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!
Submit your own reptile & amphibian videos at http://www.kingsnake.com/video/ and you could see them featured here or check out all the videos submitted by other users! …read more
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By Herp News
A new study has identified two major foraging grounds of the Mediterranean green turtle and recommends the creation of a new Marine Protected Area to preserve the vulnerable species.
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By Herp News
Please replace the release dated Feb. 9, 2015, with the following corrected version due to revisions.
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It’s winter. Cold and overcast seven days a week: Very unsuitable for a outdoor loving sulcata. Frankie sits in the bathroom designated his winter stomping grounds. Those dark round eyes that follow me say “I hate you. Mom”
Just like the cold-gripped Northeast bundled with snow, there is little venturing out for Frankie OR me. Say what he wants about how he is the injured party here, I want to go outside and walk just like Frankie. I am wearing out our living room rug pacing back and forth. I am depressed and Frankie is depressed.
There was a utterly heavenly glimpse of a day with sun and temperatures in the high sixties. What a blessing. I went into the bathroom and announced to Frankie we were going outside. Frankie did not hesitate. He may not be able to see the sun or feel the warmth but somehow he could taste it because it was a mad dash to the back door.
I desperately tried to stay ahead of the charging beast as he crashed through the hall knocking over a basket of dirty clothes and sent the cat scrambling up the cat pole. Frankie was hot on my heals as I moved the coffee table and the lap top to a safer destination.
There was a brief pause to the 50 yard dash outside as Frankie spied my colorful Solmate mismatched socks and he decided to see if it was bite worthy. This pause gave me time enough to catch up to Frankie, toss aside two pair of shoes and save both Solmate socks from his greedy little I-am-freaking-starving-winter-appetite.
I managed to open the full-length-window back door before Frankie crashed through. Of course this involved the rarely attempted risk-your-life maneuver of sitting on Frankie to get him to stop walking. It’s dangerous because I know some day he is going to pull that mighty ram maneuver and I will tumble off like an old-lady-rag-doll to the floor.
I envision a future visit to the emergency room where the triage intake worker will laugh so hard that she will fall off her chair as I explain how I fell from the back of a turtle. Not looking forward to this so I do all I can to avoid that scenario.
It’s no picnic owning a full grown sulcata tortoise. There is no class preparing you for all the behavior quirks unique to the sulcata. Go ahead and check PetSmart but they don’t sell any lifts, habitats or heaters suitable for the 100 pound plus sulcata tortoise. I’ve checked!
Frankie and I delight in our 70
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We can feel the love from this Kenyan sand boa in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Thera!
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By Herp News
Last fall, tourists to the north rim of the Grand Canyon reported seeing a gray wolf. The only problem was there had been no wolves in the area for over 70 years. Still, it turned out the animal in question was not a coyote or stray dog, but, indeed a female gray wolf known as “914F”. She had migrated hundreds of miles from the northern Rockies. Unfortunately, this was near the end of her story.
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“Hey, Dick, here’s a gopher!”
“Gopher tortoise, gopher frog, or pocket gopher?”
“Gopher tortoise–and it’s a baby.”
It was early August and Jake and I were on a jaunt hoping to find a photogenic pale-throated anole (a green anole with a gray rather than a red dewlap). So far we had failed, but during our search we found several other interesting herps that ranged from six-lined racerunners to fence and scrub lizards. We were actually in terrain that was well-populated by gopher tortoises, Gopherus polyphemus, so seeing one would not be too much of a surprise. But seeing a juvenile is not an everyday or every gopher colony occurrence.
“I’m on my way, Jake. Is it still visible.”
“Yep. It’s just sitting here eating.”
And even after my delay as I wound my way through the prickly pear and cat’s claw, the little tortoise, mostly hidden by grasses and brush, was still busily foraging.
With that single sighting what had until then been a very mediocre day suddenly became memorable.
Continue reading “Baby gopher tortoise jackpot” …read more
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Melbourne is building a new venom library, where researchers can investigate new anti-venoms and medicinal uses for venom.
From the Guardian:
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.
Read more here. …read more
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Move over, Grumpy Cat! This grumpy male frilled dragon is our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mizzy!
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The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has lobbied for dangerous wild animal bills in various states throughout the country. As we enter the legislative season in many states, it seems timely to review the stated position of HSUS regarding wild animals as pets.
The organization states it “strongly opposes keeping wild animals as pets.” It defines wild animals broadly to include “any non-domesticated native or exotic mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, or invertebrate, regardless of whether the animal is wild caught or captive bred.” Thus, HSUS considers most pets to be wild animals.
