By Herp News

Tortoise Energy Capital Corp. today announced that as of Jan. 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $1.2 billion and its unaudited net asset

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By Herp News

Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp. today announced that as of Jan. 31, 2014, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.3 billion and its unaudited ne

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By Herp News

Jose Salvador Albarengo, 37, a fisherman from El Salvador, told officials that he survived more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean, drinking turtle blood and catching fish with his bare hands. But the acting secretary of foreign affairs for the Marshall Islands, Gee Bing, said he was skeptical of Albarengo’s account.

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By Herp News

Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), a 501c3 organization fighting human trafficking through the efforts of the trucking industry, has released a new video titled, “I am NOT a Lot Lizard.”

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University of Florida researchers have developed a simple immune-based screening test to identify the presence of a debilitating and usually fatal disease that strikes boas and pythons in captivity as well as those sold to the pet trade worldwide.

Known as inclusion body disease, or IBD, the highly infectious disease most commonly affects boa constrictors but pythons and other snake species in the boid family are also occasionally infected with the virus that causes the disease. IBD was first seen in snakes in the late 1970s, said Elliott Jacobson, D.V.M., Ph.D., a professor emeritus of zoological medicine at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine and co-author of a study that appeared in December in PLOS ONE.

“We don’t know the prevalence, but we see more of IBD in the United States because there are some 2 million boas being kept as pets in this country,” Jacobson said. “This simple blood test will help determine whether or not an animal has this disease and potentially will help clean up colonies of snakes that will ultimately be disease-free.”

Although snakes infected with IBD may display neurological signs, such as head-tilting, chronic regurgitation or disequilibrium, there is also a population of snakes that are subclinical, meaning they are infected but otherwise appear healthy.

“That’s a big problem, because healthy-seeming animals that are affected with IBD are being sold and sent around the world,” he said. “However, they may develop the disease sometime later and may be the source of infection for other snakes.”

On Jacobson’s research team at the UF veterinary college were his former graduate student, Li-Wen Chang, B.V.M., Ph.D., the principal investigator in the study, and Jorge Hernandez, D.V.M., Ph.D., a veterinary epidemiologist.

To develop the test, the researchers studied a monoclonal antibody produced in response to a unique protein that accumulates in cells of snakes having IBD. They then sequenced the protein in an effort to further understand the nature and cause of the disease. Although the cause of IBD is unclear, the UF team found genetic links of this unique protein are associated with a family of viruses that primarily infect rodents but may infect humans. However, there is no evidence to indicate that the virus that causes IBD can infect people.

When Chang joined the study in 2008, she realized the limited availability of snake databases and potential causative agents of the disease presented additional challenges.

“It took us almost a year to finally produce this antibody, and three more years to validate its performance for immuno-based diagnostic tests,” Chang said.

University of California-San Francisco researchers identified the Golden Gate virus in 2012 and scientists now consider it to be a potential cause of IBD.

UF’s findings supplement that theory, although more studies of disease transmission need to be conducted to confirm the role of Golden Gate virus in the development of IBD, Jacobson said.

The research was performed at the UF’s Interdisciplinary Center for …read more
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By Herp News

PLEASANT GROVE — Onion ring and milkshake lovers got a scare last Saturday when a fire threatened Pleasant Grove's popular restaurant, the Purple Turtle.

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By Herp News

PLEASANT GROVE — Onion ring and milkshake lovers got a scare last Saturday when a fire threatened Pleasant Grove's popular restaurant, the Purple Turtle.

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By Herp News

Reptile specialists are continuing their uphill efforts to nurse more than 170 malnourished and ill snakes back to health after they were pulled from a house in Santa Ana where a grade school teacher lived amid a clutter of mice, rats and pythons – many of them dead.

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By Herp News

Reptile specialists are continuing their uphill efforts to nurse more than 170 malnourished and ill snakes back to health after they were pulled from a house in Santa Ana where a grade school teacher lived amid a clutter of mice, rats and pythons – many of them dead.

