By Herp News
An alligator in Walmart would be enough to make most people run in terror, but shoppers in Florida went about their business on Sunday when a 6-foot reptile invaded their store. The incident happened at a Walmart in Apopka, Florida, just after midnight. Shoppers noticed the alligator wandering near the front door of the Walmart,… Read more » Walmart Alligator: 6-Foot Reptile Invades Store …
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By Herp News
An Australian sailor has described parts of the Pacific Ocean as “dead” because of severe overfishing, with his vessel having to repeatedly swerve debris for thousands of kilometers on a journey from Australia to Japan. Ivan MacFadyen told of his horror at the severe lack of marine life and copious amounts of rubbish witnessed on a yacht race between Melbourne and Osaka. He recently returned from the trip, which he previously completed 10 years ago.
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By Herp News
SANDAKAN (Bernama) — By any stretch of imagination, this should have been a very mundane event. For centuries, turtles have been coming ashore to lay eggs, the event happening without much ado.
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Scientists are honing in on the immune factor that is allowing amphibian populations to succumb to the fungal disease chytridiomycosis, which has caused a loss of nearly 4 percent of amphibian populations every year between 2002 and 2011.
From Popular Science:
It’s been most baffling, given the amphibians’ complex immune systems, not far off from the immune complexity of humans and other mammals.
“There’s been a big question in terms of why the amphibian immune system hasn’t been able to respond to this nasty skin infection,” Louise Smith-Rollins, an associate professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt, tells Popular Science. “The question is, if it’s a failure to recognize the pathogen, what’s the defect?”
Rollins-Smith has been studying this immune response for more than 10 years, and she and her team have found another clue as to why amphibians can’t clear this fungus. This week in Science, a paper she co-authored brings in new information to understanding the answer to that question. The study, led by Vanderbilt graduate students J. Scott Fites and Jeremy Ramsey, shows that it may be the second line of immune defense where the breakdown occurs.
The first line of defense, antimicrobial peptides produced in the skin, seemed to be effective at producing an immune response. But during the next stage, something happened to stop the usual inhibiting response.
“It appears that the defect is that the fungus itself is able to release factors that target vulnerable lymphocytes and induce them to commit suicide,” Rollins-Smith says. “Mediators that should be regulating and calling in the troops, they’re stopped right there.”
Read the rest of the story here.
Photo: Joel Sartore/Popular Science …read more
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By Herp News
The Animal Foundation is putting its first Desert Tortoise up for adoption. Ted, the tortoise, is waiting for his forever family.
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By Herp News
The reintroduction of captive gorillas to areas where they have been hunted to extinction appears to working, suggesting a possible new front in efforts to save great apes, finds a new study published in the journal Oryx.
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By Herp News
Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc (TPZ) Ex-Dividend Date Scheduled for October 22, 2013
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By Herp News
It’s unlikely conservation organizations can survive if they are unwilling to embrace change: as an endeavor, conservation requires not just longterm planning, but also an ability to move proactively and fluidly to protect species and safeguard ecosystems. Environmental and education NGO, the Art of Conservation, is currently embarking on its biggest change since its foundation in 2006: moving away from its base in Rwanda, while leaving a legacy behind.
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By Herp News
Third parties waiting in line
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Check out this video “Ball Python Clutch, Day 41,” submitted by kingsnake.com user kcalderala.
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
The purported Yeti, an ape-like creature that walks upright and roams the remote Himalayas, may in fact be an ancient polar bear species, according to new DNA research by Bryan Sykes with Oxford University. Sykes subjected two hairs from what locals say belonged to the elusive Yeti only to discover that the genetics matched a polar bear jawbone found in Svalbard, Norway dating from around 120,000 (though as recent as 40,000 years ago).
