Species highs

More than 350 new species, including a flying frog and the world's smallest deer, as well as a new species of primate, have been discovered in the eastern Himalayas in recent years, according to a new report from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). But this biodiversity is now threatened by climate change, it warns. The report has been published ahead of the key climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December which aims to replace the Kyoto Protocol and establish countries' commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Evidence from glaciers suggests high-altitude regions are experiencing warming temperatures that threaten fragile ecosystems. The Himalayas sit at the crossroads of two continental plates and the report covers the mountain regions of Bhutan, northeastern India, northern Myanmar, Nepal and southern parts of Tibet. The region contains a wide range of species that includes Asian elephants, clouded leopards, water buffalo, gaur, hornbills, cobras and geckos to the south and snow leopards, red pandas, black bears and wolves to the north. The Himalayas also comprise some of the world's deepest gorges in a region that also contains the world's most northerly tropical forests, temperate forests, tall grasslands, savannas and alpine meadows. A great deal of this region is difficult to access and has made biological surveys extremely difficult and left large areas biologically unexplored. But the new report describes an array of new species: 244 plants, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, two birds, two mammals and at least 60 invertebrates. " These exciting finds reinforce just how little we know about the world around us, " said the WWF's conservation advisor, Mark Wright. " In the eastern Himalayas we have a region of extraordinary beauty and with some of the most biologically rich areas on the planet. Ironically, it is also one of the regions most at risk from climate change, " he says. " Only time will tell how well species will be able to adapt—if at all. " Among the discoveries are a bright green tree frog which uses its long red webbed feet to glide in the air, and the miniature muntjac or leaf deer. At just over 60 centimetres tall, this is the world's smallest deer species. One find was a 100-million-year-old gecko fossil found in an amber mine in Myanmar. The now extinct species is the oldest type of gecko known to science. The region harbours a remarkable array …