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By Herp News

JOHANNESBURG – South African animal inspectors say they have intercepted a large consignment of reptiles smuggled from Madagascar and destined for the exotic pet trade in the United States.

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By Herp News

This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on Jan. 31, 2014 and cumulativ

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By Herp News

JOHANNESBURG (AP) – South African animal inspectors say they have intercepted a large consignment of reptiles smuggled from Madagascar and destined for the exotic pet trade in the United States.

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By Herp News

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African animal inspectors say they have intercepted a large consignment of reptiles smuggled from Madagascar and destined for the exotic pet trade in the United States.

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Check out this video “California Kingsnake Eggs & Laying” submitted by kingsnake.com user boa2cobras.
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By Herp News

Texas Tech paleontologists unearthed and identified a new species of prehistoric, swamp-going reptile this week. The new species was named Machaeroprosopus lottorum, after it was discovered on a plot

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By Herp News

Scientists have described a new species of eagle ray in the northwest Pacific Ocean, which they have named “narutobiei” (Aetobatus narutobiei) after its local name in Japan. While the new species has long been known by scientists, it was clumped together with the longheaded eagle ray (Aetobatus flagellum) for over two hundred years. Splitting the two species has large-scale conservation impacts, according to the paper describing the new species in PLOS ONE.

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By Herp News

The range of habitats that animals have come to occupy is nothing short of staggering. Take the dicyemids for example. They are among the simplest animals on the planet, with a tiny, worm-like adult body that consists of between 10 and 40 cells. They have no organs, body cavities or even guts—a structural simplicity which is a consequence of where and how they live. The only place you will find adult dicyemids is inside the bodies of cephalopods, typically octopuses and cuttlefish where large numbers of them cling to the inner wall of the mollusc’s kidney.

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He’s considered one of the world’s ugliest animals, and the salamander-like axolotl is also one of the most threatened.
From the Austin Statesman:

It’s disturbing news for an admittedly ugly creature, which has a slimy tail, plumage-like gills and mouth that curls into an odd smile.

The axolotl is known as the “water monster” and the “Mexican walking fish.” Its only natural habitat is the Xochimilco network of lakes and canals — the “floating gardens” of earth piled on reed mats that the Aztecs built to grow crops but are now suffering from pollution and urban sprawl.

Biologist Armando Tovar Garza of Mexico’s National Autonomous University said Tuesday that the creature “is in serious risk of disappearing” from the wild.

Describing an effort last year by researchers in skiffs to try to net axolotls in the shallow, muddy waters of Xochimilco, Tovar Garza summed up the results as “four months of sampling — zero axolotls.”

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By Herp News

The owner of the Purple Turtle restaurant in Pleasant Grove restaurant isn't letting a fire keep him out of business for…

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By Herp News

FREE-SCORING Lazy Lizard continued their excellent form in the only game to survive the wet weather in the Weymouth Sunday League Premiership.

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By Herp News

Researchers have developed a simple immune-based screening test to identify the presence of a debilitating and usually fatal disease that strikes boas and pythons in captivity as well as those sold to the pet trade worldwide.

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By Herp News

A multi-million dollar underground trade of Tokay Gecko is flourishing fast along bio-diversity rich Indo-Bhutan border region with the locality as source of the traded item.

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By Herp News

In the new book, In Predatory Light: Lions and Tigers and Polar Bears, authors Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, Sy Montgomery, and John Houston, and photographers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson share with us an impassioned and detailed appeal to appreciate three of the world’s biggest predators: lions, tigers, and polar bears. Through lengthy discussions, combining themes from scientific conservation to local community folklore, In Predatory Light takes us step by step deeper into the wild world of these awe-inspiring carnivores and their varied plight as they facedown extinction.

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By Herp News

On December 17th, officials first discovered a massive oil spill in the Caribbean-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Since then, a series of oil spills have been discovered, coating beaches, sullying mangrove forests, and very likely decimating wildlife in Trinidad’s Gulf of Paria. The oil spills have been linked to the state-owned oil company, Petrotrin, which has claimed that sabotage is behind at least two of the spills. However Trinidad and Tobago’s Environmental Management Authority has recently slapped the company with a $3.1 million fine by for the damage, while some politicians have called for an independent investigation into the slew of spills.

