The Iberian frog or rana patilarga (Rana iberica) is a species of frog in the family Ranidae found in Portugal and Spain. Its natural habitats are rivers, mountain streams and swamps.This frog inhabits our mountain and near our river Mondego. I can observe it in my yard which makes me very happy!
  It is threatened by habitat loss, introduced species, climate change and water contamination.

Kingdom:            Animalia

Phylum:               Chordata

Class:    Amphibia

Order: Anura

Family:                 Ranidae

Genus:                 Rana

Species:               R. iberica

Binomial name

Rana iberica, Boulenger, 1879

Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN )

Has a dark inverted V-shaped blot. This snake is often mistaken for vipers, which exhibit a similar pattern. However, the vipers have a vertical pupil, subdivided cephalic plaques, and a shorter tail.

 In Portugal it is from North to South, from the level of the sea to 1800 meters of altitude. With non-threatened status.

 Water pollution and the degradation and destruction of wet habitats have led to its decline.

Its presence is associated with a wide variety of aquatic habitats, such as the lakes and reservoirs of the Serra da Estrela.

http://naturlink.pt/article.aspx?menuid=55&cid=2658&bl=1&viewall=true

A good idea is to join the useful to the pleasant! Yes, because osgae are harmless non-venomous animals, genetically interesting and very good at cleaning insects in a house! These animals are reptiles of the family Gekkonidae, being the most common, in Portugal, the Osga-Moura (Tarentola mauritanica). They are nocturnal animals about 10cm long that feed essentially on ants, spiders, flies, mosquitoes and moths.

 Instead of insecticides, all households should have copies of this type of pet!

I have already checked the results, because I have a family of pet osga in my windows!

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osga-moura

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a threat to biodiversity. Reptiles and especially amphibians are among the most vulnerable groups since they have a close dependence with climatic variables, with many species being reliant on water bodies and presenting a limited dispersal capacity. In this thesis the vulnerability of the species of the two groups present in Portugal was assessed, target species for adaptation were selected and specific adaptation measures were identified. This study contributes to the implementation of the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for the biodiversity sector, assisting the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forestry, which is responsible for this sector. In general, it is expected an increased vulnerability to species already confined to the northern part of the territory, or that already exist in a few small and very fragmented populations. In the case of aquatic species a large increase in its vulnerability to climate change is expected, due to expected climate impacts on aquatic habitats. Amphibians have a larger number of target species for conservation, compared with reptiles. This was expected, given the high dependence on water habitats by amphibians and the distinct biological characteristics of these two groups. With the assistance of herpetofauna experts and ICNF collaborators, twenty-nine adaptation measures to reduce vulnerability to climate change of these groups were also identified.

Given their characteristics, amphibians are the most threatened group. Their reproduction depends on the existence of temporary pools, which are greatly affected by changes in temperature and precipitation levels. The association of amphibians with ponds also makes them vulnerable to exotic predators and the conversion of wetlands into agricultural areas. The threat to reptiles is not so high, as they are generally more adapted to dry habitats. However, there are several vulnerable species: those associated with freshwater habitats such as turtles (Emys orbicularise Mauremys leprosa), water lizard (Lacerta schreiberi) or species limited to Star Moutain, such as the Víbora-de- Seoane, Vipera seoanei, one of the only two species of vipers that exist in Portugal.
PROFILE vipers
In the Iberian Peninsula we can find 13 different species of snakes, with representatives of three of the four types of dentition. There aren’t any proteroglyphous snake because the members of the Elapidae family are restricted to tropical and subtropical habitats. Most of the iberian species are snakes of the Colubridae family (aglyphous or opisthoglyphous) or vipers and adders of the Viperidae family (solenoglyphous).

 Viperine water snake (Natrix maura), aglyphous  Montpellier snake (Malpolon monspessulanus), opisthoglyphous  Snub-nosed viper (Vipera latastei), solenoglyphous 

COLUBRIDS vs. VIPERS
When we find a snake in the wild it’s important to know if that animal is a colubrid or a viper. Bites from Iberian colubrids are mostly harmless because they have either an unspecialized non-venomous dentition (aglyphous) or posterior venomous fangs (opisthoglyphous) which usually doesn’t inject venom and even if they do, normally they don’t inject enough venom for it to be dangerous. On the other hand, as Iberian vipers are solenoglyphous, they inject large quantities of venom, being vipers responsible for most of the snake bite accidents in Spain. Yet, bites are extremely rare, and most happen after a too prolonged manipulation of the animal.

To identify a snake as a colubrid or a viper there are some anatomical characteristics which tell them apart. These characteristics are usually only applicable to iberian ophidians; species from outside the Iberian Peninsula may present different combinations of characters.

The most cited character is the pupil. Normally vipers show an elliptic, slit-like pupil, while colubrids present a round pupil. However, this character is variable, because with low-light conditions a viper’s pupil may look round as the eyes of these animals can adapt to darkness.

The species presents great ecological plasticity and adaptive capacity, occurring either in lotic environments (rivers, streams or streams), where it selects areas with low current, as in lentic environments (lakes, ponds, agricultural reservoirs, dams).

