By Herp News
A green sea turtle migrates 2,472 miles in a year
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Sea turtle migrates 2,472 miles
Cop shoots tortoise, claims it attacked
Don’t you just hate it when the tortoises turn on you?
From the BBC:
A police officer in Uganda has reportedly shot a tortoise dead after being attacked by the “aggressive” creature.
The incident happened in the Nebbi district in the north of the country near the Congolese border. The officer – named as Charles Onegiu by the New Vision newspaper – said the animal entered his home and attacked him while he was enjoying a post-work cup of tea. “I tried to scare it but the tortoise became very aggressive. I took a stick to chase it but it instead became more violent,” he told the paper. After attempting to fend off the tortoise with a plastic chair, he said he “instinctively” drew his firearm and shot it dead. A local Christian group later prayed for Onegiu, “before burning the dead reptile to ashes.”
Read more… …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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New Jersey reptile expert reportedly told to 'keep mouth shut' about anaconda on loose
By Herp News
A reptile expert said Friday that he wants to go “on the record” and confirm that New Jersey authorities are searching for an anaconda, not a boa constrictor in the state's largest lake.
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Sea turtle 'hugs' surfer who cut it free from nets
By Herp News
Did a sea turtle “hug” a surfer who rescued it from fishing nets? Call it what you will, but the moment caught by a GoPro camera on the stunning video shows there was a connection there.
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Sea turtle 'hugs' surfer who cut it free from nets | Video
By Herp News
Did a sea turtle “hug” a surfer who rescued it from fishing nets? Call it what you will, but the moment caught by a GoPro camera on the stunning video shows there was a connection there.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Frankie Tortoise Tails – Endless Pursuit
Big day for me on Thursday: gecko management & feeding, working with two injured turtles, cursing a phone that hasn’t worked in 35 hours, two doctor appointments, painting trim outside, and haunting thoughts, without relief, over the torture of another turtle.
With no sleep to help me navigate the day the only escape I get is watching Frankie’s endless pursuit of absolutely nothing. He walks everywhere in his yard getting no where special yet with focus of vital importance. At least the weather today is comfortable. Awake since eight in the morning, Frankie is taking advantage of every moment as he has.
At three I decide I deserve a nap so I go inside, recline on my sofa, turn on TV, and relax. The Godfather is on and even though it’s violent, the scene of the Don chasing his grandson and having a heart attack is surreal so I may wake up just to see that.
Cat in lap, I slip off into a very comfortable state of not-completely-asleep-but-pretty-much-unavailable-to-the-world for a nice stress relief and temporary halt to reoccurring thoughts of mobster-like-violence I’d like to try on turtle abusers but absolutely know I’m incapable of physically hurting anyone.
How long was I napping? Thirty minutes? Forty-five? A god awful clatter unfamiliar to my trained reptile emergency and Frankie-catastrophe-in-process ear causes me to bolt up from the chair. The recently sleeping cat goes flying to the ground. I clear my mind and wait fully aware to see if it happens again.
Probably Frankie, I think, but it could be a neighbor.
Rumble! rumble! crack!
It’s got to be Frankie I think as I open the back door but also confounded that the sound is muffled like it’s happening in a tunnel.
The back porch is cluttered with things waiting storage. There was a ladder next to Frankie’s dogloo but that’s been push aside, probably by Frankie (remember the video of the sulcata moving the ladder? Yeah, Frankie does this now). I pull aside an empty cardboard box and there it is.
Frankie is head first into his dogloo. All I see are two back feet are posed on the edge of the dogloo. He is just sitting there. I tilt my head to one side to think what’s in that dogloo that has Frankie’s undivided attention?
Those two feet squarely set on lip of the dogloo are there for a reason. I witness that huge shell pull back on top of those feet which then launch Frankie deep into the dogloo accompanied by a huge, but muffled, BAM!
I am not stupid, okay maybe my priorities are skewed, but disregarding what ever is being rammed to pieces in that dogloo, I got to video this and it just happens the camera is just inside the door. I get it.
It takes about forty seconds to fetch, turn on, switch to video, compose my self (so the camera doesn’t shake) …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
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Reptile Expert: Snake On Loose In NJ Actually An Anaconda
By Herp News
A reptile specialist leading the search for a snake on the loose in Lake Hopatcong now says it is a green anaconda, not a boa constrictor, as officials had maintained.
