By Herp News

Certain closed-end funds managed by Tortoise Capital Advisors declared the following distributions today:

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By Herp News

A biological survey of forests slated for destruction for a palm oil project in Cameroon has uncovered 23 species of large mammals, including the world’s most endangered chimpanzee subspecies, the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti). The project in question, operated by U.S.-based company Herakles Farms, has come under stiff criticism both locally and abroad for threatening one of Africa’s most biologically rich forest lands and arguably undercutting local peoples’ access to traditional lands.

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By Herp News

The New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources has obtained a warrant to search the Reptile Ocean building in Campbellton where two boys died Monday after apparently being strangled by a python that escaped an enclosure.

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By Herp News

About 15 animals will be seized from the Reptile Ocean building in Campbellton where two boys died Monday after apparently being strangled by a python that escaped an enclosure.

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In yet more news about just why rattlesnakes are so vital to our ecology, the “magazine of the west,” Cowboys and Indians, tries to explain why human fear and persecution of these animals are so misguided:

While it’s not especially natural to empathize with beady-eyed creatures that have been demonized throughout history and rounded up for mass killing, the idea that “the only good snake is a dead snake” is an erroneous one, says Steven J. Beaupre, Ph.D., a biology professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Snakes play an important role in sustaining the earth’s fragile balance of nature, and, although often unjustly persecuted, they offer humans many benefits. For example, according to the National Institutes of Health, snakes are the prized research animals for some scientists seeking better treatments for such disorders as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer.

“Serious diseases lurk in nature, and healthy ecosystems provide protective effects. Rattlesnakes exactly fit the bill,” Beaupre says. “They’re critically important natural rodent-control agents and voracious small-animal predators that help keep rodent-born diseases like hantavirus and bubonic plague in check.”

Beaupre also says Arkansas timber rattlesnakes may actually help control Lyme disease by consuming large numbers of white-footed mice that carry the bacterial infection. “Plus, any rancher who stores grain knows how devastating rodents can be to his supply,” he notes.

In a world where snakes are villified even when they are harmless and doing nothing but trying to avoid humans, and rattlesnakes are abused and tortured in the name of “entertainment” at “rattlesnake round-ups,” those are words herpers and animal advocates alike should take to heart.

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

Organization has advocated that large constricting snakes be banned as pets for safety reasons, because they can carry disease and because they are stripped from their own habitat

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By Herp News

It wasn't your garden-variety New Mexico lizard that Thomas Sullivan found hiding in the bushes.

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SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida police officer saved nearly 100 baby sea turtles when he gathered the newly hatched creatures from a hotel parking lot and street and released them into the Gulf of Mexico.

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By Herp News

Aug. 6, 2013: A Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser sits outside the Reptile Ocean exotic pet store in Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada. AP/The Canadian Press

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Hate ticks? Hate Lyme disease? Then embrace the rattlesnake.

Researchers at the University of Maryland discovered that the Eastern timber rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus, keeps the ticks that cause Lyme disease in check by eating the rodents they’re attached to.

From the UMD release:

Human cases of Lyme disease, a bacterial illness that can cause serious neurological problems if left untreated, are on the rise. The disease is spread by black-legged ticks, which feed on infected mice and other small mammals. Foxes and other mammal predators help control the disease by keeping small mammal populations in check. The decline of these mammal predators may be a factor in Lyme disease’s prevalence among humans.

Timber rattlers are also top predators in Eastern forests, and their numbers are also falling, so former University of Maryland graduate student Edward Kabay wanted to know whether the rattlers also play a role in controlling Lyme disease.

Kabay used published studies of timber rattlers’ diets at four Eastern forest sites to estimate the number of small mammals the snakes consume, and matched that with information on the average number of ticks each small mammal carried. The results showed that each timber rattler removed 2,500-4,500 ticks from each site annually.

Because not every human bitten by an infected tick develops Lyme disease, the team did not estimate how many people are spared the disease because of the ecosystem service that timber rattlesnakes provide. But Kabay, who is now a science teacher at East Chapel Hill High School, and his research colleagues will talk about the human health implications of their work at 4:20 pm today (Aug. 6) in Room 1011 of the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Timber rattlesnakes are listed as endangered in six states and threatened in five more under the Endangered Species Act.

