The little frog was sitting atop a frond well, up out of reach in a Bactris riparia (spiny palm).

Marisa jokingly told Emerson, the preserve manager, that she wanted the frog and taking her statement at face value, he set about getting it for her. A few minutes later Emerson called Marisa and showed her the frog, then sitting quietly on the crook of his snake hook.

The next morning Marisa, showed Kenny and me the frog. Neither of us were able to identify it to species. In fact, we even vacillated on genus, but eventually agreed on Pristimantis. Kenny just called it Pristimantis sp., I preferred Pristimantis sp. cf okendeni. Lots of pictures were taken.

After returning home, Kenny continued to attempt a positive identification, and thanks to AmphibiaWebEcuador he succeeded.

Marisa and Emerson had collected a species thought previously to be rare in and endemic to Ecuador – Pristimantis orphnolaemus, a small anuran best known as a canopy dweller in primary forest. Its finding has documented a new herpetofaunal species in Peru and it was found on Santa Cruz Forest Preserve.

Thanks to all for the efforts both afield and in researching the find.
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The Colombian Park Zoo and Purdue University are working together to help the Hellbenders, who are disappearing from the wild in Indiana.

From WLFI.com:

“When our amphibian species start disappearing, there’s a problem,” said senior zookeeper Noah Shields. “This is not just another animal that may be going extinct here in Indiana. This is a very, very important species.”

Found in the Blue River in southern Indiana, and in rivers from Arkansas to New York, the Hellbender species is millions of years old. Recently, however, they are starting to disappear. Purdue associate professor Rod Williams has been leading the charge to preserve the species, which is now considered endangered in Indiana.

“They’re very sensitive to changes in the environment,” Williams said. “Hellbenders are also a very long lived amphibian. They can live 30 years in the wild. So when you have a really long-lived animal that starts to decline in the wild at a very rapid rate, it’s cause for concern that there’s something going on in the environment.”

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Not a very common sight, but these Brahminy blind snakes are the spotlight today in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Canes05!

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In briefs and during recent hearings, United States Fish and Wildlife Service USFWS) informed the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that it would take 75 days to determine whether to appeal the preliminary injunction (PI) granted to USARK. However, the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure appear to only provide 60 days in which a United States agency may file a Notice of Appeal. [Rule 4(a)(1)(B)(ii)] Nonetheless, USFWS requested a stay of the PI for 75 days.

In his order, United States District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss stayed most of the proceedings in the Federal District Court for 60 days or until the termination of any appeal of the PI. Judge Moss did not technically stay the PI, but he effectively did so temporarily by making the PI effective 14 days after his order, on Tuesday, June 2, 2015.

If it files a notice of appeal, USFWS may again seek a stay of the PI for the pendency of such appeal. It also appears that USFWS could technically file immediately for a stay of the PI with the United States Court of Appeals. [Rule 8(a)]

However, it seems unlikely the Court of Appeals would be inclined to take such a motion for stay very seriously if USFWS did not simultaneously file a notice of appeal. Why? The District Court has already considered and denied any stay of the PI beyond the 14 days already allowed through June 2, 2015.

Moreover, if USFWS sees the reversal of the PI as an extraordinarily important issue, then it should be able to expedite the administrative procedure for filing a notice of appeal.

During the hearing, USFWS stated that it was time consuming to get administrative permission to appeal because an appeal had to be authorized by the Solicitor General, and also involved Department of Justice lawyers at the trial and appellate levels, as well as a number of folks at USFWS and The Department of Interior, at various levels.

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By Herp News

Nine months after Zambia lifted its general trophy hunting ban—including on elephants—the country has now lifted its ban on hunting African lions and leopards. The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) lifted the ban after surveying its big cat populations and setting new regulations.

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In India you can find 16 species of keelback snakes, which makes it one of the largest family of snakes in the country. The keelback snakes are said to be relatives of the garter snakes, which are pretty common in America.

One of the keelback snakes found in my area is the buff-stripped keelback, Amphiesma stolatum, and it’s also my favorite from the family because of its color and its shy nature. These snakes are found near water bodies in marshy areas and paddy fields.

During mating season, six or seven males can be seen following a female. Due to pheromones (sex hormones) that are released in the air, even a recently killed female may attract males during this particular season. This has given rise to the misbelief that at least six more snakes turn up if a buff-stripped keelback is killed.

The maximum length of this snake is 80 cm, and it is oviparous by nature, laying eggs twice in a year.

The color variations in this snake is the main reason which makes it one of my favorites, as well as its shy nature, which is always beneficial during the rescues.

Photo: Riyaz Khoja
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Several months ago canoeists found several dead turtles in an Australian River, and this may be the harbinger of the extinction of Bellinger River snapping turtles.