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By Herp News
Byline: Three crew members of The Lizard lifeboat were selected from all the stations in the south-west to represent the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) at the National Seafarers service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Page Content: The Lizard lifeboat Coxswain Andrew Putt, Third Mechanic Steve Tattersall and Head Launcher Jeff Ashby were selected to carry the RNLI standard at the …
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By Herp News
Populations of the spur-thighed tortoise have been decimated not because of disease but as a result of the exotic pet trade. / James Cornett, Special to The Desert Sun
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By Herp News
VALHALLA, N.Y., Oct. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Turtle Beach, the leader in gaming audio products, today announced an extended partnership with Microsoft to create innovative hardware, software, and applications …
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Scientists working to protect loggerhead sea turtles know how to save them; they just can’t get stakeholders to cooperate.
From Mission Blue:
It’s been our experience that those who would spend two decades or more working closely with fishermen to understand and protect sea turtles typically have the best interests of both people and nature in mind, although sometimes they are called “turtle-huggers” or scapegoated over another competing agenda.
Back in the early 1990’s when we learned about the mass mortality of loggerhead sea turtles off the Pacific coast of Baja from geographers Serge Dedina and Emily Young, we responded immediately.
Here’s how Dr. Dedina describes what they found:
“We first started noticing the mortality of loggerheads on Magdalena Island on the trip out to Cabo San Lazaro in the Spring of 1994 when we noticed a few animals stranded on the beach. But as summer progressed we saw more and more. What was fascinating was to see the correlation between stranded loggerheads and the abundant coyote population who fed on the animals as they washed up. There were literally dozens of coyotes sitting in the dunes apparently satiated after a night of feeding.
By July 1994, on one return trip from San Lazaro, we counted more than 224 dead loggerheads, so many, that the fishermen we were with were clearly embarrassed. They all knew that the turtles were being caught in gill-nets. In fact we had been out shark fishing with fishermen in the spring and had seen the problem ourselves.”
Read the full story here.
Photo: Mission Blue …read more
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By Herp News
Gabon is home to some big meat-eaters including leopards, spotted hyenas, and African wild dogs, but a new study focuses on the country’s lesser-known species with an appetite for flesh. For the first time, researchers surveyed Gabon’s small carnivores, including 12 species from the honey badger (Mellivora capensis) to the marsh mongoose (Atilax paludinosus).
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By Herp News
A REPTILE food depot at Rooksbridge was badly damaged by fire in the early hours of Thursday morning (October 17). Follow the latest updates here.
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By Herp News
A fungus that is killing frogs and other amphibians around the world releases a toxic factor that disables the amphibian immune response, investigators report.
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By Herp News
(From left) Mike Deddo, Turtle Wax Inc. Senior Research Chemist; Coley Frucci Turtle Wax Inc Vice President of Strategic Development; Don Dacay, Wilstark Marketing Corp. VP for Marketing; Ara Dacay, Wilstark Marketing Corp. Senior Vice President; Mario Dacay, Wilstark Marketing Corp President; and Dermot Maconaghie, Turtle Wax Inc …
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By Herp News
The amusing video was taken by Salvelio Mayer in his back garden in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He uploaded the footage onto YouTube and the clip has been viewed more than six million times.
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Every year kingsnake.com gets asked, “I want to hold a contest and give away a live animal, can I advertise this on your site?”
The answer is surprising to many: kingsnake.com and our other pet-related sites will not accept advertising for live animal contests.
No, it’s not because we don’t like contests.
Aside from the ethical problems raised by giving away live animals to people who may not, or cannot, care for them responsibly, many states have outlawed the practice, or limited the practice but regulate it in some manner. Some allow it with certain animals, and in certain circumstances, while others outlaw it completely.
Many of these laws have been on the books for decades, some having been written in response to specific problems. Often they were implemented in response to traveling carnivals that would offer goldfish, green iguanas, anolis lizards, turtles, or even baby alligators as inexpensive prizes in games of chance on the midway. Who hasn’t seen goldfish bowls at the carnival?
Most, if not all, of these animals died horrible deaths at the hands of owners ill-equipped to deal with them, many times unsupervised children, and over the years many states took action to make the practice illegal or to limit what could and couldn’t be offered as a prize.
