By Herp News
Adamanteus the golden retriever rested on the floor feet from a table of piles of venomous snakes on Saturday at Repticon, a reptile and exotic animals convention and sales show.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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What likely drove the crash-causing turtle
By Herp News
The yellow-spotted green turtle that sparked mayhem this week on a Jersey Shore route may have left its home in the woods because of recent heavy rains or because of a strong nesting instinct.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Snapping turtle jaywalks on Bathurst Street
By Herp News
Snappy the turtle was out for a stroll when he landed a dress shirt and a free ride to the local pond. The 50-pound snapping turtle was crossing Bathurst St., near Elgin Mills Rd. W., in Richmond Hill around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, when Samantha Butler scooped him up, put him in her trunk and gave him the shirt off her back — a pink-and-white striped Joe Fresh dress shirt, to be exact. Butler, a …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Cool snake, or coolest snake ever?
Given the sheer tonnage of snakes Bryan Grieg Fry has seen up close and personal in his decades as a venom researcher, the accolade “coolest snake I’ve ever seen” has to impress us at kingsnake.com just as much it did as the guys at NatGeo.
From National Geographic:
The creature he’s talking is new to science, having only been described in 2006. It’s the spider-tailed viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides) and it is aptly named.
The tail is bizarre. If you saw a close-up photo of it, you’d struggle to believe that there was a snake at the other end. There’s a large orange or grey bulb at the tip, and the scales just before that are bizarrely long and thin. Together, these features look a bit like the legs and abdomen of a spider or their close relatives, the solpugids or ‘camel spiders’.
The resemblance is even more striking when the snake moves. It keeps the rest of the tail still, while moving the tip in a disconcertingly jerky way.
Read the rest, and watch video, here.
Photo: Omid Mozaffari/National Geographic …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Sea turtle hospital may come to Whitney Marine Lab
By Herp News
The University of Florida plans to build a sea turtle rehabilitation hospital at Whitney Marine Lab to target fibropapilloma, a viral disease that maims and kills sea turtles.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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North Carolina’s Southern Cricket Frog populations declining
By Herp News
A recent survey report confirmed that the nation’s amphibians, including frogs, toads and salamanders, are disappearing “at an alarming and rapid rate.” A biologist has found that North Carolina’s Southern Cricket Frog populations mirror this disturbing national trend.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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5 men rescued, 1 killed, after 5-day Sumatran tiger standoff
By Herp News
Five men were finally rescued on Monday after spending five days trapped in a tree by a group of Sumatran tigers. A team of around 30 people rescued the men after several tiger tamers were able to lure the animals away using chants and mantras. The men were attacked inside Aceh’s Gunung Leuser National Park by a mother tiger after accidentally killing its cub in a trap the group had set to hunt deer. The tiger killed one of the men, 28-year-old David, and forced the others to escape up a tree.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Snakes devour more mosquito-eating birds as climate change heats forests
By Herp News
Rising temperatures threaten wild birds, including the Missouri-native Acadian flycatcher, by making snakes more active, according to biologists. They noted that farmers, public health officials and wildlife managers should be aware of complex indirect effects of climate change in addition to the more obvious influences of higher temperatures and irregular weather patterns.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Turtle Diary
By Herp News
A poignant novel of two lost souls and a dream of freedom, from the author of “Riddley Walker.”
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Rehabilitated sea turtle comes 'home' to SeaWorld Orlando
After a two-year rehab stint at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi, Big Mama — a 245-pound loggerhead sea turtle — has moved into her new digs at SeaWorld Orlando, where she’ll be helping to educate people about her species and threats to wildlife.
From BayNews9:
Big Mama was transported to SeaWorld Orlando from Mississippi where she had been receiving care since she was rescued after an oil spill in 2010 off the coast of Louisiana. Big Mama suffered severe bite wounds to her front and hind flippers making it difficult for her to swim properly. In 2012, Big Mama was deemed non-releasable by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and due to space limitations, IMMS could no longer care for Big Mama.
