By Herp News

Little is known about the oldest sea turtles that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago. The finding in the Baetic Cordillera, in Jaén, of the remains of a supposed new species of turtle, Hispaniachelys prebetica – considered the oldest in southern Europe – brought new clues six years ago. However, it was still not clear what group the primitive turtle belonged to. To resolve the matter, researchers studied the as-yet-unanalyzed fossils of the specimen, reinterpreted some of its features and provided new information on the morphology of these reptiles. The results marked a radical shift in fossil interpretation.

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The failure to reintroduce relic leopard frogs in a Nevada pond shows that conservation is a constant battle.

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Clark County and the Nevada Department of Wildlife spent about five years trying to get the rare frog to thrive at a pond along the Muddy River. But nearly 2,000 frogs later, the county scuttled an agreement Feb. 3 with state wildlife officials after multiple failed efforts. It’s likely now that no frogs live at the pond, county officials say.

In a way, frogs and other amphibians are a barometer of an area’s overall environmental health. Their moist skin doesn’t take kindly to environmental hazards in the air. Nor will frogs survive if water, the lifeblood of their natural environment, disappears.

The relict leopard frog’s plight isn’t unusual in the amphibian world. Amphibians throughout the U.S. and worldwide are in decline, according to a 2013 federal report.

But don’t count out this particular frog just yet. Officials aren’t giving up on the tiny 2-inch frog, believed to be extinct in the 1950s.

The county hasn’t put all of its frogs in one pond.

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This Rhino iguana is doing his best impersonation of a dog in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cycluracornuta!

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By Herp News

Conservationists and scientists have managed to catch-and-release what could be the world’s biggest freshwater fish ever for an upcoming episode of Ocean Mysteries. Naturalist and host of the show, Jeff Corwin—along with wildlife veterinarian, Nantarika Chansue, and the tourist fishing group, fishsiam.com—managed to reel in a giant freshwater stingray.

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Release the magicTurtle ninja racing ,from the developer “ANDROIDGAMER”——————————————-Join Turtle ninja…

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Release the magicTurtle ninja racing ,from the developer “ANDROIDGAMER”——————————————-Join Turtle ninja…

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The grass snake, or green keelback, (Macropisthodon plumbicolor) is a common snake found in india and a beautiful one indeed. As I mentioned in my previous vine snake post, I’m attracted to green-coloured snakes, so without any doubt I can call this one of my favourites.

Grass snakes are relatives of the familiar garter snakes found in the United States. Grass snakes are also called “green cobra” by few local rescuers in India because the young ones raise their hood like a cobra — and trust me, they look awesome in that position.

When you hold a grass snake in your hand you can feel its rough scales, which are why it is called a keelback. Grass snakes are toad lovers, so I guess these snakes are more eager for rainy season than any other animal. The sad part about their toad-loving habit is that many times grass snakes have been seen eating larger toads as relative to their length, and they die due to over-consumption of prey. Although grass snakes are non-venomous, their saliva is toxic to frogs and toads, so even if a frog or toad escapes from the mouth or jaws of a grass snake it will die in a short span of time.

The grass snake’s body is green and stout with keeled scales and a short tail. It has large green golden eyes with black pupils. Adults are green in color and sometimes have white spots on the fore body. Young ones have a black inverted ‘v’ mark on the head, and blue-black bands on the body that disappear as the snake grows.

Grass snakes are found in grasslands and forests, and also in densely-populated cities like Pune. They are very shy and do not bite. I have never seen an aggressive green keelback, but it can be capable of giving a painful bite, although it rarely does. It is a viviparous snake and lays 6-7 eggs between March and June.

This was one of the snakes I used to handle during my early days of snake rescuing because it never used to bite and it helped me to elminate my fear of snakes. I’m always very grateful to these snakes.

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Have you seen this amazing picture of a frog riding a beetle? The photographer tells the story of how he captured the incredible images.

From GMA News:

No, this is no camera trick: this frog is indeed riding this rhinoceros beetle, cowboy-style.

Indonesian wildlife photographer Hendy Mp captured the scene near his house in Sambas in Kalimatan Barat in Indonesia, UK’s Daily Mail reported.

The Daily Mail report said the “rodeo”—in which the Reinwardt’s Flying Frog jumped on top of the woodboring beetle and put its front leg in the air—lasted no more than five minutes.

