JPN Press: Pet dealers target newfound newt

YOMIURI SHIMBUN (Tokyo, Japan) 24 April 06 Pet dealers target newfound newt (Hiroshi Masumitsu)
About 100 newts of a species first identified in 2002 have been caught in Laos by Japanese pet dealers and sold in Japan, to the alarm of researchers who believe the trade could be endangering the existence of the creature.
The discovery of the Laos Warty Newt, whose Latin name is Paramesotriton laoensis, was announced in a paper written by Bryan Stuart, a researcher of the Field Museum in Chicago, and others in 2002. Since the extent of the newt's habitat is not yet known, no regulations have been established on trade in the amphibian.
Stuart and others discovered the newt in 1999 in northern Laos, with support from Wildlife Conservation Society, a New York-based nature protection organization.
The newt is about 15-20 centimeters long and has a black body with yellow warts or striations. It inhabits stagnant streams that flow in valleys.
According to Stuart, a pet dealer of Ibaraki Prefecture visited the area earlier this year and caught about 100 of the creatures. The dealer brought them back to Japan and started selling them at stores and on the Internet.
Other dealers in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka began selling them as well, touting the salamander as a "very rare species" or a "new arrival." A newt is priced at about 20,000 yen, and a male-female pair sells for about 40,000 yen. One dealer said, "They sold out almost immediately."
Stuart said the detailed description of the newt in his paper, which is necessary to protect the species, ended up popularizing the amphibian as a pet. The paper ended being used in a way that negated its original purpose of protecting the species, he said.
The researchers will soon begin a protection project with the cooperation of the Laotian government.
"I brought back about 100 of the newts because there were lots of them. In fact, local people eat them," the pet dealer in Ibaraki Prefecture said.
The dealer added: "Newly discovered animals don't sell so well because it's difficult to raise them. About 20 or 30 out of 100 were sold. Considering the airfare, selling them for 20,000 yen ($CDN 200, $US 175, €140, £98) each won't make us any profit. It's not right to accuse us of catching too many of them to make a quick buck."

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20060424TDY03002.htm

<u>NEW YORK TIMES</u> (New York) 25 April 06 Scientists Discover a Salamander; Now Profiteers Have Found It Too (Kenneth Chang)
<font color="0000ff">Photo at URL below</font>}: A warty, half-foot-long salamander known scientifically as Paramesotriton laoensis, with striking markings on its back and stomach, is known to live in only two places in Laos — and now probably in glass tanks in Japan. (Bryan Stuart)
A warty salamander with striking markings , known scientifically as Paramesotriton laoensis, is becoming a sought-after pet.
Announced by scientists just four years ago, P. laoensis has shown up for sale on Web sites of Japanese pet stores for $170 each.
"Just the last month, they've become available for the first time," said Bryan Stuart, a research assistant at the Field Museum in Chicago who first spotted the salamander in 1999 and described it in a scientific paper published in 2002. "This is very concerning because this is a very poorly known species to science."
After an article about the salamanders appeared yesterday in the Japanese newspaper <u>The Yomiuri Shimbun</u>, a couple of the salamander dealers pulled listings for the animals off their Web sites. Several others continue selling them. The article said one dealer had imported about 100 P. laoensis salamanders.
Mr. Stuart heard in February that the dealer was in Laos looking for the salamanders — and was using his scientific paper to know what to look for and where to find it. But because so little is known about the salamanders, they have not been added to the lists of endangered animals that are banned from commercial trade.
Thus, Mr. Stuart's paper turned into a too helpful map for salamander collectors. Still, it is important for scientists to publish descriptions of newly discovered species, Mr. Stuart said. If they kept the information secret to thwart collectors, governments and conservationists would also be in the dark. "It would be very difficult to protect them," Mr. Stuart said. "I think that the conservation benefits of describing new species far outweighs the potential conservation detriment of describing a new species."
Rather, Mr. Stuart said, it would be better to work with the governments concerned to enact protections for a new species at the same time the species is announced to the world.
"We've learned a lesson here," he said.
In February, Mr. Stuart and colleagues described three new species of frogs from Laos in the journal <u>Copeia</u>.
They are unexceptional-looking, live in hard-to-reach mountains and are therefore less likely to become a prized addition to a pet collection.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/science/25find.html?_r=1&oref=slogin