By Herp News
What started out as a small reptile rescue run out of a local couple’s home has bloomed into the Great Lakes Zoological Society’s “World of Discovery” center, an indoor amphibian and reptile zoo of about 100 animals, located just west of Ann Arbor.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
What started out as a small reptile rescue run out of a local couple’s home has bloomed into the Great Lakes Zoological Society’s “World of Discovery” center, an indoor amphibian and reptile zoo of about 100 animals, located just west of Ann Arbor.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns can lead to declines in southeastern frog and salamander populations, but protecting ponds can improve their plight.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Gabon has agreed to help battle poaching in protected areas in the Central African Republic following an elephant massacre at a renowned World Heritage site, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
What started out as a small reptile rescue run out of a local couple’s home has bloomed into the Great Lakes Zoological Society’s “World of Discovery” center, an indoor amphibian and reptile zoo of about 100 animals, located just west of Ann Arbor.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A snapping turtle injured by a car in Ontario has been airlifted more than 400 kilometres to an animal hospital, and is now on a slow road to recovery.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
SARNIA, Ontario, May 17 (UPI) — A turtle that was hit by a car in Canada was airlifted nearly 250 miles for medical treatment, officials said.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
Scientists believe the black markings of the West African Gaboon viper may hold the secret to creating materials with a powerful ability to absorb light.
From The Age:
The West African Gaboon viper, one of the largest in Africa and a master of camouflage, has dark spots in the geometrical pattern of its skin that are deep, velvety black and reflect very little light.
Interwoven with white- and brown-coloured scales that are very reflective, this creates a high contrast that renders the snake difficult to spot on the richly-patterned rainforest floor.
A team of German scientists set out to find the secret behind the black spots’ ultra darkness, and found the scale surface was made up of tightly-packed, leaf-like microstructures covered in turn with nanometre-sized ridges.
AdvertisementOne nanometre is equivalent to a billionth of a metre.
Writing in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the team theorised that the microstructures and nanostructures, which protrude at slightly different angles, scatter and trap incoming light.
“The structure based velvet black effect could also be potentially transferred to other materials,” the scientists wrote.
The complete article is here.
…read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
By Herp News
Thanks to an animal rescue group, a snapping turtle hit by a car has a second chance at life. Earlier this spring, Porter the snapping turtle was hit by a car in Sarnia, Ontario. He suffered extensive facial injuries and … Continue reading →
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A snapping turtle injured by a car in Ontario has been airlifted more than 400 kilometres to an animal hospital, and is now on a slow road to recovery.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Climate change may have little impact on many species of tropical lizards, contradicting a host of recent studies that predict their widespread extinction in a rapidly warming planet.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) has announced the launch of their new, advocacy-based website. The interactive website reflects the organization’s mission to provide members and concerned pet owners with a voice in legislative issues affecting pets and pet ownership.
“Our new website is a strong advocacy tool, highlighting issues requiring immediate industry action,” said Mike Canning, PIJAC’s President and CEO. “Providing quick and easy access to essential information, the new PIJAC website ensures that the industry has a say in its future.”
According to Canning, the new design raises awareness and fosters engagement on issues, legislation, and PIJAC activities that affect the industry. New website features include:
“Designed by the top advocacy website designer in Washington, D.C., the new PIJAC website will engage our members and the industry to proactively address the issues that affect their bottom line with legislators around the country,” Canning said.
To check out the new PIJAC web site please go to, www.pijac.org, and stop by regularly for pet and reptile and amphibian regulatory updates.