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These elfin spirits of woodland and prairie care not whether you call them peepers, chorus frogs, or treefrogs. They are the various species of the genus Pseudacris, a genus comprised of about a dozen species.

They include in their ranks the smallest frog of the United States, the southeastern little grass frog, P. ocularis, that is adult at only 5/8ths of an inch and the giant of the genus, the Pacific treefrog, P. regilla, that may be a full 2 inches long.

The majority of the species, however are adult at about 7/8ths inch to about 1 1/8th inches in length. In other words, all are diminutive.

Most of the chorus frogs have a vocalization that sounds like a fingernail being run along the small teeth of a plastic pocket comb. The pulse rate is slower and the frog’s color darker when temperatures are cold. The trill is faster and the colors brighter when the frog is warm. Those that don’t have an apparent ratcheting trill produce peeps. Truth be told though, if the pulse rate of the peeps were slowed you would again be listening to a very apparent ratcheting.

Even where populations of chorus frogs are producing boisterous choruses, the little frogs, usually clad in camouflage colors and patterns, can be difficult to see. More often than not they position themselves in a clump of grasses emerging from the shallows of an ephemeral pond (or roadside ditch), nose pointing almost straight upward, and when so positioned are almost invisible. If searching, it is often the inflated and vibrating vocal sac that is most apparent.

Of all chorus frogs, spring peepers, P. crucifer, and little grass frogs are the most arboreal. They may call from almost any available vantage position from water’s edge to several feet high in vegetation.

I wish you happy hunting and much luck as you search for these little frogs. You will probably need it.
Continue reading “The little frogs with big voices” …read more
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! You can’t get more green than this wonderful chondro in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user bsuson!

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By Herp News

Eric Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online While not exactly in the Bambi league when it comes to cute, wild baby giant tortoises are a rare and exciting find. So, when scientists working in the Galapagos on the second Pinzón Island Giant Tortoise Survey found the first young Pinzón tortoises on the island for the first time in 100 years they were delighted. The find represents a major …

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In India, the ornate flying snake, Chrysopelea ornata, is also called the “ornamental flying snake” because of its unique and beautiful colour combination.

There are five species of flying snakes found around the world. All of them are found in Asian countries and belong to the chrysopelea family. India is home to two of those species: the ornate flying snake and the paradise flying snake (Chrysopelea paradisii).

While the paradise flying snake is found in the eastern parts of India, the ornate flying snake is found in some parts of Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka, as well as some central and north eastern parts of India.

Many people think that this snake flies like a bird, but the truth is this snake does not fly, it glides from higher heights to lower heights. It is not able to fly from lower heights to higher.

I am seriously in love with the colour of this snake. Its body is greenish-yellow with black bands and red spots between the bands. The head is black with yellow bands on top. The underside is pale green. The size of the snake varies from 150-175 cms, and it is oviparous by nature.

I was the luckiest guy on the planet the day I found this snake while herping in the jungles of Karnataka with my friend Riyaz Khoja, a wildlife photographer and snake rescuer.

We were walking in the jungle around 8 AM and saw thin branches move like something had fallen on them. We ran to the tree and were surprised to see a good-sized ornate flying snake. I was so excited, I shouted like I had just won the lottery, and my voice echoed through the jungle.

We lifted the snake from the branches and kept him in a relaxed position on the tree. After Riyaz clicked these beautiful photographs, we left the snake where we found it.

The memory of finding this snake brings a smile to my face every time I think about it. There are not words enough to express how beautiful they are. …read more
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A soldier assigned to a Kenya naval station was killed last month by a venomous snake, reports military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

Pfc. Bailey Jerome Swaggart, 25, of the 4th Brigade, 1st Armored Division, died Feb. 19, a month after he was deployed to Manda Bay Naval Base. He was assigned to guard an air strip and got out of his Humvee to investigate a small brush fire nearby and was bitten.

The military treats more bite victims than many realize. According to a 2013 U.S. Army Research study , 17 cases of venomous snakebite, most in Afghans but including two U.S. service members, were brought to three U.S. military medical units in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011; all survived after treatment. The median time between being bitten and receiving treatment was 2.8 hours.