From Scientific American:

Since then more than 400 dead turtles have shown up. Dozens more sick turtles were also recovered, each of which was lethargic, emaciated and covered in infected lesions in their eyes, skin and even internal organs.

None of the infected turtles survived.

The 60-kilometer river is the only home to the Bellinger River snapping turtle (Elsaya georgesi), a rare but little-studied species that has already been on the decline for years due to pollution and predation by invasive foxes. Scientists now fear that this mysterious, as-yet-unidentified disease has reached 90 percent of the turtle’s habitat and could cause the species’s imminent extinction.

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Several months ago canoeists found several dead turtles in an Australian River, and this may be the harbinger of the extinction of Bellinger River snapping turtles.

From Scientific American:

Since then more than 400 dead turtles have shown up. Dozens more sick turtles were also recovered, each of which was lethargic, emaciated and covered in infected lesions in their eyes, skin and even internal organs.

None of the infected turtles survived.

The 60-kilometer river is the only home to the Bellinger River snapping turtle (Elsaya georgesi), a rare but little-studied species that has already been on the decline for years due to pollution and predation by invasive foxes. Scientists now fear that this mysterious, as-yet-unidentified disease has reached 90 percent of the turtle’s habitat and could cause the species’s imminent extinction.

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What a better way to spotlight this gorgeous super conda hognose! This stunning snake takes center stage in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user nearhoofm!

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By Herp News

The Chinese government announced today that it will ‘eventually’ shut down its legal domestic ivory market. The move, which surprised conservationists, could provide a major boost in efforts to stop the mass killing of elephants for their ivory.

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By Herp News

A female Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) — potentially the last female of her species — has been artificially inseminated. The procedure, which brought together top scientists from China, Australia and the United States, provides a ray of hope in a continuing effort to save the world’s most endangered turtle.

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In all the time I’ve been writing for kingsnake.com, most of my posts have been about Indian snakes. It’s like I’ve forgotten there are other reptiles and amphibians that also exist in India. So here are some thoughts on the most common monitor lizard of India.

The Indian or Bengal monitor, Varanus bengalensis, is a monitor lizard found widely distributed over the Indian subcontinent, as well as parts of Southeast Asia and West Asia. This large lizard is mainly terrestrial and grows to about 175 cm from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail. The juveniles are more colorful with dotted bands, but as they grow the color of the body is grey or light brown.

It is been said that a monitor lizard has a very powerful grip with claws and there is a story sys that a legendary warrior and his group of soldiers climbed a fort with the support of a monitor lizard and rope.

In India, monitors are hunted for their meat, especially in rural areas. It is believed by these villagers that monitor lizard meat helps to prevent joint pain. For me, it is always a sad thing seeing these reptiles getting killed, and I am doing my best to protect them by making people aware of these magnificient creatures, and I’m sure a change is coming!

Photo: Riyaz Khoja
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It’s the weekend and what better excuse to hang with your friends, just like the rhino iguana in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user spotsowner!

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By Herp News

No one knows what’s killing them, but scientists estimate that almost half of the world’s saiga (Saiga tatarica) have perished since May 10th. To date, researchers on-the-ground unofficially estimate that 120,000 saiga have died in Kazakhstan from what appears to be a wildly virulent disease, although no cause has been ruled out.

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Reduced in size and flow during a drought, at the bridge where we stood the river was still about 30 feet wide and looked to be cool and fairly deep with even deeper holes. Kenny and I were watching some very wary diamond-backed water snakes that were using some cracks in the bridge abutment as hideaways when a turtle head broke the water surface, spied us, reversed, and sped to the bottom.

Texas cooter? No. But it was definitely an emydine, not a mud turtle.

After checking the various range maps, it seemed that there was only one other choice – a Texas map turtle, Graptemys versa. Suddenly the sighting took on new importance for this was a species with which neither of us was overly familiar.

So we stood quietly and patiently and watched the water slowly pass by. No turtle.

We admitted defeat and clambered back to the roadway. Before returning to the car we glanced once over the edge of the bridge and there, below us, swam the turtle. Correction: swam 2 turtles.

They were Texas map turtles, a small male and a larger female, and they were courting.

Picture taking time! Whoops, our cameras were still in the car. Of course.

Where else would they be when needed?
Continue reading “Two Texas map turtles and not one camera” …read more
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The Windsor-Essex Humane Society is decrying a violent attack on a northern watersnake, and asking the incident be taken as seriously as abuse against any other type of animal.

From the CBC:

Coulter said the Humane Society consulted a snake expert who said the snake died at the hands of a human and not another animal. She also said rocks didn’t simply fall on the snake and kill it.

