Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates, celebrated World Oceans Day last weekend by releasing a group of critically endangered hawksbill turtles to the Gulf of Oman.

From The National:

The global population of hawksbills, named for their narrow head and shape of their beak, has dropped by 80 per cent in just three generations despite international conventions banning hunting and trade.

They have been threatened in recent years by human encroachment, particularly construction and coastline activity that threaten coral reefs, one of the turtles’ natural habitats.

Other threats include fishing, pollution and eggs being stolen from nesting beaches.

The turtles released at the Mangrove Natural Reserve in Khor Kalba were found by members of the public and taken to Sharjah Aquarium, which has been running a programme to protect and rehabilitate the creatures for the past three years.

Ismail Al Bloushi, a marine biologist, has led a Sharjah Aquarium team rehabilitating turtles for their release.

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I have owned a Florida Cooter for nearly 10 years now and have had minor problems. Just recently he has become very overactive and has been doing things such as climbing the glass in his tank and splashing water around like crazy! I acquired scooter when I was young and didn’t have much knowledge on turtles. He lives in a 75 gallon tank that he got for his 9th birthday, so he’s lived in it for about a year now. I don’t think the size of his tank would cause him to act out in this way? His tank is in my bedroom so I’m now loosing sleep over his noisy ness and I can’t figure out what is wrong. The temp of the water is not abnormal and nothing is new to his setup or environment. I’ve never had a determination on whether “he” is a male or female so I’m kind of wondering if this is normal for either sex to be acting like this. (Mating season?) I will upload a photo but he now has a larger basking platform and filter in the tank as well. I wish I had a more recent photo. …read more

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An invasive but scarce lizard species is spotted in a Florida neighborhood. Source: FCN

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VALHALLA, N.Y., June 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ –  Turtle Beach , the leader in games audio, is announcing a new two-year partnership agreement with Activision Publishing, Inc. involving the blockbuster Call …

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LOS ANGELES, June 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ –  Turtle Beach , the leader in gaming audio, is unveiling new gaming headsets at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) featuring the latest audio technology and …

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On 6/12/13, 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 7/1/13. As a percentage of TYY.PRC’s recent share price of $10.12, this dividend works out to approximately 0.33%. On an annualized basis, the current yield is approximately 3.90%, which compares to an average …

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By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScienceA lizard the size of a German shepherd once roamed Myanmar, a new fossil analysis reveals.The lizard, one of the largest ever known, has been dubbed Barbaturex morrisoni in honor of The Doors’ singer Jim Morrison, who once wrote a song that included the lyrics, “I am the lizard king/I can do anything.””This is a king lizard, and he was the lizard king, so it just …

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A turtle on Highway 59 in Eagle, Wis., made it safely across the road with the help of a local man — who, unfortunately, got hit by a school bus in the process.

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On 6/12/13, 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 7/1/13. As a percentage of TYY.PRC's recent share price of $10.12, this dividend works out to approximately 0.33%. On an annualized basis, the current yield is approximately 3.90%, which compares to an average …

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Since it's rattlesnake season and all, we'd thought we'd try to put a positive spin on reptiles, especially those who are looking for someone to love, not to eat. This coming Saturday, Petco i…

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Since it's rattlesnake season and all, we'd thought we'd try to put a positive spin on reptiles, especially those who are looking for someone to love, not to eat. This coming Saturday, Petco i…

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On the evening of May 30th, 26-year-old Jairo Mora Sandoval was murdered on Moin beach near Limón, Costa Rica, the very stretch of sand where he courageously monitored sea turtle nests for years even as risks from poachers rose, including threats at gunpoint. A dedicated conservationist, Sandoval was kidnapped along with four women volunteers (three Americans and one from Spain) while driving along the beach looking for nesting sea turtles. Sandoval was separated from the women—who eventually escaped their captors—but the young Costa Rican was stripped naked, viciously beaten, and finally shot in the head. Police found him the next day, face-down and handcuffed in the sand.

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A giant lizard, named after the Doors’ Jim Morrison, who was dubbed “The Lizard King,” once lived on Southeast Asia, sharing habitat and food sources with mammals.

From Science Daily:
A team of U.S. paleontologists, led by Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, describes fossils of the giant lizard from Myanmar this week in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Their analysis shows that it is one of the biggest known lizards ever to have lived on land.

The creature’s scientific name is Barbaturex morrisoni — which means “Lizard King,” in honor of the aforementioned Doors singer.

At almost six feet long and weighing upwards of 60 pounds, the lizard provides new and important clues on the evolution of plant-eating reptiles and their relationship to global climate and competition with mammals.

In today’s world, plant-eating lizards like iguanas and agamids are much smaller than large mammal herbivores. The largest lizards, like the giant, carnivorous Komodo dragon, are limited to islands that are light on mammal predators. It is not known, however, if lizards are limited in size by competition with mammals, or by temperatures of modern climates, Head said.

But B. morrisoni lived in an ecosystem with a diversity of both herbivorous and carnivorous mammals during a warm age in Earth’s history — 36 to 40 million years ago — when there was no ice at the poles and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were very high. The creature was larger than most of the mammals with which it lived, suggesting that competition or predation by mammals did not restrict its evolution into a giant.

