Pygmy Freshwater Crocodile – Photo: Adam Britton Long time friend of kingsnake.com and famed crocodillian researcher Adam Britton is attempting to save the Pygmy Freshwater Crocodiles in Australia. Although they are considered the same species as the Freshwater Crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni), researchers are looking into genetic variations that may lead to their listing as a […]

By Herp News Six months ago, 80 arboreal camera traps and 40 more cameras on the ground were deployed by scientists in the Manu Biosphere Reserve in Peru, one of the world’s most biodiverse conservation areas. The researchers took the cameras down just a few weeks ago, and they provided Mongabay with a sneak peek […]

By Herp News Amphibians occupy almost every ecological niche, from the highest tropical trees to the most fetid pools of desert water. Brightly colored and cryptically camouflaged, they have evolved an astounding array of defenses – about half of all amphibians are poisonous. But despite their adaptability, these animals are in serious trouble, all over […]

By Herp News Photos captured by camera traps could seal the fate of an alleged tiger poacher in Thailand, WCS announced last Wednesday. Thailand police have confiscated tiger skin and body parts at a police checkpoint in Mae Sot District in Western Thailand. Since poaching of tigers in Thailand is illegal, proving the geographic origin […]

A shout out to the little guys! Loving this Vinales Anole in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user macraei ! 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 A wildlife trafficker who was caught trying to sell three baby orangutans on Facebook was sentenced to two years imprisonment and fined 50 million rupiah ($3,653) in Indonesia’s Aceh province last week. The man, a 29-year-old university student named Rahmadani, was arrested in a sting on August 1. Besides the Sumatran orangutans […]

By Herp News Visitors to the tropics remember the bright colors. Take the blue-and-yellow macaw with its egg-yolk breast and turquoise back – “the usual gaudy colouring of the intertropical productions,” as Charles Darwin put it. But recent research in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography contests the idea that wildlife and flowers in the […]

By Herp News A recent report, published by the Biological Society of Washington, details the discovery of a new rat species, Batomys uragon, on the mountainous island of Luzon in the Philippines.A member of the research team, Lawrence Heaney of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, responded to Mongabay’s request for an interview […]

By Herp News Is the Wild West using the most up-to-date technology for managing wildlife and researching conservation issues? Kyran Kunkel, Lead Scientist at American Prairie Reserve and Affiliate Professor in the Wildlife Biology Program at the University of Montana, wants to ensure that it is. He spoke with WildTech about technologies he relies on […]

Happy Rattlesnake Friday! Here’s lookin’ at you kid! Gotta love a field find like this rattlesnake in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user sluggo781 . 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! […]

photo by Grant Adams Grant Adams will always have a little something extra to remember his time in the Peace Corp. Adams, a recent graduate in biology from Denison University was just hoping to find some scientific task to keep his resume up to date. He sent an e-mail to a mailing list for ecologists, […]

By Herp News Invasive species are great hitchhikers. They float in the ballast of ships, lurk in luggage, stick to unwashed sports gear, and cling to the soles of hiking boots. Scientists focus on stopping them from spreading because, once a new species gets rooted, it is expensive to manage and nearly impossible to remove. […]

By Herp News Juan Santamaría International Airport. Photo by Freestylerob [dropcap]E[/dropcap]ach year millions of travelers stream through the gates of Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaría airport in route to one of the country’s many natural wonders. But often when tourists leave, a piece of the country’s biodiversity goes with them. Turtle shell bracelets, reptile-skin wallets, bird […]

Although not common, red phase brown anoles are well documented in Florida populations. This pretty little female brown anole visited our back deck yesterday. She caught the eye of an amorous male brown anole of normal color. As far as aberrancies go, orange headed female and all orange male brown anoles are not particularly rare. […]

A True Giant. This Komodo Dragon takes center stage in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cowboyfromhell s! 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 […]

Tuatara Gallery photo with the late Rico Walder The rare New Zealand Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) doesn’t have a penis but it may go a long way to help scientists understand phallic evolution. Researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville found that the tuatara develop tiny nubbins as an embryo but the development of these […]

By Herp News Prionopelta xerosilva, named after the dry forests in which it exclusively lives in northwestern Madagascar. During a recently concluded study conducted over the last ten years, researchers from the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) working with the Madagascar Biodiversity Center (MBC) have discovered and described six new species of ants belonging to […]

By Herp News A red morph specimen of Lehmann’s poison frog. Photo courtesy of Tesoros de Colombia. Lehmann’s poison frog (Oophaga lehmanni) is one of many beautiful frog species endemic to Colombia. It is has been subject to illegal trafficking for the wildlife pet trade, and is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Considered […]

By Herp News The first-ever successful elimination of a fatal chytrid fungus in a wild amphibian has been revealed by scientists, marking a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease responsible for devastating amphibian populations worldwide. Go to Source …read more Read more here: herpetofauna.com No products found. Amazon Auto Links

What a great Indigo field shot for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ACO3124 ! 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. […]

