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.

Read more…

Photo: Suzanne L. Collins/Kansas City Star …read more
Read more here: King Snake

By Herp News

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.        

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

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.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

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.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

In a 23 News Exclusive Mike Garrigan talked to a local woman that had a recent dinner preparation take quite a bizarre turn.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

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.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

A fossil specimen recovered in China shows an ancient reptile in the middle of giving live birth, indicating that live-birth in air-breathing marine animals was not an aquatic adaptation.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

In a 23 News Exclusive Mike Garrigan talked to a local woman that had a recent dinner preparation take quite a bizarre turn.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

DAVIS, Calif., Feb. 13 (UPI) — A fossil of a giant marine reptile known as an ichthyosaur may show evidence of the oldest live reptilian birth ever seen, U.S. paleontologists say.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Paleontologists have discovered a fossil of a baby reptile emerging from its mother's body during its birth, millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

Check out this video “Honduran Milk Snakes,” submitted by kingsnake.com user boa2cobras.
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

By Herp News

Beaked whales are incredibly elusive and rare, little-known to scientists and the public alike—although some species are three times the size of an elephant. Extreme divers, beaked whales have been recorded plunging as deep as 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) for over an hour. Few of the over 20 species are well-known by researchers, but now scientists have discovered a new beaked whale to add to the already large, and cryptic, group: the pointed beaked whale (Mesoplodon hotaula).

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

These are sights that have rarely been seen by human eyes: a stealthy jaguar, a bustling giant armadillo, and, most amazingly, a sloth slurping up clay from the ground. A new compilation of camera trap videos from Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorean Amazon shows a staggering array of species, many cryptic and rare.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Almost everyone knows what an earthworm is, but these very familiar animals are just one variation on a very rich theme that is at its most fabulously varied in the oceans. The mind-boggling appearances and lifestyles of the marine segmented worms are perfectly exemplified by this week’s animal.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

When the male túngara frog whispers sweet nothings into his loved one’s ear, it’s not a private conversation.

From Wired:
Male túngara frogs, native to Central and South America, gather at night in shallow ponds and call to attract females. They space themselves out carefully, each male defending a small calling site. Competition for females is serious business, and males will fight if one horns in on another’s chosen calling site.

A new study shows how the male túngara frog’s call inadvertently creates a multisensory message that can be exploited by both rivals and predators.

[…]

But these courtship signals meant for females aren’t just overheard by rival male frogs. They also provide frog-eating bats (Trachops cirrhosus) with a way to pinpoint the location of their next meal. The frog-eating bat specializes in túngara frogs, using a combination of echolocation and eavesdropping to detect them. A frog will stop calling if it sees a bat flying overhead, but ripples continue to move through the water for several seconds after the call ceases, leaving a “footprint” of the frog’s presence.
Read more…

Photo: Ryan Taylor/Salisbury University …read more
Read more here: King Snake

By Herp News

Washington, February 13 (ANI): A new study has claimed that Ichthyosaur fossils may show the earliest live birth from an ancient Mesozoic marine reptile. Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that evolved from land reptiles and moved to the water. Ryosuke Motani and his colleagues from the University of California, Davis, reported a new fossil specimen, which belongs to Chaohusaurus (Reptilia …

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

A live birth reptile fossil found recently has scientists dumbfounded, pre-dating the current record by millions of years. It was previously believed that reptiles bore young tail-first, and mammals gave birth to their young head-first. According to National Geographic, the …

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

A new fossil that captures both birth and death reveals the earliest ancestors of the giant prehistoric sea predators called ichthyosaurs birthed their babies headfirst, according to a new study. Until now, researchers thought live birth first appeared in marine reptiles after they took to the seas, Motani said.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

The oldest embryos of a dinosaur-era sea reptile show that ichthyosaurs gave birth on land, a surprising discovery.        

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Ichthyosaur fossil may show the earliest live birth from an ancient Mesozoic marine reptile, according to a study published February 12, 2014 in PLOS ONE by Ryosuke Motani from the University of California, Davis, and colleagues.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

A fossil freezes in time the moment when a reptile that lived before dinosaurs gave birth. Continue reading →

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

The long-distance relocation of nuisance animals may appear to benefit both people and wildlife, but often the animals end up dead. Research suggests such human/animal conflicts are best solved with short-distance relocations instead.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Brazilian-born shoe designer Alexandre Birman, known for feminine, whimsical shoes crafted in exotic reptile skins, found fitting inspiration in Henri Rousseau's jungle-themed painting The Dream. The painting depicts a reclining nude on a velvet couch (Freud having been the big trend in 1910) dreaming about snakes, lions, exotic birds, a gorilla playing an instrument, orange trees and wild …

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Yesterday, the Obama administration announced an ambitious new strategy to help tackle the global illegal wildlife trade, including a near-complete ban on commercial ivory. The new strategy will not only push over a dozen federal agencies to make fighting wildlife trafficking a new priority, but will also focus on reducing demand for wildlife parts and actively engaging the international community. The U.S. is the world’s second largest destination for illegal wildlife trafficking after China.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

No, alligators and crocodiles can’t fly, but they can climb trees, suggests research at the University of Tennessee.

From Science Daily:

Vladimir Dinets, a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, is the first to thoroughly study the tree-climbing and -basking behavior. The research is published in the journal Herpetology.

Dinets and his colleagues observed crocodilian species on three continents — Australia, Africa and North America — and examined previous studies and anecdotal observations. They found that four species climbed trees — usually above water — but how far they ventured upward and outward varied by their sizes. The smaller crocodilians were able to climb higher and further than the larger ones. Some species were observed climbing as far as four meters high in a tree and five meters down a branch.