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Huge reptile farm near Newberry supplies snakes worldwide
By Herp News
Less than a mile from downtown Newberry sits a group of unmarked gray warehouse buildings that contain either endless wonders or the stuff of nightmares, depending on how you feel about snakes.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Millions spent to 'save' desert tortoise questioned
By Herp News
Ever since the desert tortoise was declared a threatened species, the government has spent hundreds of millions protecting them. Some might question whether it's paid off.
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National Xenopus resource at the MBL innovates new way to study proteins
By Herp News
Researchers have used mRNA sequences, rather than DNA, to more efficiently create a reference database that can be used for proteomic analysis of Xenopus frogs. The researchers used their reference database to identify over 11,000 proteins from an unfertilized Xenopus egg and estimate the abundance of these proteins. The method outperformed comparison proteomic analyses based on a preliminary, unpublished Xenopus genome and other protein reference databases.
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First turtle nest hatches on Tybee Island
By Herp News
The little green heads popping up from the sands of Tybee Island's beaches Thursday served as proof that a major event was finally occurring…
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Missing Hay River turtle comes home, eco-disaster averted
By Herp News
Shelly the turtle is home safe in her summer backyard pond in Hay River, N.W.T. after a neighbour spotted her crossing a nearby street. An expert had warned of a possible ecological disaster when she escaped three weeks ago.
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The-Lizard-RNLI-lifeboat-rescues-a-100-year-old-sailing-vessel-off-Lizard-Point
By Herp News
Byline: The Lizard’s Tamar class all-weather lifeboat Rose launched yesterday morning (16 July) to go to the assistance of a 100 year old sailing vessel Ruth with four people on board which had lost its main mast three miles southwest of Lizard Point. Page Content: The Lizard lifeboat volunteer crew launched just after 9:30am after the Master of Ruth had contacted Falmouth Coastguard requesting …
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Herp Video of the Week: Chameleon changing color!
Check out this video “Chameleon changing color,” 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
Read more here: King Snake
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Reptile Robbery: Why Poachers Are Wiping Out Ontario’s Turtles
By Herp News
Ontario’s once plentiful turtles are rapidly disappearing as poachers grab the reptiles for sale on the international pet trade market. Some turtle populations in the province have completely vanished over the past decade. “My turtles are gone,” Jacqueline Litzgus, a spotted turtle researcher, told the The Canadian Press last week. Most of the turtles end up for sale in pet shops in Asia and …
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Scientists gear up to fight deadly snake fungal disease
By Herp News
A faster and more accurate way to test for infection with Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, a fungus that is killing snakes in the Midwest and eastern United States, has been devised by researchers. The test also allows scientists to monitor the progression of the infection in living snakes. Researchers first took notice of Ophidiomyces in snakes in the mid-2000s. Today the fungus threatens the last remaining eastern massasauga rattlesnake population in Illinois and has been found to infect timber rattlesnakes, mud snakes, rat snakes, garter snakes, milk snakes, water snakes and racers in several states.
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Organic pollutants not factor in turtle tumor disease, study finds
By Herp News
A new study casts doubt on long-held suspicions that persistent organic pollutants in the environment make green turtle more susceptible to the virus that causes fibropapilomatosis, a disease that forms large benign tumors that can inhibit the animal’s sight, mobility and feeding ability.
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Scientists can now accurately count polar bears…from space
By Herp News
Polar bears are big animals. As the world’s largest land predators, a single male can weigh over a staggering 700 kilograms (about 1,500 pounds). But as impressive as they are, it’s difficult to imagine counting polar bears from space. Still, this is exactly what scientists have done according to a new paper in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
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Herpers strike back against media hype about snake
So, that snake infamously fished out of an Alabama toilet? It was retrieved by police officer Ali Thompson and identified by Hueytown Police Chief Chuck Hagler as a venomous cottonmouth. Local herpers came out of the proverbial woodwork, however, to say he was wrong.
From AL.com:
tidey : Don’t know about fangs… but this appears to be a rat snake. Very common and not poisonous. Doesn’t have the markings of a cottonmouth or copperhead.
umgrizz1: good grief… I know any kind of snake in the house is frightening… but that snake is NOT even venomous, much less a cottonmouth…
AUwildlife81: All snakes can’t climb, primarily here in Alabama only the rat snake and corn snake are able to climb because they also feed on birds they would need this ability. Water moccasins eat fish and fish don’t live in trees so they don’t need to climb. Water moccasins as with most venomous snakes have stocky bodies which will prevent them from climbing. I have a degree in wildlife biology have taken numerous herpetology classes and I used to remove snakes for living. Yes other snakes can climb but those snakes are found in South America, Asia, and Africa.