Read more here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Why nature likes rare morphs more than common
A University of Michigan biologist may have unlocked the secret of polymorphism and survival in snakes.
From the University of Michigan:
If a mimicry system offers protection from predators, then why hasn’t evolution eliminated the “failed mimics,” such as ground snakes sporting color patterns that don’t remotely resemble a coral snake? That’s the puzzle that University of Michigan evolutionary biologist Alison Davis Rabosky has spent the last four years trying to solve.
“Logic predicts that non-mimics should by eaten preferentially by predators and, given enough time, you should end up with a single color type in the population. So the widespread co-occurrence of mimic and non-mimic color patterns is a puzzling and longstanding evolutionary paradox,” said Rabosky, an assistant research scientist in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and an assistant curator of herpetology at the Museum of Zoology.
While Rabosky and colleague Christian L. Cox of the University of Virginia don’t claim to have fully resolved the paradox, they did gain insights that help explain the persistence of non-mimic color patterns in ground snakes, especially rare patterns. It turns out that if you’re a ground snake, displaying a rare color pattern also provides an evolutionary edge.
Read the rest here… definitely worth the click!
Photo: Eric Bronson/University of Michigan …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Cash Dividend On The Way From Tortoise Energy Capital Fund’s Series C Mandatory Redeemable Preferred Shares
By Herp News
On 7/11/13, Tortoise Energy Capital Fund’s 3.95% Series C Mandatory Redeemable Preferred Shares (NYSE: TYY.PRC) will trade ex-dividend, for its monthly dividend of $0.0329, payable on 8/1/13. As a percentage of TYY.PRC’s recent share price of $9.97, this dividend works out to approximately 0.33%. On an annualized basis, the current yield is approximately 3.93%, which compares to an average yield …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Tiger salamanders help scientists understand evolution from sea to land
How do the ancestors of land animals make it out of the sea? New research comparing tiger salamanders and mudskipper fish tells the tale.
From Phys.org:
Paleontological examinations of the invasion of land by vertebrates suggest that limb-like appendages likely originated in aquatic environments, but direct comparisons of the functional consequences of using early limbs with digits, rather than fins, for terrestrial locomotion had not previously been performed. Salamanders are used to model the general body form of early tetrapods (e.g., Paleozoic amphibians) since their morphology has remained essentially unchanged for at least 150 million years. Mudskippers are similar to early fossil precursors of the tetrapods: they use “crutching” movements on land similarly to the hypothesised locomotion of Ichthyostega, and their pectoral fins are similar to elpistostegalids, such as Tiktaalik.
Read more here.
Photo: Sandy Kawano/Phys.org …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Reptile in Seacoast river was probably released by unpermitted owner
By Herp News
A 3-foot alligator was captured from the Lamprey River, almost certainly dumped by its owner.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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The origin of the turtle shell: Mystery solved
By Herp News
Biologists have finally solved the riddle of the origin of the turtle shell. By observing the development of different animal species and confirming their results with fossil analysis and genomic data, researchers show that the shell on the turtle’s back derives only from its ancestors’ ribcage and not from a combination of internal and external bone structures as is often thought.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Dozens of new snake species identified in Australia
Dozens of Australian species of the worm-like snakes classified as Scolecophidia have been identified by scientists in Australia.
From Phys.org:
Researchers from France, Australia and the United States analysed the genomes of 741 animals from 27 recognised species in a subgroup known as Australian blind snakes.
The data suggest the number of species is “at least two times the current number of recognised, nominal species,” said a summary of the results, published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
Snakes are divided into two major groups: Scolecophidia, which are generally less than 30 centimetres (12 inches) long, and the more common Alethinophidia, which include boas, pythons, cobras and vipers.
Read more here.
Photo: Phys.org …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Herp Video of the Week: Road Cruising for snakes!
Check out this video “Road Cruising for snakes,” submitted by kingsnake.com user naturebreak.
