By Herp News
Senior citizens Gyanendra Sharma and Beena Sharma got a shock on Wednesday morning as they got ready to have their morning cuppa when they saw a dead lizard in a milk sachet.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Last Best Show: Any Wednesday at the Lizard Lounge
By Herp News
We don't have road houses around here. We have the Lizard Lounge. But transplant any of the four guitarists at last night's Lizard show to any honky tonk outside Nashville (or Austin or Biloxi) and they'd crush the competition. No disrespect to the fine Southern swamp rock bands, but our guys are better. Go next Wednesday and tell me I'm wrong. Or just take a look at the players' pedigrees.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Scientists discover that marine animals disperse seagrass
By Herp News
Lesser known than coral reefs, marine seagrass ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and are powerhouses when it comes to sequestering carbon dioxide. Yet, much remains unknown about the ecology of seagrass beds, including detailed information on how seagrass spread their seeds and colonize new area. Now a recent study in Marine Ecology Progress Series documents that several species of marine animal are key to dispersing seagrass, overturning the assumption that seagrass was largely dispersed by abiotic methods (such as wind and waves).
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Biologists map family tree of all known snake, lizard groups
Scientists at George Washington University have mapped out the first large-scale evolutionary family tree for every snake and lizard known to exist.
From Phys.org:
The findings were recently published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Alex Pyron, the Robert F. Griggs Assistant Professor of Biology in GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, along with researchers from the City University of New York and Arizona State University, detail the cataloguing of 4,161 species of snakes and lizards, or squamates.
“Squamates include all lizards and snakes found throughout the globe, including around 9,500 species on every continent except Antarctica, and found in most oceans,” said Dr. Pyron. “This is everything from cobras to garter snakes to tiny geckos to the Komodo Dragon to the Gila Monster. They range from tiny threadsnakes that can curl up on a dime to 10 feet monitor lizards and 30 foot pythons. They eat everything from ants to wildebeest.”
The evolutionary family tree, or phylogeny, includes all families and subfamilies and most genus and species groups, said Dr. Pyron. While there are gaps on some branches of the tree, the structure of the tree goes a long way toward fully mapping every genus and species group.
Read the full release from Phys.org here, and the study at biomedcentral.com.
Photo: George Washington University
Read more here: King Snake
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Common moth can hear higher frequencies than any other animal on Earth
By Herp News
A common little moth turns out to have the best ears in the animal kingdom. According to a new study in Biology Letters, the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) is capable of hearing frequencies up to 300,000 hertz (300kHz), which is 15 times the frequency humans can hear at their prime, around 20 kHz.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Reptile Zoo's cold blood melts kids' hearts
By Herp News
It's a monument to the cold-blooded, an inn for those who slither, a schoolhouse for those who fear reptiles.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Rattlesnake bite in Marin reminds residents of reptile's dangers
By Herp News
When a resident on Iron Springs Road near Fairfax was bitten by a rattlesnake last week as temperatures soared, it served as a reminder that the potentially deadly reptile is once again active in Marin.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Water Lettuce Lakes
With Eugenio at the controls, the motor canoe “Mai Kai” nudged her way through emergent grasses in the shallow channel. If lucky, we’d be able to reach a few of the water lettuce beds that floated on the open waters of the interior coche (oxbow). We were already amidst some chorusing treefrogs, but it seemed probable that with the intermittent showers on this humid night, a cacophony of hylid voices would reverberate across the coche.
When we left camp, motor canoe full of chatting herpers, lightning was spearing a seemingly cloudless sky. But weather patterns in Amazonia are capricious, and distant cloud formations are often obscured by the riveredge trees. Storms can sneak up on you before you know there is actually one impending. And such it was on this night. The coche was only a few miles downriver, but in the 20 minutes it took us to reach it, the sparkling stars were obliterated by towering cumulus clouds and lightning activity had increased dramatically.
