By Herp News
And hundreds who gathered for the release after the Tybee Turtle Trot watched both Silases with a mix of joy and sorrow. Silas Edenfield, 4, is in hospice care at his Lyons home for incurable liver cancer.
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By Herp News
There are no guarantees, but there's a chance you can watch a 300-pound loggerhead turtle lay eggs this summer during guided turtle walks in Fort Lauderdale. The Museum of Discovery and Science will lead the walks in June and July, peak period for the huge reptiles to emerge from the ocean, dig holes in the sand with their flippers and lay 100 or so eggs.
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By Herp News
Charlotte ceramicist Paula Smith waits to hear the fate of her mosaic turtle.
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By Herp News
Charlotte ceramicist Paula Smith waits to hear the fate of her mosaic turtle.
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By Herp News
A TORTOISE has been stolen from a town centre pet shop.
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By Herp News
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – The clock is ticking for the owner of Reptile Rescue who needs to find a place to house 450 animals.
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By Herp News
LODI – Thousands of reptiles, amphibians and spiders will be featured at the Reptile Breeders Show in Lodi on Saturday and Sunday. Organizers want people to see the creatures in a different light. Show promoter Dr. Roy Smith said, “People …
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The news has been full of stories about snakes turning up where they don’t belong, probably due to warming temperatures as a somewhat late and feeble spring finally takes hold.
In Mississippi, county employees are freaking out over harmless little brown snakes “invading” the local courthouse basement file room. Read more…
More than 100 gartner snakes have been found in a Canadian hospital. Read more…
Connecticut wildlife agencies have some advice for people who are fearful of snakes. “Snakes are probably some of the most misunderstood animals,” said Laura Saucier, a wildlife technician with the DEEP Wildlife Division. “There is no need to fear or hate these reptiles. If you leave snakes alone, they will leave you alone.” Read more…
We couldn’t have said it better.
Have a great weekend, everyone! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Most hobbyists have heard about Okeetee and Miami Corn Snakes, Pantherophis guttatus guttatus, but in Florida there are a few other locales that are home to rather distinctive corn snakes.
Like “Okeetee,” actually an area much greater than just the hunt club from which the name was taken, and Miami (again a larger area), Palm Beach and the Everglades are homes to corn snakes that, although somewhat variable, are often identifiable by appearance to locale.
Let’s take a look at the Everglades phase, a corn snake that is often found right in mangrove habitat at the southernmost tip of the Florida mainland.
Usually only 2 ½ to 3 feet in length, the dorsum bears bright red saddles that are heavily outlined in black and separated by a pretty beige ground color. The sides, predominantly yellow-buff to beige, bear small black spots that may or may not have a red center. The belly is typically “corn snake checkered” but often has a hazy appearance.
Although not uncommon, this is a corn snake phase that is rather seldom seen. But if you’re all the way down in Miami-Dade County looking for the coveted maroon on pearl gray corns there, you might as well continue southward to Monroe County and find yourself a pretty Everglades phase.
More photos under the jump…
Continue reading “Everglades Reds” …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
Byline: TV’s ‘Boycie’ launches the new RNLI Lizard Tamar lifeboat appeal Page Content: The birthday surprise of a lifetime for TV star John Challis, Boycie from the hit series Only Fools and Horses , turned into a huge boost for the RNLI appeal to help fund the next generation of lifeboat to be based at The Lizard. Boycie, overwhelmed at his VIP welcome by volunteers at the remote lifeboat …
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By Herp News
Byline: £300 for The Lizard Tamar Lifeboat Appeal Page Content: Not missing a chance to boost the funds of The Lizard Tamar Lifeboat fundraising appeal earlier today – two prominent Lizard Lifeboat personnel – Station Mechanic Dan Atkinson and Lifeboat Operations Manager Ned Nuzum grasped a very generous donation of £300 from South West News Service. Following their unusual request to use Ned's …
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By Herp News
It might have been cute when you first got it, but now that snake, lizard, or alligator may be a little to much to handle. If that's your situation, Saturday is the day for your day.
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By Herp News
Poachers have likely killed off the last rhinos in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park, according to a park official.
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By Herp News
WWF and the Wildlife Conversation Society (WCS) are issuing an immediate call for action as they report that poachers are killing sizable numbers of forest elephants near the Dzanga-Sangha protected areas in the Central African Republic (CAR). The two large conservation groups have evacuated their staff from the area after a government coup, but local rangers are still trying to determine the scale of the killing while defending remaining elephants. In total the conservation groups believe the parks are home to over 3,000 elephants.
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By Herp News
Little is known about the silver dik-dik (Madoqua piacentinii) population that roams the dense coastal bushlands of eastern Africa, but experts are working to learn more about the mysterious species. Weighing little more than a domestic cat, the small antelopes are found in a long, narrow coastal strip spreading across 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu north to the port town of Hobyo. This coastal strip is known as the Hobyo Grassland and Shrubland eco-region, according to the WWF.
