Juneau has four resident amphibians that breed in fresh water: wood frogs and western (boreal) toads, which have geographic ranges extending way up north, Columbia spotted frogs, which range to about ...

Snakes don't eat fugu, the seafood delicacy prepared from blowfish meat and famed for its poisonous potential. However, should a common garter snake wander into a sushi restaurant, it could fearlessly ...

Animals are poisonous to prevent other animals from eating them. However, a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology investigating the toxic rough-skinned newt finds that, ...

Some snakes are incredibly resistant to toxins found in the newts they eat. This adaptation required changes in several genes over millions and millions of years, according to findings published in ...

In an evolutionary arms race -- in which Nature decrees that it's either eat or be eaten -- snakes on a tiny Japanese island and others in California and western Oregon are winning against a group of ...

A Rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) in Big Basin State Park, California. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler, 2007. This species is known for its poison, tetrodotoxin, a strong toxin that causes paralysis ...

There’s a march underway in the wild spaces of Lacey. Over leaves and around blades of grass, thousands of tiny feet plod with a single-minded purpose. It’s mating season for the rough-skinned newt.

Kevin Wells of Eugene took this photo of a garter snake while on a hike with his girlfriend in April 2010 at Fern Ridge Reservoir. “A little ways in, this relatively large and particularly colorful ...

Scientists have found that the ancestors of garter snakes gained toxin-resistant nerves almost 40 million years ago. A select group of garter snakes can thank their ancestors for the ability to chow ...

Evolution is part of survival. This rings true for common garter snakes that were found to have evolved to survive on toxic newts. Researchers led by Joel McGlothlin, a Virginia Tech Global Change ...

Holding a newt is one of the most sought-after wildlife encounters among the North Bay’s elementary school set. Each year, thousands of school kids eagerly await their field trip to one of our ...

Rough-skinned newts harbor in their skin massive doses of the same deadly toxin found in blowfish. Garter snakes that dine on the newts have evolved resistance to the toxin, spurring greater toxicity ...