The nocturnal foray to Mayaruna Coche, often vegetation-clogged, sometimes impassable, is always a highlight. This night we were doubly lucky. Not only had the leading edge of the storm moved quickly eastward, taking with it the lightning but leaving us with a gentle rain, but secondly we were actually able to break through the vegetation and access the lettuce beds.
Within minutes we were nearly overwhelmed by the volume of treefrog voices. While most of the vocalizations were produced by tiny clown treefrog complex species and spotted treefrogs, as we nosed the canoe into the water lettuce the vocalizations of three species of hatchet-faced treefrogs could be heard. I had played up the beauty of the greater hatchet-faced treefrog, Sphaenorhynchos lacteus, so greatly that it would be nearly impossible to return to camp without seeing the species. And see it we did, by the dozens and dozens. It was another successful coche visit.
More photos under the jump…
Continue reading “Water Lettuce Lakes” …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Lizard Label Adds Tamper-Evident Labels to Product Label Offerings
By Herp News
Custom label manufacturer Lizard Label announces the addition of tamper-evident labels to its custom capabilities catalogue. (PRWeb May 09, 2013) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/product_labels/custom_labels/prweb10706184.htm
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Herp Photo of the Day: Western Diamondback Rattlesnake!
This image of a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Vittorio_K, is our herp photo of the day!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Rattlesnake bite in Marin reminds residents of reptile's dangers
By Herp News
When a resident on Iron Springs Road near Fairfax was bitten by a rattlesnake last week as temperatures soared, it served as a reminder that the potentially deadly reptile is once again active in Marin.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Are seagulls killing whales in Patagonia?
By Herp News
It sounds ludicrous, but it could just be true: scientists say seagulls may be responsible for hundreds of southern right whale moralities off the Argentine coastline. Since 2003, scientists have documented the deaths of 605 southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) near Península Valdés which the whales use as a nursery. Notably, 88 percent of these were newborn calves. The death rate is so high that researchers now fear for the whales’ long-term survival.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Cannibal tadpoles key to understanding digestive evolution
By Herp News
A carnivorous, cannibalistic tadpole may play a role in understanding the evolution and development of digestive organs, according to new research.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Dog-sized dinosaurs once roamed the earth
Canadian researchers have discovered fossils of dog-sized dinosaurs, suggesting the prehistoric reptiles came in a much wider range of sizes than once believed.
From The Province:
A newly identified species of dome-headed dinosaur roughly the size of a large dog once roamed the plains of southern Alberta, a team of Canadian scientists announced Tuesday.
The discovery of the Acrotholus audeti touched off further investigation that suggested the world’s dinosaur population was more diverse than once believed.
Details of the study were published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
Study lead author David Evans, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, said Acrotholus’ comparatively diminutive size belies its scientific importance.
The two-legged plant-eater stood no higher than an adult human’s knee and weighed only 40 kilograms, measurements similar to a German shepherd or other large-breed canine.
Read the full article here.
Image: Julius Csotonyi , THE CANADIAN PRESS
…read more
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Herp Photo of the Day: Chuckwallas!
This image of these Chuckwallas, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Gabby1, is our herp photo of the day!
