Shiho Miyashita, a freshman in the biology club at Ueda Nishi High School, will work on conservation research for the Japanese fire-bellied newt!

On November 6, 2023, Shiho Miyashita, a first-year student who will be conducting research on the Japanese fire-bellied newt Cynops pyrrhogaster as part of the Biology Club’s activities, visited the Institute of Freshwater Biology to discuss future research. Japanese fire-bellied newts are a relatively common amphibian in rice paddies and other areas, but their population may have declined rapidly in recent years, making their conservation an important issue. In the future, the Biology Club will conduct activities with the support of the Institute of Freshwater Biology, as they would like to study the distribution and population density of the same species in Ueda City, as well as the effects of water quality, etc.