It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gshis!
Regal Ringneck Snake, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gshis” />
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By Herp News
Brazilian biologist Alex Bager has been leading a crusade to raise awareness of a major but neglected threat to biodiversity in his country. Every year over 475 million animals die in Brazil as victims of roadkill, according to an estimate by Centro Brasileiro de Ecologia de Estradas, an initiative funded and coordinated by Bager. This means 15 animals are run down every second on Brazilian roads and highways.
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By Herp News
Scientists noticed a dramatic increase in nesting of critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles including the highest nest counts since a conservation project began there in 2000.
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By Herp News
Tortoise Capital Advisors, adviser for five closed-end funds, today announced that Alexandra Herger will join the current Board of Directors of its closed-end funds on Jan. 1, 2015.
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I can still remember turning the big flagstone that was out by the day lily bed and seeing my very first snake.
I was probably 6 or 7 and had already turned a lot of stones in my short lifetime. I found toads and stag beetles and star-nosed moles – enough things so that I spent a goodly amount of time flipping rocks and debris and marveling at the creatures that called such places home.
But a snake? And in my own backyard at that. Even when the little snake inflated itself and began an almost inaudible hissing, my parents declared it harmless and left the snake and me to our own devices.
That was my introduction to the species then called the DeKay’s snake and now known as the northern brown snake, Storeria dekayi dekayi. Notice the species name, dekayi, is spelled with a “k” and not a “c.” It is named for early New York naturalist, James Edward DeKay, not for any lack of serpentine structural integrity.
Although a gigantic specimen of just over 19 inches has been documented, most northern brown snakes are adult at 10 to 12 inches. The dietary preference is earthworms but an occasional cutworm or other insect may be accepted. This tiny snake, a relative of the larger garter and water snakes, gives birth to live young. Literature proclaims a litter may number from 3 to 31, but 5 to 12 seems the norm.
Continue reading “My first snake: the DeKay’s snake” …read more
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Have you seen the titanboa exhibit?
From NJ.com:
Twice as long as the longest snake alive today, Titanoboa was discovered in 2009 by a team of scientists working in one of the world’s largest open-pit coal mines at Cerrejón in La Guajira, Colombia. Fossil plants, giant turtles and crocodiles found with it deep underground reveal the earliest known rainforest, teeming with life and dating to the Paleocene, the lost world that followed the demise of the dinosaurs.
“Titanoboa is a bigger, badder boa, and it will simply knock your socks off,” said Jennifer Sontchi, Academy director of exhibits.
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It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user peaceodarock!
Black Rat Snake, uploaded by kingsnake.com user peaceodarock” />
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By Herp News
Researchers have found genetic evidence that highly toxic venom proteins were evolutionarily ‘born’ from non-toxic genes, which have other ordinary jobs around the body, such as regulation of cellular functions or digestion of food.
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By Herp News
Tortoise Capital Advisors announced the following special distributions today:
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By Herp News
In 1912, a group of intrepid explorers led by Rollo and Ida Beck, widely acknowledged to be the foremost marine bird collectors of their time, embarked on a most remarkable effort to catalogue South America’s oceanic birds. Museums of the day held opportunistically collected specimens from scattered sources, but rarely did these include ocean-bound birds that spent little time near the coast.
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Almost 200 sea turtles suffering from hypothermia were removed from chilly Massachusetts Bay and flown to warmer waters.
From the Orlando Sentinel:
Turtle rescues happen every year in late fall in the Northeast, but for reasons not yet known what’s happening this year is “epic,” said one of the nearly two dozen volunteers passing boxes of turtles like a bucket brigade.
“Statistically, I feel like we are out on Pluto,” said Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium’s marine-animal hospital in Quincy, Mass., who fears the number of cold-stunned turtles could quadruple.
“We’ve been rescuing sea turtles for 25 years, and we are just absolutely shocked,” LaCasse said.
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It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Eve!
Collared Lizard, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Eve” />
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By Herp News
A little tortoise with a metabolic bone disease has had mobility returned thanks to a Lego rig glued to his shell.
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A turtle found in the Northern Territory close to death and with a fishing hook through its neck which tethered it to a tree has been released back into the wild after being nursed back to health.
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By Herp News
A turtle found in the Northern Territory close to death and hanging from a tree with a hook through its neck has been released back into the wild after being nursed back to health.