Chuckwallas, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Gabby1″ />
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
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Where the Wild Things Are
By Herp News
A female chameleon recently adopted by Christina Hazelton, of Lebanon, founder of Upper Valley Reptile Group, is shown off to the public during an open house in Norwich.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Rattlesnake bite in Marin reminds residents of reptile's dangers
By Herp News
When a resident on Iron Springs Road near Fairfax was bitten by a rattlesnake last week as temperatures soared, it served as a reminder that the potentially deadly reptile is once again active in Marin.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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17 poachers allegedly enter elephant stronghold in Congo, conservationists fear massacre
By Herp News
Local researchers and wildlife guards say 17 armed elephant poachers have gained access to Dzanga Bai, a large waterhole and clearing where up to 200 forest elephants visit daily in the Central African Republic (CAR)’s Dzanga-Ndoki National Park. WWF, which works in the region but has recently evacuated due to rising violence, is calling on the CAR government to rapidly mobilize its military to stop another elephant bloodbath in central Africa. Elephants are being killed across their range for their ivory, which is mostly smuggled to East Asia.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Featured video: camera trapping in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
By Herp News
A new video highlights the work of Badru Mugerwa as he sets and monitors 60 remote camera traps in one of the most rugged tropical forests on Earth: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. Mugerwa is working with the TEAM Network, run by Conservation International, which monitors mammal and bird populations in 16 protected tropical forests around the world. Every researcher uses the same methodology allowing findings to be compared not just from year-to-year but across oceans.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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A Tale of Two Elephants: celebrating the lives and mourning the deaths of Cirrocumulus and Ngampit
By Herp News
On March 21st, the organization Save the Elephants posted on their Facebook page that two African elephants had been poached inside a nearby reserve: “Sad news from the north of Kenya. Usually the national reserves are safe havens for elephants, and they know it. But in the last two weeks two of our study animals have been shot inside the Buffalo Springs reserve. First an 18 year-old bull called Ngampit and then, yesterday, 23 year-old female called Cirrocumulus (from the Clouds family).”
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Munching on marine plastic kills sperm whale
By Herp News
What do children’s toys, balloons, mattresses and plastic bags have in common? They can, along with more non-biodegradable pollutants, be found in the belly of a sperm whale, the topic of a new study in the Marine Pollution Bulletin. The same whale that swallowed Jonah from the Bible, Geppetto from Collodi’s Pinocchio, and the crew of the Pequod from Melville’s Moby-Dick is now swallowing trash from the Spanish-Mediterranean coast, and in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Turtle Wax Wants People To Go Shirtless With Wax On, Shirt Off Campaign
By Herp News
CHICAGO, May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Turtle Wax® has had enough of the extended winter and cold spring blanketing the country. With warmer temperatures forecasted this week, Turtle Wax is responding with …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Pretty in Gray: The Berber Skink
I had never thought much about the color gray. I considered it a drab color, a color that I had come to associate with a few of the species that were not then very high on my herp “Iwannasee” list. But then I met a skink and I realized that beauty truly was in the eyes of the beholder, for not only was that skink gray, it was pretty. In fact, I thought it, with its orange highlights and smaller accents of fawn, to be one of the prettiest skinks I had until then encountered. And today, 50 years later, I still think this to be so.
Back in the 1960s when I first met this lizard, it was called the Algerian skink, Eumeces algeriensis. Today it is called the Berber skink (now the name “Algerian skink” is usually associated with the smaller Schneider’s skink, Novoeumeces schneideri) and like the Schneiders’ skink, the generic name is Novoeumeces. Small numbers of Berber skinks were imported between 1970 and 2000 but for the most part they have not been available and were but fond memories to those who had been lucky enough to actually see them in those earlier years.
I was lucky enough to have a few Berber skinks offered to me about 8 years ago. These heavy-bodied, foot long, omnivorous beauties are easy to maintain but have proven almost impossible to breed. They are known to be oviparous and like many skinks seem to be quite long-lived. Successfully breeding this terrestrial North African skink certainly remains a goal.
More photos under the jump…
Continue reading “Pretty in Gray: The Berber Skink” …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Reptiles and amphibians threatened by decrease in winter snowfall
Have you been enjoying the increasingly mild winters across much of the United States, particularly the Midwest, in recent years? Wildlife, including some reptiles and amphibians like the wood frog, pictured right, definitely haven’t.
From the University of Wisconsin:
In a report published May 2 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes the gradual decay of the Northern Hemisphere’s “subnivium,” the term scientists use to describe the seasonal microenvironment beneath the snow, a habitat where life from microbes to bears take full advantage of warmer temperatures, near constant humidity and the absence of wind.