“It’s a concern because, just because she’s not a dog or cat doesn’t mean she didn’t suffer. She was attacked and left there to die,” Coulter said. “If this was a dog or cat pelted with rocks and left to die, everyone would be horrified.

“While snakes may not be everyone’s favourite animal, they are a part of our ecosystem and can suffer like any other animal.”

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This pair of horned lizards (aka horny toads) are just chilling like a pair of villians on their rock in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user radar357!

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By Herp News

HEC, otherwise known as human elephant conflict, is a centuries-old problem responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of elephants. This ongoing battle between African farmers trying to grow crops and hungry elephants foraging for a meal, has motivated conservationists to find solutions for protecting the largest and one of the most intelligent land animals on the planet. Scientists’ most recent effort — Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), frisbee-sized remote controlled quad-helicopters — may provide the answer that researchers have been looking for.

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A veteran was reunited with Ba Cu, a Vietnamese pond turtle he rescued nearly 50 years ago and the oldest known example of her species.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

On Thursday, Lowery and Ba Cu met again in a visit arranged by zoo officials in honor of Memorial Day. Though Lowery, now 72, lives in Pickerington, he doesn’t often visit the zoo, he said, so he was glad to see the turtle.

“She sets a record every day,” he said.

Before he was drafted, Lowery had been studying to be a zookeeper and worked at the zoo’s reptile house.

In addition to the turtle, he sent back snakes and small mammals that he thought the zoo would be interested in. First, he had to persuade Vietnamese wildlife officials to let him take the animals, then he boxed them up and sent them to the U.S. on Pan American World Airways.

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CHOW TIME! This female Parson’s chameleon is just about to grab a bite to eat in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user rocknreptiles!

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By Herp News

The panther chameleon, a lizard prized in the pet trade for its remarkable color changing abilities, may actually represent 11 different species, report researchers writing in the journal Molecular Ecology. Analyzing the genetics of more than 300 individual panther chameleons, Swiss and Malagasy researchers make a case that different color morphs of Furcifer pardalis may be distinct species.

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By Herp News

A coalition has launched an initiative, the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge to spark and drive investment in innovative science and technology solutions to help reduce the damage caused by wildlife trafficking. The initiative is backed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and TRAFFIC.

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By Herp News

Mozambique has lost nearly half of its elephants to relentless, brutal, and highly-organized poaching in just five years, according to a new government survey. In 2010, the country was home to an estimated 20,000 pachyderms, today it houses just 10,300.

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By Herp News

A new survey in Nepal counted 645 one-horned rhinos, up from 375 animals ten years ago and 534 animals in 2011. This represent a rise of 72 percent over the last ten years, an impressive feat given that the world’s rhinos are facing a savage poaching crisis.

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By Herp News

Like many pests, cane toads are killed in their thousands in Australia every year, especially by community-based ‘toad-busting’ groups. New research has now revealed the most humane way to do it.

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Missouri school children will be using stuffed animals and telemetry data to learn about box turtles.

From the KPLR News:

Monday evening more than 200 grade school students will track soft plush box turtles to better understand their ecosystem.

‘We’ll have some of those plush turtles that have those telemetry devices so the kids will take their parents out and track them which we’ll have hidden at the zoo,’ says Dean.

They’ll be using radio telemetry technology to help the state reptile of Missouri.

Read more here.

Photo by kingsnake.com user jeffb. …read more
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There’s just that something about a green snake! Whether they are of the comparative chunkiness of a tree viper or the slender build of a rat snake, it seems that snakes of green color are hobbyist favorites.

The racer-thin, rodent and bird eating, red-tailed green rat snake, Gonyosoma oxycephala (this snake also occurs in less popular blue-gray and reddish-brown phases) is one of the latter, an aptly named arboreal beauty. Adult at 6 to 7 feet in length, occasional examples can exceed 8 feet. Females are often the larger sex.

Although this large and beautiful Southeast Asian snake is occasionally bred in captivity, many that become available are wild caught imports. If freshly collected before importation, survival rate may be termed “fair.” But if held at a collection facility for days or even weeks (as is often the case) stress, dehydration, and endoparasites will have weakened the snakes rendering them difficult to acclimate.

Although I seldom advocate routine purging of endoparasites, I have found that it does seem to benefit the newly imported examples of this taxon.

Captive hatched examples are often as feistily defensive as the adults. With a bit of teasing, hatchlings will accept pinky mice from forceps. Be aware that as an arboreal species, examples of all sizes may be reluctant to drink from a water dish. This reluctance can usually be overcome by placing an aquarium air stone (attached to a small vibrator pump) in the water and/or elevating the water dish to perch level.

