By Herp News

This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on June 30, 2014 and cumulativ

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By Herp News

Forget marsupials, the world’s strangest group of mammals are actually those in the Afrotheria order. This superorder of mammals contains a motley crew that at first glance seems to have nothing in common: from elephants to rodent-sized sengi. Last week, scientists announced the newest, and arguably cutest, member of Atrotheria: the Etendeka round-eared sengi.

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By Herp News

Watersnakes, commonly seen in the lakes, rivers and streams of the eastern United States, are invading California waterways and may pose a threat to native and endangered species in the state, according to a study. Nearly half of California’s amphibians are considered Species of Special Concern or are listed under the state or federal Endangered Species Act, and more than 80 percent of the state’s inland fishes are of conservation concern.

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By Herp News

Byline: The Lizard all weather Tamar Class Lifeboat “Rose” launched on service shortly after 2pm on Wednesday 25th June 2014 in response to a mayday call received from a damaged rib which was taking on water. Page Content: The eight meter RIB Neptune with five people on board was taking on water approximately three miles south west of The Lizard Point. Sea conditions on scene were described as …

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Researchers are learning a lot about extinct reptiles from how American alligators eat.

From NatGeo:

What happens when you throw bones to a group of American alligators? This isn’t a question for late night horror movies, but for science.

Standing behind a safety barrier at Florida’s St. Augustine Alligator Farm, University of Tennessee paleontologist Stephanie Drumheller tossed skeletonized cow legs to a crush of curious alligators. Over and over again, the armored archosaurs rushed in to snap at the morsels, and with every bite they left the predatory hallmarks in the form of punctures and scrapes. These traces were what Drumheller was after. Through understanding the damage modern alligators leave on bones, Drumheller and other paleontologists can follow the depredations of alligators and their croc cousins through time.

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By Herp News

Scaly creatures took over Wesselman Woods Nature Center and Preserve Saturday. Snakes, turtles, iguanas and other reptiles were on display for the second annual 'Reptile Roundup.'

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By Herp News

Animal welfare officers called to rescue a reptile from a tree in Thurso discover it was a cuddly toy nailed to a branch.

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By Herp News

PGA.com asked our Facebook friends about unique occurrences on the golf course. There were tales of reptile encounters, ill-timed duck hooks, seismic activity and even sasquatches. “While working in the pro shop we got a Big Foot costume and had a 6 foo 8 kid that also worked there run around the course in it from time to time.” — David Garland Needless to say I put me down for a birdie on that …

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By Herp News

The Japanese-French restaurant comes from the owner of Room 11 and the Petworth Citizen.

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By Herp News

Fitch Ratings assigns 'AAA' and 'AA' ratings to $179.4 million of new senior unsecured notes and $50 million of new mandatory redeemable preferred shares , res

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By Herp News

A giant tortoise is checked in to an on-site clinic at Bristol Zoo after developing the symptoms of sinusitis.

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Check out this video “Pet Iguana,” 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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By Herp News

A Manitoba cabinet minister said he and other Winnipeg drivers sprang into action upon seeing a woman try to help a turtle that was ambling across Portage Avenue this morning.

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By Herp News

Moose, a cousin to the Komodo Dragon takes special handling and was one of the reptiles the audience was not allowed to touch.

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Summer is always the busy season in the reptile world, with herpers headed off to the field, reptile expo season heating up, and baby reptiles and amphibians popping out left and right. We’ve been busy here at kingsnake.com as well, getting a whole peck of classified changes, updates and upgrades built, tested, and installed.

As you may have noticed over the last few years, we’ve been steadily raising the number of ads that can be posted in each category — from three, then to six, and now to eight per category with a standard account and 12 with an enhanced account!

Other ad posting changes include an optional PayPal ‘Buy It Now’ button, which will allow customers to make purchases directly from the kingsnake.com classifieds if you have a PayPal account. kingsnake.com takes no extra fees for using the ‘Buy It Now’ feature, and it’s quick and easy to include in your ad.

