Was a milk snake discovered in the Galapagos?

Equador’s Ministerio del Ambiente (Ministry of the Environment) announced that yesterday, a group of citizens from the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands gave the Rangers a snake so far unidentified, possibly a false coral, that was hit on the road Puerto Ayora – Itabaca Channel, off Santa Rosa parish.

After reviewing the photograph published to the ministry’s website, kingsnake.com staff members agree that the snake appears to be a member of the Lampropeltis triangulum group, known as commonly as milk snakes. Possibly a member of the micropholis subspecies, found natively in Ecuador and known as the Equadoran milk snake, little has been published on the sub-species, and few specimens or even photographs exist.

As milk snakes are not known to be native to the Galapagos, it is most likely that the snake arrived as a stowaway and slipped through the Galapagos quarantine programs. If so, according to historical record, this would be the first confirmed case of snake introduction to the Galapagos Islands. But there is also the slim chance that the snakes are native to the island, their presence being unknown and unrecorded for all these years.

The Ministry of Environment, through the Galapagos National Park (GNP) and the Agency for the Regulation and Control of Biosecurity and Quarantine for Galapagos (ABG), has established an action plan to monitor the area finding and determine the possible origin.

To read the original press release in Spanish, click here. To read a Google translation, click here. …read more
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Feb. 25 (UPI) — Officials at a New Zealand animal sanctuary said a tuatara lizard found by a woman walking her dog is lucky to be alive after escaping the sanctuary.

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Last week, the musical artist, Lady Gaga, was ‘nipped’ by the world’s only venomous primate, a slow loris, in a misguided attempt to use the animal in a new music video. After it bit the musician, the idea of using the primate in the video was dropped. This was just as well, according to loris expert Anna Nekaris, who says that slow lorises have become increasingly endangered worldwide by the illegal pet trade after people have seen them on YouTube videos.

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The people challenging Senate Minority Leader John Cornyn in the Texas Republican primary next month include: a guy who defends calling immigrants “wetbacks,” a guy known for comparing Sen. Mitch McConnell to a cartoon turtle, and a House member who never votes in primaries. This is why Cornyn is polling above 60 percent, despite having a half dozen challengers. Chris Mapp Mapp and Sen. Ted Cruz …

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A Missouri car accident involved some unusal cargo: Four alligators.

From KMBC.com:

KFVS-TV reports two crashes happened in the southbound lanes of Interstate 55 in the southeast Missouri community around 7 p.m. Saturday.

Four alligators ranging from 3 feet to 5 feet long were being hauled in a small trailer behind one of the cars.

A man and his wife who were in the car pulling the alligators were injured in the wreck. Police say the animals remained inside.

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A Missouri car accident involved some unusal cargo: Four alligators.

From KMBC.com:

KFVS-TV reports two crashes happened in the southbound lanes of Interstate 55 in the southeast Missouri community around 7 p.m. Saturday.

Four alligators ranging from 3 feet to 5 feet long were being hauled in a small trailer behind one of the cars.

A man and his wife who were in the car pulling the alligators were injured in the wreck. Police say the animals remained inside.

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By Herp News

The murder trial of Clive “Lizard” Williams has resumed with the defense's closing arguments this week. Along with associates Shawn “Storm” Campbell, Kahira Jones, André St John, and Shane Williams, Vybz Kartel (real name Adidja Palmer) is charged with beating Lizard to death in a home in Havendale over two missing guns. Defense attorney Miguel Lorne will make his final argument to the jury this …

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Eileen Nelson, an engineer with Stantec Consulting Services Inc., the township’s engineer, told Newtown Supervisors at the last meeting that there has been further delay with the awarding of the contract for the Gradyville Road Bridge project due to “the bog turtle.”

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Danville, Virg., fisherman Morris Lawson took photos of dead turtles on the banks of the Dan River, and shared them online. They’ve raised a lot of attention to the possible impact of the coal ash spill on wildlife in the area.

From WGHP Fox 8:

“One turtle was at the dam up on the bank about two feet out of the water. And the other turtle was located about where that tree is [by the boat ramp] about two feet up out of the water on the bank. And he was on his back. The other one was on his belly,” explained Lawson.