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The Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Penn., is adamant that there are not now and have never been any snakes in their casino. Any rumors to the contrary, said a spokesperson, are just the result of a Facebook rumor related to the just-ending Chinese Year of the Snake; the only snake eyes at Sands are on the dice.

From LeighValleyLive.com:

State police, who operate the Sands Casino Station inside the South Side Bethlehem facility, report “absolutely zero snakes in this place,” Trooper William Ortiz said.

The rumor, as passed on to The Express-Times, indicates someone went to the doctor with what was believed to be a bite; the doctor said it’s a snakebite and asked immediately whether the patient had been to the Bethlehem casino.

Sands Bethlehem, owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp., issued a statement today saying, “There have been no reported incidents of snakes on our property. We do not allow any animals on property with the exception of service animals.”

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By Herp News

Hermann Frank is pleased lizards have a place they can call home in South Canterbury – but he has bigger plans in store.

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By Herp News

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va.—The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources revealed a new Reptile and Amphibian Regulations brochure. The brochure is available online and can be found on the WVDNR home

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Can you help a long-time herper who needs a new heart?

West coast herp photographer and kingnake.com community member Dave Northcott has been notably absent from his usual place at herp events and shows over the last two years, suffering from heart problems that have progressively worsened. Now Dave’s doctors have given him more bad news: he needs a new heart.

Dave, a fixture in the community whose photographs of reptiles and amphibians have graced the covers and pages of countless reptile and amphibian magazines as well as dozens if not hundreds of books, faces months of rehab and recovery, and countless medical bills.

Faced with mounting medical costs that even with insurance will likely end up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, his daughter Kait Northcott has set up a fundraiser at GoFundMe to raise money to help offset their rising medical bills.

As part of this fundraising effort to get Dave a new heart, kingsnake.com has donated $1000.00 and is asking other businesses in the reptile community to match our donation at the GoFundMe site.

If your business would like to match our donation, or if you would like to contribute as an individual, please visit http://www.gofundme.com/6g1rak. …read more
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By Herp News

Hunters and trappers have killed 2,567 gray wolves in the U.S.’s lower 48 states since 2011, according to recent data. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for nearly 40 years before being stripped of their protection status by a legislative rider in 2011. Last year total wolf populations were estimated at over 6,000 in the region.

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By Herp News

The Wildlife Conservation Society-India has been camera trapping wild animals for over 20 years in the Western Ghats. The results reveal the most intimate, fascinating and sometimes comical insights into animal behavior and ecology. These mammals generally become secretive and protective during parenting, and therefore we seldom get to see little ones in the wild. But discretely placed camera traps have not only caught glimpses of these adorable wild babies, but also produced wonderful family albums!

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By Herp News

One Lucky Couple from New Zealand Has Won an All-Expense DREAM Wedding to Turtle Island (PRWeb January 28, 2014) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/01/prweb11528336.htm

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A good Samaritan in Brooklyn thought he’d found an abandoned baby in a duffel bag in a trash can. Turned out to be three boa constrictors.

Maybe if New York City wasn’t such an inhospitable place for herps and other “non-fluffy” pets, things like this wouldn’t happen.

The good news: A home is being sought for the snakes, instead of the usual deadly solution.

Photo (not of snake in story): kingsnake.com user minicopilot …read more
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By Herp News

Tortoise Capital Advisors today announced the Board of Directors of Tortoise’s closed-end funds approved a proposal to merge three of Tortoise’s MLP closed-end funds: Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp.

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By Herp News

It’s official: Manu National Park in Peru has the highest diversity of reptiles and amphibians in the world. Surveys of the park, which extends from high Andean cloud forests down into the tropical rainforest of the Western Amazon, and its buffer zone turned up 155 amphibian and 132 reptile species, 16 more than the 271 species documented in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park in 2010.

