By Herp News Fifty miles out to sea from San Diego, in the middle of April, under a perfectly clear blue sky, fisheries scientists leaned over the side of a rubber inflatable boat and lowered a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle into the water. That turtle was a trailblazer — the first of its kind ever […]

Python! A snake that everyone is aware of because they are found on every continent of earth except Antarctica. India has three species of pythons that are famous across the world: The reticulated python, the Burmese python, and the most common in India, the Indian rock python, Python molurus molurus. This is a snake that […]

Citizen scientists are helping researchers learn what rising temperatures mean for Joshua Tree National Park. From USA Today: Stortroen, an 82-year-old retired insurance claim center manager from St. Paul, Minn., has joined research outings in places ranging from Australia to South Africa. This was his first time assisting scientists in the Mojave Desert. “I enjoy […]

The simple shot of a tree frog in a field of green is hard to beat! We hope you enjoy this shot of a Pseudacris regilla in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user emvee! Be sure to tell emvee you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos […]

Our Herp Video of the Week is a sneak peek in how professionals extract venom! This flashback video shows the extraction of a king cobra by our friends down at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo. The venom is then used for cancer research. Submit your own reptile & amphibian videos at http://www.kingsnake.com/video/ and you could see […]

By Herp News The fate of La Sierra del Divisor, a 1.5 million hectare reserve lauded for its megadiversity of wildlife, will soon to be decided. According to El Comercio, next week the Peruvian government is expected to rule whether Divisor will be declared a national park. The designation, which was requested by local groups […]

By Herp News Energy has become a contentious and politicized topic, spurring activism, whether it be the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Keystone pipeline protests, or concern over wind turbine harm to birds. But whatever energy future we choose, two things are clear: an expanding human population will need more energy, and no matter what energy […]

kingsnake.com staffers Jeff Barringer and Leiren McKenzie (and kingsnake.com’s Zombiehunter snake hunting truck) will be in San Antonio for this year’s International Herp Symposum down at the city’s famous Riverwalk, May 27 through 30. This year’s event is notable for its distinct “Texas” flavor, both in location and topics, with a variety of talks and […]

The red sand boas (Eryxx johnii) are the most common species of boas found in India after common sand boas. These snakes are also found in many other African and American countries, and there they are known as rubber boas. I would like to call this snake an ‘alien’ snake because it looks like a […]

Take time this weekend to get your feet in the grass. Follow the lead of this tegu in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Tristen! Be sure to tell Tristen you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! […]

By Herp News On April 25th, poachers shot and killed wildlife ranger, Agoyo Mbikoyo, in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the organization African Parks. On the frontline of the illegal wildlife trade, Garamba Naitonal Park is known as a hotspot for elephant poaching. Go to Source …read […]

Amphibian migration season is a little late this year, so if you’re driving in New England be careful. From Newser: Northern New England’s annual amphibian migration is always perilous, but critters that cross roads to breed are facing an additional challenge this year: a delayed start after the long winter. Every spring, several species of […]

It was in the 1980s when I first made a concerted effort to see a flattened musk turtle, Sternotherus depressus. My interest had been piqued by the news that a single almost white example was in the live collection at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In those long ago days, except to differentiate leucism […]

There is no denying that “DeNile” is a gorgeous animal that deserves a spot as our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ToucanJungle! Be sure to tell ToucanJungle you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read […]

By Herp News Diets of snakes from a temperate region in South America may depend more on phylogeny (ancestry) than ecology. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto Links

A boy in India caused a stir by catching the snake that bit him and taking it to the hospital. From DNA India: “Sandesh was well informed about the dangers of a snakebite. He very well knew sleeping causes venom to spread rapidly all over the body and hence he did not sleep,” Nayak said. […]

A less common, but no less interesting anole, the Escambray bearded anole (Anolis chamaeleolis guamuhaya) takes the spotlight in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user chrisred! Be sure to tell chrisred you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured […]

By Herp News Think of it as trying to help the long-lost cousins who never left your home town. Researchers and friends at the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) are doing just that for chimpanzees. Our closest living relatives still live in their hometown African forests but these forests are under increasing threat. Go to Source […]

By Herp News Yesterday, a team of Italian scientists caught a frog in a montane forest in Tanzania. And then they made history: using a small blood sample the team were able to extract, purify, and amplify the amphibian’s DNA—all in the forest—through a new, battery-powered device called the Expedition Genomics Lab. Go to Source […]

Have you ever really considered the mechanics of how snakes climb trees? From the Daily Mail: Moving quickly, the top half of the snake ascends the trunk, while the bottom half of it stays coiled lower down. Wrapping its top half around the tree, the snake then brings the rest of its body up to […]

Although they have a superficial resemblance to the eastern glass lizards, the western genus Anniella, is contained in the family Anniellidae. Until very recently the genus was comprised of only 2 species, one in California and northern Baja and a second endemic to Baja California. Initially, based on coloration, the American species, Anniella pulchra, was […]

Alert and always keeping his eye on you, this Basiliscus plumifrons shines in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user kus! Be sure to tell kus you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: […]

By Herp News The rescue, which took place in early April, was conducted by the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC) in response to a report of an adult male orangutan isolated in an fragment forest surrounded by oil palm plantations. The orangutan was found to be in poor health, according to Krisna, OIC’s Human Orangutan Conflict […]

By Herp News Usually animal pens in zoos are designed to resemble a species’ native habitat: lions in sprawling savanna, pandas in bamboo forests, and crocodiles in mangroves. But a new pen at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)’s London Zoo is meant to dramatically highlight not a species’ habitat, but it’s biggest threat. Go […]

The common trinket snake, Coelognathus helena helena, was the first snake I ever touched in my life. This snake was the one to create a strong impact on my mind to conserve and protect these beautiful creatures. Apart from me, it has helped many other people to remove their fear of snakes — which makes […]

Sued by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally developed a recovery plan for endangered tiger salamanders. From IndyBay.org: The recovery plan focuses on alleviating the threat of habitat loss and fragmentation by permanently protecting breeding ponds and their adjacent uplands through acquisition and conservation easements. Because the majority of […]

This black Roughie is monitoring the world in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cynthy07! Be sure to tell cynthy07 you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake No products found. […]

By Herp News Following a major seizure of illegal wildlife goods in North Sumatra, the Indonesian authorities released 94 critically endangered pangolins into the wild last week, including a newborn whose mother died shortly after the authorities caught up with the traffickers. Five tons of pangolin meat were burned in the wake of the bust. […]

By Herp News A team of Chilean scientists discover two new species of iguanid lizards from the Laja Lagoon, Chile. The two new species are believed to have been long confused with other representatives of the elongatus-kriegi lizard complex, before recent morphological and genetic analysis diagnosed them as separate. Go to Source …read more Read […]

By Herp News A study on the impact of forest loss on biodiversity, recently published in the journal Conservation Biology, shows that one-third of the Brazilian Amazon is headed toward or has just passed a threshold of forest cover beyond which species loss accelerates and is more damaging. Go to Source …read more Read more […]

By Herp News Ten thousand years from now, human historians—or alien ones—may view the current wave of biodiversity loss and extinctions as concurrent with the Pleistocene extinction. At that time, peaking around 11,000 years ago, many scientists argue that human hunters killed off the majority of the world’s big species. According to a paper today […]

I am well aware of the new paper regarding the new classification of copperhead genus Agkistrodon, but for the purpose of this post I will regard the southern copperhead as Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix. The southern copperhead is common throughout its range, utilizing a variety of habitats. A good night of road cruising can produce a […]

Get yourself a closer look at the Savu python in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user chefdev! Be sure to tell chefdev you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake No […]