Eighteen days and still there is no fence.

Eighteen days doesn’t sound like a long time does it? To me it feels like forever.

When I was younger a horse threw me into a fence. I bounced off the fence and slammed into the ground. I didn’t pass out but I lay there unable to breath for what felt like forever thinking I would never feel air in my lungs or oxygen in my brain ever again and I cursed that fence.

Probably that was the only time I didn’t like a fence because I’ve had pets and animals all my life and a fence means safety and security for them.

Fences have broken my heart. An inadequate fence was cause for a younger Frankie to disappear. That 24 hour period felt like forever.

My best friend died and my mother died so I know a broken heart. Pets have passed and I felt I would never recover. Boyfriends have broken from me and I thought I would never love again.

But when Frankie disappeared I felt bereft, broken hearted, and emotionally lost in such a way I knew I could never bear to go through that again.

So Frankie is microchipped, his yard has two security cameras, every neighbor in my area knows Frankie so they can be his watch dogs, he is the most photographed tortoise in Alabama, and he has blue painter’s tape on his shell that says “Please return me” with my phone number.

I put my foot down and insisted that Frankie and I would not move to Mobile until a fence was installed.

We’re in Mobile. Still there is no permanent fence.

Frankie hasn’t escaped and yet my heart is unsettled. Greg’s done his best by putting up a strong temporary fence in a small area by the house. I’ve done my best to amuse Frankie by taking him on daily walks and providing an enriched living environment.

Frankie has various objects to walk around, things for him to push, his umbrella stand (of course), heated cave and his dogloo. I have a chair to sit in. There is even a big cement mixer (for future fence construction) for him to walk under. I hung a black garden cloth on the temporary fence to block Frankie’s view.

Frankie has …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times

By Herp News

A LIZARD was killed in a house fire in Leigh.

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Check out our Herp Video of the Week, “The Normal Ball Python,” 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
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By Herp News

Thousands of species were scientifically described for the first time in 2013. Many of these were ‘cryptic species’ that were identified after genetic analysis distinguished them from closely-related species, while others were totally novel. Below are some of the most interesting “new species” discoveries that took place or were formally announced in 2013.

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By Herp News

U.S. calls ban necessary to protect wildlife A reptile industry trade group has gone to court to overturn a federal ban on the import of four species of large snake, including the Burmese pythons that have infested the Everglades.        

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By Herp News

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women. During a heart attack, a blocked arte

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Researchers want a permanent station in Queensland to monitor populations of Flatback turtles.

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By Herp News

Greenpeace today released a clever video highlighting the global biodiversity crisis with a little help from a much-beloved Disney film. While it might seem unlikely the Africa’s animals will vanish, this is exactly what’s happening in parts of the continent due to poaching, unsustainable bushmeat trade, habitat loss, massive development projects that are often poorly planned, and a booming human population.

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By Herp News

Researchers are celebrating after an urgent global search turned up a female mate for a fish that is on the brink of extinction.

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By Herp News

U.S. calls ban necessary to protect wildlife A reptile industry trade group has gone to court to overturn a federal ban on the import of four species of large snake, including the Burmese pythons that have infested the Everglades.

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By Herp News

U.S. calls ban necessary to protect wildlife A reptile industry trade group has gone to court to overturn a federal ban on the import of four species of large snake, including the Burmese pythons that have infested the Everglades.        

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By Herp News

1. China begins to tackle pollution, carbon emissions: As China’s environmental crisis worsens, the government has begun to unveil a series of new initiatives to curb record pollution and cut greenhouse emissions. The world’s largest consumer of coal, China’s growth in emissions is finally slowing and some experts believe the nation’s emissions could peak within the decade. If China’s emissions begin to fall, so too could the world’s.

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Birds do it. Crocodiles do it. Dinosaurs did it. And now it looks like monitor lizards are in the one-way, flow-through breathing club, too. That’s the word from researcher Emma Schachner in a recently-published article in the prestigious journal Nature.

From the awesome Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week blog:

After 1972, biologists had almost four decades to get used to the idea that birds had this amazing miraculous lung thingy that was unique in the animal kingdom. Then in 2010, Colleen Farmer and Kent Sanders of the University of Utah blew our collective minds by demonstrating that alligators have unidirectional flow-through lungs, too. That means that far from being a birds-only thing, unidirectional flow-through lung ventilation was probably primitive for Archosauria, and was therefore the default state for non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, the other ornithodirans and the hordes of croc-line archosaurs.

The birdy-ness of crocodilian lungs was further cemented earlier this year when Schachner et al. described the lung morphology and airflow patterns in Nile crocs, which have lungs that are if anything even more birdlike than those of gators. I got to review that paper and blogged about it here.

Now…well, you read the headline. Monitor lizards have unidirectional airflow through their lungs, too. This falls at about the halfway point between “whatisthisIdonteven”–I mean, dude, unidirectional airflow in friggin’ lizards!–and “yeah, that makes a weird sort of sense”. Because to sum up a lot of science unscientifically, monitors just kick a little more ass than other squamates. They have crazy high aerobic capacities for animals that aren’t birds or mammals, they’re ecologically versatile and geographically widespread, they get waaay bigger than any other extant lizards (Komodo dragons) and until recently got even bigger than that (Megalania). Is it going too far to link the success of varanids with their totally pimpin’ flow-through lungs? Maybe, maybe not. But it seems like fertile ground for further study.

