By Herp News
The government has announced that ecotourism projects are being planned for three of the six major islands in the municipality of Turtle Islands.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Will ecotourism be good for the Turtle Islands?
Herp Video of the Week: Iguana eating grapes!
Check out this video “Iguana eating grapes,” 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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Turtle Beach Announces Elite Membership Program
By Herp News
SAN DIEGO, June 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ – Turtle Beach, the leading audio brand in the video games industry, today announced the Elite Membership Program, an exclusive offering available with all Turtle …
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First intact skull of Mediterranean worm lizard found: Skull of new species sheds light on Mediterranean worm lizard …
By Herp News
The first intact skull of a Mediterranean worm lizard has been found in Spain, according to a new study. Only isolated fragments of fossil Mediterranean worm lizards have previously been found in Europe, and currently, our limited knowledge of their evolution is mainly based on molecular studies. The worm lizard is a limbless, scaled reptile and categorized in the genus Blanus in the …
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Next big idea in forest conservation? Work locally, relentlessly, and, if necessary, ignore the government
By Herp News
In 1997, Gabriella Fredriksson, then a young PhD student, was studying sun bears in East Kalamantan, Indonesia, when massive forest fires broke out in the park. ‘It quickly became clear that there was no government agency, NGO, or private company in the area interested in assisting putting out these fires, which were threatening to burn down the entire reserve,’ Fredriksson told mongabay.com.
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Monster Queensland crocodile, Jock the croc, bound for Dubai shopping mall zoo
By Herp News
A five-metre crocodile that has called central Queensland home for three decades is on its way to the Middle East.
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400km-trip tortoise escapes pulping
By Herp News
A tortoise thought to have travelled almost 300 miles in the back of a lorry from Devon is saved moments before being pulped at a Norfolk recycling plant.
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An egg-traordinary find! Ancient reptile eggs shed light on how mysterious Pterosaurs nested like modern-day birds
By Herp News
The five intact eggs were found in the Xinjiang province, China and all belonged to a previously unknown pterosaur species, Hamipterus tianshanensis.
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First 3D Flying-Reptile Eggs Discovered in China
By Herp News
The first three-dimensionally preserved eggs of ancient winged reptiles that lived more than 100 million years ago have been unearthed in China. Five intact eggs were found, along with dozens or more adult fossils, of a new type of pterosaur, a group of prehistoric winged reptiles that dominated the skies during the time of dinosaurs. “We found a lot of pterosaur bones which belong to different …
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28 new species of reptile discovered in Southeast Asia
Scientists recently discovered 28 new species of reptile in the Mekong Delta, bringing the total of new species discovered in Southeast Asia to 367. One of the new species is a primitive viper known as the White Head Burmese Viper, Azemiops kharini.
From the World Wildlife Foundation’s report:
The venomous species is thought to be a primitive viper species because it has an elliptically shaped, flattened head; enlarged head plates; smooth dorsal scales; folding front fangs; the absence of heat-sensing pits; and a coiled venom gland duct in adults.
The species can be found in dense bamboo and tree-fern groves interspersed with open, sun-lit zones, and usually inhabits deep leaf litter that accumulates near fallen trees. Its diet consists mostly of rodents that are associated with quick-flowing mountain streams. The genus is known to inhabit cooler mountainous areas at altitudes of up to 1000 m, as well as disturbed areas, including agricultural lands and secondary forests.
Read the full report and view images of all the new species here.
Photo: Nguyen Thien Tao/Vietnam National Museum of Nature …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Turtle saved after high speed chase
By Herp News
Two brothers, ages 18 and 21, from Detroit could be arraigned as soon as Thursday for a wild high speed police chase on I-96.
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UPDATE: $500 reward for stolen turtle
By Herp News
By: Dee DeQuattroEmail: ddequattro@abc6.comTwitter: @deedequattroFall River Police have released a surveillance photo of a man they believe to be behind the theft of a beloved turtle from the Fall River library. The 13-year-old turtle was stolen on Saturday night. Police believe the suspect hid behind a stack of books until the library closed, then made away with the beloved reptile.The man is …
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Flying Squirrel, Rainbow Lizard Among 367 New Species Found in Mekong
By Herp News
Researchers working in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia discovered 367 new species between 2012-2013, and are finding them at a rate of one new species every two days.
