By Herp News
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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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
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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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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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
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
Boaters in Notre Dame Bay came upon a large animal in distress at Tea Arm near Pleasantview Sunday.
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By Herp News
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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By Herp News
Officer reportedly forced to shoot reptile to protect fellow patrolmen, chickens
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By Herp News
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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By Herp News
Reports of large reptile in Connecticut town are true: Officer kills lizard menacing chickens
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By Herp News
Reports of large reptile in Connecticut town are true: Officer kills lizard menacing chickens
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By Herp News
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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By Herp News
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
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
LAS VEGAS — For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence.
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By Herp News
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.
Photo: kingsnake.com user TonyC130 …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
Desert tortoise faces threat from its own refuge as BLM closes Vegas rescue center
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By Herp News
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? ![[:turtle]](http://i2.wp.com/www.turtletimes.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_smile_turtle_125.gif?w=560){kind=icon}
[:!2] …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
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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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By Herp News
A reptile store owner under investigation for criminal negligence in the deaths of two boys after a large python escaped its enclosure had blood on his hands and shorts when police arrived at the scene in Campbellton, N.B., according to newly released court documents.
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By Herp News
Fitch Ratings assigns an 'AAA' rating to the following notes outstanding by three closed-end funds managed by Tortoise Capital Advisors, LLC:
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By Herp News
The owner of a 5ft long lizard who was the subject of a police appeal after he went missing has spoken about her pet's escape.
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By Herp News
A reptile store owner under investigation for criminal negligence in the deaths of two boys after a large python escaped its enclosure had blood on his hands and shorts when police arrived at the scene in Campbellton, N.B., according to newly released court documents.
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By Herp News
A brave turtle has been spotted hitching a ride on the back of a freshwater crocodile in a north Qld river.
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You’re frozen solid, your heart’s stopped beating, and you haven’t breathed in days. You’re dead, right? Not if you’re an Alaskan wood frog.
The amphibian — an Arctic population of the wood frog, Rana sylvatica — can tolerate being frozen, heart and respiration both stopped, for days or even weeks at a time. Scientists found that they could survive temperatures down to 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit, while they’re Midwestern cousins could only come back from a balmy 24.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
All of which is super cool, of course, but it has a practical, and potentially human-lifesaving application, as well.
From National Geographic:
Beyond being fascinating science, the ability to freeze and unfreeze living organs and tissues without damaging them has potentially profound implications for areas such as organ transplantation.
“There’s an obvious parallel between what these frogs are doing to preserve all of their tissues simultaneously and our need to be able to cryopreserve human organs for tissue-matching purposes,” said [researcher Jon] Costanzo, noting that attempts to successfully freeze human organs for transplants have so far proved unsuccessful, perhaps due to their relative size and cellular complexity.
“If you could freeze human organs even for a short period of time, that would be a major breakthrough because then these organs could be shipped around the world, which would greatly [improve] the donor-matching process,” noted Costanzo.
Read the rest here.
Photo: A wood frog in New Jersey, by kingsnake.com user BryanD. …read more
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By Herp News
Byline: The Lizard lifeboat was tasked last night (Tuesday 20 August) to assist the 10 metre yacht Gemma with two people onboard that had suffered gear box problems and was becalmed. Page Content: The yacht was approximately 23 miles southeast of Lizard Point when they called Falmouth Coastguard to ask for assistance. The Lizard lifeboat had already launched on a routine exercise when it was …
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By Herp News
Kopp joins O'Malley in approving deal over Franchot's 'no' vote Kopp joins O'Malley in approving deal over Franchot's no vote
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By Herp News
Balikpapan. Conservation activists have warned of a massive increase in thefts of turtle eggs in the past month […]
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By Herp News
Turtle, India’s leading menswear lifestyle brand has today set its foot in the fashion capital of the country. With the launch of their first exclusive outlet in the city the brand is all set to raise the fashion quotient of Mumbai even higher.
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By Herp News
MICHIGAN CITY—The 7th annual Washington Park Zoo Reptile Day on Saturday attempted to prove that snakes are not that bad once you get to know them.
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By Herp News
Court documents show the owner of a Campbellton, N.B. reptile store is being investigated for criminal negligence causing death, after a large python escaped its enclosure and killed two young boys a few weeks ago.
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By Herp News
The hellbender, an enormous reptile that resembles a Loch Ness monster, has just been re-introduced to New York State. Continue reading →
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By Herp News
Kopp joins O'Malley in approving deal over Franchot's no vote Kopp joins O'Malley in approving deal over Franchot's no vote
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By Herp News
Tortoise Capital Advisors has been named one of the 2013 Best Places to Work by the Kansas City Business Journal. The company premiered in this year’s Medium Company category.
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By Herp News
Raising young lemurs in communal crèches benefits both mothers and offspring, a new study has found. Andrea Baden and colleagues, of Yale University, studied a group of black-and-white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata) in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. This is the first study to examine the consequences of different parenting strategies in the ruffed lemur.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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The CDC reports that cases of Lyme disease have been skyrocketing around the United States — but not in California, thanks to the western fence lizard.
From the LA Times:
The CDC report might lead health authorities to accelerate the research and approval of a Lyme vaccine. Promising results were found earlier this year on one vaccine under development. That would be a popular item in prime Lyme disease territory, largely the Northeast and northern Midwest states where up to 30% of deer ticks carry the infection. Almost all cases of the disease — 96% — occur in 13 states.
California isn’t among them, and one reason for that is that we have, in a sense, our own little natural vaccine program going. In this state, nymphal ticks’ favorite host is the common western fence lizard, which has a protein in it blood that kills the bacterium responsible for Lyme. As a result, few adult ticks are carriers.
Read the full story here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
Researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have recently developed a list of “Priority Primate Areas” to save Tanzania’s many primate species from extinction. A hub of unique and endangered primates, Tanzania is widely considered to be the most important mainland country for primate diversity in Africa. Approximately a third of the 27 primate species found in Tanzania are unique to the country, including the recently discovered kipunji.
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By Herp News
Researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have recently developed a list of “Priority Primate Areas” to save Tanzania’s many primate species from extinction. A hub of unique and endangered primates, Tanzania is widely considered to be the most important mainland country for primate diversity in Africa. Approximately a third of the 27 primate species found in Tanzania are unique to the country, including the recently discovered kipunji.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
As sea ice levels continue to decline in the northern hemisphere, scientists are observing an unsettling trend in harp seal young mortalities regardless of juvenile fitness. While a recent study found that in harp seal breeding regions ice cover decreased by up to 6% a decade from 1979 on, a follow-up study in PLoS ONE compared the rate of harp seal strandings to total ice cover from 1992 to 2010.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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