Read the full story here.

Photo: Emma Schachner …read more
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By Herp News

The ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), perhaps the most well-known of Madagascar’s endemic animals, is facing a “very high” risk of extinction in the wild. The Madagascar Section of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group reassessed the Red List status of ring-tailed lemurs and upgraded the species from Near-Threatened (2008) to Endangered (2012). Ring-tailed lemurs are facing extinction in some parts of Madagascar because of continued habitat loss, and more recently, species exploitation.

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By Herp News

The ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), perhaps the most well-known of Madagascar’s endemic animals, is facing a “very high” risk of extinction in the wild. The Madagascar Section of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group reassessed the Red List status of ring-tailed lemurs and upgraded the species from Near-Threatened (2008) to Endangered (2012). Ring-tailed lemurs are facing extinction in some parts of Madagascar because of continued habitat loss, and more recently, species exploitation.

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By Herp News

Tortoise Capital Advisors, adviser for seven closed-end funds, today announced that Rand Berney will join its closed-end fund board of directors on Jan. 1, 2014.

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By Herp News

Turtle Beach and Parametric Sound today announced that Turtle Beach has designated two independent directors to be appointed to the board of directors immediately after the closing of the pending merger …

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From Scientific American, an amazing overview of how male veiled chameleons display aggression, including turning their bodies into billboards and, of course, changing colors.

Check out the video below, and then read about all the latest research into how color changes look to chameleon eyes here.

Photo: Russell Ligon/Scientific American …read more
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By Herp News

Researchers at the University of Utah have found that the savannah monitor lizard breathes like a bird through a one-way loop.

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There is so much to say about Frankie. He has a personality as big as Siberia. He is always surprising me.

Oh, sometimes those surprises are outright stinky, messy, and destructive. Still Frankie has a friendly side that says, “Hey, I love you mom”. Of course, a carrot in hand always helps.

The man-ly side of Frankie as he blooms into his teen years can be down right embarrassing, albeit a bit educational as he humps anything that resembles…..well, I was about to say a female tortoise but Frankie will hump anything he can hold down long enough to climb on top of.

So is it educational or embarrassing? It’s both.

Watching a recent video of Frankie getting better acquainted with a pumpkin I was looking at how he used his front gular scutes to glide up on the pumpkin so he could (do I have to say it again?) hump it. I watched the video several times fascinated with the use of his front scutes.

Male sulcata scutes are useful for ramming. But clearly, as seen on the video, use of the gular scutes is important to successful mating.

So I called a friend and sent the video to her and get her opinion. Not five minutes go by when she called back and said, “Look at the video again. Frankie is a regular Casanova.”

Oh, my. Surprise!

Enjoy!

Click to view video:Frankie Woos a Pumpkin …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times

Thirteen-year-old Jackston Stone was born without feet, and suffered years of painful surgeries. Now he’s walking on snake-like prosthetic legs, thanks to the Shriners of Salt Lake City.

From ABC News 4 Utah:

That new choice meant wearing two prosthetics legs, and Jackson wanted his to look like snakes.

“They’re like me,” Jackson Stone said.

“How’s that?” Reporter Brian Carlson asked.

“I have no feet, they have no feet,” he said.

Snakes are part family business. A tattoo artist created the design for Jackson’s dream legs, but prosthetic maker couldn’t do it.

“So they brought me the art work and it was on canvas which was too heavy for me to apply the prosthesis,” said Eric Green, Prosthetist.

That’s when Shriners stepped in.

“So I said ya know, I might be able to help,” said William “Mr. Bill” Voorhies, Shriners of Salt Lake City.

William Voorhies contacted fellow Shriner Bob Shupe who runs a printing company. He put the design on surface that worked.

“Fortunately our company was able to take that need and develop it,” said Bob Shupe, Past Potentate.

The prosthetic maker turned Jackson’s snake legs into reality. He loves them, and his friends do too.

“They think it’s really cool because a tattoo artist designed it and none of them can get tattoos,” said Jackson Stone.

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Read more here: King Snake

By Herp News

Jeff Corwin (and a few of his friends) stopped by to talk (and scare) Katie. First up was Katie’s favorite, a reptile. “I don’t usually get this cozy with my guests – but, honestly – yikes,” Katie said. “Don’t tell me you’re looking at a nice pair of boots,” Jeff responded. Can you guess what […]

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By Herp News

Across New Guinea, deforestation is occurring at increasing levels. Whether it be industrial logging, monoculture plantations, hunters felling trees in pursuit of arboreal wildlife, or other forms of forest conversion, deforestation is depleting not only forest carbon stocks and understory environments, but habitats for species who call tree cavities “home.” A new study in mongabay.com’s open-access journal, Tropical Conservation Science, evaluated whether a variety of man-made nest boxes could function as suitable substitutes for tree cavities.