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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New shrew discovered in Vietnam forest
By Herp News
Researchers have described a previously unknown species of white toothed shrew in the forests of Vietnam. The study was published July 2 in the open access journal ZooKeys.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Turtle Racing Can Be a Lot More Hazardous Than You Might Think
By Herp News
It was too little too late for conservation groups that wanted the Bel Air, Maryland, Kiwanis Club to cancel its annual Fourth of July turtle derby last Thursday. According to The Baltimore Sun, the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity sent a letter on Friday, June 28, requesting the event be canceled because it posed a “threat to struggling native turtle populations and a health hazard …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Slurping Turtle noodle house coming to ex-Borders building in downtown Ann Arbor
By Herp News
The legacy of the former Borders flagship store continues to be reinvented as new restaurants like Slurping Turtle sign leases to move into the downstairs retail spaces.Tech hub, meet foodie hub. Iron Chef America participant and Chicago-based restaurateur Takashi…
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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23-Million-Year-Old Lizard
By Herp News
An anolis lizard. National Geographic/Youtube A 23-million-year-old complete fossil of a lizard was discovered by scientists in Mexico. The fossil contains soft tissues of the new species of the genus Anolis that were preserved in amber.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Snakes thought to be extinct found near Gila River
Once thought to be extinct, six northern Mexican garter snakes were discovered last month near the Gila River and another three later in the month.
From the Denver Post:
Doug Hotle, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the BioPark, said one of the snakes found last month was a young female, which indicates the wild population is reproducing.
“Based on what we’ve seen so far, this is a very successful group of snakes living in ideal wetland habitat,” he said. “We can do on-the-ground study to find out more about these rare garters and what their needs are here in New Mexico.”
The snakes at the BioPark are expected to go on public display soon.
The northern Mexican garter snake is a candidate for federal endangered species protection. It was once found throughout Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and parts of Mexico. Scientists said it had been nearly 20 years since the last confirmed sighting of the snake in New Mexico.
Hotle said the discovery marks a huge step forward for his team.
Read the rest here.
Photo: Jeff Servoss / U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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23 million-year-old lizard fossil found in Mexico
By Herp News
San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico), July 8 (IANS/EFE) Mexican scientists are studying a complete fossil of a lizard that lived some 23 million years ago and whose soft tissue remains have been preserved in amber.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Yangtze finless porpoise drops to Critically Endangered
By Herp News
The newest update to the IUCN Red List has downgraded the status of the Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) from Endangered to Critically Endangered, reflecting the deteriorating state of arguably the world’s most degraded river system. The downgrade follows a survey last year that counted only 1,000 animals, a 50 percent decline from 2006.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Featured video: could we rewild Britain with wolves and lions?
By Herp News
Environmentalist and journalist, George Mobiot, makes a passionate new plea for the controversial idea of rewilding parts of Europe in his new book Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding. Rewildling—a relatively recent idea—entails bringing back some of the animals (especially large ones) lost in parts of the world in order to restore ecosystems and, in Mobiot’s view, retrieve a deeper connection between humans and the wild again.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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23 million-year-old fossil found in Mexico
By Herp News
A complete fossil of a lizard that lived some 23 million years ago has gone on display at museum in Mexico, where it was found several months ago.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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A snake and lizard bonanza downtown
By Herp News
Thousands thronged to a huge reptile show being held this weekend at Golden Hall.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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A snake and lizard downtown bonanza
By Herp News
Thousands come to a huge reptile show being held this weekend at Golden Hall
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Turtle comeback: Leapin’ loggerheads
By Herp News
YOU’VE HEARD of the comeback kid? How about the comeback turtles? In one of the happiest trends of the summer, wildlife experts are reporting a whopping jump in the number of loggerhead sea turtles nesting along the Georgia coast this season.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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LOOK: 3ft Lizard Dumped In Asda Toilets
By Herp News
A three-foot-long lizard has been found abandoned in the toilets of a Scottish Asda store. The female bosc monitor – now aptly named Lulu –…
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Lonesome George, famous Galápagos tortoise, to be preserved: why he’s a symbol