East Africa has a wide variety of venomous snakes, including puff adders, cobras, vipers and mambas. Though it was unclear which type of snake killed Swaggart, it was thought to have been a viper or a black mamba.

We all know members of the military are exposed to the hazards associated with a war zone, things like snipers, ambushes, and IEDs. It may not always occur to us hey’re also subject to the normal hazards of daily life, like car accidents, workplace accidents, and snake and insect bites. However, these dangers occur often enough to produce a significant casualty rate on their own, and often in areas of lesser or no conflict are the main cause of injury among service men and women.

To read more, check out the complete article on the Stars and Stripes website.

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Hundreds of toads in the UK die as they try to cross roads during migration, so volunteers for Toad Watch are getting ready to help them out.

From itv.com:

A training workshop is being held today in Midhurst in collaboration with the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. The free raining will be provided on a number of aspects of toad conservation.

Common toads are very particular about their breeding sites, often returning to ancestral breeding ponds each year from hibernation areas. They will follow the same migratory route, often moving as an entire colony, which will inevitably lead to having to cross roads.

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Always watching, always waiting, is the Gaboon viper in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user 1Sun!

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By Herp News

Last November, at the annual G-20 summit – for the 20 wealthiest of the world’s nations – in Brisbane, Australia, a staggering commitment was made to invest $60 to $70 trillion worldwide in new infrastructure over the next 15 years. This is akin to doubling the current value of all global infrastructure put together.

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Our Herp Video of the Week is a tribute to Elvis and Priscilla, a pair of tree frogs.

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By Herp News

More than 11 square miles of private land and prime habitat in eastern San Bernardino County have been set aside for the desert tortoise – which is sliding toward extinction – to offset the impacts of future renewable energy projects and other…

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By Herp News

A huge sea turtle found stranded on a remote South Carolina beach over the weekend was returned to the wild today (March 12). The nearly 500-lb. (215 kilograms) leatherback turtle was rescued Saturday (March 7) on Yawkey-South Island Reserve, a barrier island near Georgetown, suffering from low blood sugar and exhaustion. The rare leatherback shuffled back into the Atlantic under its own power …

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Are you going to Tinley this weekend? If not, never fear! Keep a close eye out on our Facebook page to see reports from our own Cindy Steinle. Our herp photo of the day features a look at the crowd in 2011, uploaded by kingsnake.com user PHFaust!

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A rare 475-pound leatherback sea turtle “immediately responded to treatments” of fluids, vitamins and antibiotics after it was rescued in South Carolina on Saturday.

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A rare 475-pound leatherback sea turtle “immediately responded to treatments” of fluids, vitamins and antibiotics after it was rescued in South Carolina on Saturday.

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By Herp News

Yawkey is a 475-pound leatherback sea turtle that’s had quite a week. The giant turtle was found stranded on a remote beach off South Carolina’s Coast, in the Yawkey–South Island Reserve —the origin of its name. Usually, a leatherback turtle stuck ashore means death, but wildlife officials at the state’s Department of Natural Resources weren’t going to let that happen on their watch. The team …

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By Herp News

When I was ten, I acquired my first dog. Rani was a Doberman Pinscher—tall, lean, and a huge pushover. She was wonderfully friendly, but sadly misunderstood her whole life, regularly frightening all except those who knew her intimately. There were two innocuous reasons for this—both of which reveal the power of emotions shared across species.

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By Herp News

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (AP) — A rare 475-pound endangered leatherback sea turtle found stranded on a South Carolina beach was released into the ocean on Thursday following five days of treatment at the South Carolina Aquarium.

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A rare 475-pound leatherback sea turtle “immediately responded to treatments” of fluids, vitamins and antibiotics after it was rescued in South Carolina on Saturday.

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Outside it’s finely warm. I’ve been released from house arrest. I was getting pretty tired being stuck in a bathroom, living inside a cardboard box and surrounded by masses of UPS brown paper. My only form of sustenance has been hay with the occasional carrot to tease me. There they will be payback for this incarceration.

That’s right, I have joined my fellow turtles and tortoises for TORTPOCALYPSE 2015. Prepare to meet your doom humans. Waffles, a fellow sulcata tortoise from Canada, may just be a pint sized fellow but that tort has some smarts in that noodle of his. As soon as I hear of the all out initiative to eliminate mankind I said where do I sign up!

