What is it about frogs that just make us smile? They pose without realizing it! This cute gray tree frog is just hanging out in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gerryg!
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By Herp News
Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is ready for at least 3,500 visitors, last year's count for the annual Sea Turtle Day on Saturday, the annual kickoff for sea turtle nesting season March through October.
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By Herp News
The world’s largest rodent today is the capybara, weighing in at around at about 45 kilograms (100 pounds), though the record breaking female weight in at 91 kilograms (201 pounds). But that’s nothing compared to the biggest rodent ever to live. Discovered in Uruguay in 2008, Josephoartigasia monesi may have weighed in at 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds).
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The checkered keelback, Xenochrophis piscator, is one of the most commonly found water snakes in the Indian subcontinent. I call it “the serpentine mermaid” due to its aquatic habitat and a beautiful checkered pattern on its body personifying a mermaid. The word “keelback” describes rough scales in every keelback snake.
This snake appears to have a thick, round, and cylindrical body growing more slender toward the tail, with size varying from 140n to 175 cm in length. Checkered keelbacks have large eyes with round pupils, and a checkered pattern of glossy keeled scales can be seen on the upper body with rows of black, yellow, or moss-green checks alternating with white ones. Colours on the fore body can be seen in reddish, greenish, yellowish, brownish, and bluish shades, with white underside and two black streaks behind the eye.
These snakes are very aggressive and eager to bite when disturbed unexpectedly. A checkered keelback bite can be really painful because of its sharp pointed fangs, which help it to get a good grip on slippery fish and amphibians. I always prefer using a snake stick while handling a checkered keelback because I had a bad experience in the past being bitten by one, which was enormously painful with a deep scar.
These snakes prefer living in marshy water bodies like gutters, drainages, rivers, ponds, and lakes while staying on land at night. If threatened, it flattens its neck and strikes with mouth wide open. It is an oviparous snake laying 20-40 eggs in crevices near water. It was recorded that a female checkered keelback 150 cm long laid 110 eggs at the Pune Snake Park in Pune, Maharashta.
It’s always fun handling a checkered keelback because of its active behavior, but the experience is scary, too!
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Conjoined Quince monitor lizard twin, who were dead before hatching, were found in a zoo in 2009.
From Live Science:
It is possible that the reason the lizards were conjoined was partly due to the low amount of genetic variation that stemmed from having parents that were siblings, according to the report. In 2002, research was published on snakes, called Natrix tessellata, which showed a link between an increased rate of developmental abnormalities and a low genetic variability in small populations that had a limited number of ancestors.
Moreover, a study on sand lizards “revealed a significant effect of parental genetic similarity on the risk of hatching malformations,” van Schingen said.
However, previous reports have also pointed to other potential causes of malformations in reptiles. For instance, in 2010, researchers described a case of a crocodile hatchling with eight legs and two tails in Venezuela that was found in an area that was exposed to chemicals from agriculture, according to the report.Another cause of deformations in reptiles may be adiet that is not well-suited to the needs of animals kept in captivity, which has previously been the case with bone malformations in green iguanas, van Schingen said.
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kingsnake.com has launched a new cassified ad directory of those who have an active profile in our vendor profile system, which launched last year.
Listing in the directory is free with the purchase of a classified advertising account, and the listing stays active while the classified account is active. If the classified account expires or becomes inactive the vendor profile, and its listing in the directory, will “hibernate” until the classified account becomes active again.
The classified directory has an overview and detailed view of vendor listings, as well as vendors, classified ads, and events listed by state or province. To be listed, current vendors need to update their profiles.
You can check out the new Classified Vendor Directory here!
If you have a classified account but have not set up your vendor profile yet, you can set up or edit your profile by logging in at http://market.kingsnake.com/account/. If you already have a classified ad vendor profile, there is one minor update you’ll want to make: adding a descriptive sentence about your business for the directory.
After 18 years kingsnake.com is still the largest and most popular reptile and amphibian classified site on the web. A kingsnake.com classified account enables you to post dozens of ads per day, seen by thousands of reptile and amphibian people worldwide, all for just pennies a day.
If you don’t have a classified account, need to renew, or want to be listed in the Classified Vendor Directory, you can purchase a classified account for as little as $20 by going to http://www.kingsnake.com/shared/services/classified.php. …read more
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Despite being treated as one of the most ‘disposable’ of reptile pets, their regal nature is unmistakeable. Gotta love big green iguanas like this female in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cycluracornuta!