This taxon is not for all hobbyists, but for those having interest, they are well worth the extra effort that is often required.
Continue reading “An arboreal beauty: the green tailed rat snake” …read more
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Climbing to greet the morning is this beautiful green tree monitor in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user roadspawn!

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By Herp News

60 captive-raised Myanmar roofed turtles—a species once thought extinct—have been released into their native habitat in Myanmar, conservationists report. The Myanmar roofed turtle (Batagur trivittata) was believed extinct until 2001, when two researchers found a single shell from a recently killed turtle at a village along the Dokhtawady River. Subsequently, live individuals were discovered at a wildlife market in China and in the ponds of a pagoda in Mandalay. These turtles formed the nucleus of the captive assurance colony which was established.

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By Herp News

The original snake ancestor was a nocturnal, stealth-hunting predator that had tiny hindlimbs with ankles and toes, according to new research. Snakes show incredible diversity, with over 3,400 living species found in a wide range of habitats, such as land, water and in trees. But little is known about where and when they evolved, and how their original ancestor looked and behaved.

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By Herp News

Pets can pass diseases to humans, especially when a pet owner’s immune system is compromised. Here, veterinarians outline ways for families to avoid disease transmission by choosing the right type of pet–or making small changes in the ways they enjoy the pets they already have.

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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.

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By Herp News

It turns out sea turtles, even at a tender 6-18 months of age, are very active swimmers. They don’t just passively drift in ocean currents as researchers once thought. Researchers say it’s an important new clue in the sea turtle ‘lost years’ mystery. Where exactly turtles travel in their first years of life, before returning to coastal areas as adults to forage and reproduce, has puzzled scientists for decades.

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By Herp News

Frogs may flee from a ground predator and move towards an aerial predator, undercutting the flight path.

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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 released off the West Coast of the United States with a satellite transmitter attached.

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By Herp News

It seems unnatural that a species could survive without having sex. Yet over the ages, evolution has endowed females of certain species of amphibians, reptiles and fish with the ability to clone themselves, and perpetuate offspring without males. Researchers have found that in species where females have evolved the ability to reproduce without males relatively recently, fertilization is still ensuring the survival of the maximum number of healthy offspring and thus males are still needed.

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By Herp News

The eastern diamondback rattlesnake has lost 97 percent of its habitat since Europeans first arrived in America. New research demonstrates the critical nature of one element of the diamondback’s home range, pine savanna. For conservationists seeking surrogate habitats for the now-rare species’ dwindling population, the results underscore the need for prescribed fire management to maintain the open-canopy forest and its ecosystem.

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By Herp News

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used in food storage products and resins that line plastic beverage containers. Often, aquatic environments become reservoirs for BPA, and turtle habitats are affected. Now, a collaboration of researchers has determined that BPA can alter a turtle’s sexual differentiation. Scientists are concerned findings could indicate harmful effects on environmental and human health.

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Here I come with my first amphibian blog post!

India is home to good number of amphibians, including frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians. Toads and frogs are found in every part of India, whether it’s a city or a jungle, and according to me they are the cutest cold blooded creatures on earth.

I have been catching frogs and toads since I learned to walk and grab things. I find them really cute and the reason is their face; it always appears a smiling and a happy face. I was always the odd man among my friends because whenever and wherever I used to see a toad I would pick it up, and my friends found it really disgusting.

The Malabar gliding frog, Rhacophorus malabaricus, is my favorite frog amongst the Indian frogs, because of its gliding jumps and green color. This frog has a body length of about 10 cm, making it one of the largest moss frog. The color is vivid green without markings and the belly or underside is pale yellow. The webbings between fingers and toes is large and orange-red.

The Malabar gliding frog is common in the western ghats of India. My first meeting with this frog was really surprising; I was herping for Malabar pit vipers at night and I found a few, so I decided to search for some of these frogs. For 10-15 minutes I couldn’t find anything and I sat on a rock for a break. As I was removing my head torch, I felt something sitting on it, I just grabbed it gently and saw it was a Malabar gliding frog I wasn’t aware of it sitting on my head torch. An unforgettable meeting.

Photo: Roland zh. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. …read more
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On a trip to New Zealand, Prince Harry met a Tuatara lizard named Harry who is over 100 years old.

From the Sunday Express:

The royal came face to face with a Tuatara lizard, also named Harry, during a welcome ceremony in the city of Invercargill.

The Prince came up close and personal with the 100-year-old reptile as it settled on his arm.

The Tuatara is only found in New Zealand where it is revered in native Maori culture as a messenger of the gods.

It was back to business as usual afterwards as Prince Harry then faced a crowd of screaming female fans – one of whom even managed to plant a kiss on the Royal.

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