…read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
By Herp News
African frogs, originally imported for early 20th century pregnancy tests, carried a deadly amphibian disease to the US, according to new findings. African Clawed Frogs have long been suspected of spreading a harmful fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The earliest known case of the fungus was found in these frogs in their native South Africa. Now scientists have found the first evidence of the disease among introduced feral populations in the US.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Twitch announced yesterday that the company has chosen gaming audio equipment manufacturer Turtle Beach as their official audio partner. The video platform and community for gamers hosts more than 34 million gaming enthusiasts and 600,000 active broadcasters every month, who view gaming tournaments, showcase their own gameplay and interact with fellow gamers of the Twitch community. In an …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Jaguars (Panthera onca) are the biggest cat in the Americas and the only member of the Panthera genus in the New World; an animal most people recognize, the jaguar is also the third largest cat in the world with an intoxicatingly dangerous beauty. The feline ranges from the harsh deserts of southern Arizona to the lush rainforests of Central America, and from the Pantanal wetlands all the way down to northern Argentina. These mega-predators stalk prey quietly through the grasses of Venezuelan savannas, prowl the Atlantic forests of eastern Brazil, hunt along the river of the Amazon, and even venture into lower parts of the Andes.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Jaguars (Panthera onca) are the biggest cat in the Americas and the only member of the Panthera genus in the New World; an animal most people recognize, the jaguar is also the third largest cat in the world with an intoxicatingly dangerous beauty. The feline ranges from the harsh deserts of southern Arizona to the lush rainforests of Central America, and from the Pantanal wetlands all the way down to northern Argentina. These mega-predators stalk prey quietly through the grasses of Venezuelan savannas, prowl the Atlantic forests of eastern Brazil, hunt along the river of the Amazon, and even venture into lower parts of the Andes.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Jaguars (Panthera onca) are the biggest cat in the Americas and the only member of the Panthera genus in the New World; an animal most people recognize, the jaguar is also the third largest cat in the world with an intoxicatingly dangerous beauty. The feline ranges from the harsh deserts of southern Arizona to the lush rainforests of Central America, and from the Pantanal wetlands all the way down to northern Argentina. These mega-predators stalk prey quietly through the grasses of Venezuelan savannas, prowl the Atlantic forests of eastern Brazil, hunt along the river of the Amazon, and even venture into lower parts of the Andes.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A turtle which was hit by a boat and left unable to swim underwater is given a specially designed “dive belt”.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
Using the harsh cries of red-shouldered hawks, the excited cawing of crows, and the strident vocalizations of bluejays as an excuse to take a break from yard work, Patti and I walked across the street to see what was causing the avian uproar.
The birds were all gathered on the uppermost limbs of a big live oak. Responding to their distress calls, more birds were winging our way. The tree was tall and fully leafed. Although the birds, hopping and flying from limb to treetop limb, might have had a great view, we needed binoculars.
Binocs were found and Patti was the first to make out a sinuous shape — a snake shape — amidst the leaves of a slender outermost branch.
It was a yellow rat snake, Pantherophis obsoletus quadrivittatus, a big one, and the fact that it was being dive-bombed by a host of varied bird species seemed to bother it not at all. Eventually I snagged the binoculars and found the snake in the branches.
Birds screamed, dive-bombed, hopped about, retreated, and then began the ritual all over. The snake had coiled within a network of small diameter branches that the birds could neither land on nor penetrate while awing. After a half hour or so, as evening drew nigh, the avian horde decided they had better make nighttime preparations and all left.
Ten minutes after the hub-bub died down the snake began its descent. With the show now over and necks aching from craning upwards, we also returned to our temporarily forgotten yard work.
Yellow rat snakes are no stranger to our neighborhood. We usually see several a year and are led to many by the excited calls of birds. The snakes depicted here are of typical color and are from our backyard. The larger one could actually be the protagonist in this tale.
More photos after the jump…
Continue reading “A Tale of a Yellow” …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
Chytrid fungus infections are wiping out amphibians all over the world. Now, a new study may have pinpointed the origin of the disease.
From National Geographic:
“It did a really huge number on an entire genus of frogs in Central America,” said Marm Kilpatrick, a disease ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). The fungus probably caused several species of this harlequin frog (Atelopus) to go extinct, he added.
Chytrid is also largely responsible for endangering California’s mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa).
“It’s the single biggest threat to vertebrate diversity in the world,” Kilpatrick said.
The fungus, which seems to attack only amphibians, causes a thickening of the infected amphibian’s skin, preventing the animal from breathing properly and interfering with its electrolyte balance. The infection can eventually lead to cardiac arrest, although some frog species are better able to cope with it than others.
A new study delving into how this fungus spreads has now linked chytrid outbreaks in California—one of the more recent areas experiencing huge amphibian die-offs—to the spread of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis).
And the study’s implications could extend far beyond California, providing scientists with a potential road map showing how a devastating infection continues to spread around the world.
Read more here.
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
By Herp News
A turtle which was hit by a boat and left unable to swim underwater is to be given a specially designed “dive belt”.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A new initiative that aims to increase awareness of the dangers turtles face and encourage human action to help them survive, kicks off at Kelly Tarlton’s SEA LIFE Aquarium this month. Turtle Fest, held from 18 May to 2 June, will commemorate World Turtle Day on 23 May and educate visitors to SEA LIFE aquariums across Australia and New Zealand on the turtles’ plight. Since 1991 Kelly Tarlton’s …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
I walk into the backyard after a long unhappy morning of chores and errands…..(be honest, chores and errands are rarely ‘happy’)…..instead of entering the front or side door because about a mile from home the thought of Frankie pops into my mind and it’s the first happy thought to arrive today.