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By Herp News
Byline: Zooming Zapcats support The Lizard RNLI lifeboat appeal Page Content: The Lizard lifeboat station team have given a warm welcome to a single-handed epic adventurer with a difference: speed-loving Neil Bainbridge, who lost an arm after an horrific land-based accident some years ago, is on a mission to pilot his tiny powerboat right round the UK mainland. Neil’s craft is a four-metre-long …
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By Herp News
The turtle survived a 15 minute attack by the alligator in the Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia, after the large reptile gave up when it could not crack its shell.
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By Herp News
Byline: Planning permission granted for new RNLI lifeboat station at The Lizard Page Content: Cornwall planners have given the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) the go ahead for a replacement lifeboat station at Kilcobben Cove on the Lizard. The charity needs the purpose built facility to house a new Tamar class all-weather lifeboat and to ensure its life saving role can continue in the …
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By Herp News
Byline: RNLI Lifeguard recruits visit The Lizard Lifeboat station Page Content: Included in their busy induction programme to becoming RNLI Lifeguards, patrolling our local beaches for the busy summer season, these new recruits made a familiarisation visit to The Lizard Lifeboat Station earlier this week. Station Coxswain Phil Burgess gave the enthusiastic bunch a very interesting talk about the …
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By Herp News
Byline: The Lizard Lifeboat launches to the rescue of 36' yacht Page Content: Following a total machinery failure and the prospect of having no navigation lights as darkness approached, the crew of the 36ft Bavaria Yacht 'Reflection' were pleased to receive a tow to the safety of Falmouth from The Lizard Lifeboat last night. A launch request from Falmouth Coastguard soon turned into a hasty dash …
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Robots modeled on baby sea turtles may reveal secrets about evolution
From the LA Times:
To better understand how the sea turtles’ flippers work on land, researchers at Daniel Goldman’s CRAB Lab (Complex Rheology and Biomechanics) at Georgia Tech studied the movements of just-hatched sea turtles on the beach of Jekyll Island, a coastal island of Georgia.
The researchers noticed that the sea turtles were able to maintain the same speed on both sandy and firmer terrain, by bending their wrists on sandy ground and keeping their wrists rigid when running on hard ground.
In order to study their movements more closely without bringing baby sea turtles into the lab, one of Goldman’s students built FlipperBot, a robot model of a baby sea turtle that has the ability to bend its wooden flipper wrist or keep it rigid.
After putting FlipperBot through a number of tests, the scientists found that Mother Nature, and the baby sea turtles, have got it right. The robot was able to traverse a manufactured poppy seed terrain more quickly when it was allowed to bend its wrist. They also found that the robot, as well as the baby sea turtles, slowed down when they encountered previously disturbed poppy seeds or sand.
So, why does this matter? Well, the research can help engineers design robots that can successfully traverse many types of terrain. It might also help turtle conservationists understand what conditions can slow down baby turtles during that all-important first run, and finally, it may even help answer some evolutionary questions.
Read the full story and watch video of the turtle robot here.
Photo: Nicole Mazouchova / Georgia Tech …read more
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By Herp News
A bystander saw the lizard in the road near 127th Avenue and Larkspur Road in El Mirage and was able to capture it in a large plastic container.
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By Herp News
Few people have ever heard of the Javan ferret-badger, but that hasn’t stopped this animal—little-known even to scientists—from being sold in open markets in Jakarta according to a new paper in Small Carnivore Conservation. The Javan ferret-badger (Melogale orientalis) is one of five species in the ferret-badger family, which are smaller than proper badgers with long bushy tails and elongated faces; all five species are found in Asia.
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By Herp News
Few people have ever heard of the Javan ferret-badger, but that hasn’t stopped this animal—little-known even to scientists—from being sold in open markets in Jakarta according to a new paper in Small Carnivore Conservation. The Javan ferret-badger (Melogale orientalis) is one of five species in the ferret-badger family, which are smaller than proper badgers with long bushy tails and elongated faces; all five species are found in Asia.
…read more
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By Herp News
Turtles, like most critters, instinctively avoid obstacles. Researchers have tapped into this instinct to steer a turtle without sticking probes into its brain or muscles, an achievement that could lead to a world crawling with animals doing the bidding of humans.The feat is achieved by attaching a half cylinder to the turtle's shell that is remotely controlled to turn one way or another. Part …
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By Herp News
Just 9% of the millions of tonnes of fish caught by China’s giant fishing fleet in African and other international waters is officially reported to the UN, say researchers using a new way to estimate the size and value of catches. Fisheries experts have long considered that the catches reported by China to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) are low but the scale of the possible deception shocked the authors.
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By Herp News
Don Lewis, aka the “Turtle Guy,” and Sue Wieber Nourse, will transform Wareham’s First Congregational Church at 11 Gibbs Ave. into the storm-tossed Atlantic coastline through the magic of digital media Saturday, May 11.
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By Herp News
INCREASED marine traffic in Gladstone Harbour could be killing its turtle population, according to Townsville’s Sea Turtle Foundation.
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Say hello to Froggie Mercury! A newly discovered species of frog in India’s biodiversity hot-spot, the Western Ghats, has been named after the late Freddie Mercury: Mercurana myristicapalustris.
