By Herp News
They’re warm outfits for your cold-blooded pets.
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Tortoise sweaters: Cozies for your cold-blooded friends
Herp Video of the Week: Chameleon!
Check out “Chameleon,” a video submitted by kingsnake.com user variuss11.
Submit your own reptile & amphibian videos at http://www.kingsnake.com/video/ and you could see them featured here or check out all the videos submitted by other users! …read more
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Leapin' Lizards! Medieval Arabs Ate the Scaly Creatures
By Herp News
Though historical and anthropological texts had mentioned the taste for these scaly desert snacks, the find is the first archaeological evidence confirming the lizard's presence in the Arabian diet, study co-author Hervé Monchot, a zooarchaeologist at the Université-Paris Sorbonne, wrote in an email to Live Science. In general, animals like snakes and lizards whose blood doesn't gush when …
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What makes flying snakes such gifted gliders?
By Herp News
They slither, they hiss, they… fly? Don’t let their wingless bodies fool you —- some snakes can glide as far as 100 feet through the air, jumping off tree branches and rotating their ribs to flatten their bodies and move from side to side. New research investigates the workings behind the flight and whether they can be applied to mechanical issues.
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Sea turtles’ ‘lost years’ mystery starts to unravel
By Herp News
Small satellite-tracking devices attached to sea turtles swimming off Florida’s coast have delivered first-of-its-kind data that could help unlock they mystery of what endangered turtles do during the ‘lost years.’
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Where do baby sea turtles go? What scientists found will surprise you!
Baby sea turtles, like kids everywhere, don’t always do what we expect them to do. University of Central Florida researcher Kate Mansfield and her team found a way to keep an eye on their movements — and what they discovered surprised them.
From LiveScience.com:
Marine biologists track seagoing creatures, including adult loggerheads, with satellite tags that transmit information such as location, depth and temperature. But hatchlings are too small to tag — affix a tag with heavy batteries to these turtles, and they’ll sink, Mansfield said.
Advances in tag technology have started to change all that. New tags are smaller and solar-powered (no heavy batteries needed), Mansfield said. They’re still too large to affix to a newborn loggerhead, but they fit on young turtles. Mansfield and her colleagues lab-reared 17 loggerhead turtles to the age of 3.5 to 9 months, waiting until the turtles had reached between 4 inches and 7 inches (11 to 18 cm) in length before tagging them and releasing them into the Atlantic Ocean.
The long-standing expectation was that baby turtles hatch off the East Coast of the United States, launch into the Gulf Stream that carries them north up the coast and then ride into the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. This system of currents takes the turtles past the Azores off the coast of Western Europe and down the coast of Africa, before the animals pop back out on the East Coast again.
While the turtles do use the Gulf Stream and the Gyre, they don’t always complete this ring around the Atlantic, the researchers report today (March 4) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In fact, the turtles completed quite diverse journeys; they traveled clockwise, but on their own, individual paths. Some even dropped out of the Gyre into the still waters within that circular current, known as the Sargasso Sea. The Sea gets its name, in part, from the floating Sargassum that gathers there.
Photo: Jim Abernethy/LiveScience.com …read more
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Snakes, tarantulas, lizard stolen in Lakewood
By Herp News
LAKEWOOD — Snakes, tarantulas and a Nile Monitor lizard are missing after an overnight burglary of a Lakewood pet store.
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Rhino with bullet in its brain and hacked off horn wanders for days before being put down
By Herp News
Last week, visitors in Kruger National Park came on a horrifying sight of the poaching trade: a rhino, still alive, with its horn and part of its face chopped off. The gruesome photo of the young rhino went viral and sent South African authorities scrambling. Five days after the sighting, South African National Parks (SANParks) has announced they found the rhino and put it out of its misery.
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Reptile death match: Snake devours crocodile
By Herp News
A python was caught on camera devouring a crocodile after an epic battle on the shores of an Australian lake.
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Croc vs python; who wins?
Humans battle over the dinner check, but in Australia, a python and a crocodile battled over which one of them would be dinner. Ctizen journalist Tiffany Corlis was on the scene and caught it on her camera.
From BBC News:
“It was amazing,” she told the BBC. “We saw the snake fighting with the crocodile – it would roll the crocodile around to get a better grip, and coil its body around the crocodile’s legs to hold it tight.”