No climatic factor seems to influence in its distribution in isolation, although it is absent or little present in places with very high altitude. Also, water quality is not a determining factor in the presence of this frog, being the amphibian more resistant and with less limitations than those that inhabit the Peninsula, being able to attend eutrophic waters, occurring even in waters with a certain degree of contamination. These characteristics make P. perezi a pioneer colonizing species of modified habitats, namely as a result of forest fires and pollution, and of artificial water bodies, namely tanks, reservoirs and canals.

> Forest management

> Fire Prevention

> Awareness campaigns and environmental education

> Promotion of further studies on the biology and ecology of the species

solutions in situ and ex situ solutions, but always having the notion that both types of solutions should not be seen as independent and can be used together to put into practice the conservation of endangered species. An in situ solution is mainly aimed at preserving the habitat of a particular species. That is, to create and impose protected areas in order to protect the ecosystem and the community of the species, thus conserving and protecting biodiversity. For this, it was crucial to study and know the location and conservation status of existing water bodies and other terrestrial habitats used by these living beings. Another solution may be the elaboration of practical environmental awareness actions by schools, municipalities and other entities that, together with societies, organize the creation and management of small bodies of water, providing ideal conditions for the reproduction and growth of amphibians.

In Portugal, was the year 2011 when the project "Charcos com Vida" “puddles with life” was created by the CIIMAR (Interdisciplinary Center of Marine and Environmental Research), a group from the University of Porto (UP), with the intention of encouraging the use of ponds and other small to carry out activities of scientific and pedagogical exploration and of observation of biodiversity, simultaneously fostering their conservation (ABAE, 2018). From California comes an example of a solution put into practice that has yielded positive results. The lakes and streams of the Sierra Nevada were colonized by an exotic species of trout that had caused negative consequences on the population of a native frog species. In order to counteract this, actions were carried out where the exotic trout were removed from these sites, which allowed the return of the species Rana muscosa (AmphibiaWeb, 2018b; Barbosa, 2016). For ex situ solutions, they protect species outside their natural habitat, usually through breeding programs in captivity. These programs are widely used mainly in zoos and there have been successful cases where the goal was to create juveniles that were later released in the wild to increase the wild herd of the species (AmphibiaWeb, 2018b). Further progress has been made, notably in the fight against chytridiomycosis, which has had a very high rate of spread throughout the world and has already brought 200 species of amphibians to extinction.

In 2007, an Amphibian Conservation Action Plan to guide global conservation actions was published by the Global Amphibian Assessment to help mitigate the extinction of amphibian species (AmphibiaWeb, 2018b).

Reed more:  Avaliação do estado ecológico da orla litoral no município de Ovar: o caso de estudo da monitorização de anfíbios da Barrinha de Esmoriz/Lagoa de Paramos …

We serve the natural protected area "Star Moutain" 

Our members have a wide range of experience: Teachers, veterinarians, hobbyists, members of community, conservation and  ecology. 

It is open to anyone, reptile owner or not, and is dedicated to the education of its members and the public, as well as the conservation, ecology, and captive care and breeding of reptiles and amphibians.

We will do a variety of events during the year, provides educational outreaches, and hosts an informative monthly meeting often with a guest speaker addressing issues and concerns relevant to today’s reptile owner. 

We also a dedicated reptile rescue and adoption group 

We intend to recovery sick animals and finding great habitats for them.

We establish Partnerships with another protected areas, institutions like LPN League nature protection and ICNF Institute of conservation of nature ....

W`ll organize meetings once a month and our meetings are open to everyone! 

Feel free to join us and find more about reptiles!

My propose logotype:

We use a proteolytic enzyme to prepare disarticulated and degreased skeletons of securely identified mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. 

The collection now contains over 1480 catalogued and marked specimens, most of which are from Iberia. Many are of known sex, age and locality, and for certain important species we collect series of specimens from different localities to improve our

understanding of their biometrical variation and ontogeny. 

Thanks to help from numerous colleagues both here and overseas (with whom we exchange specimens) our reference collection now includes complete or partial skeletons of most of the Lusitanian mammals (71 species; including some locally extinct ones obtained from abroad), birds (198 species), reptiles (26 species), amphibians  (13 species), and fish (48 species). 

In order to facilitate rapid identification we have constructed several “index” collections of selected bones organised by class, part of skeleton, size, family, genus and species.”

 

drainage, extreme drought events (which seem to be associated with and intensified by climate change), fires, agricultural intensification and expansion, residential development, recreational activities, the collection of animals and pollution (from industry, agriculture and urban areas). In Europe, one third of amphibians are endangered because of the infectious disease chytridiomycosis, which is caused by the non-hyphal zoosporic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, making it the number one threat to amphibians in Europe. 

Reptile species are also threatened by: residential development (often illegal and without planning), agricultural intensification and expansion, road mortality, wildfires, and the collection of animals. More specifically, regarding the loggerhead sea turtle, the main threats originate from tourist development, interaction with fishing activities, marine pollution (mainly from plastics and agricultural runoff), the killing of animals (e.g. after accidental capture in fishing nets), the destruction of the sand dunes and coasts that serve as their breeding grounds, light pollution, predation and climate change. (National Biodiversity and Action plan, 2014)