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By Herp News
A full-grown adult hawksbill turtle was caught tangled and injured in a fish pen in Masbate City Monday morning.
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By Herp News
Hunters are frustrated as turtle gobbling hogs disappear from North Island, but wildlife biologists are delighted. Click to Continue »
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By Herp News
It’s that crazy time of year again, World Pangolin Day, where we feverishly run out into the streets and join the thousands of pangolin protectors, fighting for the survival of our scaly friend. Well, no actually, hold on, what’s a pangolin?
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By Herp News
This article A Missing Turtle Brings Father & Son Closer originally appeared on Viddsee BUZZ. Ah Kwan and his dad are distraught because their beloved pet turtle has gone missing. The father and son leave no stone unturned in their search. It is during this hunt that some unspoken words come to the forefront. As they remember how the … Continued Download the new free Viddsee iPhone app to watch …
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By Herp News
This article A Missing Turtle Brings Father & Son Closer originally appeared on Viddsee BUZZ. Ah Kwan and his dad are distraught because their beloved pet turtle has gone missing. The father and son leave no stone unturned in their search. It is during this hunt that some unspoken words come to the forefront. As they remember how the … Continued Download the new free Viddsee iPhone app to watch …
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After waiting 80 days, a clutch of bearded dragons finally begin pipping and hatching! Talk about taking it to the limit! What is the longest your eggs have gone?
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This adorable drested gecko reminds us that it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere! See why in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user BryanD!
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By Herp News
AUSTIN – In 2012, a tiny lizard posed a big problem amid the pipelines and pump jacks in booming West Texas. There was talk within a federal agency about protecting the dunes sagebrush lizard as an en
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By Herp News
SIBU – Many fear that an endangered 100kg soft-shell turtle caught by a fisherman in Daro may end up in the cooking pot for a mere RM2,000 (S$750). The fisherman who caught the turtle, which is believed to be 50 years old, has said that he plans to sell it in the market here. The going price is said to be about RM20 a kilo. “The man plans to sell it but he has not said when he will bring it to …
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One of the most characteristic sounds of the neotropical rain forests is a rather mournful whooping call that is often heard at dusk on rainy or very humid nights, but which may sometimes be heard well after the tropical darkness has fallen. Although many have heard this call, used in motion pictures and other sound tracks, far fewer realize that it is the breeding call of a frog–a big frog, a bullfrog sized frog.
It is the call of the smoky jungle frog, Leptodactylus pentadactylus, a common, primarily terrestrial, rainforest denizen, and it is one that we usually easily see on our tours. In fact, when climatic conditions are ideal we can at times see the red eyeshine of 10 or more on the forest trail just behind the compound on Madre Selva Biological Preserve.
The alert frogs often sit next to their burrows on the open trail, but they are wary and if not approached very carefully they will jump into the burrow long before you are close to them. They also breed in burrows with eggs laid in foam nests that may or may not be in contact with water.
I should mention that the glandular secretions of this and related species are quite virulent. It is best not to handle these frogs if you have open cuts/scratches on your hands and need I say this? After handling one NEVER RUB YOUR EYES before washing your hands!
Continue reading “Smoky jungle frog in the darkness” …read more
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One police officer brought a blue-tongued lizard into the station 30 years ago, and lizards have had a home there ever since.
From ABC News Australia:
The site now has a purpose built courtyard for the lizards which are mascots for the station.
Cheryl Hackett, the Belconnen Station’s administrator, said being the chief lizard carer at the site was on the job description when she took over the role last year.
“They’re beautiful, they really are, I never had a lizard, never owned one but I just love ’em,” she said.
Earlier this week the lizard population at the station swelled from eight to 18 when one of the females gave birth.
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If all snow was as beautiful as this snow splash sand boa, we might look forward to winter more. See the beautiful coloring in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user SerpentsPlus!
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By Herp News
For 150 years, scientists have known of just two so-called seadragons: the leafy seadragon and the weedy seadragon. But a new paper in the Royal Society Open Science has announced the discovery of a third, dubbed the ruby seadragon for its incredible bright-red coloring. Found only off the southern Australian coastline, seadragons belong to the same family as the more familiar seahorses: the Syngnathidae.
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Internal USFWS/DOI politics over the status of the dunes sagebrush lizard have cost a field agent his career and shed light on policy decisions at the DOI that bring into question the agency’s compliance with the Endangered Species Act.