“Underneath that homogenous blanket of snow is an incredibly stable refuge where the vast majority of organisms persist through the winter,” explains Jonathan Pauli, a UW-Madison professor of forest and wildlife ecology and a co-author of the new report. “The snow holds in heat radiating from the ground, plants photosynthesize, and it’s a haven for insects, reptiles, amphibians and many other organisms.”
[…]
As is true for ecosystem changes anywhere, a decaying subnivium would have far-reaching consequences. Reptiles and amphibians, which can survive being frozen solid, are put at risk when temperatures fluctuate, bringing them prematurely out of their winter torpor only to be lashed by late spring storms or big drops in temperature. Insects also undergo phases of freeze tolerance and the migrating birds that depend on invertebrates as a food staple may find the cupboard bare when the protective snow cover goes missing.
The complete article is here.
Photo: Thomas Kitchin and Victoria Hurst/leesonphoto …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Herp Photo of the Day: Arrow Frogs!
This image of two Arrow Frogs, uploaded by kingsnake.com user stefan31, is our herp photo of the day!
Arrow Frogs, uploaded by kingsnake.com user stefan31″ />
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Bedminster gets $180G to build turtle tunnels under road
By Herp News
A turtle-crossing sign on River Road in Bedminster. / NJ Press Media file 2010 BEDMINSTER — Township officials are looking to spend more than $210,000 on a series of tunnels that won’t be used by motorists, cyclists or pedestrians.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Tortoise Capital Advisors Announces Distribution Dates and Amounts for Closed-End Funds
By Herp News
Certain closed-end funds managed by Tortoise Capital Advisors declared the following distributions today:
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Officials: Sea turtle season means lower the lights
By Herp News
As mama sea turtles begin arriving along area beaches to lay their eggs, area officials are reminding coastal residents that it's time once again to shield or turn off lights that can lead turtles astray.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Turtle nesting season begins
By Herp News
The beginning of sea turtle nesting season in Southwest Florida is upon us once again. May 1 marked the “official” start of nesting season, but Captiva was the lucky recipient of the first loggerhead nest on the west coast on Sunday, April 28.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Unconventional swine: how invasive pigs are helping preserve biodiversity in the Pantanal
By Herp News
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Ordinarily, invasive and exotic species are a grave threat to native wildlife: outcompeting local species, introducing parasites and disease, and disturbing local ecological regimes. A unique case in the Brazilian Pantanal, however, has turned the tables; here, an introduced mammal has actually aided the conservation of native wildlife.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Featured video: If I were a panda…
By Herp News
A new powerful video by the conservation program, APES, highlights the threat faced by many species: not being cute enough. The creative short video was produced pro bono by Ogilvy & Mather Chicago.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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New species of toad discovered in Qatar
A schoolteacher’s son has discovered a new species of toad in Qatar.
From the Gulf Times:
It turned out to be a hitherto unrecorded species: the African Common Toad or Guttural Toad (Amietophrynus gutturalis). Easily recognisable from its pale dorsal stripe.
New species of fauna turn up in Qatar all the time – this dry desert country supports a surprising range of wildlife.
Animals that can adapt to the harsh weather conditions and the lack of water do well. These include reptiles, and mammals such as the Arabian Red Fox, the Ethiopian Hedgehog and the tiny Lesser Jerboa.
But toads? What is a creature that has a damp clammy skin and needs to spend part of its life in water doing in a land that, until recently, had no surface water at all?
Since the transformation of Qatar over the last few decades and the establishment of large sewage effluent lagoons, it’s become possible for amphibians to survive, even in the scorching summer months when they bury themselves deep in the mud. But the mystery is how they got here in the first place.
Read the full story here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Herp Photo of the Day: Tree Python!
This image of a Blue Aru Island type Green Tree Python, uploaded by kingsnake.com user crocodilepaul, is our herp photo of the day!
Blue Aru Island type Green Tree Python, uploaded by kingsnake.com user crocodilepaul” />
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
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Herp Video of the Week: Catching Crocodiles!
Check out this video “Catching Crocodiles,” submitted by kingsnake.com user Crocguy.
