By Herp News With so much of Madagascar’s natural spiny desert forest cleared, Radiated Tortoises now feed heavily on the introduced prickly pear cactus (Opuntia sp). Photo courtesy of the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Androy Region, Madagascar, October, 2011: Tandroy tribal elders in the village of Tragnovaho send runners to fetch government law enforcement […]

By Herp News Researchers have discovered half a dozen new species of the African clawed frog, and added back another to the list of known species, in the process uncovering striking new characteristics of one of the most widely studied amphibians in the world. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products […]

By Herp News Commonly known as fishing snakes, the Synophis genus has been expanded with as many as three new species following a research in the Andean cloud forests of Amazonian Ecuador and Peru. Not only is the discovery remarkable due to the rarity of new snake species being discovered, but also because this is […]

What a cool shot of an African Stump-tailed Chameleon (Ri. brevicaudatus) in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pardalisberlin ! Be sure to tell them 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 rare sight of an Amazon River Dolphin leaping out of the water. The dolphins are playful and curious, and threatened by hydroelectric dams. Photo © kevinschafer.com [dropcap]A[/dropcap] dam-building boom is underway in the Amazon. More than 400 hydroelectric dams are in operation, being built, or planned for the river’s headwaters and […]

By Herp News In April 2015, Vreni Häussermann, Director of the Huinay Scientific Field Station in Chilean Patagonia, and her team, discovered nearly 30 dead sei whales on the Gulf of Penas along Chile’s southern coast while surveying the region’s marine fauna. Sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) are members of the baleen whale family, and can reach lengths of 50 feet and […]

This Reticulated Python is just popping over to say hi in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user eschmit04 ! Be sure to tell them 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 […]

By Herp News A new tree frog species, Dendropsophus bromeliaceus, spends its tadpole stage in pooled water that collects in bromeliad plants in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, according to a new study. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto Links

This gator snapper weighed about 50 pounds. “Dick, bring your camera!” Easier said than done. I had just turned around in the canoe to take a photo of a big cypress tree when a strong wind gust blew me broadside into a barely sunken snag. And I was having a devil of a time trying […]

By Herp News A mature male Turks & Caicos Rock Iguana greets arriving guests at the Pine Cay dock, where he lounges on a seaside rock in late afternoon. Photo by B Naqqi Manco [dropcap]I[/dropcap]magine lounging on a white sand beach, clear azure water reflecting the tropical sun against a backdrop of rustling silvery-green palmetto […]

By Herp News Wild birds in the state of Amazonas in Brazil are being trafficked for food and pet trade, according to a new study published today in Mongabay’s open-access journal, Tropical Conservation Science. Researchers found that between 1992 and 2011, the state’s environmental agency had seized nearly 2,700 wild birds being traded illegally. The study […]

One little, two little, three little Bearded Dragons in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user dedragons ! Be sure to tell them 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 […]

By Herp News Last year, Indonesia became the first country in the world to issue a fatwa, or religious decree, against wildlife poaching and trafficking. Now, a Malaysian state has followed suit. Islamic clerics (or the Mufti Department) in the state of Terengganu in northeastern Malaysia, in consultation with experts from the state’s Department of Wildlife […]

By Herp News Undercover sting by Greenpeace exposes two prominent skeptics [The Guardian] Posing as consultants to fossil fuel companies, Greenpeace was able to uncover two prominent climate skeptics that were available for hire to write reports that would cast doubt on the dangers of global warming. Up to a quarter of Alaska’s permafrost could […]

By Herp News The Tacana, a Bolivian indigenous group, have spent years developing sustainable land-use methods for their communities. Earlier this week their efforts were rewarded when U.S. actor Alec Baldwin presented the prestigious Equator Prize to the Tacana indigenous council during a ceremony at COP21 in Paris. The Equator Prizes, sponsored by the Equator Initiative, […]

By Herp News Male and infant Río Mayo titi monkey (Callicebus oenanthe), in the Alto Mayo forests of Peru. This species is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, and at risk from illegal trafficking. Adult primates are typically killed and sold as bushmeat, while the young are simultaneously captured and sold for the pet […]

By Herp News In Russia’s Far East, an Amur (or Siberian) tiger named Zolushka has given birth to two cubs in the wild. Zolushka — Russian for Cinderella – was rescued as a starving four-month old cub by hunters, raised in captivity, and then released into Russia’s Bastak Nature Reserve in 2013, forests that had been devoid of tigers for the […]

Happy Rattlesnake Friday! We just love this close up of a Massasauga in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user venombill ! Be sure to tell them 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 […]

By Herp News In 2013, European scientists discovered that a deadly chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (or Bsal) was causing mass die-offs in salamander populations across northern Europe. Experts believe that Bsal originated in Asia, and spread to Europe via the international pet trade. Predictably, researchers are worried about Bsal spreading to North America, home to […]

