By Herp News
A week ago, I read an article that claimed the infamous Lizard Squad had been dismantled for good, taken down not by the FBI, but by a rival group of “whitehat” hackers, Finest Squad. It's a rather good piece, chronicling how the new group essentially beat the digital vandals at their own game, and outed them to authorities.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A week ago, I read an article that claimed the infamous Lizard Squad had been dismantled for good, taken down not by the FBI, but by a rival group of “whitehat” hackers, Finest Squad. It's a rather good piece, chronicling how the new group essentially beat the digital vandals at their own game, and outed them to authorities.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A week ago, I read an article that claimed the infamous Lizard Squad had been dismantled for good, taken down not by the FBI, but by a rival group of “whitehat” hackers, Finest Squad. It's a rather good piece, chronicling how the new group essentially beat the digital vandals at their own game, and outed them to authorities.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A large number of Tor relays have popped online, all named some variant of “LizardNSA.” Hmm.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
By and large, Indonesia is a peaceful country. In fact, on the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime’s list of homicide rates, Indonesia ranks number 10, making Indonesians one of the least murderous people on Earth. A ban on gun ownership probably helps, although obviously there are many other ways to snuff out another person. Maybe Indonesia’s general tendency to avoid conflict helps, too. Whatever the reason why Indonesians are relatively unlikely to kill each other, such favors are not extended to Indonesia’s non-human wildlife. The relative safety of Indonesia’s people does not guarantee similar security for its animals.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
By and large, Indonesia is a peaceful country. In fact, on the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime’s list of homicide rates, Indonesia ranks number 10, making Indonesians one of the least murderous people on Earth. A ban on gun ownership probably helps, although obviously there are many other ways to snuff out another person. Maybe Indonesia’s general tendency to avoid conflict helps, too. Whatever the reason why Indonesians are relatively unlikely to kill each other, such favors are not extended to Indonesia’s non-human wildlife. The relative safety of Indonesia’s people does not guarantee similar security for its animals.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online As part of an ongoing attempt to develop underwater robots capable of thinking on their own, engineers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have created a mechanical turtle capable of performing complicated tasks such as surveillance and energy harvesting. In addition, the turtle robot is maneuverable, operates on a self-charge mode …
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A week ago, I read an article that claimed the infamous Lizard Squad had been dismantled for good, taken down not by the FBI, but by a rival group of “whitehat” hackers, Finest Squad. It's a rather good piece, chronicling how the new group essentially beat the digital vandals at their own game, and outed them to authorities.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
Most reptiles and amphibians do better in a captive environment if given a place to hide or burrow.
Thankfully there are lots of commercial hides and hide boxes available in all different sizes, shapes, and formats. From simple plastic hides, to elaborate logs and caves, these commercial hides work great if you only have a few animals. If you’re dealing with a large number of animals, however, they can sometimes be problematic. Aside from being expensive to buy or replace, they can be difficult to clean, they may not fit the cage or the animal well, or they may not do all the things you need them to do.
I needed a hide box that would work for my medium-sized colubrid snakes. And I needed one hunderd of them, so they had to be inexpensive, replaceable, easily cleaned, and, as a special requirement, they needed to “hold” a replaceable water dish, in this case a 16-oounce round deli container. Although I found several that met most of my needs, none of the commercial ones met them all. So I made my own.
Using a few tools, including a cordless drill and two hole saw bits, and cheap black spray paint, I re-purposed a stack of used plastic containers into the (almost) perfect hide box for my needs.
Starting with the plastic containers, once yearling cages, I used a 2-inch hole saw to cut out a side entrance at one end of the container. On the top of the container, at the other end, I used a 4-1/2 inch hole saw to cut a hole in the top of the box. These were hole saw bits that I already had, and if I had to purchase a new one for this project I would use a 4-3/8 so that the deli cup would fit tight in the hole. With the 4-1/2 inch bit the tolerance is too close for a tight fit, but my hides prevent the bowls from being tipped over, and that was the goal. I also found that the hole saw bit’s teeth would often grab the plastic as it broke through and “fling” the box around. Running the drill in reverse to do the cutting once the initial pilot hole was drilled prevented this. It took longer, but created less dust and a cleaner hole.