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Colorful bird on remote Indonesian islands should be classified as distinct species, say scientists
By Herp News
A colorful bird found on the Wakatobi islands south of Sulawesi in Indonesia is sufficiently distinct from birds in nearby areas to be classified as a unique species, argue scientists writing in the current issue of the open-access journal PLoS ONE.
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First intact skull of Mediterranean worm lizard found
By Herp News
( PLOS ) The first intact skull of a Mediterranean worm lizard has been found in Spain.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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11-Million-Year-Old Weird Worm Lizard Discovered
By Herp News
This family, known as blanids, includes the only worm lizards found on land in Europe, said study researcher Arnau Bolet, a doctoral student at the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont in Barcelona. “Thus, the study of a complete fossil skull more than 11 million years old was an unprecedented opportunity.” [The 12 Weirdest Animal Discoveries] Worm lizards are found around the world …
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Turtle hospital scores grant
By Herp News
Shell Canada is awarding the Georgian Bay Turtle Hospital with a $50,000 grant. The hospital has been struggling to become a functional rehabilitation centre.
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Ancient 900-pound croc named after Tolkein monster
A newly identified extinct reptile known as a dyrosaur has been named after a literary monster.
From Live Science:
It was 16 feet (4.8 meters) long and tipped the scales at 900 lbs. (408 kilograms). With a blunt snout and powerful bite, it ate turtles and battled monster snakes. Now this extinct dyrosaur, a type of crocodilian, which roamed an ancient rainforest a few million years after the dinosaurs died, has a scientific name.
It’s called Anthracosuchus balrogus after the fiery Balrog that lurked deep in the Middle-Earth mines of Moria in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Lord of the Rings.”
Photo: Live Science …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Office Intern
By Herp News
The Asian Turtle Program was established in 1998 and incorporated into the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo/Cleveland Zoological Society’s Asia regional program in 2003.
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Four donors pledge $80 million for big cats
By Herp News
Four donors from around the world have pledged $80 million to cat conservation group, Panthera. The money will fund projects working to preserve tigers, lions, jaguars, cheetahs, leopards, snow leopards, and cougars over ten years.
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Frankie Tortoise Tails – Chance of Carrots
Just as distracting as a flea to a cat, so a new object in a yard draws the attention of a sulcata tortoise: specifically, Frankie the tortoise.
Frankie has finely deemed the back yard worthy. With warm and sunny days now abundant, Frankie has taken to walking his yard, every inch, every day, for hours on end. Frankie is completely familiar with his yard’s unique terrain, tree placement, where various objects sit, best basking spots in the morning, best basking spot in the afternoon, and the idea place to sit and cool off. 
No one can see me. I look like wood.
If something is out of place Frankie will attempt to rectify the situation. To me, it just looks like Frankie is dragging tables and pushing over chairs. He calls it Property Management.
In the morning Frankie does property inspection and if all is well he will do his marathon walk all the way around the yard, reverse all the way around the yard, up and down the slopes, side to side on the slopes, and (if I am lucky) an accidental slide down the slope. Such feats of fortitude deserve tribute and rewards: A carrot, one a day, if at all possible.
Frankie visits the patio door which goes inside the house (where his staff resides). Frankie announces his presence at the back door by walking half on and half off the threshold dragging his shell against the door just in-case I have not noticed his presence. He walks face right into the back door window peering inside to see if there is any chance of carrots. 
I can has carrot?
All this is nice to see as I could tell during the last few months that Frankie wasn’t quite sure this was his home or just a temporary stop. There is no question now: the backyard operates under the Frankie Rules.