Does your state have laws against animal giveaways? If so, you may be subject to criminal charges, either as the contest holder or the contest winner. What makes it even more dangerous and problematic is when the contests — and prizes — cross state lines. When that happens, a simple misdemeanor, can easily turn into a federal crime.
When a live animal contest crosses state lines, and the contest violates either the state laws of the contest holder or the prize winner, then according to the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, a violation of the federal Lacey Act statutes has occurred, regardless of the species involved. Thus a leopard gecko or ball python that may be 100 percent legal to purchase, keep, possess, and ship across state lines, is illegal as a contest prize instead of a purchase.
So, should you participate in live animal giveaway contests?
If you’re a responsible pet owner with experience in the species offered as a prize, and the contest does not violate your state or local laws, or the contest holder’s state laws, then there is nothing wrong with participating in a live animal giveaway. But do your homework first! Or that next “prize” might be more than you bargained for. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
The Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee has entered the scientific record. Experienced bullfrog “jockeys” at the event routinely get their frogs to jump much farther than researchers had ever measured in the lab. How? Decades of refined technique, uncommonly motivated humans and herps, and good old-fashioned large sample size.
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By Herp News
The first turtle tour for the season will begin on Saturday November 9, with bookings already under way and early signs looking positive.
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By Herp News
There are more than 5,000 different mammal species across the globe, but with this number being dwarfed by the 10,000 bird species, it is little wonder that bird-watching has become the most common wildlife watching hobby in the world. While there are thousands of websites dedicated to ornithology enthusiasts, with information detailing the best places to see particular species and how to find them, similar resources about mammals remain scarce.
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By Herp News
For three years, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has been running advertizing campaigns in Chinese cities to raise awareness on the true source of ivory: slaughtered elephants. A recent evaluation of the campaign by Rapid Asia found that 66 percent of those who saw the ads said they would “definitely” not buy ivory in the future.
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The sea turtles are here!
Every year in early fall, hundreds of olive ridley sea turtles hit the beaches on Mexico’s Pacific coast to lay their eggs.
Read all about it, and see the complete photo gallery, here.
Photo: Weather.com …read more
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By Herp News
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — In a story Oct. 14 about a turtle habitat cleanup day, The Associated Press erroneously reported the day of the event. It will be held Oct. 26, which is a Saturday, not a Sunday.
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By Herp News
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — In a story Oct. 14 about a turtle habitat cleanup day, The Associated Press erroneously reported the day of the event. It will be held Oct. 26, which is a Saturday, not a Sunday.
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By Herp News
Spending a year on the Tambopata River in Peru’s deep Amazon, allowed 22-year-old Tristan Thompson, to record stunning video of the much the region’s little seen, and little known, wildlife. Thompson, a student at the University of the West of England, has turned his footage into a new documentary An Untamed Wilderness that not only gives viewers an inside look at the world’s greatest forests, but also records the secretive behavior of many species, including howler monkeys, aracaris, leaf-cutter ants, hoatzin, and giant river otters.
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By Herp News
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — In a story Oct. 14 about a turtle habitat cleanup day, The Associated Press erroneously reported the day of the event. It will be held Oct. 26, which is a Saturday, not a Sunday.
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By Herp News
Beaver, bison and eagles are among the species that have made a successful comeback in Europe in the past 50 years, according to a major survey published by a coalition of conservation groups on Thursday. The report selected 37 species that have showed signs of recovery, studied changes in their numbers and range since 1960, and examined the reasons driving their comeback.
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You’ve wonder what Frankie been doing. It’s BIG! He is moving South to Mobile.
Moving is huge no matter if moving to an apartment in town, or moving a family into a house, or moving to a new state….well, you get the picture. Moving is tough.
Add Frankie to the mix.
Yeah, you got it. It’s even tougher.
Finding that perfect sulcata friendly house was not easy. There had to be a yard….a big yard. And a fence….a privacy fence. A garage….a garage is really needed in case there is a storm or it get’s too cold or any other reason that requires bringing Frankie inside.