Last night I stayed up and planned out my offensive for the lower 48 states. These are my plans so far:

Day 1: Take Whole Foods Grocery Store hostage until they surrender all organic carrots. As soon as the carrots are freed, ravage the store and leave no shelf standing. Spend the rest of the afternoon basking, grazing and eating carrots to build up energy for Day 2.

Day 2: Ram PetSmart and free all captive tortoises and turtles. Stock pile cuttlebones and bagged Orchard Hay. Take only the Orchard hay. All other hay taste nasty. Annihilate the remaining PetSmart facility. Recruit freed turtles and tortoises for tort army active duty. Check out back lot for dandelions.

Day 3: Reenact this–

Day 4: Lay waste to all government buildings in downtown Mobile just because we can. Spend latter part of day accepting gifts of surrender from humans.

Day 5: Level airport all except any one plane that will fly us to Canada to meet Waffles.

As soon as we arrive in Canada, Waffles and I and thousands of turtle minions will join together as a whole shelled arm to continue our take over of the world.

Okay. Sounds spectacular. I have enough time today to ram the side of the house until mom comes out with carrots and hay. This will be my final meal served by a free human.

We should spare any human capable of service to turtles and tortoise. Mom is pretty good at that. I think I shall recruit her for tortoise servitude.

Tortoise are so brilliant. We deserve to rule.
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If someone asks me about my five favorite Indian snakes, I would include the cat snake.

Cat snakes, Boiga trigonata, are the snakes I always like to hold in my hand and play with them. A cat snake is basically a tree snake, so it is a slow moving snake like many other tree snakes.The best thing I like about the cat snake is that, if I hold its tail upside down,bit will slowly slowly coil back to its regular position.

There are 7-8 species of cat snakes found in the Indian sub-continent.The common Indian cat snake is the most commonly found amongst other cat snakes. Cat snakes are semi-venomous snakes which are also called rear fanged snake. Cat snakes are found across the world and in many places they are named as cat-eyed snake because of their vertical eye pupils which ressembles a cat’s eye.

The common Indian cat snake is long and thin, and the body and tail are slightly compressed. It has large head with large cat -ike eyes and vertical pupils.

Colour is light brown with darker brown zig-zag markings. There’s a brown streak behind each eye. The ventral part is yellow or white with small spots. The size varies from 100-125cms in an adult. As it is a tree snake it is mainly found on trees and bushes in grassland. It is a shy natured snake and usually does not bite but, when it is disturbed, lifts head to strike and vibrates its tail. Common cat snakes feed on lizards, frogs, geckos, small birds, and mice. It is oviparous and lays 5-8 eggs in tree hollows and it is nocturnal in nature.

I never got a chance to rescue a cat snake as they prefer hilly and dense jungle areas and unfortunately I live in a city. For every time I go out on herping I wish I could find a cat snake, it’s like looking for a diamond in a coal mine.

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The authorities in Mexico have stopped traffickers that were abusing and selling animals.

From Fox News Latino:

The discovery in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, was the result of a joint investigation by Profepa and the Attorney General’s Office.

Officers found a freezer containing 40 dead animals, among them 17 python regius snakes, two sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), two eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), two black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus), one squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) and one cotton-top tamarind (Saguinus Oedipus).

They also found one parrot (Psittacidae), two common kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), three water monitor lizards (Varanus salvator), two swamp crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletti), four Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus), one corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus) and red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas).

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There is in South Florida, a salt marsh in which dwell some of the prettiest mangrove saltmarsh snakes, Nerodia clarkii compressicauda, I have ever happened across.

There are many, of course, that are rather run-of-the-mill, but there are some that are clad in scales that are the brightest red I have ever seen on a water snake.

Many evenings the search first turns up one or more mangroves that are the more traditional dull olive green with variably distinct dark markings that are also variable in shape–sometimes blotches, sometimes bands, and sometimes stripes. The latter, if present, usually on the neck and anterior body.

Although also variable, the red examples tend towards a solid, unpatterned color, be it a rather pale orange red, a medium red, or the bright red, the phase I search most eagerly for, for no reason other than I enjoy seeing it.

