By Herp News
Conservationists are celebrating the announcement that UNESCO has dubbed Argentina’s Península Valdés a biosphere reserve under the Man and Biosphere Program (MBA). A hatchet-shaped peninsula that juts out into the Southern Atlantic Ocean, the world’s newest biosphere reserve is home to a hugely-diverse collection of both terrestrial and marine wildlife.
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By Herp News
Reptile expert Gerald Andrejcak says some locals aren't taking the situation seriously
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Researchers have found a chemical in Missouri waterways that is making male turtles’ sex organs develop more like those of female turtles.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
A pilot study conducted at the University of Missouri showed that the synthetic chemical bisphenol A — or BPA, which is known to mimic estrogen and disrupt hormone levels in animals — can alter a turtle’s reproductive system after exposure in the egg. Turtles are perfect creatures for this type of study, because their sex is determined by the temperature of the environment during their development in the egg.
“Cool dudes or hot babes,” explained Sharon Deem, director of the St. Louis Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Medicine and a lead investigator on the study.
The researchers dropped a liquid form of the chemical onto hundreds of eggs that were incubated at cooler temperatures required to produce male turtles. A few months after they hatched, the turtles’ sex organs were removed and studied. The male turtles had developed gonads that were closer to ovaries than testicles.
Photo: Huy Mach/St. Louis Post-Dispatch …read more
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By Herp News
SAN DIEGO, July 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ – On Saturday, July 19, 2014, children ages 10 and up will have the opportunity to attend Petco's fifth annual “Reptile Rally” event. This year's free, family-friendly event will take place from 1-3 p.m. at Petco stores nationwide. Those who attend can participate in Meet & Greets, where families can interact with friendly reptiles, such as Leopard Geckos …
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By Herp News
Short of being submerged, the speakers can handle a dousing and still crank out the music over Bluetooth.
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By Herp News
The shower and the beach aren't usually friendly places for electronics, but the new Turtle Shell Bluetooth speakers from Outdoor Tech seem right at home in either locale.
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By Herp News
A lizard spotted wandering free around Corunna last week was found Sunday, safe and sound in the wall of a home on Fieldstone Avenue.
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The female Hermann's tortoise was 11 years old when she was bought for £1 from a London market by Margaret Cloonan in 1909.
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The Jamaican iguana, one of the rarest lizards in the world, came back from extinction once already. Can he do it again?
From the Jamaica Observer:
The Jamaican iguana is listed as a critically endangered species, but it has been saved from extinction. However, this triumph of the conservation movement is now threatened by the plan to turn the Goat Islands into a $1.5-billion economic zone, transshipment port and logistics hub.
The official name for the project is the Portland Bight Economic Zone and Transshipment Port, and foreign journalists seem to be converts to the campaign against it. The Guardian newspaper in London recently published a portfolio of beautiful photographs of the lizard by the prize-winning photographer Robin Moore.
But it is not just the lizard that is threatened. The livelihood and way of life of fishing communities in and around the Goat Islands would disappear. And the flattening of the Goat Islands, as well as the dredging involved, would threaten 50 species of plant life found only in Jamaica, including 17 that are endangered.
Photo: Jamaica Observer …read more
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By Herp News
Leading baby formula brand to recall batch after dead lizard rotting found inside tin.
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By Herp News
Woman calls on brand to recall product after making grisly discovery.
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By Herp News
Statewide, overall declining numbers have led authorities to offer the lizard moderate legal protection.
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By Herp News
A reptile expo was a petting zoo for parents and curious kids Sunday. Hundreds of families made their way to the Victoria Inn were dozens of reptile breeders set up displays stocked with exotic snakes, geckos, turtles and tarantulas. “I’m not a big snake fan,” confessed…
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By Herp News
Woman calls on brand to recall product after making grisly discovery.
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By Herp News
More than 2,000 people are spending their weekend in the small town of Turtle Lake, to celebrate one of the largest street fairs in North Dakota – the 33rd annual Turtle Days.The event is taking place all weekend including world champion turtle races, with participants getting assigned a turtle claim as they raced across the finish line.There is also an all school reunion – along with horse …
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By Herp News
A key mechanism in the formation of the head in frogs has been explained by researchers. Previous studies had reported genes involved in head development. However, it still remained unclear how those genes interact with each other for head formation as a whole. By employing Next-Generation sequencing techniques, which provide scientists with massive amounts of DNA sequence data, this study has uncovered a genetic mechanism underlying head formation, which is one of the most important processes in animal development.
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By Herp News
Turtle populations in southern Ontario are under threat by poachers, who sell the critters on the black market as aquarium novelties or for the dinner plate.