Photographing herps takes practice Photographing herps is an art form that takes many years to master. Even after many years of practice I can always find something wrong with the best pictures I have taken and, like all of you, I wish I could take better herp pictures. But I am still practicing and learning, […]

It’s a sad sight no self-respecting reptile hobbyist wants to see. Three pet Boa constrictors, purposely frozen and then dumped along a rural road. Sheriff’s deputies in northern Wisconsin are investigating a reptile mistreatment case after the reptiles were found frozen in a tote box along a road near Irma. The Lincoln County Humane Society […]

By Herp News Road construction crews in southeastern Nigeria have begun work on a six-lane, 260-kilometer “superhighway” in Cross River State, which Governor Ben Ayade argues will be an economic booster shot for the region. Opponents, however, worry about the effects it may have on the nearby Cross River National Park. The Oban division of […]

By Herp News With its furry face and adorable antics, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) attracts an equally giant wave of financial support. Zoos pay the Chinese government up to $1 million each year to host pairs of pandas, and conservation groups pour millions of dollars into protecting the species. Some see this effort to […]

By Herp News Researchers have identified the fungal culprit behind an often deadly skin infection in snakes in the eastern US. The research shows that Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola is the definitive cause of snake fungal disease, which will help researchers pinpoint why it is emerging as a threat to snake populations and how its impacts can […]

This hatching Beaded Lizard in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Kevin Earley will probably break the internet with it’s cuteness! 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 […]

The owner of a king cobra that went AWOL for over a month in Orlando Florida is appealing a ruling that he should no longer be able to own venomous snakes. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has ordered to revoke the “sanctuary status” of the facility, which the commission said was applied in […]

A common liana snake en situ, Peruvian Amazon. We had looked for years with no success for a common liana snake, Siphlophis cervinus, on the Amazonian (Peru) preserves that Patti and I regularly visited. We looked high and low, in trailside trees, in shrubs, and of course on lianas but to no avail. After all, […]

By Herp News The endangered Hyacinth Macaw is highly coveted by traffickers and collectors. Photo by Juliana M Ferreira. [dropcap]W[/dropcap]ildlife trafficking transit chains in Latin America are complex, secret, and as varied as the many common and threatened animal species targeted. After poachers illegally pluck wildlife from their habitats, the animals are passed on to […]

By Herp News The US Department of the Interior says the Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel, one of the first species listed as endangered in the US nearly fifty years ago, is no longer at risk of going extinct. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which worked together with states and landowners on conservation efforts […]

By Herp News On November 3, Cameroonian activist Nasako Besingi was convicted of four criminal counts against a controversial palm oil company operating in the country. But a coalition of environmental and human rights organizations is denouncing the charges, urging authorities to stop what they call the “repression” of Besingi and other activists. Besingi is […]

By Herp News The Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus) is an Endangered species. Traffickers hunt it on the banks of Nicaragua’s San Juan River. Captured birds are often transported for sale to San Salvador more than 1000 kilometers away. From there some birds are moved north through Mexico into the United States. Photo credit: Carlos Chávez. […]

By Herp News The Indian star tortoise (Geochelone elegans) is a little-known, but common, victim of illegal wildlife trade. In 2014, at least 55,000 wild tortoises were poached from just one “trade hub” in southern India, a recent study published in Nature Conservation has uncovered. “We were most shocked at the sheer scale of the […]

Hopefully this adorbable shot of an Elongated Tortoise in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user TylerStewart will help brighten your Monday! 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 […]

Gallery photo by user Dean Alessandrin Police are trying to track down a Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) stolen from the Pierrelatte crocodile farm in the Drôme département of southeastern France. The monitor lizard was one of four on loan from the Barcelona Zoo where it was born in captivity. “This is the work of an […]

By Herp News White-faced saki monkey (Pithecia pithecia). Photo by Rhett Butler. It’s being called the “landmark” conservation policy [ThinkProgress] President Obama recently released a presidential memorandum declaring that development projects on America’s public lands, such as energy and mining, should result in in net benefit for the nation’s rivers, lands, and wildlife resources. Peru […]

By Herp News The world’s largest amphibian sounds like a work of fiction: virtually unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs, and reportedly growing as long as a man, the Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus) is clinging to survival in the wild in a few fast-flowing rivers scattered across the highlands of China. Meanwhile, the […]

By Herp News A group of scientists from the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and World Animal Protection is on the prowl for new tools to help protect wild tigers. Today, they launched a competition called “Think for Tigers,” which urges anyone associated with academic institutions, NGOs, governments and tech companies to […]

By Herp News On the week of October 9th, a 10-man ranger patrol team was ambushed by wildlife poachers equipped with heavy artillery as they searched for an elephant tracking collar in Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the unit escaped, but four men were killed in the attack, bringing the ranger […]

By Herp News Nature isn’t quite so natural anymore. Our interaction with the world around us has changed it drastically, and nowhere more so than in cities, vast artificial landscapes lacking in biodiversity. However, cities are also evolutionary hotspots, home to moths that changed color to camouflage themselves amongst pollution-stained trees, “superworms” that can munch […]