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A reptile rescuer said he has removed an increasing number of illegal, deadly snakes and even alligators from homes in Utah.

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Officials hope the second reptile amnesty day will stop people from releasing alligators into the wild on LI.

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A large wild snapping turtle is back in its natural habitat, after animal services officers in Winnipeg rescued it near an Elmwood intersection this morning.

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A sea turtle returned to the Gulf this morning after being rescued from a crab trap and treated by the Mote Marine Laboratory.

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This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on Aug. 30, 2013 and cumulativ

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A large wild snapping turtle is back in its natural habitat, after animal services officers in Winnipeg rescued it near an Elmwood intersection this morning.

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Investigators release photos of a man disturbing an endangered loggerhead sea turtle nest on Casey Key

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The Bronx may not be the first place that comes to mind for saving threatened species, but for the eastern hellbender salamander, it’s working out just fine.

That’s the word from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, which just oversaw the release of 38 juvenile hellbenders into their native habitat in western New York State.

From Scientific American:
The release is the latest step in an effort to help boost the wild population of the eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis), a threatened subspecies of giant salamander that is not yet endangered but faces a shrinking population and what appears to be a dangerously low birth rate in the wild. “We don’t have a lot of recruitment of young animals,” says Don Boyer, the Bronx Zoo’s curator of herpetology, who has watched the hellbenders grow since he joined the organization two years ago and who took the recent journey to western New York for the animals’ release. “It seems like the younger stages of the hellbender are more vulnerable,” Boyer says. “The head-starting, while it’s not a solution, may help get the hellbenders through that critical juvenile phase and put them back in the system.”
Read the full story here.

Photo: Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society …read more
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By Herp News

Investigators release photos of a man disturbing an endangered loggerhead sea turtle nest on Casey Key.

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Fishing communities on Agatti Island in Lakshwadeep, India, blame their reduced fish catch on green turtles; according to them, green turtles chomp their way through the seagrass beds lining the shallow reef waters that are essential for fish to breed. This leads some in the community to clandestinely kill sea turtles and destroy their nests.

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A collection of hatchlings are ready to make the trip out to sea. Published: Thursday, August 29, 2013 at 14:38 PM.

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In Contra Costa County in San Francisco’s East Bay, a pair of scammers have pulled off a string of burglaries, claiming to be animal control officers checking the property for snakes.

From The Contra Costa Times:

The incident, reported in Hayward, is one of three incidents in as many days that scammers tricked their way into homes to check for reptiles. Earlier burglaries took place in Union City and Fremont, police said.

Officers were called about 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 22 to a home in the 2200 block of Bennington Lane after a woman reported her home had been burglarized, said Hayward police Sgt. Mark Ormsby.

The victim told police that a suspect posing as a Hayward Animal Control Officer came to her home wearing a green uniform and said he needed to check her backyard for snake eggs. While the victim was in the backyard with the suspect, a second suspect entered the home and stole property. Police did not say what was taken or how much it was worth.

Read the full story here. …read more
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By Herp News

A police officer shot a monitor lizard to death as it was attacking chickens at a Ledyard resident's home.

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It will take more than a village to successfully re-introduce the Eastern indigo snake in Alabama’s Conecuh National Forest. It will take careful science, cooperation between academia, non-profits, and government, a lot of community outreach and education, and luck.

From a report on the project from the Living Alongside Wildlife blog:

We have had to trust that these lab-raised, perhaps ecologically naïve, snakes would possess the innate behaviors needed to integrate into the natural framework of finding shelter, avoiding predators, foraging and capturing prey, surviving the winter, reaching maturity, finding mates, reproducing, and so forth. Thus far the indications are that the snakes are hitting the ground with the needed intrinsic behaviors.

We can also view this reintroduction to be successful on a partnership level. Academic institution, state and federal agencies, and non-profit conservation and educational organizations have come together for the benefit of the eastern indigo snake. Auburn University has been at the center with research and implementation but the project would not have been possible without support and contributions from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, The Orianne Society, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service, Zoo Atlanta, and Ft. Stewart (U.S. Army).