From TheHindu.com, an account of the discovery of this and one other new species of frog:
The… genus has been christened ‘Mercurana’ to commemorate Freddie Mercury, late iconic lead singer of the British rock band Queen. Mercury (his pen name) was of Indian Parsi origin and had spent major part of his childhood in India in Panchagni, located in the northern part of the mountain range, where the frog now bearing his name has been discovered.
While the ‘Beddomixalus bijui’ was found in the swamp forests of the Anamalai and high ranges of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, ‘Mercurana myristicapalustris,’ is restricted to highly fragmented and threatened low land ‘Myristica’ swamp forests in the foothills of the Agastyamalai hills in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts.
More here! …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
Instead of making a robot from scratch, why not start with a turtle? With a simple, non-invasive device attached to its shell, a live red-eared slider could be steered like a remote-controlled toy car a slow one at least, new research shows
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By Herp News
The tree iguana, Liolaemus nigromaculatus, was the second species of the genus Liolaemus to be described and the nominal species of the group nigromaculatus. However, since its description, no scientific study further clarified the identity of this engaging species or its type locality. A recent study by Chilean biologists clarifies the mysteries around this tree iguana, characterizing the species and its dwelling areas.
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By Herp News
Byline: RNLI respond to fishing boat stranded powerless 17 miles south of The Lizard Page Content: The Lizard Lifeboat launched this evening Wednesday 20 May) at 7.13pm to the aid of the Fowey registered fishing vessel Red Vixen . In a position 17 nautical miles south of Lizard Point, reporting a power failure. The Lizard RNLI lifeboat David Robinson under the command of Second Coxswain David …
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By Herp News
Gator attacks 6-year-old: Joey Welch survived a gator attack with only minor injuries last week. The boy's father and bystanders fought the alligator to release the 6-year-old during the attack.
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By Herp News
Byline: Two calls keep The Lizard RNLI busy over bank holiday weekend Page Content: It was a busy bank holiday Sunday for The Lizard lifeboat crew with two emergencies in the space of one afternoon. The first call was to a fishing vessel that had developed a leak. After assisting the people onboard to get the problem under control, the lifeboat was then diverted to a dive boat where medical …
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By Herp News
You can’t mistake an Asian tapir for anything else: for one thing, it’s the only tapir on the continent; for another, it’s distinct black-and-white blocky markings distinguishes it from any other tapir (or large mammal) on Earth. But still little is known about the Asian tapir (Tapirus indicus), including the number surviving. However, researchers in Malaysia are working to change that: a new study for the first time estimates population density for the neglected megafauna, while another predicts where populations may still be hiding in peninsular Malaysia, including selectively-logged areas.
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By Herp News
Instead of making a robot from scratch, why not start with a turtle? With a simple, non-invasive device attached to its shell, a live red-eared slider could be steered like a remote-controlled toy car — a slow one at least, new research shows.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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By Herp News
Rhino poachers have killed 232 rhinos during 2013 so far in South Africa, reports Annamiticus, which averages out to 2.1 a day. The country has become a flashpoint for rhino poaching as it holds more rhinos than any other country on Earth. Rhinos are being slaughter for their horns, which are believed to be a curative in Chinese traditional medicine, although there is no evidence this is so.
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By Herp News
Rhino poachers have killed 232 rhinos during 2013 so far in South Africa, reports Annamiticus, which averages out to 2.1 a day. The country has become a flashpoint for rhino poaching as it holds more rhinos than any other country on Earth. Rhinos are being slaughter for their horns, which are believed to be a curative in Chinese traditional medicine, although there is no evidence this is so.
…read more
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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It’s a plain fact that a lot of people don’t like snakes, even if those of us here don’t understand why not. And for some reason, a lot of snake-haters find their way to the kingsnake.com Facebook page, where they feel a need to inform us that they don’t like our animals. So a story like this one is both welcome and a little surprising.
From WFLA.com in Tampa, Florida:
A five foot boa constrictor was found crawling around a Super Shuttle Airport van at Tampa International Airport on Sunday afternoon.
Lt. Natalie Brown with Tampa Fire Rescue volunteered to catch the snake after hearing the call go out over the Airport Police radio. Lt. Brown went to the cell phone lot at TIA and found the snake outside of the shuttle. She captured the snake with a pillow case borrowed from a co-worker’s bed.
“I do not like snakes,” said Brown, “I am just glad that the snake is safe. It was dangerous, the snake was in the parking lot and could have been run over.”
“It is a beautiful snake,” said Brown who believes it could be somebody’s pet.
Thanks, Lt. Brown, for putting aside your own aversion to snakes and doing the right thing, and not just hacking the snake to death as so often happens in similar circumstances!
And herpers, why not head over to the Tampa Fire Rescue Facebook page and let them know we appreciate her compassion?
Read more here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
The misty mountains of the Western Ghats seem to unravel new secrets the more you explore it. Researchers have discovered two new frog genera, possibly restricted to rare and threatened freshwater swamps in the southern Western Ghats of India. The discoveries, described in the open-access journal Zootaxa, prove once again the importance of the mountain range as a biodiversity hotspot.
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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