“Climbing a steep hill or steep branch is mechanically similar, assuming the branch is wide enough to walk on,” the authors wrote. “Still, the ability to climb vertically is a measure of crocodiles’ spectacular agility on land.”

The crocodilians seen climbing trees, whether at night or during the day, were skittish of being approached, jumping or falling into the water when an approaching observer was as far as 10 meters away. This response led the researchers to believe that the tree climbing and basking are driven by two conditions: thermoregulation and surveillance of habitat.

Read more here…

Photo: Kristine Gingras, University of Tennessee …read more
Read more here: King Snake

By Herp News

His office couldn't produce the goods, but Prime Minister John Key is fighting back.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Turtle Beach, the leading brand in gaming audio, today announced that the company¹s highly anticipated line of Xbox One compatible headsets will be available at retail on March 7 worldwide. The XO Series …

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Turtle Beach, the gaming audio brand in the games industry, today announced that the company's highly anticipated line of Xbox One compatible headsets will be available at retail on March 7 worldwide. …

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

The Critically Endangered European eel makes one of the most astounding migrations in the wild kingdom. After spending most of its life in Europe’s freshwater rivers, the eel embarks on an undersea odyssey, traveling 6,000 kilometers (3,720 miles) to the Sargasso Sea where it will spawn and die. The long-journeying eels larva than make their way back to Europe over nearly a year. Yet by tracking adult European eels (Anguilla anguilla) with electronic data loggers, scientists have discovered that some eels never make it to their spawning ground, but instead are swallowed-up in the depths by leviathans.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Biologists recently documented one of nature’s least-known, big events. On the banks of the Purus River in the Brazilian Amazon, researchers witnessed the mass-hatching of an estimated 210,000 giant South American river turtles (Podocnemis expansa). The giant South American river turtle, or Arrau, is the world’s largest side-necked turtle and can grow up to 80 centimeters long (nearly three feet).

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

Do you have a great non-commercial herp video you’d like to share — yours, or just a great one you’ve spotted on YouTube? How about photos of your animals or wildlife?

We’d like to feature your photos and videos on our blog and Facebook page… so if you have them, please submit them!

You can submit a video here.

You can upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com!

Photo: jeffb
…read more
Read more here: King Snake

By Herp News

GRAND FORKS – A Grand Forks casino run by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa is far from becoming reality, said City Council members and tribal representatives, who presented a proposal for the project Monday.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

The closed-end funds managed by Tortoise Capital Advisors declared the following distributions today:

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Cambodia has set aside an area of forest just slightly smaller than Singapore to protect the country’s national bird: the giant ibis (Thaumatibis gigantea). Listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List, the giant ibis is down to just a few hundred birds.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

Almost nothing is known about the little dodo, a large, archaic, pigeon-like bird found only on the islands of Samoa. Worse still, this truly bizarre bird is on the verge of extinction, following the fate of its much more famous relative, the dodo bird. Recently, conservationists estimated that fewer than 200 survived on the island and maybe far fewer; frustratingly, sightings of the bird have been almost non-existent in recent years. But conservation efforts were buoyed this December when researchers stumbled on a juvenile little dodo hanging out in a tree. Not only was this an important sighting of a nearly-extinct species, but even more so it proved the species is still successfully breeding. In other words: there is still time to save the species from extinction so long as conservationists are able to raise the funds needed.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

Of course, at kingsnake.com, we like alligators. Tom and Consandra Christmas in Mississippi don’t feel the same, at least when the reptiles are roaming around their front yard, which tye are. And they know who they blame: ExxonMobil, who they say managed their nearby property in such a way to drive more than 80 gators onto their land.

From Newsmax.com:

The Christmases charged that the alligator infestation is a non-abatable nuisance that has caused a permanent injury to their property and are seeking damages for permanent depreciation of their land, reported the AP.

ExxonMobil, though, claimed that the Christmases’ real estate agent told them about the alligators as far back as 2003 and the Christmases waited too long to file a lawsuit, stating their claim has passed the statute of limitations.

A Mississippi circuit court judge threw out the Christmases original case in 2011, but a state court of appeals returned the case to Wilkinson County for trial. ExxonMobil appealed that ruling to Mississippi’s Supreme Court.

“Alligators were allegedly introduced to the Exxon property prior to 1984, and the retention ponds have apparently existed at least that long,” stated the Christmases filing to the Mississippi Court of Appeals. “It was also attested that by the year 2000 (at the latest), there were ‘many, many alligators’ on the Exxon property, and a real estate agent involved in the sale of the property to the Christmases stated that an alligator may have attacked a horse he kept on the Christmas property.”

Read more… …read more
Read more here: King Snake

By Herp News

Turtle Beach is well known in the gaming community, with its gaming headsets favourites of tournament players. So you might be thinking what is a gaming headset company doing designing a headset with Apple users in mind.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

First footage promised for the 11th Febuary. The good folk of Turtle Rock Studios have made a lot of noise as of late about their upcoming four-versus-one monster hunting shooter Evolve. But despite giving an exclusive info blowout to a popular US magazine – as well as, bafflingly, the pre-order bonuses – the rest of us haven't seen much of the game in action. Thankfully, this may all be about …

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

These three Australian bands will all be touring in March and April.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

J.D. Willson, assistant professor of biological sciences, is available to comment on the recent discovery of a 17-foot, 8-inch Burmese python in the Florida Everglades.

Go to Source

…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com