Eastern Indigo Snakes freely roaming the forest have opened up an avenue of educational opportunities. Snakes, nor any other organism, recognize artificial human boundaries, and our indigo snakes have on many occasions made this very evident. Not too distant from the release area is the Blue Lake Camp, a rustic camp of the United Methodist Church. Within a few weeks at least one snake found their way to the camp. As readers of this blog know, the appearance of a snake on a property is often met with a hoe, shovel, or firearm, but not in this instance. Having a radio transmitter allowed Jimmy and Sierra, our Conecuh ambassadors of snake education, to locate the snake(s) on the property, speak with managers of the camp, and illuminate the importance of the snakes. The fact that they eat Copperheads was not downplayed.

Ultimately the Eastern Indigo Snakes must be accepted by the human visitors of Conecuh National Forest. Being a national forest dictates a multi-use approach, and the visitors to the forest span all of society. Signs have been posted within the forest to alert and educate visitors of the presence of the indigo snake. Some will see the presence of the indigo snake as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience first-hand an iconic ruler of the longleaf pine ecosystem, others, unfortunately, not so much. But when we set forth with this reintroduction effort we made the decision that snake persecution would be a real possibility and that information and education were the best tools to combat it.

Read the rest here, including a great explanation of using telemetry to monitor introduced populations.
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By Herp News

The reptile exhibit at the Saint John Exhibition is drawing mixed reactions from some patrons, who think it is occurring too soon after the tragic deaths of two young brothers in Campbellton.

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If you love snakes, you may want to check out the reptile education demonstration at the New York State fair. Our Lisa Chelenza got a sneak peek.

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Organizations within the international conservation community are joining forces to minimize impending extinctions in Southeast Asia, where habitat loss, trade and hunting have contributed to a dramatic decline in wildlife. The coalition is aptly named ASAP, or the Asian Species Action Partnership.

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Snapping turtles are surviving in urban areas as their natural habitats are being polluted or developed for construction projects. One solution is for people to stop using so many chemicals that are eventually dumped into the waterways, a scientist said.

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Find out why researchers believe the problems of the Indian River Lagoon will not affect the nesting activities of sea turtles along the Treasure Coast.

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Wildlife smuggler, Ousame Diallo, who has admitted to illegally trafficking 500 endangered chimpanzees out of the Republic of Guinea, was sentenced to a year in prison in the West African country reports WWF. The arrest and charge was supported by INTERPOL and to anti-wildlife trafficking local group, GALF.

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An assortment of marine animals and birds reside along the black volcanic sand beaches of Guatemala’s Pacific coast, but lately both residents and visitors on the southeast beaches of the country have observed a tragic event – the stranding of dead sea turtles.
Eighty dead sea turtles have been recorded since the first week of July.

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Polka-dotted and striped. Massive but docile. That’s the whale shark for you – the largest fish and shark in the world. But despite being major tourist attractions, the lives of these awe-inspiring creatures of the ocean remain far from being demystified. However, a team of researchers from Australia may now have some answers to where these whale sharks (Rhinocodon typus) occur.

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The state of Florida is asking for help from the public in determining whether the Florida Pine Snake, the Southern Hognose Snake, and the Short Tailed Snake should be placed on the federal endangered species list. The three snakes are considered at risk due to habitat destruction.

The project involves GPS mapping of sitings, and the information can be reported on the FWC website. For more background, including how to identify and report each of the snakes, click here.

Photo: Southern Hognose Snake/Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission …read more
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Boaters in Notre Dame Bay came upon a large animal in distress at Tea Arm near Pleasantview Sunday.

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LEDYARD, Conn. – The story of a large reptile roaming this rural town was no urban legend. Police said a Ledyard officer shot a monitor lizard to death Sunday afternoon, …

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Officer reportedly forced to shoot reptile to protect fellow patrolmen, chickens

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The story of a large reptile roaming this rural town was no urban legend. Police say a Ledyard officer shot a monitor lizard to death Sunday afternoon, after a resident called 911 to report what she believed to be an alligator attacking the chickens in her coop.