Jenny Edwards is a program manager with the Dan River Basin Association.

“We have heard some reports that turtles appear to be crawling up on the banks and dying,” she told FOX8.

Edwards added, “Turtles should be hibernating this time of year. It’s cold. They hibernate down in the mud. The fact that they’re crawling up on the bank and dying, even if it’s not in mass numbers… It’s highly unusual.”

She emphasized, “Even though we can’t directly link it to coal ash, this is exactly the sort of thing we expected to start seeing.”

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Residents can report dead wildlife in and near the river at this link; more information here.

Photo: Morris Lawson …read more
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Descending the latitudinal ladder to the tropics, you would likely notice a few things: increasingly equivalent stretches of day and night, warmer weather and beachgoers with more intense sunburns. You may also notice an abundance of plant and animal life. Generations of scientists since the days of Darwin and Wallace have observed that species richness increases as one moves toward the equator. This holds true for nearly every animal group, including micro-organisms, marine invertebrates, insects, amphibians, birds and mammals. But why is this?

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KUALA TERENGGANU, Feb 24 (Bernama) – The Terengganu Fisheries Department is holding a turtle exhibition to draw tourists during Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

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KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia: A private turtle conservation effort off the Sandakan coast got a much needed boost with three landowners allowing the collection of the highly sought-after eggs for conservation. The effort was initiated by the Trekkers Lodge on Pulau Libaran, and would see staff collecting eggs laid by the green turtle as well as the hawksbill turtle on land owned by Amiril Sayuti …

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KOTA KINABALU: A private turtle conservation effort on an island off the east coast of Sandakan district is getting a boost with three landowners allowing the collection of the marine creatures’ eggs from their properties.

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?? Tegus are native to South America. ?? The tegu's diet includes fruits, vegetables, eggs, insects, cat or dog food, and small animals such as lizards and rodents.

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It is obvious that at the moment Indonesia neither has the political commitment nor ability to safeguard its dwindling populations of orangutans. Despite its Presidentially supported Action Plan to stabilize all remaining wild populations by 2017, orangutan habitats in Sumatra and Borneo are disappearing as rapidly as ever.

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A new study has found that 42 countries or territories around the world permit the harvest of marine turtles — and estimates that more than 42,000 turtles are caught each year by these fisheries. All seven marine turtle species are currently listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The direct take of turtles has continued legally in many regions and countries, often for traditional coastal communities to support themselves or small-scale fisheries supplying local markets with meat, and sometimes shell. The fisheries are an important source of finance, protein and cultural identity, but information can be scarce on their status — despite often being listed as one of the major threats to turtle populations.

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As it was a model, allowed me take photos from every angle.

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In a move signaling their commitment to CITES agreements on international trade of plants and animals, the Indonesian government declared two species of manta ray ‘protected’ under Indonesian law. Decree Number 4/KEPMEN-KP/2014 issued by Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries states that two manta ray species, Manta birostris and Manta alfredi, now enjoy full protection throughout their entire life cycle. The decree explicitly extends that protection to all parts of their body.

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Check out this video “Arizona Field Herping,” submitted by kingsnake.com user smetlogik.
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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Student biologists learn the how-to's of  wildlife research by studying the life and death of lizards in Oregon's Alvord desert. For 15 years Dr. Roger Anderson has been leading students on a three-week immersion into lizard ecology and behavior. Students cope with the primitive conditions of life in a desert encampment while enduring the blazing sun and harsh desert conditions that make life …

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I had a Frankie Tail. Worked on it for two days. Down to the final draft. In walks Fate with its gnarly teeth ready to bite me on the butt. Accidental swipe of a thumb over the Touchpad and the whole thing disappeared tagged by Mr Auto-Save. That Frankie Tail was to be was no more.

It’s one of those things that can really ruin a whole day. I pouted for a bit. Gave up on the pouting and went outside to see what Frankie was doing.

Frankie is skulking around the yard looking for something to eat. I step in front of Frankie. “Do something so I have something to write about.”