With my boxes cut, I took some $1 flat black spray paint and gave the boxes single ruddy coat of paint. It doesn’t need to be a solid perfect coat, just enough to obscure the light filtering through. Once dried, the hide boxes were placed in the cages, water bowls filled, and my kingsnakes all had new homes. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Snakeskii!
Angels in a Box, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Snakeskii” />
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
Check out this video “Soft Shell Turtle?” submitted by kingsnake.com user freymann.
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
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ninthof9!
Merry Christmas, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ninthof9″ />
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
It’s early Christmas eve and Greg and I doing what we usually do for the Christmas Holidays….avoiding the Christmas Holidays.
It’s not that we are Bah-humbug, but Christmas is the longest holiday we have to endure. It starts well before Thanksgiving when the first tv commercial features the sounds of Christmas bells or an outright Christmas song. The array of things to do for Christmas for the next 45 days is so vast no one family can do it all. We pick and choose what we do but the rest still comes at me like bad celebrity news. It is exhausting.
Our plan for the next two days is to watch commercial free TV, stay outta the stores, make home-made pizza (both days), relax and pretend it is January.
The only other thing to be done is take care of Frankie, the cat, and the geckos.
It’s getting cold tonight so Frankie is inside in the big bathroom. I was prepared. Room cleaned, rags and newspaper available, cardboard palace set up. I went out and picked Frankie some grass. I mixed it with some lettuce, vitamins, and calcium. I brought Frankie his Christmas Eve din-din.
Frankie sat, rear blocking the the door, munching on his feast. He was happy. And then he peed.
I’ve said this before, it is absolutely astonishing how much pee can come out of the back end of a 100 pound sulcata. I can hear it from the gecko room. I arrive in time to grab rags and inspect the damage.
One can never have enough rags with a 100 pound sulcata.
Now this has never happen before: Frankie’s pee went under the door and into the hall where there is a rug.
I start throwing rags at the door to sop up as much pee as possible. It was too late. Although I could not open the door (Frankie is blocking), I can peek out enough to see that the rug just outside the bathroom door is getting soaked. I squeeze through to door.
“GREG!”
“What?”
“Can you bring me the rug cleaner spray, NOW?”
You see, as much as sulcata poop seems to bother people, there really isn’t anything, including sulcata poo that smells as bad as sulcata pee….in 24 hours. Getting the sulcata pee out of the rug is a Holiday emergency!
I sop up what pee I can from the rug. I start spritzing the rug with rug cleaner. Then I just open the rug spray container and pour it where the pee is. Rub, rub, rub, pat, pat, pat, pray, pray, pray.
I finish all the rug cleaner and go through a dozen rags. I squeeze back into the bathroom, pushing Frankie butt away from the door. Good timing. Frankie just finished up another round of pee.
At this point I am ready to have Frankie move so I can get under him but he …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
No products found.
By Herp News
Talk to any avid gamer these days and they’ll tell you about Lizard Squad.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
By mimicking the red and green colors of falling leaves, Bornean lizards avoid falling prey to birds whilst gliding, new research has found.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
The largest amphibian in the UK is a Chinese salamander named Professor Wu.
From the London Evening Standard:
The 19-year-old has been brought over for a new conservation project to help research ways to prevent the giants from becoming extinct in the wild and was named after one of the project’s partners.
Professor Wu is the only Chinese giant salamander in the UK and can be seen in the Land of Giants exhibit at the zoo.
The animals are classified as the world’s largest amphibian and face threat of extinction because they are being over-harvested for human consumption.
Read more here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Snakeskii!
Dragon Wings, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Snakeskii” />
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
By Herp News
The 41-pound olive ridley sea turtle was discovered Monday on a beach in Oysterville, WA, and is now receiving treatment at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
© Damian Dovarganes/AP A detail of the Sony Pictures Studios headquarters building is seen in Culver City, Calif., Dec. 19, 2014 An amorphous hacker collective known as Lizard Squad may have played a role in the massive cyberattack against Sony, according to the cybersecurity firm IntelCrawler . The group has attacked Sony previously and appears to have some links to Guardian of Peace, the …
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
In 2014, the unimaginable happened: companies representing the majority of palm oil production and trade agreed to stop cutting down rainforests and draining peatlands for new oil palm plantations. After years of intense campaigning by environmentalists and dire warnings from scientists, nearly two dozen major producers, traders, and buyers established zero deforestation policies.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Attention, reptile enthusiasts: A venomous white cobra that was once loose in Thousand Oaks is now on exhibit at the San Diego Zoo.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
The road we were on could almost have been called “Pygmy Rattler Road.”