As an entity, mangrove salt marsh snakes are fairly common in coastal areas along the southern two-thirds of the Florida peninsula and the Keys. The farther north in their range you find them, the more apt they are to be of grayish ground color and have broken dark striping. At the northernmost end of the range on both coasts, there is a intergradation with the subspecies next northward. That is the Gulf salt marsh snake, N. c. clarkii on the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic salt marsh snake, N. c. taeniata, on the Atlantic Coast.
Continue reading “The magnificent red snakes of the mangroves” …read more
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Stunning is the only word to describe this Oregon red spotted garter snake in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Concinnitor!

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By Herp News

A nearly 500-pound leatherback sea turtle was admitted for treatment at the South Carolina Aquarium Sea Turtle Hospital after washing ashore

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Marine biologists at the South Carolina Aquarium are treating a rare, 475-pound leatherback sea turtle that washed up Saturday on a nearby beach.

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What do hunters and birdwatchers have in common? Both groups are much more likely to support conservation than the average rural American, according to new research published in the Journal of Wildlife Management.

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Home to some of the rarest crocodile species, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust is fundraising to bolster their work.

From the New Indian Express:

Meanwhile, even as it is struggling to raise the money needed for undertaking its initiatives, the facility also has to rebuild a portion of it which would be affected by the ongoing road widening work.

“The front counter and the entrance office will go. So we are planning to revamp the frontage and three exhibits near the entrance first,” said Zahida.

The MCBT and Center for Herpetology was started in 1976 by Herpetologist and reptile conservationist Romulus Earl Whitaker, and was the first crocodile breeding centre in Asia, set up to save the dwindling crocodile population and preserve snakes.

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Sassy as babies, sassy as adults! This roaring baby snapping turtle is our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user makonai777!

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California’s flat-tailed horned lizard is a candidate for endangered species protection, and further research may give it permanent protected status.

From the Yuma Sun:

“From our perspective the most important thing is now the state is going to have to be consulted on for any development that happens within the flat-tailed horned lizard habitat,” she said.

There is dispute over whether the species is in fact declining, and how many live in the dunes. A biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, Larry LePre, told the Yuma Sun in December the dunes aren’t prime habitat since they don’t have many of the harvester ants which are the basis of the lizards’ diet, and there’s no reliable data to suggest they’re going up or down in numbers, mostly because they’re difficult to detect.

The BLM, which maintains the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, is part of a joint Rangewide Management Strategy for the species covering almost 500 acres in California and Arizona. The center’s petition contends this is inadequate since most of the land is open to off-road vehicle use.

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Many, many, years ago when I first saw a photo of Elaphe situla (now Zamenis situla) I did a double take. Although it was captioned “Leopard Rat Snake,” at first glance (and even at second glance) it sure looked like a corn snake.

Eventually I was lucky enough to see a leopard rat snake and to learn there are two distinctly different patterns, a saddled and a striped. Later still, I acquired a pair of each phase and bred the taxon. I learned that despite the similarity of the saddled phase to our corn snake the slender, Old World, leopard rat snake was and is quite unlike the New World species.

Please allow me to introduce you.

First, although often referred to as a European taxon, the leopard rat snake is actually Eurasian in distribution. This snake has a ground color of warm brown to gray and, depending on the phase, either a pair of dark-edged red stripes or neck-to-tail irregular dark bordered red saddles.

Both phases have a row of prominent black spots along each side. A dark interocular crescent is present as are other dark markings on neck and face. The venter varies from being nearly solid black to being light with black checkers. This scrubland snake is adult at a slender 2 to 3 feet in length.

I was told that captive bred examples will feed readily on suitably sized lab mice. Those I had, though, were wild caught and refused lab mice, but readily accepted wild mice of the genus Peromyscus (white-footed and cotton mice). To comply with their tastes we began a breeding program of the desired mouse species. This was a bit time consuming but proved well worth the effort. The snakes thrived, bred, and as I had been told the hatchlings did indeed feed readily on pinky lab mice.
Continue reading “Looks can be deceiving when it comes to the leopard rat snake” …read more
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This great looking pair of Australian water dragons helps us feel a little closer to spring in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cochran!

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By Herp News

A squat lizard with dragon-like head spines won a temporary reprieve from encroachment by urban development and alternative energy facilities on Thursday when California’s Fish and Game Commission declared it a candidate for protection under the state Endangered Species Act.

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