The Houston Chronicle reports the decision as to whether or not the dunes sagebrush lizard would be listed, causing all sorts of problems for landowners and the oil industry, was pre-ordained by politics rather than determined by science, which is required by the Act.
“There was no way we were going to list a lizard in the middle of oil country during an election year.”
This quote, said to have been uttered at a meeting by then-USFWS Albuquerque-based regional director Benjamin Tuggle according to court testimony by whistleblower and former USFWS agent Gary Mowad, is the “smoking gun” allegedly showing the listing decision was predetermined, a key tenet and violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Mowad had told internal investigators the federally-approved plan to conserve habitat for the reptile through voluntary pacts between the state and landowners was not legal, verifiable, or enforceable under the Endangered Species Act, before being banished to an inactive role in the agency.
Mowad sued and settled with the agency, an almost unprecedented conclusion to a USFWS whistleblower suit. However, that settlement leaves up in the air the question of the lizard’s status, and to a greater extent, the USFWS decision to bow to politics rather than follow the law, a decision sure to haunt them in current and future lawsuits.
If the agency charged with enforcing the laws won’t follow the laws themselves, they make a mockery of having the laws in the first place, and surrender any moral or ethical high ground they may have occupied.
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By Herp News
By examining research on global patterns of amphibian diversification over hundreds of millions of years, researchers have discovered that ‘sexually dimorphic’ species — those in which males and females differ in size, for example — are at lower risk of extinction and better able to adapt to diverse environments.
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When most people think of amphibians, they think of newts, frogs, toads, and salamanders. Very rarely do you see people keeping or talking about yet another species that we know as caecilians.
Caecilians are amphibians easily mistaken for a slimy earthworm or snake. But as we take a deeper look at this species, we see how wrong first impressions can be. Caecilian is from the Latin word caecus, meaning “blind,” but they can see, albeit very limitedly in dark-light perception.
Caecilians have no limbs, can reach up to lengths at over four feet depending on species, and vary in color ranges from dark plums to bright yellows and other colors. Because of their limited eyesight they tend to have a fossorial lifestyle, equipped with the perfect pointed snout for burrowing.
Like most of their relatives in the amphibian family, they have the special ability to secrete a toxin to throw off any predators looking for a free meal. Toxins of the species Siphonops paulensis even have hemolytic properties, allowing it to have a indirect cardiotoxic effect.
Caecillians can be found in Southeast Asia, east and west parts of Africa, the Sechelles Islands, Central America, India, Bangladesh, and in northern and eastern South America. They feed mostly on a diet of insects and other invertebrates, making earthworms a easy option as source for food to most keepers.
Photo: Franco Andreone via Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. …read more
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The alligator population in North Carolina is growing, but allowing a hunting season may hurt their long-term security.
From newsobserver.com:
Moorman, coordinator of N.C. State’s fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology program, said he couldn’t estimate the state’s overall population. He said the survey didn’t try to tabulate all possible gators. They’ve shown up in recent years in inland waters as far west as Harnett County, which is between Raleigh and Fayetteville.
An alligator hunting season could manage growing populations and potential nuisance gators, offer a hunting opportunity to sportsmen and sportswomen, and provide revenue from permit sales to fund the monitoring of populations.
Nevertheless, “alligators in North Carolina may be more vulnerable to environmental stochasticity (randomness), including harsh winters and frequent hurricanes, than elsewhere, so predicting long-term effects of a sustained hunter harvest is especially difficult,” the researchers cautioned.
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By Herp News
A female leatherback turtle weighing hundreds of pounds crawled onto Singer Island one night last week, becoming the first known sea turtle to lay eggs in South Florida this year.
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This copperhead is proof gold isn’t the most precious of metals. See what we mean in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user HerpLver!
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By Herp News
A female leatherback turtle weighing hundreds of pounds crawled onto Singer Island one night last week, becoming the first known sea turtle to lay eggs in South Florida this year.
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By Herp News
Want to scour the beach in early morning hours searching for sea turtle nests? Click to Continue »
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Terra cotta on olive green. The name on the tank was Trimeresurus kanburiensis, Kanburian bamboo viper. Unlike the all green bamboo vipers that looked much the same and only seldom had any collecting data, there was no mistaking this one for any taxon that I had seen before.
It was in the 1970s and Patti and I were keeping and breeding a fair number of palm and bamboo vipers of both New and Old World origin. I wondered, as I looked at the little snake then before me, whether I would ever be able to pair it up.
