By Herp News
The abundant Puerto Rican coqui frog has experienced changes since the 1980s that are likely due to global warming, biologists report. The call of the male coqui became shorter and higher pitched, and the animal itself has become smaller. The study is the first to show the effect of temperature change on a species of frogs in the tropics over a period of more two decades.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
You’re sailing from the Spice Islands across the open ocean to the South American port of Guayaquil, your financial motives rooted somewhere along a broad spectrum of morality and lawfulness. Several months have passed, and food stores and morale are low. Fortunately, you know a spot that will save the day, a cluster of […]
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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What if there was a disease that killed or crippled hundreds of thousands of people every year, but no one seemed to care?
It’s not a disease, but as Dr. Matthew Lewin wrote in the New York Times Sunday Review last weekend, snakebites kill 94,000 people and cripple 400,000, mostly in impoverished parts of the world.
So where are the telethons, the philanthropic dollars? Where are new developments other than costly, mostly unavailable anitvenin? How about drugs, or a snakebite EpiPen?
Photo: Naja annulifera by kingsnake.com user Neverscared …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
An ornithologist has found that the capacity of a bird’s gut to change with environmental conditions is a primary limiting factor in their ability to adapt to the rapidly changing climate. And he believes that most other animals are also limited in a similar way.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Today Rexnord announced that it has acquired Green Turtle Technologies Ltd., Green Turtle Americas Ltd. and Filamat Composites Inc. . Based
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By Herp News
Plans for an industrial site threaten one of Malaysia’s only marine turtle nesting beaches and a forest home to rare trees and mammals, according to local activists. Recently, the state government of Perak approved two industrial project inside Tanjung Hantu Permanent Forest Reserve. But activists say these will not only cut into the reserve, but also scare away nesting turtles from Pasir Panjang.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Did you hear the one about the man who got out of his car to get a closer look at an alligator… and got bitten by a water moccasin?
No, it’s not a joke. It’s a true story from WTSP in Tampa. Read it here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
Byline: The Lizard lifeboat was launched just after 5pm yesterday afternoon (13 April) to a report of a 13 year old male fallen from cliffs at Bass Point, The Lizard. Page Content: Falmouth Coastguard requested The Lizard lifeboat crew launch at 5pm yesterday afternoon after they received a 999 call from a party of adults and children coasteering at Bass Point reporting a 13 year old male with a …
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Conservation for Sumatran rhinos suffered another blow last week, only days after Suci—one of only ten rhinos in captive breeding efforts—died at Cincinnati Zoo. Scientists in the Malaysian state of Sabah revealed that a newly captured female, Iman, suffers from an assortment of tumors in her uterus, hugely complicating reproduction efforts.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Scientists have challenged a long held belief about the way certain species of vertebrates evolved. They found that genes evolve more rapidly in species containing germ plasm. The results came about as they put to the test a novel theory that early developmental events dramatically alter the vertebrate body plan and the way evolution proceeds.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Some people in a Mississippi town might have had turtle soup on their minds when they rescued a huge snapping turtle from a storm drain, but they quickly changed their minds and decided to save him, instead.
Read the story at KPTV.com.
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Read more here: King Snake
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Are poachers stealing and selling the golden lancehead pit viper (Bothrops insularis) from an island off the coast of Brazil?
That was the topic of last night’s Nightline Prime:
One poisonous bite from the Golden Lancehead pit viper is enough to kill a grown man within a few hours. It’s fast-acting venom will burn through flesh and cause its victim to bleed to death.
Rogerio Zacariotti, a researcher with the Cruzeiro Do Sul University in Brazil, travels to “Snake Island” regularly to monitor the Gloden Lancehead population. He is convinced poachers are stealing the snakes from the island and selling them on the black market.
Zacariotti allowed “Nightline Prime” to accompany him and his team on one of his research trips to “Snake Island,” where ABC’s Dan Harris had some too-close encounters with the deadly snakes.
Read more and watch the video… …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
SO OFTEN a tropical haven for cashed-up honeymooners and celebrities, Lizard Island is now a disaster zone.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
The extremely rare, utterly impressive and scary looking alligator snapping turtle is actually even more rare than first thought according to a study out of Florida this week. Reserachers in in the sunshine state have found that the scaly creature, once common to Houston, is actually just one of three different kinds of the turtles.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A weekend event featuring vendors offering everything reptile-related kicks off in Springfield on Saturday. Repticon, a reptile and exotic animal show, presents vendors offering reptile pets, supples, cages, feeders and merchandise. The event also offers free raffles, animal seminars and activities for the kids. The event is at Ozark Empire Fairground in Center Hall at 3001 N …
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Staff at the Turtle Rescue Center prepare to attach prosthetic fins to Freedom's carapace. The green sea turtle lost his two left limbs after becoming entangled in a fishing net.