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If I haven’t said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, sulcata tortoises don’t belong in the house. They are furniture-moving, wall-goring, floor-pooping, rug-peeing, shelf-toppling, bull-dozing menaces to interior human living spaces. ‘sit’s true.

Still Frankie is a regular visitor if not season snow bird and winter resident in my house….with all previous mentioned terrors that go with it.

I am a fan of Waffles the sulcata, our friend in the frozen North, and with every new photo I “awe” at the tiny Waffles’ cuteness. Concurrently there is this underlining horror as I image the 100 pound Frankie in the same photo. Run, Mango! Run!

I love Frankie as deeply as a human can love an animal friend so I do the stupid again and again, anticipating catastrophes as best I can and accommodating Frankie as reasonable as possible in spaces he should not be.

We are masters of cardboard when Frankie comes indoors.

Cardboard is great. It practically free and often arrives by UPS delivery. One can even hang out at the recycling center to scout out special or extra larger boxes. Yea, I’ve sat in the City of Mobile’s recycling center parking lot skulking about until someone arrives with car full of boxes to recycle.

Frankie’s dogloo is too big for our new gecko room so I had to come up with some new kind of box shelter for the 100 pound shell with bulldozer like feet.

Usually it’s just a large box that Frankie can fit in head first. Frankie’s protruding backside gets covered with newspaper or an old beach towel.

A cardboard box can’t be too narrow otherwise Frankie will rip it open when he does his morning turn around from face-in-the-box to face-out-of-the-box position. I’ve looked and looked to find a box that is deep enough to get the whole of Frankie inside, snug enough so Frankie feels like he is deep in a cave, and yet wide enough so the morning turn around doesn’t destroy yet again another box sending me back again to skulk about the recycling center.

Oh, I found this one box. I got this warm fuzzy feeling when I saw it. It was about four feet tall, a square 20 inches on each side. I snatched the box up and ran for the car before the recycle clerk could get out the operation office’s front door.

When I got home I cut it in half. I then removed one side off the top half. Testing my engineering theory, I slid the three sided top over the back half of the box. Viola! New Frankie Cave!

I put the new cardboard castle on top of a large anti-fatigue rug (to shield Frankie from the cold cement floor), stood back and admired my genius.

Later that day Frankie rambled in from outside, smearing poop on a rug and knocking a new dent in a …read more
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By Herp News

Sea anemones are supposed to sit on the bottom of the ocean, using their basal disc (or adhesive foot) to rest on a coral reef orsand. So, imagine the surprise of geologists in Antarctica when they discovered a mass of sea anemones hanging upside from the underside of the Ross Ice Shelf like a village of wispy ghosts. The researchers weren’t even there to discover new life, but to learn about south pole currents through the Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program via a remotely-operated undersea robot.

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After the death of Lonesome George, the last known Pinta Island Galapagos tortoise, the extinction toll on the species seemed irreversible. That may not be the case, however, says Michael Russello, an associate professor of biology at the University of British Columbia.

From the Harvard Gazette:

The findings prompted a larger 2008 expedition, in which teams sampled 1,669 individuals, drawing blood, noting the locations, and marking the tortoises so they could be monitored after analysis. The work found 84 hybrids of Floreana ancestry — of which 30 were less than 15 years old — and 17 with Pinta ancestry. A follow-up expedition is planned for next year to search the area where those populations were concentrated, hoping to find pureblood individuals and bring them to a captive breeding center on Santa Cruz Island. If all goes well, those individuals will serve as founders of a restored population.

“Human activity may have led to the preservation of lineages of species thought extinct,” Russello said.

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By Herp News

As the male tungara frog serenades females from a pond, he creates watery ripples that make him easier to target by rivals and predators such as bats. He will stop calling if he sees a bat overhead, but ripples continue moving for several seconds after the call ceases. In a new study, researchers found evidence that bats use echolocation to detect these ripples and home in on a frog.

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By Herp News

A tortoise has beaten a rabbit in a skiing competition held for pets and their owners in northern China.

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Check out this video “Regal Horned Lizard” submitted by kingsnake.com user variuss11.
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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