The International Iguana Foundation has published a video outlining the crisis faced by the Jamaican Iguana (Cyclura collei). Endemic to Jamaica, t is the largest native land animal in the country, and is critically endangered, even considered extinct between 1948 and 1990. Once found throughout Jamaica and on the offshore islets Great Goat Island and […]

By Herp News [dropcap]O[/dropcap]n September 9, I arrived back in Mombasa, Kenya, after an investigative mission to Dubai and Egypt for the independent conservationist Karl Ammann. No region of the world makes it easy for foreigners to document trade in endangered animals, but the Middle East is especially hard to work in. Karl’s writings on […]

How adorable is this Newt in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user plagueguitarist ! Be sure to tell them 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. Amazon […]

This is an adult East African gaboon viper. Note the very short rostral horns. Stoked by a moment’s carelessness by a very experienced keeper of hot (=venomous) snakes that resulted in a bite by a Gaboon viper, as well as a number of other widely publicized incidents, the antivenomous lobby has again been awakened. The […]

By Herp News A pair of critically endangered Takahē released on Maungatautari Mountain. Image in the public domain provided by the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust Imagine yourself surrounded by wispy branches, by an echoing chorus of bird songs, and by the scrutinizing gazes of lizards. You may ask yourself, where am I? The answer is…complicated, […]

By Herp News War-ravaged South Sudan is home to a rich assortment of wildlife, researchers from Fauna & Flora International (FFI), Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, U.S., and South Sudan’s Wildlife Service have found. For six months, the researchers surveyed over 8,000 square kilometers (~3,100 square miles) of the under-explored forests of Western Equatoria state of South […]

This is quite an amazing field shot of a Black Racer in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user piglet ! Be sure to tell them 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 discovery also reveals the unique binocular vision of the first ancient marine reptile of its kind to be found in Japan. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto Links

This hatchling viper gecko is so impossibly tiny! He is perched on top of a dime in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user JohnRobinson ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! […]

This is a prettily marked adult Weller’s salamanderThe little bronze on black Weller’s salamander, Plethodon welleri, was named for a tragedy. In 1931, while collecting salamanders on Grandfather Mountain in western NC, herpetologist, Worth Hamilton Weller, the discoverer of this taxon, fell to his death. The current status of this little plethodontid is a bit […]

By Herp News A Maned wolf resting among the long grass of the Cerrado. Photo by Rob Young [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is by all accounts a bizarre creature. Nicknamed a “fox on stilts,” it is perhaps best known for its once-heard-never-forgotten “roar-bark.” A single look at this strange, gangly and rather scruffy creature, […]

By Herp News Bears hibernate during winters. So do some bats, squirrels, and many other mammals. But very few primates are known to hibernate. In fact, scientists have previously observed hibernation in only three species of lemurs, all found in Madagascar: the western fat-tailed lemur, Crossley’s dwarf lemur and Sibree’s dwarf lemur. Now, researchers have […]

This Rainbow Boa is quite festive in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user natsamjosh ! Be sure to tell them 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 Extremely rare and hidden in the forests of the Andes, there are still new snake species left to find. This has recently been evidenced by the colubrid serpent, described for the first time in the present article. Enwrapped with questions about their species’ origin and therefore, correct taxonomic clustering, the reptiles have […]

By Herp News What issues to be watching during the Paris climate talks [Nature] There is a little more than week left of the climate talks in Paris and tension has been building among negotiators. Here is a list of the six crucial issues that will be discussed during the second week of talks. Helping […]

By Herp News How do wind energy companies kill protected bald eagles and golden eagles via turbine strikes every year without facing legal repercussions? They have renewable permits issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that exempt them from laws making it illegal to kill the birds. However, the U.S. District Court of […]

Happy Ratttlesnake Friday! This Crotalus tigris, found and photographed in AZ, is keeping her eye on you in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user kevinjudd ! Be sure to tell kevinjudd 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 Migratory birds are awe-inspiring. Every year, millions traverse across oceans and continents, many each racking up thousands of miles as they fly. The longest marathon migrant, the Arctic tern, covers more than 70,000 kilometers (about 44,000 miles) annually during its journey from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and back. However, very few migratory bird species […]

By Herp News [dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Christmas Eve in 1968, on their fourth orbit around the moon, the three American astronauts aboard Apollo 8 were startled to see the Earth, a pale blue orb, rising from the darkness. The astronauts hurriedly snapped a picture, the first to be taken of Earth by a person in space. “It […]

SO bright and brilliant, this Yellow Anaconda shines in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mattf77 ! Be sure to tell them 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 […]

Having a bottom 2 1/2 x 3 feet and a height of 5″ allows one to catch all manner of herps, fish, and aquatic insects. The other day Mike and John came by and borrowed my Goin Dredge (see photo above) to try their luck finding small fish, aquatic salamanders and tadpoles in some of […]