By Herp News

Chile is probably best known for its volcanoes, earthquakes and the formidable peaks of the Andes, but as a country that spans 4,300 km (2,670 miles) from top to bottom, it also boasts a huge variety of bird life. And, until recently, it was home to what was thought to be the largest population of black-necked swans (Cygnus melancoryphus) in South America. Not long ago, these swans, as well as 100 other species of rare or vulnerable bird species, could be seen nesting in the Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary in Valdivia, a Ramsar site that covers 12,000 acres in the south of Chile. But in 2004 the swans began to die.

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By Herp News

Chile is probably best known for its volcanoes, earthquakes and the formidable peaks of the Andes, but as a country that spans 4,300 km (2,670 miles) from top to bottom, it also boasts a huge variety of bird life. And, until recently, it was home to what was thought to be the largest population of black-necked swans (Cygnus melancoryphus) in South America. Not long ago, these swans, as well as 100 other species of rare or vulnerable bird species, could be seen nesting in the Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary in Valdivia, a Ramsar site that covers 12,000 acres in the south of Chile. But in 2004 the swans began to die.

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By Herp News

Nematodes are typically small animals that to the naked eye look very much alike; however, these creatures are fantastically diverse —on a par with the arthropods in terms of species diversity. At face value, nematodes lack the charisma of larger animals, so there are very few biologists who have made it their life’s work to understand them. Those who do have been rewarded with a glimpse of the incredible diversity of these animals, an example of which is the complex menagerie of nematodes that dwell in the guts of large, tropical millipedes.

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By Herp News

Mumbai, March 26 : For over a century and quarter, the tiny Geckoella Jeyporensis, a small lizard measuring up to 10 cm, was given up as extinct. Now it has been spotted in the Eastern Ghats, causing scientists to cheer.

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Check out this video “Tadpole Hunting” submitted by kingsnake.com user hdhungryman.
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By Herp News

Parametric Sound Corporation , a leading innovator of audio products and solutions, today announced that it has completed its merger with privately-held Turtle Beach, the market leader in video game audio. …

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By Herp News

Scientists knew that snow leopards (Panthera uncia) still survived in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, but late last year they captured the first ever photos. Camera traps in the Gissar Nature Reserve took photos of the big cats, along with bear, lynx, ibex, wild boar, and other mammals. The camera trap program was led by biologists Bakhtiyor Aromov and Yelizaveta Protas working with Panthera, WWF’s Central Asia Program, and Uzbekistan’s Biocontrol Agency.

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Scientists have long believed lizards are asocial, but research by Cissy Ballen, Richard Shine, and Mats Olsson of the University of Sydney using veiled chameleons suggests the lizards are a fairly social species after all.

From Wired Science:

Ballen and her colleagues staged interactions between pairs of chameleons when the animals were two months old. The researchers found the two groups didn’t differ in aggression, but chameleons raised in isolation were more submissive than their siblings raised in groups. The isolation-reared chameleons tended to flee or curl into a ball during confrontations with other chameleons, and they adopted darker and less green colors than the group-reared chameleons. The researchers also tested the foraging ability of the animals, and found that group-reared chameleons seized their prey (crickets) faster than isolation-reared chameleons.

Studies like this add to an increasing appreciation of the flexibility and complexity of reptile behavior.

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By Herp News

OKLAHOMA CITY, Jan. 15 (UPI) — An Oklahoma City man said he canceled his plans for a quesadilla lunch when he discovered what appeared to be a deceased lizard among his tortillas.

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What’s beautiful? The sweet sounds of the Harding University choir as heard in the Reptile House at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Watch below:

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By Herp News

The mystery inside a tortilla bag bought at an Oklahoma City Wal-Mart is sparking a food company investigation of sorts.