Actually there were many other herp species found on it, but it was a road that almost never failed to disclose from one to several dusky pygmy rattlesnakes that would vary in size from neonates (in season) to adults of 16 to 20 inch length. In other words, it was indeed a pygmy road.
It is the dusky pygmy rattlesnake, Sistrurus miliarius barbouri, that is found in our area (North Central Florida). They have a curious and rather spotty distribution: common in one area, virtually unknown only a few miles distant, and then common again in another nearby locale.
When startled and on the move they most often dart quickly for cover. However, if approached while in a basking coil they, as often as not, will coil more tightly, twitch their head and sometimes the entire body nervously, and rattle (for all the good this latter action does).
The rattle of even an adult pygmy is so small that unless your hearing is exceptional, you will often not hear the sound produced. If you still insist on bothering them they will strike, rapidly and accurately. Although the venom is not usually fatal to a healthy adult, a bite will be sufficiently painful (even with prompt medical intervention) to have you wondering why you were dumb or careless enough to be within striking range of this feisty little pit viper.
Always show them due respect!
Continue reading “Show respect for the snakes on “Rattler Road”” …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
Contrary to popular beliefs, the most common reptile in rescue is not a giant. I see and receive requests to surrender more water turtles, primarily red eared sliders, than any other reptile. In fact, in one week I will get more requests to surrender sliders than I have received to surrender Burmese pythons in the entire existence of my rescue.
With Christmas around the corner, I am cringing. The wildly popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie will lead to a lot of impulse slider purchases. They are small, cute and cheap, and available at almost every pet store. They also live a long time, take a lot of care to set up properly and while the animal itself is inexpensive, a good set-up is not.
I have no problem with gifting a pet, but slider acquisitions are often made on impulse. Research will be minimal and the care sheets that are handed out are less than wonderful. The animals will come from a big box chain, and the likelihood that they have a chance to talk to an actual reptile person will be minimal.
The end result will sadly be people who talk about how horrible reptile pets are. This takes more than a blog post to fix. Reach out to friends who may be thinking of getting their very own “hero in a half-shell” for their children. Let them know the real commitment that a water turtle will take, and let us hope they do not follow the historical trend of movie impulse purchases. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
There’s been a change of judges in the USARK v. USFWS lawsuit about listing big constrictors as injurious species.
The case was recently transferred to Judge Raymond Daniel Moss. He will be the third judge assigned to the case. In August, we had been informed that the case had been transferred from Judge Sullivan to the Honorable Reggie B. Walton. In the case of both transfers, it appears to be simply a matter of trying to distribute the judicial workload.
On November 14, 2014, Judge Moss received his judicial commission to serve as a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Upon his confirmation, Judge Moss left a large, prestigious DC law firm where he had chaired the Regulatory and Government Affairs Department. This is his first position as a judge, although upon graduation from law school he was a law clerk for a federal district court judge and then for Justice Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Judge Moss has spent considerably more time in private practice than working for the government. Hopefully, his private practice experience in regulatory and government affairs will help him be able to also see the issues from our perspective.
…read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
A new dinosaur, the size of a large rabbit, is the earliest known horned dinosaur in North America.
From IFL Science:
Over a decade ago, paleontologists working in the Cloverly Formation of Carbon County, Montana, unearthed the partial skull, lower jaw, and teeth of a small horned dinosaur. Previous work has shown that horned dinosaurs (or neoceratopsians) originated and diversified in the Early Cretaceous, but findings from that time period in the North American fossil record were limited to isolated teeth and bits of the post-cranial skeleton. Beloved triceratops showed up much later.
Now, based on several features—including a hook on its beak-like structure (or rostral bone) and a long, pointed cavity over its cheek—the skull belongs to a previously unknown species, according to Andrew Farke from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology and colleagues.
Read more here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ginag!
Sleigh Ride, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ginag” />
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
Happy Holidays From Frankie Tortoise Tails
…read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
No products found.
