Just when you thought the Discovery Channel couldn’t sink any lower. Just when you thought reality TV couldn’t get any stupider. Along comes “Eaten Alive,” wherein the Discovery Channel will dress a man in a “snake-proof suit” and lett an anaconda eat him alive.

It’s not just stupid, it’s cruel to the snake. It’s not like we don’t know what the insides of an anaconda look like, so there’s no scientific value.

In fact, the only thing they’re “discovering” is how low their audience will go.

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By Herp News

Over 70 years since the last gray wolf was killed in Grand Canyon National Park, the top predator may be back. Tourists have reported numerous sightings—and taken photos—of a wolf-like animal roaming federal forest land just north of the park. Agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now intend to capture the animal to determine if it is indeed a wolf or perhaps a wolf-dog hybrid.

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It may be possible to estimate the number of extinctions in the past 100 years, but this photo collection shows that it is hard to truly quantify the damage done when a species disappears.

From Pixable:

Below, take a look at every animal (except insects, which are extremely difficult to catalogue but which you can find here) that went extinct in just the last 100 years. The list is based on research provided by the Sixth Extinction, a website created to “enhance free public access to information about recently extinct species,” and in order of their approximate date of extinction. We’ve included all the animals confirmed extinct by the IUCN, and added a few more declared extinct by other credible individuals and organizations.

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By Herp News

Brooks Hays TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.H., Nov. 3 (UPI) — Paleontologists have unearthed a 90-million-year-old fossilized turtle in southern New Mexico, near the town of Truth or Consequences.

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By Herp News

Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. today announced that as of Oct. 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.4 billion and its unaudited net asset value

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By Herp News

Tortoise Energy Independence Fund, Inc. today announced that as of Oct. 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $444.5 million and its unaudit

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By Herp News

Tortoise Pipeline & Energy Fund, Inc. today announced that as of Oct. 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $467.0 million and its unaud

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By Herp News

Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. today announced that as of Oct. 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $258.4 million and

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By Herp News

Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp. today announced that as of Oct. 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $4.5 billion and its unaudited ne

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By Herp News

Special to the TIMES NEWS Christina Obrecht, owner of Christina's Reptile & Sanctuary in Palmerton, holds one of her alligators as part of her speaking engagement earlier this month at Penn State University's main campus in State College.

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By Herp News

Bored of  Destiny ? Is  Assassin's Creed  no longer cutting it? Perhaps your gaming tastes require something a bit more classically inspired, such as  Lizard , the latest game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Targeting the must-have powerhouse console of 1985, Lizard is the brainchild of Canadian developer Brad Smith, who is currently Kickstarting its release. Described as “a …

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By Herp News

Fossilized turtle believed to have lived tens of millions of years ago excavated in New Mexico

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Have any mummy trick-or-treaters this year? What about mummified snakes?

From io9:

Ancient Egyptians didn’t prepare only human bodies for the afterlife; cats, baboons, crocodiles, canines, and birds have all been found mummified. But there’s something particularly delightful about this long and skinny coffin for snake.

This coffin is part of the Brooklyn Museum’s collection and it’s dated 664-30 BCE, sometime during the Late Period to the Ptolemaic Period.

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By Herp News

Evolve's alpha is still going strong, but Turtle Rock wants to push it to its limits before pulling the plug. In an e-mail sent to alpha participants, Turtle Rock thanked everyone for helping to test the servers, but also asked that everyone sign on today to help push the servers harder. Today, Sunday, we want you to return to Shear and the join the hunt for Turtle Rock Studios, who'll be …

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By Herp News

A sea turtle hatchling faces huge odds against survival from the moment its mother plops her soft eggs into their sandy cradle on Volusia and Flagler county beaches.

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed including the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), Florida softshell turtle (Apalone ferox), smooth softshell turtle (Apalone mutica), and spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera) in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES or Convention), including live and dead whole specimens, and all readily recognizable parts, products, and derivatives. ThFish and Wildlife Services feels that listing these four native U.S. freshwater turtle species (including their subspecies, except Apalone spinifera atra, which is already included in Appendix I of CITES) in Appendix III of CITES is necessary to allow us to adequately monitor international trade in these species; to determine whether exports are occurring legally, with respect to State and Federal law; and to determine whether further measures under CITES or other laws are required to conserve these species.

To read the USFWS proposal in it’s entirety and to file a response please review the USFWS announcement at the Federal Register website. Comments on this proposed rulemaking action must be submitted by December 29, 2014 for consideration.

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By Herp News

Anybody who has lived or played in Florida likely has been called out by a finger-long lizard that taunts people with bold stares, push-ups and throat flexing.

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By Herp News

Global warming is altering the reproduction of plants and animals, notably accelerating the date when reproduction and other life processes occur. A new study has discovered that some amphibians are capable of making their offspring grow at a faster rate if they have been born later due to the climate.