Greg and I are not quite finished getting Frankie’s yard ready. I am still planting grass. Greg put up his weather station and is working on a second Frankie cam installation. Leaves are raked weekly. Drainage has to be improved. Busy work for Greg and I, and Frankie ever underfoot.
After every rain I have to clear debris from the fence line at the bottom of the slope. If I am lucky I work on my own but most of the time Frankie supervises. Frankie supervises by trampling trash bags full of debris. I switched to the orange bucket that Greta & LD bought for Frankie which he has ignored….until I filled the orange bucket with tree debris.
Frankie now uses the debris-filled orange bucket as a battering ram target. I’m not using it any more nor have I emptied the bucket out as I am afraid Frankie may …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
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Ancient 900-Pound 'Monster' Anthracosuchus Balrogus Crocodile Named After Lord of the Rings
By Herp News
The reptile, discovered in the same layer of rock as the Titanoboa fossil in the Cerrejon coal mine of northern Colombia, has been named after the “demons of terror” Balrogs characters in the Lord of the Rings. “Much like that giant beast, Anthracosuchus balrogus was awakened from deep within a mine after 60 million years trapped within the rocks of tropical South America,” researcher Jonathan …
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Melting glacier reveals fish-lizard fossils
Climate change may not be good for the wildlife we’ve still got, but the melting glaciers it’s causing are revealing some pretty cool fossils.
From HuffPo:
Dozens of nearly complete skeletons of prehistoric marine reptiles have been uncovered near a melting glacier in southern Chile.
Scientists found 46 specimens from four different species of extinct ichthyosaurs. These creatures, whose Greek name means “fish lizards,” were a group of large, fast-swimming marine reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic Era, about 245 million to 90 million years ago.
The newly discovered skeletons are from both embryos and adults. The creatures, likely killed during a series of catastrophic mudslides, were preserved in deep-sea sediments that were later exposed by the melting glacier, the researchers said in the study, published May 22 in the journal Geological Society of America Bulletin.
Photo: Wolfgang Stinnesbeck/HuffPo …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Million dollar plans to extend grasslands for legless lizard and golden moth
By Herp News
The ACT government will spend $1.5million to extend the grassland homes of the striped legless lizard and the golden sun moth.
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Ecotourism projects eyed for Tawi-Tawi’s Turtle Islands
By Herp News
Ecotourism projects aimed to protect endangered marine species and help sustain community-based tourism enterprises are being developed on Turtle Islands, one of the world’s major nesting sites of marine turtles and located in the country’s southernmost frontier.
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Public Health Notice: Outbreak of Salmonella infections related to contact with snakes and rodents used to feed them
By Herp News
The Public Health Agency of Canada is collaborating with Provincial public health partners to investigate an outbreak of salmonellosis related to snakes and rodents used to feed reptiles, such as mice, also known as feeder rodents. Outbreaks associated with reptiles and feeder rodents have been seen in Canada, the United States and countries throughout Europe. Reptiles and the rodents used to …
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Animals bark, screech, and howl for action on global warming (PHOTOS)
By Herp News
On May 22nd, zoos and aquariums around the world creatively called for action on global warming. Dubbed ‘Show the Wild Face of Climate Change,’ the event involved over 70 institutions from 25 countries on all seven continents.
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Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as of May 31, 2014
By Herp News
Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. today announced that as of May 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.3 billion and its unaudited net asset value
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Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as of May 31, 2014
By Herp News
Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. today announced that as of May 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.3 billion and its unaudited net asset value
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as of May 31, 2014
By Herp News
Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. today announced that as of May 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.3 billion and its unaudited net asset value
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update as of May 31, 2014
By Herp News
Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. today announced that as of May 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.3 billion and its unaudited net asset value
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Tortoise Energy Independence Fund, Inc. Provides Unaudited Balance Sheet Information and Asset Coverage Ratio Update …
By Herp News
Tortoise Energy Independence Fund, Inc. today announced that as of May 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $504.3 million and its unaudite
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Lizards' colorful tails decrease deaths from bird attacks
Australian researchers found that brightly-tailed lizards may lose their tails to bird attacks more frequently than their drab cousins do, but they’re protected from more serious attacks to the rest of their bodies.