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By Herp News
Staff at the Turtle Rescue Center prepare to attach prosthetic fins to Freedom's carapace. The green sea turtle lost his two left limbs after becoming entangled in a fishing net.
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By Herp News
The reconstruction of an extinct meat-eating marsupial’s skull, Nimbacinus dicksoni, suggests that it may have had the ability to hunt vertebrate prey exceeding its own body size.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Three new books released this spring – two new hardcovers and one released for the first time in paperback – feature turtles and tortoises, and offer lessons in taking time to stop and experience the world around us.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Check out this video “Elvis the croaking frog,” 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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By Herp News
Conservation of coastal rivers of the northern Gulf of Mexico is vital to the survival of the alligator snapping turtle, including two recently discovered species, scientists say. A new study shows the alligator snapping turtle, the largest freshwater turtle in the Western Hemisphere and previously believed to be one species, is actually three separate species.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
The comic dodo, the stately great auk, the passenger pigeon blotting out the skies: human kind has wiped out nearly 200 species of birds in the last five hundred years. Now, if we don’t act soon we’ll add many new ones to this list: birds such as the giant ibis, the plains-wanderer, and the crow honeyeater. And these are just a few of the species that appear today on the long-awaited EDGE list.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Tortoise Capital Advisors, an investment manager with broad experience in the energy sector, today announced the launch of an educational website. The new site is designed to be a
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Tortoise Capital Advisors, an investment manager with broad experience in the energy sector, today announced the launch of an educational website. The new site is designed to be a
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
SAN DIEGO, April 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Turtle Beach, the leading audio brand in the games industry, today announced a new addition to its lineup of gaming headsets for the PS4 ™ . The Ear Force® P12 …
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By Herp News
SAN DIEGO, April 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Turtle Beach, the leading audio brand in the games industry, today announced a new addition to its lineup of gaming headsets for the PS4 ™ . The Ear Force® P12 …
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Will the ‘family fun’ that is the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up in Sweetwater, Texas, ever be stopped?
From CNN:
The Jaycees, short for the U.S. Junior Chamber, bills itself as a group that gives young people “the tools they need to build the bridges of success.” The Sweetwater branch has been holding what it calls “The World’s Largest Rattlesnake Round-Up” for 56 years on the first weekend in March, and the tool for success that it teaches young people is that it’s fun to kill and torture animals.
For weeks or even months, rattlesnakes are stored in crowded barrels until it’s roundup time. The snakes that have not suffocated under their kin arrive hungry, dehydrated, and sick from gasoline that was sprayed into their burrows to flush them out.
After a tour of the roundup, Michael Smith wrote an article for “Cross Timbers Herpetologist” in which he recalls noticing “…an unusual smell … like bad cologne and also like something gone bad.” Throughout the tour the smell keeps coming back to him, he writes, until he realizes what it is: “…the musk, feces, and blood of a thousand terrified snakes, half-covered with sprays of deodorant from Jaycees working the pits.”
Read more… …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
Turtle Beach's i30 Bluetooth headset is not the coolest-looking device on the market, but it has some nice features that may help the company extend its appeal beyond gamers
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Something that caught a Baton Rouge, Louisiana resident’s eye led to the rescue of an enormous alligator snapping turtle.
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Everywhere it’s greening-up. Temperatures are warm so grass is on an all out burst of spring growth that says, finely, it’s spring. Thank the shelled god. I don’t know if I can take it anymore.
Oh, it’s green all up and down our street but not yet in Frankie’s yard. Everyday, every single day, I have to take Frankie on “grazing walks” through our neighborhood so he can graze on fresh green spring grass.
Every single day Frankie reminds me there is no grass in his yard. Several times. Loudly. Frankinator style.
If it’s cold I get in the car and drive to places where grass and weeds and clover grow abundantly. There I am, little old lady, hunched over, picking grass next to busy city streets. I try very hard not to wave my derriere too high at passing cars but I just know everyone is getting an eye full of my rear. As always I wonder if they think I am homeless. Or mentally unstable. Well, at least I am not homeless.
On warmer days Frankie get’s walked instead. Down the driveway, turn East, take a pick of the next two yards. The first is green with winter rye grass with tiny clovers budding underneath. Next yard down, the house for sale, is abundant with weeds.
Once we are headed East I give Frankie his pick of yards. I hold vigil while Frankie munches away. Occasionally I have to turn him back to the yard or drag him out of the bushes. Monday was a great day so I really didn’t mind spending an hour tidying up the yard (my offering/trade for Frankie’s graze time).