Frankie has beensettlinginto his summer life in the yard. He is busy selecting basking spots, checking out new plant growth, looking over new man-made items that landed there over the winter, and re-establish his dominance over boulders and tubs lest they forget who is the king of the yard.
I catch Frankie examining a pile of wood leaning against his shed. He spies asuspiciouslyevil looking white pipe that seems to have returned after he firmly expelled from the yard last fall. He is having difficulty getting to it as there are three plastic patio chairs lined up in front of pipe.
I see whats going on.
Frankie does not plow through the chairs to reach the offending pipe but instead he sits. It’s a pitiful looking sit. Frankie knows that pipe is there but lacks the “umph” to do anything about it. Hefinallyturns around and crawls under the chair I am sitting it. Wisely, I abandonthe chair.
Frankie just sits there. 3/4 of him is under the chair and the rest of him (legs and head) jut out from under the chair. Sulcata tortoises take upthis position when they plan to haul said furniture across the yard. This is why we call sulcata tortoisesFurnitureMovers.
But Frankie just sits.
Sensing somediscontent in that sit, I sit down next to Frankie so we cannotcommunicateabout what’s wrong. We both stare out into the yard. Me because I am miserable that there is no dark chocolate and ice tea to refresh me after errands, and Frankie, well, I don’t know what’s got him so preoccupied. He just stares out into the yard just like me.
I get an idea.
“Frankie. Is it Miss Umbrella Stand? Are you missing her?”
I dive under the patio where all kinds of yard items are stuffed during the winter. Half the stuff should have been thrown away but it was too cold to go outside and throw anything away. Those kinds of things are sitting under the patio along with Frankie’s stuff I just haven’t pulled out yet.
There she lay. Back against the brick house and covered by a garden hose Iretrievethe umbrella stand bought five years ago yet it has never held an umbrella.
I drag out the umbrella stand and set it under the Golden Rain Tree.
Frankie gets up and walks calmly to the umbrella stand. He stops right next to it andconsidersit for several minutes. He then half walks over it and stops so his back leg still holds on. A quick pivot and Frankie is on top.
He sits there. Maybe savoring the moment.
He …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
No products found.
By Herp News
African frogs, originally imported for early 20th century pregnancy tests, carried a deadly amphibian disease to the US, according to new findings. African Clawed Frogs have long been suspected of spreading a harmful fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The earliest known case of the fungus was found in these frogs in their native South Africa. Now scientists have found the first evidence of the disease among introduced feral populations in the US.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
African frogs, originally imported for early 20th century pregnancy tests, carried a deadly amphibian disease to the US, according to new findings. African Clawed Frogs have long been suspected of spreading a harmful fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The earliest known case of the fungus was found in these frogs in their native South Africa. Now scientists have found the first evidence of the disease among introduced feral populations in the US.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
SOUTHAMPTON, England, May 15 (UPI) — European scientists say a newly identified kind of ichthyosaur, a dolphin-like marine reptile from the age of dinosaurs, gives new insights into the creatures.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
A new study argues for treating endangered Sumatran populations in Borneo and Sumatra as ‘a single conservation unit’, lending academic support to a controversial proposal to move wild rhinos from Malaysia to Indonesia.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Fans of the wing, burger, and craft beer mecca known as Winking Lizard Tavern will notice something different about the new Washington Square location. It’s much smaller.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
There’s a beautiful and deadly new species of green palm-pitviper in town, reports Zookeys, an open access scientific journal.
From Science Daily:
The gorgeous new species was discovered by scientists during two expeditions in 2010 aimed at studying the fauna of Texiguat Wildlife Refuge, one of the most endemism-rich and diverse highland forests in Mesoamerica. This beautiful, but highly toxic, snake represents the 15th endemic species occurring in the region. Texiguat Wildlife Refuge was created in 1987 to protect populations of wildlife such as the famous but elusive jaguar and Central America tapir, as well as howler and white-faced monkeys, sloths, and a variety of endemic amphibians, reptiles, and plants.
To draw attention to the dedication and sacrifice of many grassroots conservationists in Honduras and Central America, the new species was named in honor of Mario Guifarro of Olancho. Guifarro was a former hunter and gold miner who became an outspoken conservationist when he saw the vast rainforests of eastern Honduras being destroyed and converted to cattle ranches. After years of threats and multiple attempts on his life, Guifarro was ambushed and murdered on 15 September 2007 while on a mission to delimit a biosphere reserve for the indigenous Tawahka.
Read more here.
