Herpetological Highlights

Chinese conservationists have worked hard to protect the critically endangered Chinese alligator, creating new habitats for them after significant alterations made most of their Yangtze River home unsuitable. Thanks to the power of GPS technology, we now have some fascinating insights into how they are using the wetlands they are being reintroduced to, and it's mixed news. We follow that chat up with two new species of sand swimming skinks from Madagascar, and some big news from Tom about a brand new mammal. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/herphighlights/shop Full reference list available here: http://www.herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Li M, Sun K, Wang Z, Zhang C, Gao Y, Zhang S, Tu G, Wu X, Pan T. 2025. Extremely limited spatial and temporal utilization for wild Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis). Biology Letters 21:20250513. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0513. Species of the Bi-Week: Miralles A, Schmidt R, Rakotoarison A, De