Hagler’s standing firm on his ID, however.
Photo: Hueytown Police Department …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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What kind of snake was in the toilet?
So, that snake infamously fished out of an Alabama toilet? It was retrieved by police officer Ali Thompson and identified by Hueytown Police Chief Chuck Hagler as a venomous cottonmouth. Local herpers came out of the proverbial woodwork, however, to say he was wrong.
From AL.com:
tidey : Don’t know about fangs… but this appears to be a rat snake. Very common and not poisonous. Doesn’t have the markings of a cottonmouth or copperhead.
umgrizz1: good grief… I know any kind of snake in the house is frightening… but that snake is NOT even venomous, much less a cottonmouth…
AUwildlife81: All snakes can’t climb, primarily here in Alabama only the rat snake and corn snake are able to climb because they also feed on birds they would need this ability. Water moccasins eat fish and fish don’t live in trees so they don’t need to climb. Water moccasins as with most venomous snakes have stocky bodies which will prevent them from climbing. I have a degree in wildlife biology have taken numerous herpetology classes and I used to remove snakes for living. Yes other snakes can climb but those snakes are found in South America, Asia, and Africa.
Hagler’s standing firm on his ID, however.
Photo: Hueytown Police Department …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Was The Green Turtle The First Asian-American Superhero?
By Herp News
A new graphic novel written by Gene Luen Yang re-imagines the Green Turtle, a mysterious superhero created during World War II, as the American-born son of Chinese immigrants.
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DeKalb Woman Searching For Lost Two-Foot Long Lizard
By Herp News
A woman in DeKalb, Illinois, is asking for help in finding a lost pet: a two-foot lizard.
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Orange Park girls under investigation after graphic video of gopher tortoise torture surfaces
By Herp News
Graphic video of a gopher tortoise being burned, tortured and ultimately crushed to death has resulted in two Orange Park girls being investigated for possible animal cruelty, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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Please, don’t hate us: celebrating World Snake Day!
By Herp News
Okay, so some snakes are so venomous they can kill you in 30 minutes (the inland taipan). And, yes, the fact that they don’t have legs is a little creepy to many people. And, admittedly, some scientists have even suggested that humans may have an inborn genetic terror of snakes.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Why life is hell for the hellbender
The eastern hellbender may be joining its Ozark cousin on the endangered species list.
From Fox News:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting an assessment of the eastern hellbender — one of two subspecies — to determine if it should be added to the federal endangered species list. The other subspecies, the Ozark hellbender, found only in Missouri and Arkansas, was declared endangered in 2011 after a 75 percent decline.
Such a designation could free up federal money to protect their habitat and aid in their recovery.
Hellbenders — the origin of the name isn’t known — have been present on this continent for at least 10 million years and are found in hill-county rivers and streams in the area stretching from New York to Missouri to North Carolina.
“There’s nothing else like them in North America,” said federal biologist Jeromy Applegate, who’s leading the eastern hellbender assessment.
Read more… …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Coastal wildlife paradise declared biosphere reserve in Argentina (PHOTOS)
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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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Reptile expert to search for boa constrictor reportedly seen in Lake Hopatcong
By Herp News
Reptile expert Gerald Andrejcak says some locals aren't taking the situation seriously
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Chemical found in water is feminizing male turtles
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
Read more here: King Snake
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Petco Celebrates Fifth Annual "Reptile Rally"
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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Turtle Shell waterproof Bluetooth speakers offer long battery life, durability
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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Turtle Shell waterproof Bluetooth speakers offer solid sound
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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Corunna lizard found
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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116-year-old tortoise has lived through six different monarchs
By Herp News
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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Troubled times for one of the world's rarest lizards
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
Read more here: King Snake
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Rotting lizard found in baby formula
By Herp News
Leading baby formula brand to recall batch after dead lizard rotting found inside tin.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Lizard found in baby formula
By Herp News
Woman calls on brand to recall product after making grisly discovery.
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Horned lizard here to stay – in West Texas, at least
By Herp News
Statewide, overall declining numbers have led authorities to offer the lizard moderate legal protection.
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Kids go for reptiles at expo
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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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Lizard found in baby formula
By Herp News
Woman calls on brand to recall product after making grisly discovery.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Turtle Days
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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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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