Frankie seemed a little extra restless so after the hour is up I led him East down the street so we could walk the cul-de-sac before going home.
Frankie resisted the Eastward direction to the point where I just let him turn around and head home. He wanted to walk so I let him walk. Until we got to our driveway.
At our driveway I gave him the turn toward home cue by putting myself between him and the direction West he is walking. He proceeded to walk over my feet to continue West.
I don’t care if he wants to walk a bit more but West is not where we are going because that is a busy throughway street and not a friendly neighborhood. I grab Frankie by the shell and turn him back toward the drive.
The walk up the drive turns into a battle of wits, strength and guile. I got in front of him, turned him about and otherwise pushed him up the drive. Frankie was going West regardless. There wasn’t two steps taken that wasn’t part of the battle of direction.
Finely I win because there is a short fence between my house and my neighbor’s house and Frankie can no longer turn West. I can tell …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
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Can the conservationist and the cowman be friends? Not if you’re Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who posted a challenge to the BLM on his ranch’s website protesting efforts to save the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), saying, “They have my cattle and now they have one of my boys. Range War begins tomorrow.”
From ABC News:
Bundy’s beef with federal land management officials dates back to 1993, according to federal officials, when Bundy’s allotment for grazing his cattle on public land was modified to include protections for the desert tortoise. Bundy, who told the Associated Press his family has been ranching this part of Nevada since the 1870s, did not accept the modified terms, and continued to let his cattle graze anyway.
After legal maneuverings on both sides, a Nevada district court judge in 2013 permanently enjoined Bundy’s cattle (some 900, by the government’s count) from grazing on public property. The judge reiterated that decision in 2013 and authorized the U.S. government to impound the cattle.
The first phase of that impoundment started Saturday, with 58 head of cattle being removed from BLM land, federal officials said in an online statement. As of Monday afternoon, that number had risen to 134, BLM spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon told ABC News. Removing the rest of the trespassing cattle should take another 21 to 30 days, she said.
Bundy disputes the federal government’s authority to take such action. The Nevada Sheriff’s Office, he contends, is the only entity empowered to impound his cattle. The Bundy Ranch website calls the federal agents “cattle thieves.”
Read more… …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
UPDATE 2pm: LIZARD Island Resort has been evacuated and Cairns northern beaches closed in preparation for Cyclone Ita’s onslaught.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
ALBY the albino python will be one of the many snakes on display at the largest reptile show in Australia this Sunday.
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By Herp News
Annie Martin LOS ANGELES, April 8 (UPI) — Promotion for the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” reboot has begun ahead of the film's release this summer.
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By Herp News
U.S. Geological Survey Dramatic distribution losses and a few major distribution gains are forecasted for southwestern bird and reptile species as the climate changes, according to just-published research by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of New Mexico, and Northern Arizona University. Overall, the study forecasted species distribution losses – that is, where species …
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
With climate change come several dramatic shifts in species distribution within the United States. The U.S. Geological Survey in concert with the University of New Mexico and Northern Arizona University have recently projected distribution losses for nearly half of the 5 examined reptile species including the locally famed chuckwalla. Breeding bird ranges, however exhibited broader expansions …
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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A South Carolina community is feeling the fear after shed snake skins found near an apartment complex were identified as coming from the Gaboon viper, a venomous snake from Africa.
From ABC News:
When a pest control company came last week to do a regular checkup on the bait boxes at the complex, the exterminator found snake skins nearby, took a picture, and reported it to the management office.
“The skin was still moist, indicating it was freshly shed,” Jennifer Bailey, an employee at the Harbor Pointe Apartments, told ABC News today.
To identify the snake, the office contacted a snake expert hours later who came in and said that the skin came from a Gaboon viper, an exotic snake not indigenous to the U.S. Another local herpetologist confirmed the identity through a photograph the pest control took, Bailey said.
Read more… …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
Dramatic distribution losses and a few major distribution gains are forecasted for southwestern bird and reptile species as the climate changes, according to new research. Overall, the study forecasted species distribution losses — that is, where species are able to live — of nearly half for all but one of the 5 reptile species they examined, including for the iconic chuckwalla.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Dramatic distribution losses and a few major distribution gains are forecasted for southwestern bird and reptile species as the climate changes, according to new research. Overall, the study forecasted species distribution losses — that is, where species are able to live — of nearly half for all but one of the 5 reptile species they examined, including for the iconic chuckwalla.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Summary: Dramatic distribution losses and a few major distribution gains are forecasted for southwestern bird and reptile species as the climate changes, according to just-published research by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of New Mexico, and Northern Arizona University. Southwestern Bird and Reptile Distributions to Shift as Climate Changes Contact Information …
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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