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By Herp News
Reports of ‘abandoned’ reptile send Greek officials into panicked search but social media chatter and inflatable croc sales soar
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By Herp News
An escaped crocodile may have caused a plane crash which killed a British pilot and 18 others, an inquest has heard. Chris Wilson died when the jet he was co-piloting plunged to the ground during a routine flight across the Congo in August 2010. Assistant Coroner David Dooley said it was “apparently quite normal” for animals to be carried on the plane, adding: “It was used like a taxi in this …
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By Herp News
It's green, covered in scales, three feet long and likely creeping through Corunna.
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By Herp News
Growing coffee in the shade of forests allows native vegetation to persist, thereby reducing the impact of agriculture on the natural landscape. While production of shade-grown coffee surged in recent decades, it is now experiencing a decline. A recent study analyzed the situation, finding that the growth of consumer demand and changes in coffee agronomy has caused coffee production and management to change drastically.
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Check out this video “Turtle Playing with Ball,” submitted by kingsnake.com user PH FasDog.
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 policeman in Uganda had to be consoled by his father after a tortoise tried to attack him – admittedly rather slowly. Charles Onegi, an officer in Nebbi district, in the north of Uganda close to the Congolese border, had just returned from a hard day and was having a nice cup of tea when suddenly all shell broke loose: a tortoise entered his home and it was completely off its carapace.
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By Herp News
It's hatching season out on Tybee Island and residents and local officials are giving tips to make sure the special occasion is as safe for …
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By Herp News
SAN DIEGO, July 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ – Turtle Beach Corporation (HEAR), a leading innovator of audio products and solutions, today announced that certain shareholders of Turtle Beach holding a majority of the shares outstanding have agreed to a voluntary extension of the lock-up restrictions regarding the sale or other disposition of their shares of the company's stock, originally agreed to in …
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By Herp News
Bertie, a Leopard tortoise from Adventure Valley theme park in Durham, completed an 18ft run in just 19.59 seconds, less than half the time of the previous record.
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By Herp News
“Here, lizard lizard lizard!” Size does matter as the stars of Rifftrax are set to bring larger-than-life laughs nationwide as they riff on one of the most frequently requested titles in RiffTrax history, “Godzilla.” Thanks to a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign that raised money to license a “big” Hollywood title, the RiffTrax crew – Michael J.
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A Long Beach, Calif., park has been named after an early snake expert, Grace Olive Wiley.
From the Press-Telegram:
Known as The Snake Lady, Wiley earned national recognition for her collection of reptiles and venomous snakes. Some of her snakes were featured in films such as “The Jungle Book” and “Cobra Woman.” Wiley herself appeared as a snake charmer in the film “Moon Over Burma,” starring Dorothy Lamour.
Born in Chanute, Kan., in 1883, Wiley, who has been described as headstrong in many biographical accounts, attended the University of Kansas at a time when very few women sought out a higher education.
She began collecting and observing rattlesnakes while doing fieldwork in the Southwest, and within a few years she became the first person to successfully breed rattlesnakes in captivity.
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By Herp News
Reptiles whose offspring's gender is dependent on temperature must spread out to survive the effects of climate change, new research shows.
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By Herp News
A tortoise is set to stroll into the record books as the fastest in the world.
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By Herp News
Emerging fungal pathogens pose a greater threat to biodiversity than any other parasitic group, causing population declines of amphibians, bats, corals, bees and snakes. New research reveals that amphibians can acquire behavioral or immunological resistance to a deadly chytrid fungus implicated in global amphibian population declines.
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By Herp News
Amphibian declines and extinctions around the world have been linked to an emerging fungal disease called chytridiomycosis, but new research from shows that another pathogen, ranavirus, may also contribute. In a series of mathematical models, researchers showed that ranavirus, which causes severe hemorrhage of internal organs in frogs, could cause extinction of isolated populations of wood frogs if they are exposed to the virus every few years, a scenario that has been documented in wild populations.
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By Herp News
While there has been a surge of recovery and reintroduction programs to combat predator decline, human population growth and limited protected areas have led to increased rates of human-wildlife conflicts in many regions of the world. A study published recently tested the ability of trained guarding dogs to protect livestock in South Africa and found it to be highly effective, protecting humans and predators alike.
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A friend e-mailed me yesterday. “You don’t write any. What is going on?”
I dunno. It’s summer. A lot of things going on at home, with Greg and I, injured box turtles, geckos, new house, and Frankie. Things!
I mean, it’s summer. Yeah, Frankie is busier than ever.
Yesterday I was working in the yard and I spy Greg just standing in the middle of the yard watching Frankie walk the fence line.
