Bennett+Laos+Newt+Meeting

I attended the Wake Audubon Society meeting on May 8th at the NC Science Museum. This topic this month was the Lao Newt, an enigmatic species threatened by the international pet trade. Bryan Stuart, a research curator of herpetology, discussed his work with this newt in Southeast Asia. He worked in Laos, the most heavily bombed country in the world. More bombs were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War than Japan and Germany combined. This resulted in the destruction of many areas of the country and made Laos difficult to access. Stuart discovered the Laotriton laoensis, the first known salamander in Laos. He gave it a name and published it, resulting in the explosion of Lao Newts in the illegal pet trade. The newt is sold in Europe and Japan for 200 euros. It is projected to be extinct in five to ten years because of the illegal pet trade. Stuart and his team work hard to try and save the newts from extinction. One of his students in Laos tagged and tracked the newts and conducted a lot of field research. She found them at 11 different localities, suggesting they may been in more places than first anticipated. This relates to APES because we have discussed extinction of animals and the human destruction of wildlife habitats.