I decided nothing ventured nothing gained so when we left the dealer’s that afternoon, the Kanburian pit viper accompanied us. It turned out that this snake lived for many years, but I was unable to pair it.
In fact, it was not until 1990s that I saw another of these terra cotta on olive beauties. Rather than T. kanburiensis these snakes (there were about a half dozen of them) were offered as T. venustus (brown-spotted pit viper). Since both gender were available and since they reminded me so very much of my old “kanburiensis” I bought a couple of pair and proceeded to try to learn the differences between T. kanburiensis and T. venustus.
It seemed that the most visible differences were the number of scale rows at mid-body: 21 for former and 19 for the latter. Venustus had the first 3 supralabials enlarged while the Kanburian did not. I checked and the new pit vipers all had 21 scale rows and enlarged labial scales. They were T. venustus.
Then I pulled a photo of that old 1970s example and although I wasn’t positive on the scale row count it did have enlarged labials. I don’t think that I have seen T. kanburiensis yet.
Continue reading “Mistaken for a Kanburian bamboo viper “ …read more
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A 7 year old iguana named Godzilla is back with her owners after the thief sold her to a pet store.
From ABC News:
The reptile-napper was caught on surveillance camera snatching Godzilla from her outdoor sanctuary in front of Paramount Pet Enterprise on Monday.
Store owner Holly Cepeda said Godzilla is well-known in the community, and she regards her as part of her own family.
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Not much is cuter than the sight of a baby radiated tortoise catching his first breath of air in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user marcp!
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When I think of Plethodontid salamanders, the Northern red salamander, Pseudotriton ruber ruber, is usually the first one that comes to mind.
Red salamanders can be brilliantly colored bright reddish-orange with black spots, making it a very beautiful amphibian. Northern red salamanders usually inhabit areas in or near small streams and springs. These lungless salamanders find a wide variety of invertebrates both in and out of the water they breed in fall and winter. During breeding season, they will lay thin strings of eggs on the underside of rocks in streams while the females tend to the eggs at all times.
Northern red salamanders are still common in undisturbed habitat where small streams with clean water are present. A day spent flipping rocks in good habitat will usually produce this beautiful species but remember to place the rocks or other cover back exactly the way you found it! …read more
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By Herp News
For most of us, the Arctic is not at the front of our minds. We view it as cold, stark, and, most importantly, distant. Yet, even in an age of vast ecological upheaval, one could argue that no biome in the world is changing so rapidly or so irrevocably. Two hundred plus years of burning fossil fuels has warmed up the top of our planet more quickly than anywhere else.
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By Herp News
SLADE — Jim Harrison does not blame the snake that bit him. Harrison, who with his wife Kristen operates the Kentucky Reptile Zoo and Venom Sales in a sprawling complex… Click to Continue »
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By Herp News
Won't be negotiating either
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By Herp News
Malaysia’s Daily Express recently published graphic photos of poachers in the Malaysian state of Sabah posing proudly with a number of illegally slaughtered large animals, including the incredibly rare and cryptic banteng. Wild, forest cattle, banteng are scattered across parts of Southeast Asia, but Borneo is home to a distinct subspecies: Bos javanicus lowi.
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Seeing a loggerhead turtle tangled in a net, surfer Mitu Monteiro did the only sensible thing – he rescued the turtle.
From the New York Post:
Over the past six months, scientists have collected 12 snakes and milked them of their venom. The snakes have been stored in a fluid preservative.
The snakes belong to the tiger snake lineage of species, with variants including two species of copperhead snake, a white-lipped snake and a small-eyed snake.
The venom library will progressively add other species, such as blue-ringed octopus, spiders, scorpions, platypus – which has a venomous spur – and other snakes. It will be the first facility in Australia to have a dedicated storage of venom along with full tissue samples of the animal the poison has been extracted from.
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Here’s to hoping this smiling albino fire salamander (Salamandra s. terrestris) in our herp photo of the day brightens up your Monday morning! It’s uploaded by kingsnake.com user alessio.
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By Herp News
Good news for green sea turtles of the Mediterranean: Researchers have identified the marine habitats that are crucial to their survival. Anyone can see the data used in the study, as well as regular updates on the turtles’ locations, at seaturtle.org, Godley said.
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If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with! It’s a tortoise’s idea of romance for Valentine’s Day!
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