By Herp News Scientists have discovered the real reason turtles have shells. While many thought turtle shells were for protection, new findings show that the shells were actually for digging underground to escape the harsh South African environment where these early proto turtles lived. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products […]

We are loving this shot of a Black Milk Snake in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gerryg ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake […]

Hatchling spotted turtles usually have only a single spot in each carapacial scute. These may increase in number as the turtle ages. Strange though it may seem, the beautiful and aptly named spotted turtle, Clemmys guttata, has been hiding in many of its disjunct Florida ranges pretty much in plain sight. Now the lone species […]

Our Herp Photo of the day runs Monday through Friday, but seriously, did you think we would skip today? It is World Snake Day, a day to celebrate snakes around the world and educate to alter perceptions of these misaligned creatures! This photo from Reptile Gardens shows a scene few will ever see, the view […]

Happy Rattlesnake Friday! To end the week, this Jackson’s Tree Snake (Thrasops jacksonii) comes in to represent rear-fangs for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Claus ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to […]

Adult Colombian red ears may attain 10″ in length and the pattern becomes suffused with melanin. No doubt worse for the baby turtles than for the humans who bought them, there was a time- span of several decades (until 1975 when the sale of turtles having a carapace length of less than 4” became illegal) […]

Today a beautiful head shot of a Schneider’s dwarf caiman in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cpipes ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake […]

Boomslangs are variably colored. Greens, blacks, and grays are most common. Are you old enough to remember the term “junk” or “trash” snakes? No? Well these were terms once used by importers for the “unordered” snake species that they received (and were expected to pay for) on each order of imports. They were usually common, […]

This false map turtle is just hanging out in situ in a pond in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Serpentin ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more […]

By Herp News Reptiles are exceedingly popular as pets, trade is booming. Between 2004 and 2014, official imports to the EU came to just under 21 million live specimens, more than six million of these ended up on the German market. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto […]

By Herp News Reptiles are exceedingly popular as pets, trade is booming. Between 2004 and 2014, official imports to the EU came to just under 21 million live specimens, more than six million of these ended up on the German market. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto […]

Sonoma County has some beautiful Black Speckled Salamanders, just like this one in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user skyserpent ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: […]

This gorgeous Bredli’s Python is coming up for a closer look in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user sincitydragons ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King […]

Adult Mt. Kenya bush vipers are clad in a contrasting pattern of black and yellow. It was back in the 1970s I acquired my first Mt. Kenya bush viper, Atheris desaixii. I hadn’t been looking for the taxon and I’m not even sure that I was aware of the existence of this viperine species until […]

Happy Rattlesnake Friday! To end the week, flash back to this Albino Eastern Diamondback from 2003 for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ShawnHeflick ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world. […]

Scarlet Kingsnake! Need I say more? Levy County is huge and still relatively untrammeled in many areas. Lately I have been spending less and less time fieldherping and more time birding, pursuits said by some to be relatively similar but that I find vastly different. It was not until I had turned and was well […]

By Herp News Amphibians that tolerate higher temperatures are likely to fare better in a world affected by climate change, disease and habitat loss, according to two recent studies. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto Links

What a lovely looking pair of Chinese Water Dragons in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Agata ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake No […]

Love this gorgeous Santa Isabella ground boa in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user simonebrito ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake No products found. […]

Body color can vary to blend with the substrate. It was just past sunup and I was walking a boardwalk over a saltmarsh in Levy County when I noticed the chunky, charcoal-on-gray snake lying loosely coiled on some bent over marsh grasses. A little further on there was another in what seemed an easily duplicated […]

By Herp News Green turtles hatching en masse from their nests ‘swamp’ predators, allowing more individuals to reach the safety of the sea, new research concludes. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto Links

By Herp News A new article catalogs instances of venomous aquatic life, for the first time showing that venom has evolved 18 separate times in fresh and saltwater fishes. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto Links

Now that’s a handful! A handful of Peninsular Newts in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user avidoutdoorsman ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake No […]

An all American, this Baja black-collared lizard basks in it’s own freedom in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Brockn ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: […]

A burrowing frog floating quietly between the bleating calls. So What’s a Waaaaaaaa-mooch? It was probably about 1949 or 1950 when I learned of the “waaaaaaa-mooch.” A couple of my favorite childhood books were by naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson. And it was in his “Living Treasure” (published in 1941) that he discussed his first encounter […]

Happy Rattlesnake Friday! To end the week, flash back to this patternless Nitsche’s bush viper (Atheris nitschei) from 2006 for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user reptilelocators ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution […]

Curly-tails are alert and very fast. The curly-tailed lizard, Leiocephalus carinatus, looks superficially like a heavy bodied swift (fence lizard) with an unruly, upcurled, tail. Present in Florida since the mid-1930s when it was deliberately introduced in the hope that it would consume unwanted insects in the sugarcane crops, this active diurnal Bahamian native is […]

This Sulawesi forest turtle seems like he has zero cares in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user andystorts ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake […]

The always fascinating Gharial graces us today in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Lucky_7 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake No products found. […]

Most adult male marbled salamanders are precisely marked in black and white. The beautiful marbled salamander, Ambystoma opacum, ranges southward from extreme South Eastern New Hampshire and Southern Michigan to East Texas and Northern Florida. Interestingly and sadly, the Florida range of this pretty autumn breeding mole salamander once extended as far south on the […]

Gotta love this big ole bullfrog in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user coluberking25 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake No products found. Amazon […]

This henkeli is getting a clear view in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user erikstrait! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: King Snake No products found. Amazon […]

An adult pair of green forest Dragons, male right. I had veered from the trail a bit. Darkness had fallen and we had stopped at a riverside Amazonian village. The evening meal was prepared on the riverboat and a half-dozen of us were walking a trail with our Peruvian guide in the lead. So far, […]

By Herp News The potential evolutionary link between hairs in mammals, feathers in birds and scales in reptiles has been debated for decades. Today, researchers demonstrate that all these skin appendages are homologous. On the basis of analyses of embryonic development, the biologists evidenced molecular and micro-anatomical signatures that are identical between hairs, feathers and […]

By Herp News A new study analyzed media reports of snakebites in the United States. Investigators found that media coverage detailed victim circumstances better than current quantitative data, and that the majority of snakebites may actually be ‘legitimate,’ meaning they occur by surprise, without intentional contact, in a natural setting. Go to Source …read more […]

By Herp News Birdsong has long been associated with courtship or competitive behavior. And males were considered to be more active. Now a research team shows that female singing is much more common. They demonstrated for the first time a connection between the song of female blue tits and the presence of a predator. This […]

Hatchling western chicken turtles. Chicken turtles, the 3 subspecies of Deirochelys reticularia are wanderers. Between periods of aestivation or brumation chicken turtles wander from ephemeral pond to equally ephemeral roadside ditch where they hunt crayfish, dragonfly larvae, and occasional small fish, or other turtle fare, and then wander on again. I usually see, more by […]

Happy Rattlesnake Friday! To end the week, a whole lotta squee for these baby Death Adders for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Oxyrhopus ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world. […]

It will be hard to find anyting cuter than this hatching Yellowtail Cribo in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user alanB! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more Read more here: […]

5 Timber Rattlenakes, Crotalus horridus, found under the same tin I wish I could share a picture of my face and a recording of the words coming out of my mouth when Phil Peak and I lifted up a piece of our artificial cover and bore witness to the sight in this photograph! Moments before […]