flow of water to the river Jordan with artificial estuaries.

The operation led to huge destruction of ecosystems, wiping out water plants, tropical aquatic ferns, the ray-finned fish Acanthobrama hulensis and the cichlid fish Tristramella intermedia. Until this week, it was thought that the hula painted frog was among the lost species. But a routine patrol at the Ha’Hula lake by Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority turned up a mysterious, unknown female frog and took it back to the lab for testing.

It was soon confirmed that it was a Hula painted frog, and the rare species had hung on amongst the devastation of its habitat.

Original article here.

High-Speed Video Shows How Hummingbirds Stay Dry

How does a hummingbird keep dry? A series of high-speed videos reveal that hummingbirds shake themselves like dogs. Of course, dogs don’t shake while balanced delicately in mid-air, flapping their wings 45 times per second. At a glance, that might not seem like a pressing problem. But for a bird that weighs a few grams and lives on a razor-thin margin of bioenergetic error, it’s a life-or-death matter. See more in the original article here.

Murmuration of Thousands of Starlings

The video above was taken at the River Shannon in Ireland. It shows thousands of starlings in shape-shifting flocks that are referred to as a "murmation."