:: New species found in Bolivia ::
In 2001 a friend of Earth-Info.Net's,
Ross MacLeod, mounted an
expedition to Bolivia, with colleagues from
Oxford and
Glasgow universities....
It has turned out that this expedition discovered
seven species new to science including
two frogs,
two snakes, two toads + a lizard. They also extended the range of a bird called the
Screech Owl by 1000km.
Ross says "There's a very high rate there of endemism, species that don't exist anywhere else. It's almost as though a different species had evolved in each valley..."
In fact this expedition has been such a success that Ross and his team have now received backing from the
BP Conservation Programme, a partnership between
BirdLife International and
Fauna & Flora International (sponsored by
BP).
The next stage of this project (which will help Bolivian conservation agencies to draw up management plans + document species) has also won core funding from the UK's
Darwin Initiative and will be collaborating with
Conservation International and the
Wildlife Conservation Society...
Great stuff!
Good luck, Ross.