HSUS asserts wild animals make unsuitable pets under virtually all circumstances because very few people are properly equipped or have the expertise to maintain them.
The extreme reach of dangerous wild animal legislation was revealed during a rule-making process in West Virginia last year. Pursuant to a DWA law supported by HSUS in the state, the proposed list of DWAs included all salamanders, tree frogs, clawed frogs, toads, and turtles (except those native to West Virginia).
In response to this proposed list, the WV director for HSUS supported (on page 987) the proposed list with the exception of a suggestion to clarify that domestic rabbits were not DWAs, and a request to add boa constrictors.
Although turtles, salamanders, tree frogs, clawed frogs and toads have been removed from the DWA list, it is very clear that HSUS supported their listing as DWAs.
Image: Sixth grade class learning about snakes, uploaded by kingsnake.com user leslonsdale1. …read more
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Students and staff at a Vermont college are worried after the school’s rainbow boa disappeared.
From WPTZ News:
School officials say a boa constrictor disappeared from its cage at the Jeffords Center over the weekend. Students had a snow day Monday. On Tuesday, the professor who owns the snake discovered it was gone.
“I didn’t know there was a snake on campus before now, it’s kind of scary,” said Justin Goulet, a sophomore.
The Castleton Community received an email this week alerting them that the 4-foot long rainbow boa was “thought to [have been] stolen from a lab.”
“Based on what we’ve seen so far we tend to think it’s been taken based on the snake’s usual habits,” said Dikeman. “It tended to be shy and timid, and doesn’t like to be outside of a warm tropical environment.”
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Little do these baby Galapagos tortoises realize, but they will soon be some of the largest tortoises in the world! These cuties are our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user jerry d fife!
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By Herp News
Lizard Squad, the group notorious for carrying out cyberattacks on the Sony PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live network in December, claims it hacked Facebook, Instagram and other popular services.
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By Herp News
2K and Turtle Rock Studios announced today that Evolve™, the 4v1 shooter in which four Hunters cooperatively fight to take down a single-player controlled Monster, is now available worldwide for Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, and Windows PC.
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Are there really coquis in Florida? The longer I search for these little frogs, the more certain I become that they are temporary visitors at best, and that nowhere in the United States are they resident.
There is no question that a few occasionally are found in plant nurseries in southernmost Florida and a few were once found and heard in southeastern Louisiana. But it now seems a surety that these few have either been stowaways on plant shipments from Puerto Rico, the coqui’s home island, or deliberate releases. Unless within a heated greenhouse, the little brownish frogs with a lighter triangle between the eyes, apparently succumb as soon as seasonally cooler weather set in.
Over the many years I have searched for them, I have found only 3 coquis, all males, in Miami-Dade County, Florida. One discovered in our tropical garden in Ft. Myers was also a calling male. This lone example made its first appearance in mid-summer a day or so after I had returned from a Florida City nursery with a car full of heliconias.
He was seen no more after our first cold snap when the temperature dropped into the low 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The favored calling site of this frog, from which it called almost nightly, was at an elevation of 3 to 7 feet on the smooth bark of a huge orange tree.
The call of the coqui is unmistakable. It is an oft-repeated, loud, whistled “co-kee,” with the accent on the second syllable. Heard once it will not be forgotten.
Continue reading “The coquis call says it all” …read more
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An Australian carpet python was caught in the middle of snacking on a possum.
From the Courier Mail:
Sunshine Coast snake catcher Stuart McKenzie said while carpet pythons are common across the north coast he’s never come across one dining out.
Mr McKenzie said the python was as big as they come.
“This is one of the bigger ones I’ve come across as a snake catcher,” he said.
“A lot of the time as snake catchers we’ll get to the property and the chicken or the guinea pig will already be in its belly, so it’s pretty awesome to see it halfway through.”
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Often thought to be a fish, the rubber eel is actually a caecilian from South America — and also our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user chrish!
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By Herp News
Irene Gaz with the Volusia Marine Science Center returns Rizzo, a juvenile green sea turtle, to the ocean Monday after it was rehabilitated at the center in Ponce Inlet.
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By Herp News
Authorities in Sabah are failing to enforce anti-poaching laws, undermining governance and wildlife protection efforts in the Malaysian Borneo state, argues a letter published by several local conservation groups.
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By Herp News
More than 1200 turtle activities have been recorded at Eighty Mile Beach this season, according to the Department of Parks and Wildlife.
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By Herp News
Tortoise Capital Advisors announces upcoming distribution amounts and dates for its closed-end funds, reflecting distribution growth for most funds. These distribution increases st
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The often-underestimated beauty of a Macklot’s python shines through in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Bob Garby!
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