The Classified Vendor Profile system has been updagted as well, receiving a publicly viewable click-through counter in addition to the other cool features such as event listing and customer recommendations that were introduced at launch.

Finally, the classified index has been slightly adjusted to make it more navigable, and to add the ‘New and Updated’ business directory listings, as well as a new Updated Classified Profile listing system that lists the last 10 classified profiles that have been updated by vendors.

To update your classified ad vendor profile please visit http://market.kingsnake.com/account/.
To purchase a classified account please visit http://kingsnake.com/shared/services/classified.php.

Buisness directory listings are on sale for half price ($75.00 off) thru July 4. To add your web site to our business directory please go to http://www.kingsnake.com/services/businessdirectory_SALE75.html to purchase a listing on sale for half price or to update your current listing go to http://www.kingsnake.com/myaccount/bus_dir.php.

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The search had not begun as a jaunt to find the Florida scrub lizard, Sceloporus woodi. That wasn’t even close to the reason. Rather it had been my hope of finding a little spotted skunk that had brought Jake and me to Okeechobee County.

But spotted skunks (which we failed to find, by the way) are primarily crepuscular and nocturnal, and that left us with many hours of daylight to delve into other pursuits. So, having no real plans. we accessed an eastbound road and our next stop was in some scrub habitat in Martin County.

At that point we both recalled that we would like to update our photos of the scrub lizard, so Sceloporus woodi became our new secondary target.

Restricted to sandy areas from the latitude of Marion County southward, the little scrub lizard is a localized Florida endemic. A smaller adult size (to 6 1/4″), smaller scales, a well defined brown lateral line, and less black pigment on the belly differentiate the scrub lizard from the sympatric fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus.

And unlike the skunk (that, despite several additional nights of trying we still haven’t found), the habitat and locale in which we were then standing proved ideal for the scrub lizards. They were found and photographed, allowing us to consider the trip at least a partial success. And at the price of petrol nowadays, successes on road trips, be they accidental or intended, are evermore appreciated.

More photos under the jump…
Continue reading “The Scrub Lizard: A Florida endemic” …read more
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By Herp News

Habitat fragmentation and hunting are both distinct critical issues facing forests today that require their own countermeasures. Yet, much research has chosen to conflate the two, potentially leading to ineffective ecosystem management. According to a new study, the interaction of both factors can contradict the effects of hunting and fragmentation alone, revealing a research and management gap that urgently needs to be filled.

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By Herp News

An injured turtle is literally being pieced back together with wires, steel pins, epoxy glue and a clamp at a Manitoba wildlife shelter, after its shell was badly cracked this week.

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This yellow-bellied sea snake was rescued and rehabbed in New South Wales, Australia:

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By Herp News

The Neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis) should not be considered threatened by the IUCN Red List, according to a new paper in mongabay.com’s open-access journal Tropical Conservation Science. Currently the species is listed as Data Deficient, but was considered Vulnerable until 2000.

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By Herp News

Around 11 AM on Thursday, 27 February 2014, Angoulou Enika was lying hidden in the tall grass on the side of a large water hole in the Sahel region of Niger. He was staying as quiet as he could while aiming his custom-made rifle at an Egyptian vulture which had landed nearby to drink from the water. He took a breath, held it and fired. The large bird fell to its side.

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Does the key to human limb regeneration like in a salamander’s cells?

From researcher Max Yun in The Conversation UK:

This process is rarely found in mammalian cells and this has been suggested as the basis for their poor regenerative abilities. But clearly, unraveling the mechanisms underlying this reprogramming is central to understanding why certain vertebrates can regenerate their limbs while others can’t, and how to repeat this process in humans.

If we were able to crack this puzzle, it could lead to strategies to enhance the reprogramming of cells from patients, and to better understand their disease and design appropriate cures.