“The fight began in the water – the crocodile was trying to hold its head out of the water at one time, and the snake was constricting it.”
“After the crocodile had died, the snake uncoiled itself, came around to the front, and started to eat the crocodile, face-first,” she added.
Ms Corlis said it appeared to take the snake around 15 minutes to eat the crocodile.
The snake was “definitely very full,” when it finished, she said. “I don’t know where it went after that – we all left, thinking we didn’t want to stick around!”
Read the full story, and see the rest of her photos, here. …read more
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Reptile Death Match: Snake Devours Crocodile (Video)
By Herp News
“You could see the crocodile in the snake's belly which I think was probably the more remarkable thing,” local resident Tiffany Corlis told Australia's ABC News. ”You could actually see its legs and see its scales and everything, it was just amazing.” [Beastly Feasts: See Other Amazing Animals Devouring Prey] “The big eat the smaller,” Lindsey Hord, a biologist with the Florida Fish and …
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Turtle Beach Titanfall Atlas Headsets Will Be in Stores on March 5
By Herp News
Turtle Beach, the leading audio brand in the games industry, today announced that the new Titanfall™ Atlas gaming headsets will be available at retail beginning on March 5, in time for the release of the …
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Sea turtle nesting season begins in Florida, one leatherback already spotted
By Herp News
Brooks Hays PALM BEACH, Fla., March 4 (UPI) — Turtle nesting season officially began in Florida on the first day of March, and already, a leatherback has been spotted.
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3D-Printed Car Looks Like Giant Turtle
By Herp News
The future of automobiles is on display this week at Geneva Motor Show, and it looks like…a turtle.
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Turtle exhibit joins Sea Life Arizona aquarium
By Herp News
A new turtle exhibit is opening at Sea Life Arizona on March 7.
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Javan rhino population jumps by over 10 percent
By Herp News
The Javan rhino population has increased by over ten percent from 2012 to last year, according to new figures released by Ujung Kulon National Park. Using camera traps, rangers have counted a total of 58 Javan rhinos, up from 51 in 2012. Although the species once roamed much of Southeast Asia, today it is only found in Ujung Kulon National Park in western Javan and is known as one of the most imperiled mammals on the planet.
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Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record – book review
By Herp News
Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record reaches into your imagination and draws you closer to the final days of a variety of extinct animals on Earth. Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record is filled with poignant and powerful first-hand accounts, photographic records, and illustrations.
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Dead snake bites man in graveyard
It may sound like an horror movie, but it’s not, as 66-year-old Jake Thomas learned the hard way.
Mr Thomas, a volunteer who mows the local cemetery at Werris Creek where his daughter Kim is buried, came across the snake during his usual clean-up. It was in a vase on a headstone.
Fearful about other people’s safety, Mr Thomas cut the snake in half. Like most people would, he had thought the strike had killed the snake, so he left to finish off the rest of the cemetery maintenance.
About 45 minutes later he came back to get rid of the snake. “I put my hand in the vase to pick it up and it grabbed on to me even though it was dead,” Mr Thomas said.
“I pulled my hand out and saw two little marks and knew it had got hold of me.”
Photo: Peter Lorimer/Daily Telegraph …read more
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Tortoise Energy Independence Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update …
By Herp News
Tortoise Energy Independence Fund, Inc. today announced that as of Feb. 28, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $462.6 million and its unaudit
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Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as of Feb. 28, 2014
By Herp News
Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. today announced that as of Feb. 28, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.0 billion and its unaudited net asset value
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Tortoise Pipeline & Energy Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as …
By Herp News
Tortoise Pipeline & Energy Fund, Inc. today announced that as of Feb. 28, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $417.1 million and its unaud
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Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage …
By Herp News
Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. today announced that as of Feb. 28, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $236.4 million and
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Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as …
By Herp News
Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp. today announced that as of Feb. 28, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.3 billion and its unaudited ne
…read more
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Tortoise North American Energy Corp. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as …
By Herp News
Tortoise North American Energy Corp. today announced that as of Feb. 28, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $287.9 million and its unaudited
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Tortoise Energy Capital Corp. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as of Feb …
By Herp News
Tortoise Energy Capital Corp. today announced that as of Feb. 28, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $1.2 billion and its unaudited net asset
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Fruit-eating ‘bayawak’
By Herp News
The northern Sierra Madre forest monitor lizard, Varanus bitatawa, is one of the largest species of monitor lizard known from the Philippines. Indigenous Dumagat and people of the Sierra Madre Mountains call the lizard bitatawa or baritatawa.