“Habitat loss, road kills, and people killing them out of fear are the big issues,” said University of Maryland Associate Biology Prof. Karen Lips. “They are non-aggressive and rarely bite unless provoked or stepped upon.”

Photo: Edward Kabay/UMD …read more
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By Herp News

The bushmeat markets of Lao PDR (Laos) are filled with racks of wild game harvested both legally and illegally from the surrounding landscapes. While these meat markets certainly provide local protein to patrons, for wildlife biologists they offer something more. These bizarre zoological exhibits are a rich source of information about wildlife populations and wildlife consumption in remote areas.

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By Herp News

The death of two young children who died after a large python escaped from a pet store has prompted shock and outrage across the country, from people who wonder how a creature could have been allowed to inflict such tragedy. … Continue reading →

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By Herp News

Police in Canada are looking into the deaths of two young boys who appear to have been strangled by an exotic snake.

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By Herp News

Parametric Sound Corporation , a leading innovator of audio products and solutions, today announced that a joint presentation describing the pending merger with Turtle Beach is available on the Company's …

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Pet owners never like to leave their pets behind when they travel — but only the obsessed few try to smuggle them onto an airplane disguised as a hamburger.

From the South China Morning Post News:

A man tried to smuggle his pet turtle through security in Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport by hiding it in a KFC hamburger.

The incident occurred on the morning of July 29, when a man, surnamed Li, was about to board China Southern Airlines flight 345 to Beijing, Guangzhou Daily reported. As Li passed through airport security, X-ray screening machines detected a few “odd protrusions” sticking out of a KFC burger that the man had packed in his bag.

Airport staff determined that the protrusions looked suspiciously like turtle limbs, and asked to inspect Li’s luggage.

“There’s no turtle in there, just a hamburger,” Li reportedly insisted. “There’s nothing special to see inside.”

Li finally acquiesced to an inspection after repeated requests from airport staff, who uncovered the pet turtle hidden inside the burger. When asked why he had devised this strange idea, Li said that he had only wanted to travel together with his “beloved” turtle.

Read the rest of the story here.

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By Herp News

By Victoria Cavaliere (Reuters) – Two young brothers found dead in an apartment over a reptile store in New Brunswick, Canada, were believed to have been strangled by a snake that escaped its enclosure and slithered into the building's ventilation system, police said on Monday. The boys, ages 5 and 7, were sleeping over at a friend's apartment above Reptile Ocean in the city of Campbellton …

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By Herp News

By KATE STANTON, UPI.com A large snake — thought to be a boa constrictor but later identified as a python — strangled two Canadian boys in their sleep.

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By Herp News

Conservationists seek help from the public to find out more about Scotland's snake, toad and lizard populations.

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By Herp News

By Victoria Cavaliere (Reuters) – Two young brothers found dead in an apartment over a reptile store in New Brunswick, Canada, were believed to have been strangled by a snake that escaped its enclosure and slithered into the building's ventilation system, police said on Monday. The boys, ages 5 and 7, were sleeping over at a friend's apartment above Reptile Ocean in the city of Campbellton …

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By Herp News

Parametric Sound Corporation , a leading innovator of audio products and solutions, and Turtle Beach, the market leader in video game audio, today announced that the companies have reached a Definitive …

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Details are few and changing, but the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that two children ages 5 and 7 are dead after a large python escaped its enclosure in the pet store below their apartment overnight in the town of Campbellton, New Brunswick.

According to the constable, it is thought the python entered the upstairs apartment through the ventilation system. “It’s believed the two boys were strangled by the snake,” she said. It is unknown at this time what type of snake is involved, which was initially reported as a boa constrictor.

For the latest info please check the CBC website or check back here.
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By Herp News

Gary Schmelz, in a Journey to the Edge of Eden, takes us through a wonderful personal account of the conservation history of Southwest Florida. Journey to the Edge of Eden is one part personal memoir similar to the English naturalist Gerald Durrell and one part Florida conservation history. With hilarious stories of unintended naturalist misadventures and recounting conservation “as it happened,” a Journey to the Edge of Eden is one of those rare books you read in a coffee shop and with gusto and pride while laughing along out loud at Gary Schmelz stories.