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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Lemur has unexpectedly wide range, diversity of color variations
By Herp News
An endangered lemur has a larger range than originally believed but is still at risk due to forest fragmentation and land clearing, reports a study published in the journal Primate Conservation.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Frankie Tortoise Tails – Sup.
I am mother to a teenage sulcata tortoise.
I brought out a carrot for Frankie and called to him, “Treat! Wanna carrot?! Carrot. Treat! Treat! Frankie, do you want a carrot? I got a carrot. Come get your carrot.”
I got no response.
Frankie’s been living outside now for a couple of weeks. His yard is full of fresh new green grass and dandelions and summer weeds. He is getting hours of sun. Temperatures hover in the 70’s. After a full hour basking in the sun Frankie can take a leisurely walk all the way around his very big yard, some of which he hasn’t seen since last year.
I got a carrot (his favorite treat) and I am standing in plain sight of Frankie. I’m waving the carrot around to catch his eye.
“Look, Frankie, I got a carrot! Carrot. Carrot. Come get your carrot! Come on, Frankie.”
Frankie is giving no indication that he has seen me or heard me. He is about fifteen feet from where I stand and he is grazing away. When he looks up so he can swallow (sometimes it’s frightening when he chews and shallows for three minutes straight and never breath) he seems to just ignore me.
Maybe he is blind in that eye.
I walk over so I am six feet directly in front of Frankie. “Look, Frankie, a carrot! You want a carrot? Carrot. Carrot. Treat! Treat!”
He just grazes.
Fine!
I get down on my knees in front of Frankie and start waving the carrot eight inches from his nose so one of his two eyes will have to see the carrot.
Frankie looks up. He chews on his grass. He stares past the carrot like its air. “Sup.”
Sup!? I get a sup?! I just wanna know if you want a carrot.
He finely sees the carrot. It may as well be air. Calmly he reaches out to bite it. He misses the carrot and gets nothing.
And just like a teenager who is just told “pick up all your dirty clothes off the floor, NOW,” Frankie just walks past me, and the carrot, and heads out to do something else.
My relationship with the teen Frankie has been whittled down to “sup.”
Walks around the block, Halloween costumes, parades, birthday cakes and Frankie-songs. Mom’s favorite activities may become tragic victims of a moody teenage tortoise.
I’m gonna have to get used to it.
Sup. …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
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Turtle Tidal Wave raises money for Opportunity House
By Herp News
The Turtle Tidal Wave, yet another good-natured fundraiser sponsored by the Vacaville Rotary Club, washed over Vacaville on Saturday.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Turtle Bay's diggin' badger scores television role
By Herp News
One of Turtle Bay Exploration Park’s featured animals will get nationwide exposure this month when he appears on the Fox comedy “New Girl.”
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Texas declares Kemp's Ridley Turtle the official state sea turtle
Thanks to the power of kids, the endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle is now the top turtle in the great state of Texas.
From The Houston Chronicle:
The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle, an endangered species that nests between South Padre Island and Chambers County, was approved as the state’s official sea turtle by the Texas Senate Thursday. The resolution had already garnered approval by the Texas House.
Students at Galveston’s Oppe Elementary School, a coastal studies magnet campus, brought the bill to Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, after studying the animal, which is the smallest sea turtle in the world.
“They were told that the best way they could help is by simply making the public aware of how important the sea turtle is,” Taylor said.
kingsnake.com is also headquartered in Texas, so it’s official, Kemp’s Ridley Turtle: We salute you!
Read more here.
Photo: Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (Courtesy: NOAA)
…read more
Read more here: King Snake
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‘Turtle Hill, Brooklyn,’ Directed by Ryan Gielen
By Herp News
Ricardo Valdez, left, and Brian W. Seibert in “Turtle Hill, Brooklyn.” During a party near the end of “Turtle Hill, Brooklyn,” a bunch of buddies soaking in a pool wonder what the name of the titular neighborhood means. No one is quite sure; then they laugh; then the subject changes.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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