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Society seeks salamander-spotting citizen scientists
Do you ever catch site of spotted salamanders and wood frogs in the field? The Orianne Society wants to recruit you.
From Living Alongside Wildlife:
The Orianne Society recently initiated “Snapshots in Time”, a long-term Citizen Science project aimed at mobilizing people to monitor the timing of Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) and Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) breeding throughout the respective ranges of these species. The purpose of this project is to use the data collected—by on-the-ground citizens, year-after-year—to investigate possible effects of climate change on the timing of reproduction. Determining changes in the timing of breeding is very important, not just for these species, but others that use the same habitat. Ultimately, the results of this project could allow us to inform land managers and development planners of important areas for conservation and look deeper into what other species in these ecosystems may be negatively affected by climate change, including some endangered species.
Photo: kingsnake.com user nategodin …read more
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Croc v snake in reptile rumble
By Herp News
WHOA! It’s the heavyweight reptile battle to end them all. This python saw this crocodile and decided he’d make a good feed. Who won?
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Burmese pythons pose little risk to people in Everglades, study suggests
By Herp News
The estimated tens of thousands of Burmese pythons now populating the Everglades present a low risk to people in the park, according to a new study. The human risk assessment looked at five incidents that involved humans and Burmese pythons over a 10-year period in Everglades National Park. All five incidents involved pythons striking at biologists who were conducting research in flooded wetlands.
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Turtle believed to have come from Samoa found dead
By Herp News
DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – A green sea turtle was found dead by La Union fishermen on Friday after it was believed to have swum 8,000 kilometers from Samoa. The fishermen of Taboc village in San Juan town found the turtle floating about 200 meters from the shore. The turtle was tagged with the inscription “240 Apia Samoa sprep@sprep.org 448695.” “Maybe it was coming to feed,” said Laura …
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Saving the turtles
By Herp News
Taking part in the Seatru Turtle Volunteer Programme has made a conservation convert of Lidiana Rosli
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
Turtle believed to have come from Samoa found dead
By Herp News
A green sea turtle was found dead by La Union fishermen on Friday after it was believed to have swum 8,000 kilometers from Samoa.
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Saving the turtles
By Herp News
Taking part in the Seatru Turtle Volunteer Programme has made a conservation convert of Lidiana Rosli
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
Color of passion: Orange underbellies of female lizards signal fertility
By Herp News
Australian lizards are attracted to females with the brightest orange patches — but preferably not too large — on their underbelly, according to research. Lake Eyre dragon lizards are found exclusively in salt deserts in southern Australia, where they feed on dead insects. When females become fertile they develop bright orange patches on their normally pale underbelly and change their behavior towards males: instead of “waving them away” with their forelegs or fleeing, they let the males court them with showy behavior like push-ups and head bobs. Males were most attracted to females with small, bright orange patches and tended to avoid those with larger, paler ones. It is thought that bright color is attractive as it indicates peak female fertility. Pregnant females retain their coloration until laying and very large orange spots suggest the female is swollen with eggs and no longer interested in mating.
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Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. Provides Section 19(a) Notice
By Herp News
This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on Feb. 28, 2014 and cumulativ
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Saving the turtles
By Herp News
Taking part in the Seatru Turtle Volunteer Programme has made a conservation convert of Lidiana Rosli
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
Start of sea turtle nesting season in FL
By Herp News
Final preparations are complete for the start of what could be a record-setting sea turtle nesting season in south Florida. Those preparations come with new warnings for humans.
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Saving the turtles
By Herp News
Taking part in the Seatru Turtle Volunteer Programme has made a conservation convert of Lidiana Rosli
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
Tortoise rustling leads to drastic measures to prevent animals going extinct
By Herp News
Tortoise rustling leads to drastic measures to prevent the animals being driven out of existence
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South Africa loses nearly 150 rhinos to poachers so far this year
By Herp News
Since the first of the year, South Africa has lost 146 rhinos to poachers or approximately 2.5 rhinos every day. This is a slight dip from last year’s poaching rate, which hit 1,004 for the whole year or 2.75 a day. South Africa is home to more rhinos than any other country on the planet, but the populations have been hit hard by poachers in recent years seeking rhino horn.
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