英国评出百大最怪异濒危两栖动物 中国娃娃鱼居首/中国日报

英国评出百大最怪异濒危两栖动物 中国娃娃鱼居首
[环球在线 2008-01-22 09:16 ]
中国日报网站环球在线消息：自然界有很多奇形怪状的动物人们还没有机会见到，但它们已经濒临灭绝了。英国的伦敦动物学会（ZSL）日前评出了100个最奇特同时生存受威胁的两栖动物。一方面，它们在生物学和进化史上具有重要而独特的价值，另一方面，它们的现状都岌岌可危。
据英国《每日电讯报》1月21日报道，据该机构估计，在上榜的100种两栖动物中，有85%受到很少保护，或根本无人顾及。如果继续置之不理，它们将永远消失。该项目负责人乔纳森•贝利博士形容这些动物是“煤矿里的金丝雀”，对我们的生态环境具有指示性作用。“他们对能导致物种灭绝的气候变化和污染高度敏感，能对即将发生的事情发出警示。如果我们失去它们，那么其它的物种也将不可避免地步其后尘。”
负责这一动物保护项目协调工作的海伦•梅雷迪思表示：“这些动物可能看起来并不可爱，也没有让人想拥抱的欲望。但希望它们奇异的样子和不同寻常的行为能激起人们的保护欲。”
ZSL已经从名单中选出10种在今年将受到优先保护的动物，资金和人力的投入也将向它们进行倾斜。虽然榜上还有些其它动物被认为是更罕见、更具价值，但它们此前已经引起动物保护者的关注。
十大怪异&濒危两栖动物

1．中国娃娃鱼（Chinese giant salamander）
娃娃鱼学名大鲵，因“唔哇、唔哇”的叫声酷似婴儿啼哭而得名，是中国独有的珍稀两栖有尾动物，主要栖息在洞穴、暗河中，其历史可以追溯到3.5亿年前，素有“活化石”之称。它也是目前世界上现存的最大两栖动物，最大体长能达到1.8米。

2．肯尼亚萨嘎拉蚓螈（Sagalla caecilian ）
蚓螈是一种无足目两栖动物，没有腿，是现存唯一完全没有四肢的两栖动物，也基本无尾或仅有极短的尾，头部两侧有触须，可以探测捕食者的化学信号。多数蚓螈也象蚯蚓一样穴居，生活在湿润的土壤中。

3．紫蛙（Purple frog ）
顾名思义，紫蛙全身紫色，一年中大部分时间都在4米深的地下度过，是2003年才在印度被发现的。

4．南非鬼蛙（Ghost frogs of South Africa）
南非鬼蛙因为在南非骷髅峡谷的人类坟场被发现而得名。

5．洞螈（Olm）
蝾螈（又称火蜥蜴）的一种，它们没有眼睛，皮肤是透明的，终生栖息在地下水形成的暗洞内，时常将鼻孔伸出水面呼吸空气。在光照下肤色可变成黑色，回暗洞后肤色又恢复原状。它可以通过气味和电感能力捕捉猎物，并在不进食的情况下生存10年。

6．墨西哥无肺蝾螈（Lungless salamanders of Mexico）
一种极度濒危的蝾螈，它没有肺，完全靠皮肤或口腔呼吸。

7．马达加斯加彩蛙（Malagasy rainbow frog）
一种色彩艳丽的蛙，当受到威胁时身体膨胀，能在垂直的岩壁上爬行
8．智利达尔文蛙（Chile Darwin's frog）
这种小型蛙生活在南美洲的大部分地区，它们抚育幼蛙的方式与众不同——雄蛙用舌头将蝌蚪卷进喉咙，让蝌蚪在那里生长。当蝌蚪长到大约1厘米长时，雄蛙便张开嘴，让蝌蚪们跳出去。由雄性来抚育幼蛙成长，这是非常罕见的。这个物种的发现直到1980前后才被正式确认，但还没有人拍摄到活体照片，而且自 1978年以来就没出再被看到过，现在可能已经灭绝。