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Reports of large reptile in Connecticut town are true: Officer kills lizard menacing chickens        

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Reports of large reptile in Connecticut town are true: Officer kills lizard menacing chickens        

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The two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean (just off the coast of Venezuela) may be smaller than Delaware, but it has had an outsized role in the history of rainforest conservation as well as our understanding of tropical ecology. Home to an astounding number of tropical ecosystems and over 3,000 species and counting (including 470 bird species in just 2,000 square miles), Trinidad and Tobago is an often overlooked gem in the world’s biodiversity.

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For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence. Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It's been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. …

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Check out this video “Turtle Pond Design,” submitted by kingsnake.com user ski1713911.
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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LAS VEGAS — For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence.

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Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they've been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in'90.

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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced it will kill hundreds of threatened desert tortoises it’s been caring for at a Nevada conservation facility. The slaughter is being blamed on a lack of funds by the agency.

Real estate developers in southern Nevada who wanted to disrupt the habitat of threatened desert tortoises to build their little enclaves of air conditioning and irrigation in the arid suburbs of Las Vegas have been able to do so — for a fee. And while at the height of the real estate boom those fees went a long way toward providing refuge for displaced tortoises, the real estate bust has seen the program implode.

From the Washington Post:

Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they’ve been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990.

“It’s the lesser of two evils, but it’s still evil,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy Averill-Murray during a visit to the soon-to-be-shuttered reserve at the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley last week.

Read more here. And weep.

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Desert tortoise faces threat from its own refuge as BLM closes Vegas rescue center        

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A loggerhead sea turtle dubbed “Taco” was returned to the ocean in Islamorada, off a posh Florida Keys resort Friday, after three months of rehabilitation at the local Turtle Hospital for an intestinal infection.

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recently a freind of mine brought her female red eared slider over to compare with my male slider. ever since that visit trevor has been slow and eating at odd intervals. i did let him spend some time alone with the female. should i expect hatchlings soon? [:!2] …read more
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Old school herpers like myself are prone to “do it yourself” projects simply because we grew up in an era when products specifically designed for reptile owners were either too basic, or simply not available at all, and thus we quite often were left with no choice but to “do it yourself.” Although this mindset still occurs in herp breeders young and old, there are times when doing it yourself might be the least expensive option, but not the best.

Take, for instance, a mouse breeding rack.

In the past my racks have all been hand made, essentially nothing more than tubs resting on wooden shelves, screen tops made of wood and hardware cloth, and individual water bottles, one per cage. This system worked well for what it was but as you expanded the system became harder to clean and maintain, and harder and longer to work. Individual water bottles had to be filled on a regular basis, replaced on a regular basis, and the rodents had a habit of chewing the plastic tops. Wooden screen tops had to be made by hand, and all that hardware cloth was bound to rip, tear, and puncture skin no matter how thick the gloves you used. Worst of all, the wood could never be cleaned adequately, or in the case of a disease outbreak, sterilized, and thus if your colony was struck by illness you had to replace much of your caging materials as well as your breeding colony.

Today most of the troubles and problems I experienced with my “do it yourself” racks can be avoided by purchasing a commercial mouse breeding unit. Designed to eliminate many of the problems and issues home built racks have, modern breeding racks are industrial strength units designed to be worked easily, and cleaned thoroughly. Made of aluminum, steel and plastic these racks are manufactured by a number of different companies, and most all are sturdy well built units designed to offset their high cost by providing years of solid service.

After reviewing a number of breeder rack units, we settled on the rodent breeder racks made by Freedom Breeder, one of the oldest and most established cage companies in the reptile community. Founded by Lindy Johnson, and run by his son Jeff, Freedom Breeder was one of the first companies offering commercial caging and equipment to the reptile industry and their cages are used by some of the top names in the reptile industry and the company has maintained a solid reputation. The name Freedom Breeder on a rack is as good as having the name Sterling on silver.

When our Freedom Breeder Rodent 50 unit arrived on the 18 wheeler, it had to be moved via a pallet jack it was so large and heavy. Arriving mostly assembled it took approximately an hour to get it unstrapped from the pallet, wheels installed, and watering system hooked up. Only a wrench was needed …read more
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By Herp News

Rare, endangered sea turtle is spotted off British coast after getting lost while swimming more than 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.        

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