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By Herp News
Armen Shahrigian will star in a new reality-based show that showcases his passion and knowledge of reptiles. Shahrigian has had a fascination with reptiles since he…
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By Herp News
For the first time, marine conservation group, Sea Shepherd, is employing their controversial methods to protect Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish. Dubbed ‘Operation Icefish,’ Sea Shepherd Australia is sending two ships into Antarctic waters to disrupt illegal vessels targeting the little-known species that are often sold in luxury markets as Chilean seabass.
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In rural southeast Alabama , where gently rolling red hills transition into the sandy soil of the lower coastal plain, lives one of Alabama’s most beautiful snakes. The eastern kingsnake Lampropeltis getula getula, known by the old timers as “The Swamp Wamper,” calls this region home.
The eastern kingsnake has a large distribution in the eastern United States, ranging from New Jersey to Florida across Georgia into South Alabama . Although once common here, the eastern kingsnake has now become scarce over much of its range in Alabama, so much so that the species is now on Alabama’s state protected list.
I had seen eastern king snakes from other regions of the southeast but not in Alabama, so we set out on a perfect day in early October in hopes of getting to see our target species in my home state.
We checked two or three promising sites and came up empty. At our last site, as we were poking around in a old tin pile, we heard something moving in the dry leaves behind us. As I turned around I saw the most beautiful eastern kingsnake that I had ever seen.
Measuring nearly 5-1/2 feet long, this male eastern kingsnake was truly an impressive animal. He was glossy black with thin, vivid yellow “chains. Being able to see and photograph such a large, perfect specimen was worth the bites and musk I received for disturbing him.
This happened in the fall of 2012, but since that time, we have found seven more animals in the region. Even though these animals have become uncommon in Alabama, at least they are still locally abundant in certain areas. …read more
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By Herp News
While unpleasant car exhaust makes us wrinkle our noses, such human-made fumes may pose serious problems to insects searching for nectar. Researchers recently revealed that background odors make finding flowers difficult for pollinators. The study, published in Science, measured how hawk moths (Manduca sexta) pick out the sacred datura flower scent (Datura wrightii) amidst all the other smells that waft through the environment.
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It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Gabby1!
Chuckwallas, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Gabby1″ />
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Commercial fog is great for haunted houses, night clubs, and herpetological research?
From National Geographic:
Colleen Farmer used it to study how an iguana breathes.
She threaded an endoscope—a tube with a light and a camera at the end—into the lizard’s nose, while allowing it to inhale the artificial smoke from a fog machine. The smoke, though harmless, contained small particles, and the camera could detect these they worked their way into the iguana’s lungs.
And to Farmer’s surprise, no matter whether the lizard breathed in or out, the smoke particles only moved in one direction.
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From Maine to Ontario and Florida to Texas, you may encounter the little turtle known vernacularly as the “stinkpot” and more formerly as the common musk turtle, Sternotherus odoratus.
The names, both common and scientific, are derived from the odorous secretions produced by the two musk glands: one on each side of the plastron where the skin meets the shell bridge.
Although primarily aquatic, this little blackish turtle with the striped face, pointed nose, and elongate but high domed carapace may choose at times to wander far from its watery home.
Although musk and mud turtles are closely related, the small plastron of the musk turtles easily separates them from muds which all have a large plastron. Throughout most of its range the common musk is the only species of musk turtle to be found. Although the intensity and integrity of the yellow may vary, it is the only musk turtle to have a yellow striped face.
Hatchlings, so small they can sit comfortably on a quarter and have a roughened carapace, while the upper shell of the adults is usually very smooth.
Common musks are usually quite inexpensive and are very hardy and long-lived as captives. If you have an opportunity to get a baby you will find it an easily kept and responsive pet.
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By Herp News
The venomous white cobra captured in Thousand Oaks in September is soon to emerge from quarantine at the San Diego Zoo and go on exhibit.
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The PSN went offline Sunday night, with hacking group Lizard Squad taking responsibility for the attack.
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By Herp News
The chances of long-term survival for the Pacific gecko have been boosted with the release of 54 of the threatened native reptiles on pest-free Motuihe Island / Te Motu-a-Ihenga in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana.
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Two reptile dealers were sentenced to prison for trafficking animals out of the state. Prosecutors say, between 2006 and 2008, the men collected protected snakes from the wild in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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By Herp News
It all went to hell when Jane Goodall started handing out bananas. Within a few years, the previously peaceful chimpanzees she was studying split into two warring tribes. Gangs of males from the larger faction systematically slaughtered their former tribemates. All over the bananas. Or so the argument goes.