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By Herp News

Across New Guinea, deforestation is occurring at increasing levels. Whether it be industrial logging, monoculture plantations, hunters felling trees in pursuit of arboreal wildlife, or other forms of forest conversion, deforestation is depleting not only forest carbon stocks and understory environments, but habitats for species who call tree cavities “home.” A new study in mongabay.com’s open-access journal, Tropical Conservation Science, evaluated whether a variety of man-made nest boxes could function as suitable substitutes for tree cavities.

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By Herp News

Researchers at the University of Utah have found that the savannah monitor lizard breathes like a bird through a one-way loop.

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By Herp News

106 students were hospitalised of which everyone except found were discharged

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GULFPORT, Miss. — American Truck Showrooms (www.americantruckshowrooms.com) recently donated $2,500 to Southeastern Louisiana University Turtle Cove's Environmental Research Station. (http://www.southeastern.edu/acad_research/programs/turtle_cove/index.html)…

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By Herp News

The ancestor of snakes and lizards likely gave birth to live young, rather than laid eggs, and over time species have switched back and forth in their preferred reproductive mode, according to new research.

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By Herp News

The ancestor of snakes and lizards likely gave birth to live young, rather than laid eggs, and over time species have switched back and forth in their preferred reproductive mode, according to new research.

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By Herp News

When the phone rings in the middle of the night at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in December, it usually means one thing: a sea turtle is in trouble. And the phones have been ringing fairly steadily over the past few weeks as dozens of the reptiles, exhausted and benumbed by wintry bay waters, continue coming ashore — at all hours of the day and night — during this late fall stranding …

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By Herp News

Kolkata-based men’s apparel and accessories maker Turtle Ltd expects to introduce its footwear range next week. According to Amit Ladsaria, Co-founder & Director, Turtle, initially 50-60 per cent of its stores will have the footwear range.

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By Herp News

In what will likely be considered one of the biggest (literally) zoological discoveries of the Twenty-First Century, scientists today announced they have discovered a new species of tapir in Brazil and Colombia. The new mammal, hidden from science but known to local indigenous tribes, is actually one of the biggest animals on the continent, although it’s still the smallest living tapir. Described in the Journal of Mammology, the scientists have named the new tapir Tapirus kabomani after the name for “tapir” in the local Paumari language: “Arabo kabomani.”

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By Herp News

Six reptiles, including a rare Komodo dragon, were killed on Monday in a fire at the San Antonio Zoo likely caused by an electric problem, zoo officials said. Zoo staff had to move venomous snakes and reptiles to safety after the fire broke out at the two-floor Komodo House, home to about 100 snakes, lizards and other creatures. “It was a challenge for the firefighters,” San Antonio Fire …

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We all may love Bahamanian rock iguanas, but their digest tracts don’t love how we show that affection.

From Scientific American:

Hop on over to the photo-sharing site Flickr and you’ll find dozens of photos and videos of people eagerly feeding grapes to hungry iguanas on the beaches of the Bahamas. It looks like great fun and the iguanas obviously go crazy for the fruit, which is usually fed to the lizards on the ends of long sticks. There’s just one problem with this activity: the food is making the iguanas sick. Health conditions arising from the grapes and other foods that iguanas do not normally eat in the wild include diarrhea, high blood sugar and cholesterol as well as lowered levels of potassium and a high level of parasitic infections. All of these problems “could have deleterious effects on long-term fitness and population stability,” according to Charles Knapp, director of conservation and research at Chicago’s John G. Shedd Aquarium and the lead author of a new study of the iguanas published last week in Conservation Physiology.

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Photo: Chris Dixon. Used under Creative Commons license. …read more
Read more here: King Snake

By Herp News

Protected as they are by soft, hard or leathery shells, you would expect one of our most ancient vertebrates to be safer. But no. The turtles (and the tortoises) are among the most likely to disappear for ever, after 65 million years, at least, on earth. They need help, but quickly, just like many more iconic and obvious species.

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By Herp News

The snapping turtle with a fractured jaw recently underwent another surgical procedure after it became clear that his previous treatment was nonviable.

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By Herp News

Protected as they are by soft, hard or leathery shells, you would expect one of our most ancient vertebrates to be safer. But no. The turtles (and the tortoises) are among the most likely to disappear for ever, after 65 million years, at least, on earth. They need help, but quickly, just like many more iconic and obvious species.

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By Herp News

In recent years, California’s Agassiz’s desert tortoise population has been decimated by shootings, residential and commercial development, vehicle traffic, respiratory disease and predation by ravens, dogs and coyotes.

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By Herp News

Two green sea turtles have been treated at the Houston Zoo after getting into trouble as Gulf water temperatures dropped below turtle comfort zones.

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By Herp News

Climate change is widely believed to be behind the rapid decline of frog populations in the Andes mountains, but a new study finds that the real culprit is a deadly fungus that has wiped out amphibian species worldwide. Researchers found that highland frogs, while tolerant of increasing temperatures, live in the optimal temperature range for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, also known as Bd.

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