Photo: Josiah H. Townsend; CC-BY 3.0/ScienceDaily.com …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
kingsnake.com is happy to welcome a new featured contributor, longtime herper and author Patricia Bartlett, who will be writing about herp keeping, care, and breeding on a regular basis.
Patti Bartlett spent her formative years chasing lizards and butterflies in New Mexico. Although she has more than dabbled in museum management, Asian studies, and publishing, at the end of every day she goes home to a resident population of snakes, frogs, turtles and mammals. She is the author or co-author of some 65 books– most about reptiles.
For a list of her current titles, please visit her page in our bookstore …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
By Herp News
Shell shocked! A seemingly invincible pet tortoise in UK, who survived two world wars and even a bomb in the Blitz, has died aged 130 – after being bitten by a rat. Thomas, the oldest tor…
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Washington, May 15 (ANI): An international team of scientists has identified a new species of ichthyosaur (a dolphin-like marine reptile from the age of dinosaurs) from Iraq, which revolutionises our understanding of the evolution and extinction of these ancient marine reptiles.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
This image of a Skink, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ilovemonitorliza, 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
No products found.
By Herp News
A stunning new species of pit-viper has been discovered in the cloud forest of Honduras. The venomous snake is described in the journal ZooKeys.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
Scientists have revealed a new species of ichthyosaur (a dolphin-like marine reptile from the age of dinosaurs) from Iraq, which revolutionizes our understanding of the evolution and extinction of these ancient marine reptiles.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
The Turtle Beach Ear Force XP510 is what the company calls “the most advanced gaming audio system Turtle Beach has ever created.” I ran the unit through a vigorous gauntlet of cross-platform testing on console and mobile to test out this high claim about the company's latest offering in high-end gaming audio. After a month's worth of immersive testing, tweaking and observing the XP510 in action …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
As the weather continues to warm up more and more some of my scaly friends have begun to show up around the office.Just today a lizard that darted away from the desk I was walking towards surprised me…
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
By Herp News
The bleached bones of seabirds are telling us a new story about the far-reaching impacts of industrial fisheries on today’s oceans. Looking at the isotopes of 250 bones from Hawaiian petrels (Pterodroma sandwichensis), scientists have been able to reconstruct the birds’ diets over the last 3,000 years. They found an unmistakable shift from big prey to small prey around 100 years ago, just when large, modern fisheries started scooping up fish at never before seen rates. The dietary shift shows that modern fisheries upended predator and prey relationships even in the ocean ocean and have possibly played a role in the decline of some seabirds.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
“Toonk, toonk, toonk, toonk.”
During a warm downpour I stood on the back porch for a few minutes listening and reveling at the sound.
The hollow “toonks” of H. gratiosa, the barking treefrog, were unmistakable. It was the third year I had heard this small chorus of the southeast’s largest native treefrog while standing on my back porch. They called from a small retention pond in an apartment complex a bit under a half mile from us. Only two or three had been heard in the spring of 2011. The number had grown to six or seven last year. And this year it sounded as if it had doubled again.
In their color-changing abilities, by the way, barking treefrogs are hylid chameleons. The same frog may be any one of several shades of green at one moment and tan or brown a minute or two later. The spots may be lighter or darker than the body color and be entirely of one color or dark-edged ocelli. Barkers often voice occasional calls from the canopy, but when breeding often vocalize while floating amidst dense emergent vegetation.
We had experienced a warm winter and were having a cold spring in northcentral Florida. It was now the third week of April and the winter frogs, the various chorus frogs and peepers, not yet realizing that seasonal warming was finally upon us, were still calling from suitable habitats. The green treefrogs that usually call from the tiny rubber-bottomed pond in our yard had not yet announced their presence. Although the southern toads had been foraging in the yard for weeks they had gathered at the pond to call on only one very rainy night a week earlier.
Only a moment earlier I had been exchanging Facebook comments with more northerly friends who were experiencing another spring snowstorm. Now I stood listening to a hylid that, to me, truly signified the advent of spring’s warming. I decided to pull up a chair and enjoy sounds nature offered, the sighing breezes, the steadily falling rain, and the treefrog chorus, for a while longer.
More photos under the jump…
Continue reading “Barkers and a balmy April night” …read more
Read more here: King Snake
No products found.
By Herp News
In March, two people were caught attempting to smuggle 54 ploughshare tortoises (Astrochelys yniphora) into Thailand. Listed as Critically Endangered, the tortoises’ wild population is down to approximately 400-500 animals in its native Madagascar, meaning the smugglers were attempting to move over 10 percent of the total population. Now, the Scientific American blog Extinction Countdown reports that nearly half of the smuggled tortoises have died of unknown causes.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.