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By Herp News

Tortoise Capital Advisors today announced that Michelle Kelly, Kyle Krueger, James Mick, Edward Russell, Matthew Sallee and Robert Thummel have been promoted to the role of managin

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By Herp News

At a summit in 2010, the world’s 13 tiger range states pledged to double the number of tigers (Panthera tigris) in the wild by 2020. Today, non-tiger state Germany announced its assistance toward that end. Through its KfW Development Bank, the German government has pledged around $27 million (20 million Euro) to a new program run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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By Herp News

2K and Turtle Rock Studios, creators of the cooperative shooter classic Left 4 Dead , today officially announced Evolve , an all-new multiplayer shooter experience. Evolve will be available this fall for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

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By Herp News

Often touted as low-impact, remote oil roads in the Amazon are, in fact, having a large impact on frogs living in flowers in the upper canopy, according to a new paper published in PLOS ONE. In Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park, massive bromeliads grow on tall tropical trees high in the canopy and may contain up to four liters of standing water. Lounging inside this micro-pools, researchers find a wide diversity of life, including various species of frogs. However, despite these frogs living as high as 50 meters above the forest floor, a new study finds that proximity to oil roads actually decreases the populations of high-living frogs.

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By Herp News

Parametric Sound Corporation , a leading innovator of audio products and solutions, today announced that Juergen Stark, CEO of Turtle Beach, will present at the 16th Annual Needham Growth Conference on …

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By Herp News

2K and Turtle Rock Studios, creators of the cooperative shooter classic Left 4 Dead, today officially announced Evolve™, an all-new multiplayer shooter experience. First revealed e

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It’s hard to know how we missed this froggy story from last fall, but we did.

From the Atlantic:

NASA’s Minotaur V rocket blasted off from its launchpad at a spaceport in Virginia, carrying the LADEE spacecraft on the first leg of its trip from Earth to the moon. The scene that resulted was beautiful. It was inspiring. It was epic.

It was also not without its casualties.

The picture above, snapped on Friday by one of the remote cameras NASA had set up for the big launch, captured a creature that found itself, alas, caught in the crossfire of humanity’s drive to explore: a frog. A possibly very large, and certainly very surprised, frog. The launch setting, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, is located on an island that is essentially a six-mile-long salt marsh; this little guy, it seems, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrongest possible time.

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By Herp News

A tortoise beat a rabbit in a skiing competition held for pets and their owners in China, a report said on Tuesday. Cats and dogs faced off against a menagerie including a rooster and a yellow duck in a race to the finish line on snowy slopes in Henan province, the state-run China News Service said. Pictures showed a yellow duck taking to the slopes in a fetching red neck tie, attracting curious …

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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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By Herp News

Can a tortoise actually “run” away? Whatever the velocity, a 100 pound tortoise lumbered 30 miles before he was found and taken in by a foster family. It took the reptile six months to cover the distance. Earlier this month the animal was reunited with…

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By Herp News

The Dallas Safari Club has auctioned off a permit to shoot-and-kill a Critically Endangered black rhino in Namibia for $350,000. The club says the proceeds from the auction will aid rhino conservation, but the move has upset many wildlife organizations and attracted protestors outside the closed-door auction. In fact the issue has become so contentious that the FBI is currently investigating purported death threats against the Dallas Safari Club members over the issue. Currently, less than 5,000 black rhinos survive in the wild today, a drop of 90 percent since 1960 as the species has been decimated by poaching and habitat loss.

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By Herp News

By Investing Caffeine. Read more » » Check out Ron Baron Stock Picks » Download GuruFolio Report of Ron Baron (Updated on 01/12/2014)

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Texas is considering banning the gassing of rattlesnakes and other animals in the state, but the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. doesn’t think a ban will impact the barbaric “rattslesnake round-ups,” which torture and kill rattlesnakes, but rarely use gas.

From NPR:

Pouring gasoline or other noxious chemicals into the earth to force rattlesnakes and other animals from their underground homes has been a tactic of some hunters and snake wranglers for years. But it has a harmful effect on the environment and wildlife. Now, Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) is considering following in the path of 30 other states and banning the practice in most circumstances.

The technique, known as “gassing” is used to capture and/or kill many different types of animals, including prairie dogs. But its greatest defenders appear to be those involved in “rattlesnake roundups” that are a tradition in parts of the state.

[….]

As far as the prospect that banning the practice will end the “rattlesnake roundup” tradition in Texas, TPWD says that’s overblown.

“Many rattlesnake events currently discourage the collection of snakes by gassing,” says the Department.

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By Herp News

A 100-pound tortoise featured in the Maricopa Monitor's “pet of the week” section has been reunited with his original owners, a full year after the reptile wandered off into the desert.

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By Herp News

CASA GRANDE — A 100-pound tortoise featured in the Maricopa Monitor's “pet of the week” section has been reunited with his original owners, a full year after the reptile wandered off into the desert. Rewind to April 2013.