“What are you doing, Greg?”
“Watching Frankie get in trouble.”
I look back at Frankie who is just walking along the fence line.
“He is just walking, Greg.”
“If Frankie is walking Frankie is getting into trouble.”
I look back at Frankie at the end of the fence line. As if he was plainly blind Frankie bumps nose first into the corner fence. He shakes off hauling right into the fence, shimmies the corner and proceeds walking along the fence line.
I see Frankie do this walk-into-corner-bump-into-wall a lot. He just doesn’t get corners all that well. He just doesn’t get a lot of things that well.
Greg and I emptied our rented storage space. Twenty boxes, two vivariums, two bicycles, a dining room table and chairs, holiday decorations, turn table, lawn spreader, mirror, and a few miscellaneous bits were stuffed into our two vehicles and driven home as the last bit of evidence that we moved six months ago.
We decided it would be easiest to take everything through the back gate since it’s a quick 12 foot walk to the backdoor. Straight into the house.
Not taken into account is the path from car to house passes right through a territory belonging to a beast who can make a twelve foot path fraught with all kinds of dangers. Boxes in arm, we walk into the yard and head directly to the backdoor.
Frankie is quick to observe two potential food givers and made a beeline to the back door. When we came out of the house we are forced to hop over the big shelled obstacle. We dashed to the back gate with Frankie in hot pursuit.
And so began games of tag, leap frog, hopscotch, and tag with Greg and I passing back and forth from gate to door and Frankie looking a lot like Jackie Robinson playing rundown back and forth between first base and second base.
Except he isn’t as quick as Jackie Robinson.
You see, Frankie’s turn’s are awkward. He is like a big car attempting to turn around in a very narrow street: pull back, shift forward, one step, push back on back foot, slide front foot over, push back foot forward, step forward once, pull back, shift forward…..and so on.
Our trips to and fro cars and house continue. Stuck mid route is Frankie looking to tag the first human to pass in front of him. Just as he is turned …read more
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By Herp News
The common frog is one of the amphibians with the highest distribution in the Iberian Peninsula. It reproduces preferably in permanent areas of water where it comes into contact with the red swamp crayfish, which preys on its larvae. Research confirms that the larvae of these frogs have developed a defensive response to the invasive species.
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By Herp News
There is almost nothing left of Europe’s famed forests, those that provided for human communities for millennia and gave life to the world’s most famous fairytales. But straddling the border between Poland and Belarus, the Bialowieza Forest is Europe’s last lowland old-growth forest, parts of which have never been cut by man.
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The Bristol Zoo’s giant tortoise has been laid low with a sinus infection.
From the BBC:
Helen, a 90kg (14 stone) tortoise, was given a health check after keepers noticed her unusual breathing.
Staff vet Richard Saunders said: “The whistling, raspy breathing in her nose could be heard from several feet away, so we took samples under anaesthetic.”
The 32-year-old tortoise, described as a “good patient” by Mr Saunders, is currently on a course of antibiotics.
Photo: BBC News …read more
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By Herp News
KEMAMAN: A police report has been lodged after an endangered Green Turtle was found brutally killed and tens of its immature eggs scattered in a leased turtle nesting area of the Kijal beach near here. Terengganu Fisheries Department director Abdul Khalil Abdul Karim said today the report was made after the lease-holder found the dead turtle at about 11 pm last Monday. The person senselessly …
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By Herp News
Watching sea turtles nesting and hatching on Queensland's Heron Island is a privilege, but their sudden death by seagulls and sharks can make children cry.
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What’s attracting diamondback terrapin turtles to the runways at JFK Airport, and is there anything that will stop them?
From the New York Times:
The incident, in 2009, naturally drew headlines. While there had always been turtles in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, just south of Kennedy Airport, their occasional presence on the airport’s grounds did not normally cause a stir.
But on that July day five years ago, Russell Burke, the chairman of the biology department at Hofstra University, said, “Something made a huge number of turtles come up to Runway 4L.”
Two years later, it happened a second time. And on Thursday, a group of turtles appeared on Runway 4L yet again, despite recent steps aimed at keeping them away.
For Dr. Burke, who has long studied the terrapins that live in the wildlife refuge, the reptiles’ repeated forays onto the tarmac are the subject of serious study. Shortly after the first invasion, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey enlisted him to help it come to a better understanding of the turtles and their mysterious ways. As part of that effort, he works closely with the Port Authority’s chief wildlife biologist, Laura Francoeur, who described the turtle takeovers as among the more vexing challenges confronting her unit.
Photo: kingsnake.com user ThePetZone …read more
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