Frankie ignores me and resuming his hunt for green grass. There’s been no green grass in his yard since temperatures dipped down to 19

Peru’s treasured Manu National Park is the world’s top biodiversity hotspot for reptiles and amphibians, according to a new survey published last week by biologists from the University of California, Berkeley, Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (SIU-Carbondale) and Illinois Wesleyan University.

The park, which encompasses lowland Amazonian rain forest, high-altitude cloud forest and Andean grassland east of Cuzco, is well known for its huge variety of bird life, which attracts ecotourists from around the globe. More than 1,000 species of birds, about 10 percent of the world’s bird species; more than 1,200 species of butterflies; and now 287 reptiles and amphibians have been recorded in the park.

“For reptiles and amphibians, Manu and its buffer zone now stands out as the most diverse protected area anywhere,” said study coauthor Rudolf von May, a postdoctoral researcher in UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Despite the park’s abundant and diverse animal life, von May said, not all is well in the preserve. The devastating chytrid fungus has caused a decline in the number of frogs there, as it has elsewhere around the world, while deforestation for subsistence living, gold mining and oil and gas drilling are encroaching on the buffer zones around the park.

“All of this is threatening the biodiversity in the park and the native peoples who live in settlements in the park,” von May said. At least four Amazonian tribes and a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers known as Mashco-Piro live within the confines of Manu National Park and its buffer zone.

Von May, a native of Peru, and coauthor Alessandro Catenazzi, an assistant professor of zoology at SIU-Carbondale, have spent more than 15 years each scouring the park and its surrounding areas for frogs, toads, salamanders and caecilians – all amphibians – as well as for reptiles such as snakes, lizards, turtles and caimans. The field work in the park and its buffer zone, augmented by other, more limited surveys published previously, allowed the team to compile a list of 155 amphibian and 132 reptile species, including a handful of species new to science. Taxonomist and coauthor Edgar Lehr, assistant professor of biology at Illinois Wesleyan University, collaborates frequently with von May and Catenazzi on frog taxonomy and studies of amphibian declines and conservation.
Continue reading “Peru’s Manu National Park is herp diversity hotspot” …read more
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A baby loggerhead turtle washed ashore during the recent storms is “extremely fortunate” to be alive, experts say.

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Animals of the Serengeti: And Ngorongoro Conservation Area by Adam Scott Kennedy and Vicki Kennedy is an easy-to-use guidebook that is also very readable. The region covered by the book is the Greater Serengeti area bounded in the west by Lake Victoria and the east by Lake Manyara in Tanzania, and in the north by southern Kenya.

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New research at the University of Sydney may give conservation of crocodiles a boost by examining how their tough lives have given their immune systems an evolutionary advantage.

From Phys.org:

The MHC is a group of genes that help the immune system identify microbes and parasites. They play an important role in disease resistance, as diverse genes allow animals to resist a wider range of diseases. The research published this week in the journals PLOS ONE and Immunogenetics shows that some of the genes involved in the fight against viruses, bacteria and parasites have remained the same across all crocodilian species while other immune genes seem to have diversified in crocodiles.

“The diverse environments occupied by many crocodilians, whether saltwater crocs in the Northern Territory or alligators in Florida, appear to have exposed crocodilians immune genes to a wide range of germs,” Dr Gongora said.

Researchers found multiple instances of crocodilians losing and/or duplicating genes showing that their immune system is still responsive to evolutionary changes.

“We now have a genetic resource to understand the immune system in crocodilians, thanks to this research. It will enable genetic investigations of how these animals respond to local conditions including susceptibility to disease,” said lead author of the article Weerachai Jaratlerdsiri, who recently completed his PhD at the University of Sydney.

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The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa is back in Grand Forks Tuesday discussing the possibility of building a casino in the city. Tuesday's City Council meeting is a chance for the Turtle Mountain Band to discuss their vision for the Casino in Grand Forks.

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Eileen Nelson, an engineer with Stantec Consulting Services Inc., the township's engineer, told Newtown Supervisors at the last meeting that there has been further delay with the awarding of the contract for the Gradyville Road Bridge project due to “the bog turtle.”