“We think the warm climate during that period of time allowed the evolution of a large body size and the ability of plant-eating lizards to successfully compete in mammal faunas,” Head said.
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Check out this video “Prairie Rattlesnake,” submitted by kingsnake.com user smetlogik.
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By Herp News

By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScienceA lizard the size of a German shepherd once roamed Myanmar, a new fossil analysis reveals.The lizard, one of the largest ever known, has been dubbed Barbaturex morrisoni in honor of The Doors' singer Jim Morrison, who once wrote a song that included the lyrics, “I am the lizard king/I can do anything.””This is a king lizard, and he was the lizard king, so it just …

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Incident in which police officers entered a woman's home while attempting to serve an arrest warrant on her landlord is being investiggated.

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Possible impact on beach restoration, inlet maintenance A federal proposal to protect 740 miles of beach for loggerhead sea turtles has generated criticism from all sides, ranging from the volunteers who guard turtle nests in Broward County to the government agencies responsible for restoring eroded beaches.        

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A giant lizard that lived 40 million years ago has been named in honour of Jim Morrison.

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Jim Morrison who famously slithered around in tight pants on stage, was known as The Lizard King. Now scientists have named an enormous lizard after the late great rock star. Continue reading →

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Rumors of the Hula painted frog’s extinction may have been premature.

The frog, declared extinct 60 years ago, has been discovered in Israel. From Science Daily:
The Hula painted frog was catalogued within the Discoglossus group when it was first discovered in the Hula Valley of Israel in the early 1940s. The frog was thought to have disappeared following the drying up of the Hula Lake at the end of the 1950s, and was declared extinct by the (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in 1996. As a result, the opportunity to discover more about this species’ history, biology and ecology was thought to have disappeared.

However, a team of Israeli, German and French researchers now report in the scientific journal Nature Communications on an in-depth scientific analysis of this enigmatic amphibian.
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While perusing Facebook a few days ago, an entry on the page of the Turtle Hospital at Marathon, FL, caught my eye. I first glanced at it then read it again:

This cute little guy was washed ashore and found floating in a bed of Sargassum weed inside a marina at The Sea Breeze Trailer Park in Islamorada. Because there was a large saltwater crocodile in the marina too the turtle was netted and turned over to the Turtle Hospital for rehabilitation. At just over 10cm long, Crush qualifies as juvenile Hawksbill and is probably less than a year old.

Hawksbill researcher Larry Wood had told me that although they were rare on the mainland, only a few miles to the east of Palm Beach, amidst the sargassum, hawksbills gathered and grew, probably for years, before dispersing. Each year some would disperse and a new cohort would appear.

Bette Zirklebeck, the Turtle Hospital manager, thought “it was likely that strong currents pushed this turtle (dubbed Crush) the wrong way and he floated in to shore.” Zirklebeck continued “Crush appears to be in pretty good shape and staff plans to give him plenty of squid bits and make sure behavior is normal before his release in just a week or two!”

Prior to the advent of fancy plastics, hawksbills were hunted for their shells and the intricately colored carapacial scutes were made into fancy jewelry and glasses frames. Hawksbills are an endangered turtle species and are rigidly protected over most of their wide range.

We wish Crush a lifetime of good luck.

(More photos under the jump!)
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By Herp News

Australia’s leading scientific expert on the endangered Leadbeater’s possum has publicly lambasted the Victorian state government, claiming it is the first ever domestic administration to take “calculated actions” that it knew could wipe out a threatened species. In a letter published in the respected journal Science, Prof David Lindenmayer, of the Australian National University, states that “government-sanctioned legal logging of the reserve system will significantly increase the chance of extinction of Leadbeater’s possum.”

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Though the species is named after twentieth century rock star Jim Morrison, the Doors front-man, it lived in the jungles of Southeast Asia 40 million years ago. The ancient lizard king was a gentle creature who ate only plants.

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The reptile exhibit at Zoo Atlanta is the oldest area in the facility. But the reptiles will soon have a shiny new exhibit, designed to display the animals in a more natural habitat and focus on giving children a herp’s-eye-view at the same time.

From the Zoo’s media release:

Something spectacular is coming to Zoo Atlanta, and the evolution officially began on June 4, 2013. At a gathering of elected and appointed officials, community partners and Zoo Atlanta leaders and staff, ceremonial shovels broke ground on Scaly Slimy Spectacular: The Amphibian and Reptile Experience, scheduled to open in late 2015.

Scaly Slimy Spectacular will represent the largest fundraising effort in the Zoo’s history. Zoo Atlanta has raised just under $22 million as part of an ongoing capital campaign to fund the roughly 14,000 square-foot experience, with a goal of raising an additional $1.4 million over the next few months.

“We’re standing on the cornerstone of a new era for Zoo Atlanta. Our community has shown willingness to make a significant investment in the future of the Zoo,” said Raymond B. King, President and CEO. “We hope that as the public aspect of our capital campaign continues, Zoo Members, families and guests will also want to play a personal role in seeing history being made with what will truly be a world-class experience for Atlantans and Georgians.”