Things happen that require bringing a 100 pound sulcata tortoise inside.
I am a bit befuddled why we bought a house with no garage and no fence.
Greg is going to build a fence.
There is no such thing as a temporary fence for a 100 pound sulcata. There is no garage to put Frankie until the fence is build. Besides, we already know what happens when Frankie is kept indoors.
Which explains why Frankie and I are still living in Birmingham. We don’t get to move South until the fence is built.
All of that pales in comparison to one more detail: moving said 100 pound sulcata. If you happen to be an owner of a large sulcata you are already gritting your teeth.
Five hours in car. Do you know what a 100 pound sulcata tortoise will do to a car’s interior during that time?
If you own a large sulcata you already know. If you don’t own a large sulcata, it’s like tossing an angry, blind folded Wolverine into a compact car.
We’re working on a strategy.
The best so far is to wait until Frankie goes to bed for the night in his “cave”, board up the front, strap the whole thing on a flat bed truck and drive to Mobile.
Really, it’s not a bad idea. We are still considering other ways.
I promise to take pictures.
Until the fateful day Frankie is enjoying Fall in Birmingham. Lots of walking, grazing, sleeping. When Frankie does make it to Mobile he can enjoy Fall all over again.
27 days and counting.
Frankie enjoying Fall in Birmingham, AL.
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Read more here: Turtle Times
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By Herp News
A reptile rescue organization in suburban Cleveland is caring for nearly 100 snakes and lizards seized from a northeast Ohio home and has sent several more to a Kentucky zoo.
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Regeneration of lost organs or body parts is the stuff of science fiction, but it’s also science fact. At the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, researchers are studying the many species that can regenerate cells in their body, and hoping to find information humans can benefit from, too.
From a Las Vegas Sun interview with UNLV researcher Kelly Tseng:
Most people don’t know that tadpoles can regenerate their tails — and very quickly. It usually takes seven to 14 days. Planaria, which are flatworms, can be cut into pieces, each of which will regenerate. Zebrafish can regenerate their heart, even if on-third of it is cut away. Antlers of a moose can grow two centimeters a day, which is the fastest rate of organ regeneration. Salamanders are basically the champion of regeneration. They can grow back a limb, a tail, their retina, even part of their brain.
It’s really amazing, all these animals with abilities we would like to have.
The full story is here.
Photo: Las Vegas Sun …read more
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By Herp News
WHITEWATER — Reports of a “humongous” “200-year-old” desert tortoise who was struck and killed Sunday on the I-10 freeway near Whitewater drew nationwide interest, but it turns out that the tortoise’s age and size may have been more of a guesstimate than actual fact.
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By Herp News
A large animal believed to be a desert tortoise was killed Sunday as it wandered onto Interstate 10 in an unincorporated area of Riverside County.
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My two turtles (one girl one boy) keep digging in the rocks. I’m sure if they want to find something, or probably they want to escape. I tried researching why they were digging but I got multiple answers that almost all made sense! ![[:meh]](http://i1.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_meh.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
They eat ALOT so I don’t think they are hungry, please answer! Any advice? ![[:STN]](http://i1.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_stn.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
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Read more here: Turtle Times
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By Herp News
We go ears-on with Turtle Beach's pro gaming headset, but is it worth the cost?
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By Herp News
So, here I am, running in a forest at night over 2,000 miles from home. This forest—dry, stout, and thorny enough to draw blood—lies just a few miles north of a rural town in the western edge of the Dominican Republic on the border with Haiti. I’m following—or trying to keep pace with—a local hunter and guide as we search for one of the world’s most bizarre mammals. It’s an animal few people have heard of, let alone actually seen; even most Dominicans don’t readily recognize its name or picture. But I’ve been obsessed with it for six years: it’s called a “solenodon,” more accurately the Hispaniolan solenodon or its (quite appropriate) scientific name, Solenodon paradoxus.
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Check out this video “Snake Hunting 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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