The heavily exploited oriental rat snake is common across much of Asia. Despite its economic and ecological importance, little is known about its biology or the sustainability of the harvest. Dissection of 216 commercially collected snakes from West Java and comparison with a sample taken 25 years previously shows that the harvest is based mainly on adults and is likely sustainable. Sustainability is enhanced by the snake’s rapid growth, early maturation, high reproductive output, and ability to exploit available resources. Photograph by Nathan Rusli.

Three species of the brown tree-frog group are remarkably hard to tell apart, hindering our knowledge of them. Advertisement calls collected from the entire range of each species were analysed. We created a call key to reliably tell each species apart on the basis of main differing characteristics, namely note shape, notes per call and the positions of the longest and shortest notes. This makes it significantly easier to map species distributions, aiding conservation efforts. Photograph by Dr Jodi Rowley.