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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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.
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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.

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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.

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By Herp News

There may be an alligator-like reptile lurking in the city's largest park. A Toronto woman, whose backyard faces High Park, said she spotted a large reptile in Catfish Pond on Sunday afternoon.

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By Herp News

VIRGINIA BEACH A Kemps ridley sea turtle released last Wednesday had to return to the Virginia Aquarium Marine Animal Care Center Saturday after being hooked at the Norfolk Naval Station recreational fishing pier.

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By Herp News

VIRGINIA BEACH — A Kemps ridley sea turtle is back at the Virginia Aquarium Marine Animal Care Center after being released last Wednesday, officials said.  Voldemort had a short-term stay after being hooked the weekend before at Buckroe Fishing Pier in Hampton. A few days after being released, Voldemort was hooked again at the Naval Station Norfolk recreational fishing pier. Officials say this …

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By Herp News

Voldemort was hooked at the Naval Station Norfolk recreational fishing pier and this hook was much deeper than the superficial one it had before.

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By Herp News

Wildlife officials have captured an alligator-like reptile that was living in a pond in Toronto's High Park. Police, wildlife experts and park staff converged on Catfish Pond on Monday afternoon in the effort to capture the 80-centimetre caiman. A video of the caiman — said to have been taken on Sunday — was posted to YouTube on Monday by user Kyle Stadnyk. A spokeswoman for Toronto's animal …

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By Herp News

It’s suspected that the reptile was dumped in the pond by someone who no longer wanted it.

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By Herp News

As reptile experts scale up plans to capture a two-metre crocodile that mysteriously appeared on the tourist island of Crete, appeals have gone out for its owner to come forward.

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By Herp News

For those living either north or south of the tropics, images of this green ring around the Earth’s equator often include verdant rainforests, exotic animals, and unchanging weather; but they may also be of entrenched poverty, unstable governments, and appalling environmental destruction. A massive new report, The State of the Tropics, however, finds that the truth is far more complicated.

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By Herp News

An aquatic, alligator-like reptile has been spotted in Toronto's High Park. Teghan Stadnyk, who saw the creature Sunday and took video of it, identified it as a caiman — a semi-aquatic reptile similar to the alligator and native to tropical climates. Stadnyk contacted the City of Toronto's Animal Services department.

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By Herp News

Byline: Bailey is a Siamese cat who lives on a boat near Rome, Italy. He is holding a raffle to celebrate his third birthday on 9 July and all the proceeds will be going to The Lizard lifeboat station to help keep her volunteer crew afloat. Page Content: Bailey and his owners are keen Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) supporters. His mum Louise Kennedy comes from The Lizard and her …

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By Herp News

Policeman kills reptile after being 'attacked' at home.

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Thanks to the efforts of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, there are now an estimated 850 blue iguanas in Grand Cayman.

From Cayman 27:

This staggering increase means the reptiles, which are indigenous to Grand Cayman, can now be moved off the critically endangered list.

“Previously they were listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as being critically endangered, which is actually only one step away for being extinct in the wild,” said Mr Watler. He went on to tell Cayman 27 that, “the fact is that this is an upgrade, it sounds kind of counter intuitive to say its a good thing that they are only on the endangered list but it really is much better than being critically endangered.”

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By Herp News

FRUITLAND PARK — Astonished looks are guaranteed at a John Storms World of Reptiles show. Just watch when he brings out a snake or an alligator snapping turtle.

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By Herp News

KOTA KINABALU: WHEN “Ninja”, the green sea turtle was rescued in April, she was in a bad state — malnourished, covered with barnacles and suffering from a bacterial infection. Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) officers rescued her from a farmer in Papar as he was loading her into the back of his car. “We do not know the cause of the bacterial infection.

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By Herp News

A two-decade legal fight to protect a squat lizard with dragon-like head spines from urban encroachment in Southern California took a new turn this week.

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By Herp News

KUALA PENYU was named for the obvious reason – the penyu or turtles. Illegal turtle egg collection on the coastal district over the years however has led to the decline in landings. In a bid to revive the district reputation that comes with its name, policy makers led by its District Officer Edmund Teoh launched a special hatchery programme in April.

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Check out this video “Swim Time,” submitted by kingsnake.com user Minuet.
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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