9．西班牙博提克的产婆蟾（Betic midwife toad）
产婆蟾照理应是雌性癞蛤蟆的称呼，但实际执行产婆任务的却是雄性，在雌蟾排出一长串透明的卵带后，雄蟾就排出液体，使卵带里的一个个黑色的卵子受精，并把长长的卵带缠绕在自己腿上，趴在浅水塘里一动不动地哺育孵化。这个物种有1.5亿年的进化史。

10．加德纳岛的塞舌蛙（Gardiner's Seychelles frog）
这大概是世界上体型最袖珍的蛙，成年蛙的体长只有11毫米，相当于一个图钉的直径。
（康娟）
[附]2005年BBC对因被部食而大量减少的报道
Monday, 19 September 2005, 09:01 GMT 10:01 UK
Hunting threat to big amphibians
By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website, Washington DC

Giant salamander numbers have fallen sharply
Illegal hunting is bringing the Chinese giant salamander, the world's largest amphibian, to the brink of extinction.
Numbers of the salamander, which can grow to 50kg (110lb), have fallen sharply in recent decades.
Ways to stem the decline of amphibians are being discussed at a meeting in Washington DC, which will end with the launch of a global action plan.
Some experts think the giant salamander can become a flagship conservation species like the tiger and elephant.
With a maximum length of a metre and a half (5ft), the giant salamanders of China and Japan are truly huge compared with other amphibians.
They are easy to catch, hiding in rock crevasses during the day, and people know where to find them
Michael Lau, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden
But their very size makes them easy and lucrative prey for hunters, who can sell the flesh for around US$100 per kg (£30 per lb).
They are protected species; but in China, illegal hunting is bringing them within sight of extinction.
How many there are left nationally is not known; but where populations have been studied, falls of around 80% in three generations - about 45 years - have been registered.
UNSUSTAINABLE USE
How amphibian species are being overexploited around the world

In pictures
"In the 1960s, more than 15,000 kg were harvested each year from one single prefecture in Hunan province," Michael Lau, an amphibian and reptile specialist at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Hong Kong, told the BBC News website.
"Then in the 1970s, only around 2,500 to 3,000 could be harvested each year. They are easy to catch, hiding in rock crevasses during the day, and people know where to find them."
Over-harvesting
Dr Lau chairs the working group looking at "over-harvesting" of amphibians at the Washington summit.
The group has collated evidence showing that a large number of species are being collected at unsustainable levels, for food, medicine, and the pet trade; it is one factor, though not the biggest, behind the global decline in amphibians which sees almost a third of species at some risk of extinction.
Frogs of the Phyllomedusa genus are used as a hallucinogen (Image: Esteban Lavilla)
More than 30 varieties of amphibian are used in Chinese traditional medicine use.
"China is the country where this is the biggest problem," said Dr Lau, "but in many South-East Asian countries, frog is a staple food item.
"There is also a problem with African species such as the goliath frog from Cameroon, the largest frog in the world, which is hunted as food; and then there is the pet trade, with animals like the Mantellas from Madagascar."
In the market
The meeting here also heard of widespread hunting for food and medicine in south and central America.
"In various parts of Bolivia and Peru, for example, frogs are eaten as food by locals and by tourists," Esteban Lavilla from the Fundacíon Miguel Lillo in Argentina told the BBC News website.
"Some recipes call for 30 frogs for a single dish. Then you have local people taking them for medicine as well; and there are connections to magic, so that for example the picture of someone may be put in the mouth of a frog and the mouth sewn up - that would be someone that you don't like."
The deliberations here have concluded that a range of actions is needed to combat over-harvesting; developing specific plans for each threatened species, raising awareness among local people, monitoring trade, lobbying for law enforcement and introducing programmes of sustainable use where appropriate.
But the problem remains that some species are needed as a staple source of protein, while others are highly profitable.
Changing of the times
Michael Lau believes that attitudes towards amphibians are changing down the human generations.
Giant salamanders of China and Japan are the world's biggest amphibians (Image: Gerry Marantelli)
"In Hong Kong people ate all kinds of animals in the 1960s - frogs, snakes, birds and so on.
"But nowadays the young people don't want to eat them - the mainstream sentiment has shifted to conserving wildlife.
"If older people want to eat them now, they have to go across the border."
For some species, like the Chinese giant salamander, the question is whether mainstream sentiment will change fast enough to prevent them disappearing completely.