By Herp News
Owning exotic reptiles such as snakes, chameleons, iguanas and geckos could place infants at risk of salmonella infection, according to a British study published on Monday. Researchers in the southwestern English county of Cornwall found that out of 175 cases of salmonella in children under five over a three-year period, 27 percent occurred in homes which had reptile pets. If the pet is allowed …
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Biologists describe upwards of 15,000 previously undocumented species every year. Some of these species are complete surprises, sometimes representing new genera. Others may be identified after genetic analysis distinguishes them from closely-related species. Some — especially conspicuous birds and mammals — are already known to local populations, but hadn’t been formally described by scientists.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Biologists at the University of Porto, in Portugal, have found that the Iberian emerald lizards' skin reflects light in different ways depending on what angle it is being viewed at.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
On November 3, 2014, I woke up to check my flight status from Bangalore to New York. What I found when I opened my laptop was a mindboggling amount of emails, hate mail, death threats, and interview requests. The numbers were staggering. The night before, the Discovery Channel had aired the first trailers for the show they decided to call Eaten Alive.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A team of mechanical engineers has used the same scientific principles employed by the sticky feet of geckos to create a superhero climbing device. With patents pending, they are poised to wrap their sticky fingers around some hard cash.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
Mid-August in the Deep South is hot and muggy, so we wanted to get an early start to our hike. This morning we were going to flip some boards before the sun made conditions too hot for anything to utilize them as cover.
Across a dirt road where a forest of oak, pine, and magnolia borders an old field is where we began our search. Our starting point was an 8×4 sheet of plywood that had been left behind by hunters or property owners, which we had conveniently tucked a little closer to the wood line.
Using a hook, we gently raised one side of the board and, in a low depression, coiled tightly, was a large female “canebrake” rattlesnake.
I call it a canebrake rattlesnake because until the 1970s the southern form was considered a subspecies, Crotalus horridus atricaudatus. We now know that they are just a southern color variant.
We had flipped this girl at this spot about two months prior, but now, because she was still here, we guessed that it was because she was gravid. Well, at this point, we could clearly see that she was gravid.
The timber rattlesnake Crotalus horridus has a wide distribution in the United States, and although some populations in the midwest and the northeast are in decline, they are still abundant in undisturbed habitat here in the southeast. We want to keep it that way so, after a few photographs, we slowly lowered the board and left her as undisturbed as possible.
We checked the sight one more time in October, but by that time she was long gone. Hopefully we will see her again at this spot. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
Some scientists predict we are heading toward a mass extinction event.
From the Guardian:
A stark depiction of the threat hanging over the world’s mammals, reptiles, amphibians and other life forms has been published by the prestigious scientific journal, Nature. A special analysis carried out by the journal indicates that a staggering 41% of all amphibians on the planet now face extinction while 26% of mammal species and 13% of birds are similarly threatened.
Many species are already critically endangered and close to extinction, including the Sumatran elephant, Amur leopard and mountain gorilla. But also in danger of vanishing from the wild, it now appears, are animals that are currently rated as merely being endangered: bonobos, bluefin tuna and loggerhead turtles, for example.
In each case, the finger of blame points directly at human activities. The continuing spread of agriculture is destroying millions of hectares of wild habitats every year, leaving animals without homes, while the introduction of invasive species, often helped by humans, is also devastating native populations. At the same time, pollution and overfishing are destroying marine ecosystems.
Read more here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pyromaniac!
Gonzo Does Christmas, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pyromaniac” />
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
By Herp News
At the start of December, a notorious hacker gang named “Lizard Squad” issued a threat: it would take down over Christmas the PlayStation and Xbox Live networks, the online services that some video games need in order run from a home console. Despite most hackers being “in it for the lulz” — a hacker term meaning “doing it for fun” — some did not take kindly to threats of disruption to their …
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A pre-Jurassic era fossil of a carnivorous marine reptile has been found on a beach in south Wales.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
London, Dec 21 (IANS) A pre-Jurassic era fossil of a carnivorous marine reptile has been found on a beach in south Wales.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
BACK TO THE WILD: Ben Nadler from Australian Seabird Rescue releases Shelayne the green sea turtle at Flat Rock. Cathy Adams
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Ssonoma, Calif.– K-PAX Racing, the only team campaigning McLaren sports cars in North America, is partnering with Flying Lizard Motorsports to manage its racecar program for the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge season. K-PAX will draw upon Flying Lizard’s diverse, international racing and logistics expertise throughout the upcoming season. K-PAX and Flying Lizard will compete under the … Keep …
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.