Winter Johnson Group, a partnership of the Atlanta-based Winter Construction and Johnson Construction Services, has been selected as general contractor; Scaly Slimy Spectacular will be the company’s 22nd construction project. Project architects are Torre Design Group Consortium, Ltd.

Scaly Slimy Spectacular will replace the 51-year-old World of Reptiles, the Zoo’s oldest building still in use for public exhibits. The new complex will be erected on a separate site which has not been accessible to the general public in decades.

There are more than 450 reptiles and amphibians at Zoo Atlanta, but a sizable portion of these animals have not been on exhibit as a result of space constraints in the World of Reptiles. Scaly Slimy Spectacular will provide naturalistic new homes for members of the existing collection while introducing large crocodilians and other exciting new arrivals. The complex will feature interactive indoor venues and state-of-the-art exhibits showcasing the amazing extremes in size, speed, color and behavior that make reptiles and amphibians such compelling animals to observe, study, and protect.

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By Herp News

British scientists identify a new species of a huge pre-historic reptile and name it after fossil hunter .        

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Named for the Doors baritone, B. Morrisoni was one of the largest lizards that ever walked the Earth.  

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The tenkile, or the Scott’s tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus scottae) could be a cross between a koala bear and a puppy. With it’s fuzzy dark fur, long tail and snout, and tiny ears, it’s difficult to imagine a more adorable animal. It’s also difficult to imagine that the tenkile is one of the most endangered species on Earth: only an estimated 300 remain. According to the Tenkile Conservation Alliance (TCA), the tenkile’s trouble stems from a sharp increase of human settlements in the Torricelli mountain range. Once relatively isolated, the tenkile now struggles to avoid hunters and towns while still having sufficient range to live in.

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The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is using lucrative elephant poaching for ivory to fund its activities, according to a report published on Tuesday. Eyewitness accounts from park rangers, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) escapees and recent senior defectors report that the fugitive warlord Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, ordered African forest elephants to be killed in Garamba national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the tusks sent to him.

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A giant lizard that lived 40 million years ago at a time when Earth was a hothouse has been named in honour of rock singer Jim Morrison, palaeontologists said on Wednesday.

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KRISTEN BUTLER, UPI.com Giant extinct lizard named after singer Jim “The Lizard King” Morrison of The Doors, called Bearded King Morrison.

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When Jason Head happened upon one of the biggest lizards that ever walked on land, he found it fitting to name it after The Doors frontman, Jim Morrison — the original Lizard King.

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A giant lizard that lived 40 million years ago at a time when Earth was a hothouse has been named in honour of rock singer Jim Morrison.        

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A 6ft-long lizard species that roamed South East Asia some 36-40 million years ago is named after The Doors singer Jim Morrison.

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At nearly six feet long and weighing upwards of 60 pounds, “Morrison's Bearded King” provides new clues on the evolution of plant-eating reptiles and their relationship to global climate and with mammals.

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By Herp News

U.S. paleontologists led by Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln announced fossils of giant lizard Barbaturex morrisoni this week. Their analysis shows that it is one of the biggest known lizards ever to have lived on land. They've named the creature after Doors lead singer Jim Morrison.

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A lizard the size of a German shepherd once roamed Myanmar, a new fossil analysis reveals.

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A six-foot long lizard that lived 40 million years ago has been named Barbaturex morrisoni by scientists in Nebraska. It was named after The Doors' singer Jim Morrison who had the nickname the 'Lizard King'.

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By Herp News

Jim Morrison was a king of sorts, at least in his own mind. The lead singer of the Doors sang in one cover song that he was “a king bee.” In another, he said, “I’m the crawlin’ king snake.” But Morrison most famously wrote in a poem that he was “the Lizard King,” a name that stuck. So naturally, when a paleontologist who happens to be a Doors fan came across the fossil of a giant lizard, one of …

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FrontRange, the only provider of Hybrid IT Service Management solutions, today announced that it has selected Blue Turtle Technologies as its Master VAR for the African region.

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Years ago, when I first moved to Florida, my then-boyfriend took me out to look for cage furniture. We needed pieces of dead wood, curled tubes of bark, odd bits of driftwood, clumps of moss, the sort of item that helps turn a cage from “pathetic” to “that’ll do.”

The boyfriend was living in north Tampa, not too far from wooded areas and the Hillsborough River, and he was a herper (required) so I was pretty sure he’d know good areas to look.

On that day, we parked by SR 301 (then a tiny two lane) and walked into the woods. We had really good luck and within a few hours our arms were laden with exactly the right sort of stuff. I said OK, let’s head back. My boyfriend looked at me as if I suddenly was speaking German. “Head back?” he said. “Which direction?” A short silence followed while I just l looked at him. He gave a short embarrassed laugh. “The last time I did this, I had to spend the night and then find my way out by the sound of traffic.”

I thought, this was the all-time clumsiest effort at seduction I have ever seen. Spend the night in the woods indeed, and there’s not even a tent? Was this guy for real?
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