By Herp News
The body of Lonesome George, a century-old giant tortoise believed to be the last of its species, is being prepared for temporary display at a New York City museum this winter.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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First supper is a life changer for lizards
By Herp News
For young lizards born into this unpredictable world, their very first meal can be a major life changer. So say researchers who report evidence that this early detail influences how the lizards disperse from their birthplaces, how they grow, and whether they survive. A quick or slow meal even influences the lizards’ reproductive success two years later in a surprising way.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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New long-horned beetle discovered in China
By Herp News
Recent expeditions by the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Zoology to the Yunnan Province of China have uncovered the existence of a new species of long-horned beetle. This newly discovered beetle has a beautifully colored blue-green body with short, slender, and distinctively blue legs according to a new article in Zookeys.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Making movies to save Uganda’s great apes
By Herp News
A new series of films aims to protect Uganda’s great ape species (mountain gorillas and chimpanzees) by bringing entertaining and educational movies to a rural audience living on the edges of Kibale National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Produced with heavy input from locals, these films are acted with an all-Ugandan task to teach those living near great apes about the species and their conservation-needs.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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World’s Largest Freshwater Turtle Nearly Extinct
By Herp News
In June, the last known pair of the near-extinct Yangtze giant softshell turtle mated again—and, scientists hope, made babies.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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San Francisco ordered to pay penalty for garter snake, frog deaths
The city of San Francisco is on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in court-ordered penalties related to destruction of endangered snake and frog species on city-owned land.
From SF Weekly:
The judgment is a victory for the Wildlife Equity Institute and other environmental organizations, which sued the city in 2011 for violations of the federal Endangered Species Act. The nonprofit claimed that the city was killing two protected species, the San Francisco Garter Snake and the California Red-Legged Frog, by draining the 18-hole Sharp Park Golf Course throughout the years.
U.S. District judge Susan Illston denied the city’s defense that it wasn’t killing the animals, noting that “as a result of construction activities and golf course maintenance operations, all Frogs, all Snakes, and 130 egg masses will be subject to incidental take.” As a result, Illston ordered San Francisco to pay $386,000 that will go toward paying the institute’s attorney fees.
Read the rest here.
Photo: Victor Abbley/SF Weekly …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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End turtle derbies for animals’ and humans’ sake, activists, experts say
By Herp News
Turtle derbies are almost as old as the republic, and still a staple in Maryland, a state that loves its terrapins. But conservationists and wildlife biologists say it’s time to end this tradition, for the sake of the animals supposedly being celebrated.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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End turtle derbies for animals’, humans’ sake, activists, experts say
By Herp News
July 4 staple said to raise risk of spreading viruses connected to die-offs Turtle derbies are almost as old as the republic, and still a staple in Maryland, a state that loves its terrapins. But conservationists and wildlife biologists say it’s time to end this tradition, for the sake of the animals supposedly being celebrated.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Vocal-sac breeding frog possibly extinct
By Herp News
Somewhere in the wet pine forests of Chile, a male frog is gulping-up a bunch of eggs. No he’s not eating them, he’s just being a good dad. Darwin’s frogs are known for their unique parenting-style: tadpoles are incubated in the vocal sac of the father. First recorded by Charles Darwin during his world famous voyage aboard the Beagle, the amphibians were common in the native Chilean pine forests until the last few decades. Now, scientists believe that one of the two species, the northern Darwin’s frog (Rhinoderma rufum), may have vanished for good. And the other is hanging on by a thread.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Over 700 species added to the threatened categories on the IUCN Red List (photos)
By Herp News
In another sign of the global biodiversity crisis, the IUCN Red List has added 715 species to its threatened categories of Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered in this year’s update. Some of these species were evaluated by the IUCN Red List for the first time while others saw their conditions deteriorate, such as the the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) which is now listed as Vulnerable due to overhunting, deforestation, and possibly disease. As of this year, the Red List has evaluated 70,923 of the world’s species—including almost all mammals, birds, and amphibians—of which 20,934 are deemed threatened.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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