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Newport Aquarium announced Tuesday, Feb. 18, the addition of Turtle Canyon, a thrilling new exhibit set to open to the public March 22, 2014. (PRWeb February 18, 2014) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11594557.htm

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A new turtle exhibit is coming to the Newport Aquarium.

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Eileen Nelson, an engineer with Stantec Consulting Services Inc., the township’s engineer, told Newtown Supervisors at the last meeting that there has been further delay with the awarding of the contract for the Gradyville Road Bridge project due to “the bog turtle.”

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Representatives of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa will be back in Grand Forks Tuesday to discuss the possibility of a casino here with the City Council.

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Welcome to Wildleaks: a new website that aims to give the global public a secure and anonymous platform to report wildlife trafficking and illegal deforestation. The illegal wildlife trade has become one of the world’s largest criminal activities in recent years, decimating elephants, rhinos, tigers, primates, and thousands of lesser known species. Meanwhile, illegal logging is rampant in many parts of the world, imperiling biodiversity, undercutting locals, and robbing governments of revenue.

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Looks like ancient reptiles got deliveries from the stork. That’s an amazingly inaccurate paraphrase of a recent study published on the journal PLOS ONE, which analyzed an ichthyosaur fossil.

From National Geographic:

The 248-million-year-old fossil from the Mesozoic era (252 to 66 million years ago) reveals an ichthyosaur baby inside its mother (orange) and another stuck in her pelvis (yellow). A third embryo discovered nearby suggests it was stillborn; scientists believe the mother died during a difficult labor.

The narrow, eel-like ichthyosaur belongs to the genus Chaohusaurus and is the oldest known species of the group.

[…]

It’s not just the age of the Mesozoic-era discovery that is surprising; it’s the shattering of the belief that ichthyosaurs—also dubbed sea monsters—gave birth in water, not on land.

The scientists reached their conclusion because the fossil showed the offspring emerging head-first—a behavior found only in animals that give birth on land.

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Sarah Clowe, museum educator, shows off an European Legless Lizard during a demonstration of live animals during February Science Camp at the Children's Museum of Science and Technology Monday in Troy. CMOST is designed specifically for children and adults to explore science. At left, Rocco Spadoni, 3, takes a hands-on approach with the lizard. Rocco is visiting the museum with his grandfather …

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Scientists have identified a new species of day gecko that is the largest in its genus (Cnemaspis) to be found in Sri Lanka. To date, it has been observed only within the Rammalakanda Reserve in southern Sri Lanka, an area spanning just 1,700 hectares, raising questions about the viability of this population and hence the species’ long-term prospects.

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Bilal Habib is closely tracking the flight of a bird. Six times a day he gets its location, within a few hundred feet, through a GPS monitoring device attached to its body. One of the last members of its species, this Great Indian Bustard is part of the latest effort to save its kind from joining the ranks of other extinct birds like the dodo and the passenger pigeon.

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Developers or snakes? You decide.

From the Kansas City Star:

Barely a half-foot long without a drop of venom, the redbelly snake hardly seems a threat.

Unless you’re a developer or public official in Johnson County.

Listed by Kansas as a threatened species, the reddish brown reptile with the orange belly is complicating growth in Johnson County.

County leaders are reluctant to dip into taxpayers’ wallets to preserve a snake habitat disrupted by new development. So they are waging a battle with the seldom-seen snake that’s not much longer than a typical worm.

They’re asking the Kansas Legislature to remove the redbelly and the comparable smooth earth snake from the state’s threatened species list.

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Photo: Suzanne L. Collins/Kansas City Star …read more
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Rehabilitated sea turtle final one to be returned from group of 24 brought to SeaWorld Orlando in December off coast of Cape Cod The patient suffered from severe pneumonia and tissue wounds.        

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Photographer Christopher Mullen found this dead lizard near the Glenwood Springs whitewater park on Thursday night, Feb. 13. Is anyone looking for a lost lizard? Email Drew Munro at dmunro@postindependent.com if you have information about this mystery lizard.

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Love is in the air, and in the sea this Valentine's Day, as a male and female loggerhead turtle were released together Friday off the Florida Keys.

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