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By Herp News
The PSN went offline Sunday night, with hacking group Lizard Squad taking responsibility for the attack.
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Sony has once again seen its online services taken down by outsiders
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The average animal cell is 10 microns across but why? Bioengineers take their story of gravity in cells one step further, describing how cells manage to support thousands of membrane-less compartments inside the nucleus.
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The snot otter, or eastern hellbender salamander, may get special protection in New York.
From Tech Times:
To achieve their goal, the environmentalists filed a petition with the Department of Environmental Conservation, citing several reasons why the eastern hellbender should be provided protection allocated for other endangered species.
“Hellbenders face numerous threats in New York, including sedimentation, low water quality, lack of habitat, and disease. Significant declines in hellbender populations in both the Allegheny and Susquehanna watersheds suggest that this species, without protection, could become extirpated in the near future in the Susquehanna drainage, and may also disappear from the Allegheny drainage,” summarized the petition.
Endemic to New York, the eastern hellbender was given the “special concern species” status by the state’s conservation officials back in 1983.
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It’s our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pythonas!
Leaf-tail Gecko, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pythonas” />
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In the end, for the balance of the turtle and tortoise ponds I concluded a simple pond, made out of concrete, would be the best option for now.
Unlike the first pond, this one would not have a concrete frame, and in essence would be just a dished out area of dirt, covered in an inch of concrete, with a sump and a drain. They would be round and roughly the same size as the 3-foot kiddie pools, but not nearly as deep.
With a gentle slope on all sides and the middle being the deepest spot at between 6-10 inches, these ponds provide enough water to completely immerse but are easy to get into and out of. Generally speaking, they resemble super-sized bird baths.
These ponds, roughly 3-4 gallons each, took very little time to excavate, with the augering of the sump area taking up most of that. Each pond used between 1 and 1-1/2 60-lb bags of quik-crete, providing a base that was 1-2 inches thick.
I formed a small lip around the edge of the pond to allow rainwater to flow around the pond instead of into it. I did not use any reinforcing wire or mesh with the concrete, and I am certain that someone standing on them would likely crack them. But they were designed for turtle foot traffic rather than human, and if I decide on a better “ultimate pond” later, they can be readily broken up and removed.
These have worked well so far, but winter arrived more quickly than anticipated, so I was unable to do much analysis before the turtles started burrowing for the winter. With spring only a few months away, it won’t be long before they are put to the test. …read more
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By Herp News
Hacker group Lizard Squad may be at it again. After temporarily disrupting Xbox Live Friday night, the group claimed responsibility for disrupting the PlayStation Network Sunday night. PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad
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By Herp News
Turtle was released in Gran Canaria last week after recovering in Galway
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Turtle Rock Studios answer fan questions about balancing, eSports, and more.
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The venomous white cobra captured in Thousand Oaks in September is soon to emerge from quarantine at the San Diego Zoo and go on exhibit.
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By Herp News
The clever turtle confuses the tiger shark with its dizzying manoeuvres, evading the predator's jaws in fascinating footage shot off the Cocos Islands, near Costa Rica.
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Another turtle and tortiose pond idea I tried out was to use the large concrete mixing tubs available at home improvement stores. Suggested by long time kingsnake.com contributor Bonnie Keller, this option was one she had used one with the edges cut down at an angle to provide a slope down to a deep end.
At $14 a tub, I wanted to try one straight up because modifying 96 of them would be tough. And I was already looking beyond plastic ponds as likely the ultimate solution.
A rectangular tub that holds just over 20 gallons, it was smaller than the kiddie pools, but still so deep that it required more excavation time than I wanted to expend. I again excavated with a shovel and water hose to seat the tub properly, and again used the auger to great a sump area for drainage, and added a drain plug to the tub.
Though the ends of the tub had a gentler slope than the kiddie pools sides, it was still too steep for the turtles to get a footing to exit the tub. Again I added rocks to provide them entry and exit, but the Eastern Box Turtles had the same problems getting in and out. They would flop about, frustrated, fighting to get out until they found purchase on the rock pile.
Again this proved to be a “workable” solution that on a small scale could be usable once the issues were overcome, but scaling it to 96 pens would be problematic. This pond too, while still in use today, will be replaced by what turned out to be the eventual best solution.
Watch for part 4! …read more
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By Herp News
The clever turtle confuses the tiger shark with its dizzying manoeuvres, evading the predator's jaws in fascinating footage shot off the Cocos Islands, near Costa Rica.
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