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By Herp News

A fungal disease from Asia wiped out salamanders in parts of Europe and will likely reach the US through the international wildlife trade in Asian newts sold as pets, say US experts. Scientists report the fungus arose in Asia 30 million years ago and is lethal to many European and American newt species. It has not yet been found in North American wild amphibians.

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By Herp News

Thanks to decades of conservation efforts, the iconic giant Galapagos tortoise, once on the brink of extinction, has recovered to a point where human intervention is no longer needed, according to a study published this week in the journal PLOS One.

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By Herp News

This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on Oct. 31, 2014 and cumulativ

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By Herp News

Different stress levels will make wall lizards from a group of Aegean islands flee or drop their tails – and it all depends on who they grew up with

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Check out this video “Scary Snake,” submitted by kingsnake.com user Minuet.
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By Herp News

Remember when Indiana Jones ventured into that cobra pit in The Temple of Doom? RNA reptile show guru played a role in his daring.

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By Herp News

More than a half century after claims that a new frog species existed in New York and New Jersey were dismissed, a team of scientists has proven that the frog is living in wetlands from Connecticut to North Carolina and are naming it after the ecologist who first noticed it.

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By Herp News

The snake handler who orchestrated this famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark tells how he kept Harrison Ford from being bitten.

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By Herp News

By Barbara Liston ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) – There were lots of snickers when a Chinese-Canadian man was caught trying to leave the United States with 51 turtles hidden in his sweatpants, but the case illustrated the serious threat facing native species from the booming international turtle trade, federal scientists said on Thursday. To protect native species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service …

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By Herp News

As if amphibians weren’t facing enough—a killer fungal disease, habitat destruction, pollution, and global warming—now scientists say that a second fungal disease could spell disaster for dozens, perhaps hundreds, of species. A new paper finds that this disease has the potential to wipe out salamanders and newts across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Americas.

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By Herp News

One of the most exciting conservation initiatives in recent years was the Search for Lost Frogs in 2010. The brainchild of scientist, photographer, and frog-lover, Robin Moore, the initiative brought a sense of hope—and excitement—to a whole group of animals often ignored by the global public—and media outlets. Now, Moore has written a fascinating account of the expedition: In Search of Lost Frogs.

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By Herp News

Indiana Jones needn't have worried when he ventured into that cobra pit in The Temple of Doom.

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How old were you when you started studying herps? Callum Ullman-Smith has been at it for years – and he’s only twelve.

From The Press and Journal:

He has dedicated his free time over the past three years studying a set of nine rock pools on the shore of Loch Alsh, near Reraig.

His Loch Alsh studies have unearthed an unexpected breeding population of palmate newts and has been monitoring their numbers.

It is an unusual find because the newts generally live in freshwater, rather than the more challenging conditions of the sea loch.

His work has been noticed by the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust who have invited him to present his findings to the experts at the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Symposium in Edinburgh this weekend.

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By Herp News

Cape Melville rainbow skink and Cape Melville bar-lipped skink bring the tally of species unknown to science that have been found in small, remote area to eight Two species of lizard previously unknown to science have been uncovered in a remote part of far north Queensland. Dr Conrad Hoskin, a researcher at James Cook university, found the two species after landing by helicopter in a largely …

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By Herp News

A team from the Ooty-based NGO, Wildlife and Nature Conservation Trust, imparted hands-on training to fire fighters and field-level Forest Department officials to rescue a snake.

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By Herp News

Bigger is better, if you’re a leatherback sea turtle. For the first time, researchers have measured the forces that act on a swimming animal and the energy the animal must expend to move through the water.

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By Herp News

Brooks Hays WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (UPI) — The Fish and Wildlife Service wants four native freshwater turtle species to be better protected by the rules of an international treaty known as CITES.

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By Herp News

Once on the brink of extinction, the Galápagos tortoise is now one of wildlife conservation's biggest success stories.

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By Herp News

Once on the brink of extinction, the Galápagos tortoise is now one of wildlife conservation's biggest success stories.

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Florida officials reported strong nesting numbers for several threatened species of sea turtle.

From the Associated Press:

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the number of loggerhead turtle nests remained high and the number of leatherback turtle nests reached a record this year.

Researchers surveyed more than 800 miles of Florida beaches for two reports that document the number of nests and nesting trends.

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By Herp News

MIAMI (AP) — The source of a sick tortoise's discomfort became clear after a south Florida veterinarian took an X-ray: The animal had swallowed a turtle pendant.

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By Herp News

Daily, we read or hear of more rhino being poached to satisfy the seemingly insatiable demand from Asia for rhino horn. With countless articles and papers having been published on the subject – and the Internet abuzz with forums, including heated debates concerning possible solutions – current approaches seem to be failing. Evidence is in the numbers. Known poaching deaths in South Africa have risen sharply over the past three years: 668 rhinos in 2012, 1,004 last year, and 899 through the first nine months of 2014. This toll includes only documented kills — the real number is higher.

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