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By Herp News

Police in Indonesia’s Aceh province have arrested two wildlife trafficking suspects allegedly behind five tiger poaching rings operating in the forests of northern Sumatra. The arrests followed a months-long investigation and an undercover sting operation in which police seized thousands of dollars worth of illegal animal parts.

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By Herp News

A Wizard's Lizard, the action RPG from Lost Decade Games about a wizard's pet reptile seeking to save his master from the clutches of Death, will launch on January 22 on Desura and Gamersgate. If you've ever played Gauntlet or The Binding of Isaac, …

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By Herp News

Council approves first reading of land sale ordinance

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By Herp News

Licensed headsets due in 2014 as Turtle Beach pens deals with Sony, Microsoft, Respawn and EA. Expected to debut in Q3, the PS4 and Vita range will feature “tournament grade” headsets, along with traditional gaming and entertainment orientated devices on the way, too. “Turtle Beach is excited to work with Sony to create headsets for the PS4,” said Juergen Stark, Chief Executive Officer at Turtle …

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By Herp News

A Palm Beach County man, who previously served a federal prison sentence for poaching sea turtle eggs, is facing new charges that he stole 316 sea turtle eggs from nests in Juno Beach.        

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By Herp News

The cold-stunned green sea turtle brought near death to the South Carolina Aquarium on Wednesday is one plucky little reptile, it turns out.

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By Herp News

The cold-stunned green sea turtle brought near death to the South Carolina Aquarium on Wednesday is one plucky little reptile, it turns out.

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By Herp News

Biologists have found that island lizards are “tame” compared to their mainland relatives, confirming Charles Darwin’s observations of island tameness. Darwin had noted that island animals often acted tame, and presumed that they had evolved to be so after coming to inhabit islands that lacked most predators. The researchers found island lizards were more accessible the farther the islands were from the mainland.

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By Herp News

Rove beetles are among the most diverse animals on the planet, with around 56,000 species currently described. Amongst this multitude of species is a dazzling array of adaptations perhaps best illustrated by the genus Stenus. These beetles, with their bulbous eyes and slender bodies are often found near water running swiftly over the wet ground and clambering among the vegetation.

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Check out this video “Field Herping in Colorado” submitted by kingsnake.com user jfarah.
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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Mobile Bound in the back of a Toyota Prius.


Dreaming of sun, a big yard, grass, carrots and Rosie.


Hello, Mobile! I have arrived!


What type of sorcery is this? This is not my yard!


Better take me on a walk.


Can you keep up with me?


Fence building that couldn’t happen sooner.


Is this my yard?


Yard taste really good.


All mine.


Giving out the Frankie Rules.


I think I’m gonna like it here.

Note: Frankie managed to take off into the neighborhood twice, alone, so I put blue painter’s tape on his shell that says “Please get me home” and my phone number. As soon as the fence is completed I will consider taking it off.

Dedicated to Brown Eyes who we left behind in Birmingham. We hope you found a good home.
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By Herp News

In a precedent-setting case, an Indonesian court has found a palm oil company guilty of violating environmental laws and ordered it to pay $30 million in fines and reparations for clearing an area of protected peat forest that is a stronghold for endangered orangutans in Indonesia’s Aceh Province. In a ruling handed down Wednesday, the Meulaboh district court concluded that PT Kallista Alam illegally cleared and burned forest within the the protected Tripa peat swamp in northwestern Sumatra.

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By Herp News

Hard wired into the survival mechanisms of all animals is the perception of pain. Different stimuli, such as heat or cold, foul odors, chemicals or a blunt blow can trigger pain receptors in the body that, in the blink of an eye, jolt the body into classic fight or flight responses. Researcher Shigeru Saito, et. al. have performed the first evolutionary analysis of pain response in chickens by isolating the genes for pain receptors called TRPA1.

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By Herp News

The world’s top carnivores are in big trouble: this is the take-away message from a new review paper published today in Science. Looking at 31 large-bodied carnivore species (i.e those over 15 kilograms or 33 pounds), the researchers found that 77 percent are in decline and more than half have seen their historical ranges decline by over 50 percent. In fact, the major study comes just days after new research found that the genetically-unique West African lion is down to just 250 breeding adults.

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