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Check out this video “Field Herping Adventure,” submitted by kingsnake.com user smetlogik.
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

Fire breaks out in reptile house at Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian Reptiles, insects and an otter died after a fire broke out at a Scottish zoo in the early hours of Sunday. Around 50 firefighters tackled the blaze at the reptile house of Five Sisters Zoo in Polbeth, West Lothian, after the alarm was raised at about 4am. Lesley Coupar, from marketing and visitor services at the zoo, described …

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By Herp News

A dead lizard was found in the mid-day meal served to children at a school in Berhampur district in Odisha on Saturday.

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By Herp News

A number of parks, beaches and conservation groups around the state run programs where nature-lovers can learn about the phenomenon and even watch baby turtles.

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By Herp News

Beating some long odds, biologists and volunteers this week returned a 300-pound loggerhead sea turtle to the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston. The endangered turtle was emaciated when discovered on the island's West Beach in early June, said Lyndsey Howell, research fishery biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Galveston. At sunset Wednesday, biologists from NOAA and …

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By Herp News

GUANGZHOU, China, Aug. 2 (UPI) — Authorities in China said a man tried to smuggle his pet turtle onto an airplane by hiding it inside of a hamburger.

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By Herp News

Two-headed turtle Thelma and Louise now has two things in common with its namesake: Texas and celebrity status. The bisephalic Texas cooter, born at the San Antonio Zoo on June 18, is now certifiably Facebook famous with over 3,200 followers and counting.

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By Herp News

By VERONICA LINARES, UPI.com A man got caught trying to smuggle his pet turtle past airport security at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China.

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By Herp News

If you see a box turtle in New York, don’t pick it up and help it on its way; it probably already knows where it’s going.        

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By Herp News

Researchers are conducting some of the first ever scientific studies of neonate pine snakes, performing snake surgery for radio tracking and helping snakes survive road crossings through the busy New Jersey shore traffic.

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By Herp News

This is the second such incident within week in the school located in Hinjili, the Assembly constituency of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

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By Herp News

Earlier, on July 25, a lizard was found in soya curry before it was served in the same school.

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By Herp News

This is the second such incident within week in the school located in Hinjili, the Assembly constituency of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

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By Herp News

A dead lizard was found in the mid-day meal for the second time in a week, at a primary school at Hinjili in Odisha's Ganjam district today, officials said.

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By Herp News

A dead lizard was found in the mid-day meal at a primary school in Odisha Friday, an official said.

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By Herp News

Bhubaneswar, Aug 2 (IANS) A dead lizard was found in the mid-day meal at a primary school in Odisha Friday, an official said.

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Welcome to August!

kingsnake.com and RodentPro.com will be displaying the kingsnake.com Zombiehunter Snake Hunting Truck at the entrance to this years National Reptile Breeders Expo in Daytona Beach. kingsnake.com will also be handing out their free “I brake for snakes, not Zombies” bumper stickers and RodentPro discount coupons.

Join us from 10 am to 3 pm Saturday, August 18, and Sunday, August 19, outside the main entrance of the Ocean Center, grab a bumper sticker and a coupon — while supplies last! — and have your picture taken with the giant Zombiehunter truck!

The National Reptile Breeders Expo, one of the largest and oldest reptile and amphibian community events, will start in Daytona Beach on Thursday, August 15, and run through Sunday, August 19, at the Daytona Beach Hilton and the Ocean Center, on Atlantic Avenue.

For a full schedule of events, travel information and more, please visit their website! …read more
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I have not been around on the site much, been busy and havent had access to a computer. I do however still keep turtles and tortoises. I made new threads under box turtles, and tortoises sections. I’m currently working on a new outdoor enclosure and hopefully a small pond. Also still have my website up, been up for years now lol… i still update it and its probably where i spend most my time. I am planning on coming back to turtletimes once again and become a active member once again. Till next time

Kyle …read more
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