From the Science Network of Western Australia:
Curtin University’s Dr Bill Bateman and Murdoch University’s A/Professor Trish Fleming say their findings support the hypothesis that while increasing the frequency of attack, brightly-coloured tails divert predatory attention away from the head and body, ultimately increasing a lizard’s chance of survival.
To test the theory, they created 48 models of a scincid lizard, half of which were coloured all brown, and half given blue tails.
Pairs of blue-tailed and all-brown lizards were placed in 24 locations, with pairs 300 metres apart, and individuals 25 metres apart, in semi-open conditions on white sand or leaf litter.
Over a week, the researchers assessed damage and damage location daily, recording attacks at 23 of 24 locations, with 65 incidences in total, 60 of which were attributed to birds.
The researchers found that all-brown models suffered an attack to the tail only twice, while blue-tailed models lost their tails on 11 occasions.
The all-brown models were also more frequently attacked on the head and body, which would likely be fatal for a real lizard.
Photo: Rob Taylor/Science Network …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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The Adventures of Booger, Pokey, Tammy and Teddy… – Booger the Problem Child formally known as Hotrod
So Booger has always been a problem child in one way or another, despite his goofy, out going personality. He’s a bit of a bully when it comes to the females. When they were all still together he would find a way to hang out on top of Tammy and try to flip Teddy over. When it came to Pokey he didn’t bother her and I understand why now. You don’t mess with Pokey. LOL
Well when we removed Pokey out for the RI issues, he decided that was his chance to make the moves on Teddy. I’m not sure if she was a willing participant or not considering she was stuck in the corner of the tank at the time. But Booger found himself being relocated into a tub that included his favourite rock, some leaves to hide in and a dish of water big enough for him to soak in.
And then it got cold…again…and poor Booger and nose bubbles.
Now I would like to say in my defence that I was rather worried about Pokey at the time plus I’m not sure if the nose bubbles were from the onset of RI because of the sudden cold or because he had just chomped into a rather juicy piece of apple. But either way Booger found himself swept into the house and a towel replacing his leaves.
So Booger is now inside in his own little tub and after his little interlude with Teddy. Which also led to his name change as I started calling him a little booger butt and since he seemed to react to it more than Hotrod the name has stuck. Also since his little stunt I’ve been trying to find another home for him. So far I haven’t had much luck. I contacted the zoo who was very helpful in getting me in touch with the reptile guys who an add up at the local herp club. One person has contacted me about him and let them know he was still available and haven’t heard anything back since. That’s okay I don’t think I’d mind keeping booger. He likes to cuddle and by cuddle I mean lay on my forearm next to my elbow, lay his head on my upper arm and watch the world go by. Cute little bugger. …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
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USF prof's team found, named ancient flying reptile
By Herp News
TAMPA — A University of South Florida professor led a trio of paleontologists who have discovered and named the earliest of the pterodactyloids, a group of flying reptiles that became the dominant winged creatures of the prehistoric world.
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North Carolina: Arboretum celebrates the box turtle, and so should you
By Herp News
Unless you’ve already made plans, you’re probably not going to make it to Box Turtle Day on Saturday at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. And that’s too bad.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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River Murray turtle numbers in crisis
By Herp News
RIVER Murray turtle numbers are in crisis — they have experienced a 90 per cent decline in recent years and no one seems to know why.
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Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. Provides Section 19(a) Notice
By Herp News
This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on May 30, 2014 and cumulative
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Culling elephants leaves an impact on their social structure decades later
By Herp News
Researchers from the University of Sussex studied and compared the social behavior of two elephant herds: one that was severely affected by 1970 and 1980 culling operations and a herd that was relatively unaffected. In their results, the researchers found that the elephant herds that had experienced culling operations exhibited signs of post traumatic stress disorder.
…read more
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Herp Video of the Week: Water Dragon!
Check out this video “Water Dragon,” 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
Read more here: King Snake
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