We recently found a critical component of the reprogramming mechanism. In our study, published in Stem Cell Reports, we demonstrated that the sustained activation of a molecular pathway (a group of molecules in a cell that work together to control a particular function or functions) – called the ERK pathway – plays a key role during the natural reprogramming of salamander muscle cells. Only when the ERK pathway is constantly switched “on” are the cells able to re-enter the cell cycle, which is key to their regenerative potential.

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By Herp News

Joe Lamb explained that boa constrictors, like this Red Tail Boa, can grow to 10 feet long and eat mice and rats.

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By Herp News

Staff at a reptile centre in Brighton find a 5ft long boa constrictor abandoned in a box on their doorstep.

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By Herp News

Turtles like Sal, this 14-year-old African Tortoise, can live to be over 200 years old and grow up to 850 pounds.

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By Herp News

Exciting to watch these giants roll off the truck that has transported them all the way from Texas.

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By Herp News

Press Kit Materials are Available at: http://www.tradeshownews.com/events/CE-Week-2014/SnowLizard-Gear/

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By Herp News

The Serengeti ecosystem got a major reprieve last week when the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) ruled against a hugely-controversial plan to build a paved road through Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. The court dubbed the proposed road ‘unlawful’ due to expected environmental impacts.

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By Herp News

Five years ago an unlikely meeting was held in the Malaysian state of Sabah to discuss how to save wildlife amid worsening forest fragmentation. Although the meeting brought together longtime adversaries—conservationists and the palm oil industry—it appeared at the time to build new relationships and even point toward a way forward for Sabah’s embattled forests.

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By Herp News

Ahead of E3 2014, Turtle Beach is debuting two pairs of premium wireless gaming headphones designed for PlayStation 4.

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The scarlet kingsnake looks like the coral snake because there’s a survival benefit to tricking predators into thinking you’re too dangerous to mess with.

But once the coral snake vanishes, why do local kingsnakes not just maintain that resemblance for decades, but intensify it?

Scientists had no idea, but now they’ve figured it out. Once the coral snake became extinct in the North Carolina Sandhills, they say, the risks of attacking the wrong snake diminished. Predators began to take more changes, targeting those kingsnakes who least resembled corals, and removing them from the gene pool.

But what happens now? Find out here.

Photo: kingsnake.com user coolhl7 …read more
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By Herp News

Tortoise Capital Advisors today announced the completion of the merger of Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp. , Tortoise Energy Capital Corp. and Tortoise North American Energy Corp.

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By Herp News

Byline: The Lizard Lifeboat launched on service shortly after 10am on Tuesday 17 June to go to the assistance of a lone yachtsman. Page Content: The 32’ yacht Soay had been on passage from Milford Haven to Falmouth when difficulties were encountered one mile south east of Blackhead, The lifeboat was on scene within 12 minutes of launch and upon arrival found the gentleman to be unable to …

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By Herp News

2K and Turtle Rock are showing off their intense 4 versus 1 shooter Evolve at E3, and I had the opportunity to drop into the game as a hunter to take down Kraken, one of the game's enormously intimidating monsters.

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By Herp News

Reptile Gardens welcomed their newest, and oldest member to the zoo this afternoon.

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By Herp News

The House of Harlow 1960 designer, 32, debuts her VH1 show Candidly Nicole July 17

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By Herp News

Scientists in China have found five well-preserved reptile eggs still intact more than 100 million years after they were laid. It's believed they belong to the ancient pterosaur — a reptile that roamed the Earth more than 120 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. (Via  YouTube / American Museum of Natural History ) LiveScience  notes that until now  scientists had only found four …

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By Herp News

A Cape Coral couple spotted the Nile Monitor Lizard trying to cut across four lanes of traffic in the city over the weekend.

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By Herp News

( University of the Witwatersrand ) It took seven editors and 26 authors nine years to compile the first ever Reptile Atlas for all reptiles found in the southern tip of Africa. This huge collaborative effort resulted in the 485-page Atlas and Red List of the Reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland — a hardcover book launched recently that also contains the conservation status of the …

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By Herp News

The animal oracle predictions for the World Cup have begun, with host nation Brazil getting a vote of confidence from its chosen turtle tipster.

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