By Herp News
Scientists have decoded the genome of the western painted turtle , one of the most abundant turtles on Earth, finding clues to their longevity and ability to survive without oxygen during long winters spent hibernating in ice-covered ponds.
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By Herp News
Early on a Sunday morning last summer, the villagers of Epulu awoke to the sounds of shots and screaming. In the eastern reaches of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that can often mean another round of violence and ethnic murder is under way. In this case, however, something even more horrific was afoot.
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By Herp News
Sprinkled with pollen, buzzing bees fly from one blossom to another, collecting sweet nectar from brilliantly colored flowers. Bees tend to symbolize the pollination process, but there are many wild insects that carry out the same function. Unfortunately, wild insect populations are in decline, and, according to a recent study, adding more honey bees may not be a viable solution.
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By Herp News
Byline: Credit Crunch? not at The Lizard RNLI’s SOS Day events! Page Content: The Lizard Lifeboat station’s fundraising group has raised over £1,600 for the RNLI’s biggest annual fundraising day. Known nationally as SOS day, Friday 30 January was a great way for everyone to have some fun, whilst raising funds to help the RNLI’s volunteer lifeboat crews and lifeguards save lives at sea …
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By Herp News
Tortoise Capital Advisors today announced the introduction of the Tortoise North American Energy Independence Fund, an open-end mutual fund that invests primarily in equity securit
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By Herp News
Zoo Atlanta officials are looking to build a new facility to house its amphibian and reptile complex.
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By Herp News
On a recent canyoneering trip to southern Utah, I saw several small, healthy-looking lizards darting along the canyon walls.
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By Herp News
Conservationists working to save the Sumatran rhino—one of the world’s most imperiled mammals—heard good news this week as WWF-Indonesia has found evidence of at least one Sumatran rhino persisting in the Indonesian state of Kalimantan, located on the island of Borneo. Small populations of Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) survive on Sumatra and on Borneo (in the Malaysian state of Sabah), but this is the first time scientists have confirmed the presence of the notoriously shy animal in Kalimantan in over two decades.
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By Herp News
When the research pushes you there, you hit the sand.
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By Herp News
One kilometer off the Philippine island of Palawan lays the Rasa Island Wildlife Sanctuary; here forest grows unimpeded from a coral island surrounded by mangroves and coral reefs. Although tiny, over a hundred bird species have been recorded on the island along with a major population of large flying foxes, while in the waters below swim at least 130 species of coral fish, three types of marine turtles, and that curious-looking marine mammal, dugongs. Most importantly, perhaps, the island is home to the world’s largest population of Philippine cockatoos (Cacatua haematuropygia), currently listed as Critically Endangered. But, although uninhabited by people, Rasa Island may soon be altered irrevocably by human impacts.
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A new gecko study from the University of Akron in Ohio may help scientists develop an underwater adhesive.
From National Geographic:
To examine a gecko’s cling, [study leader Alyssa] Stark and colleagues put harnesses on six tokay geckos (Gekko gecko) and put them on four surfaces which varied in their wettability, or their degree of water resistance.
The reptiles’ feet were submerged in water on glass, plexiglass, a transparent plastic often used as a glass alternative, and Teflon.
Plexiglass and the transparent plastic “mimic the surface chemistry of the leaves geckos are really walking on in their natural environments,” Stark said.
As a gecko moved across each surface, the team applied a force in the opposite direction until the animal slipped, which allowed them to measure the animal’s grip.
The results showed that on glass, a film of water developed between the geckos’ toes and the surface, reducing their ability to stick to the glass. But on plexiglass and the plastic, the geckos’ toes create air pockets that allows their feet to stay dry—preserving the stickiness.
Read the whole story, and see a video, here.
Photo: National Geographic …read more
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By Herp News
ATLANTA (AP) — Zoo Atlanta officials are looking to build a new facility to house its amphibian and reptile complex. Keisha Hines, Zoo Atlanta spokeswoman, says zoo officials have filed a building permit application with the City of Atlanta to move forward on a new complex to replace the existing World of Reptiles Building. Hines says the 51-year-old World of Reptiles building is the oldest …
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By Herp News
Tortoise North American Energy Corp. today announced that as of March 31, 2013, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $258.5 million and its unaudited
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By Herp News
Tortoise Pipeline & Energy Fund, Inc. today announced that as of March 31, 2013, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $382.1 million and its unau
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By Herp News
Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. today announced that as of March 31, 2013, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $236.6 million an
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By Herp News
Tortoise Energy Independence Fund, Inc. today announced that as of March 31, 2013, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $412.0 million and its unaudi
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By Herp News
Small coastal fisheries are having an outsize impact on sea turtle populations, a new study finds.
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By Herp News
Reports unaudited net asset value $1.3B, or $27.79 per share as of March 31.
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By Herp News
Tortoise MLP Fund, Inc. today announced that as of March 31, 2013, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $1.9 billion and its unaudited net asset valu
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By Herp News
Tortoise Energy Capital Corp. today announced that as of March 31, 2013, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $1.0 billion and its unaudited net asse
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By Herp News
Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp. today announced that as of March 31, 2013, the company’s unaudited total assets were approximately $2.0 billion and its unaudited n
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By Herp News
Small coastal fisheries are having an outsize impact on sea turtle populations, a new study finds.
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Scientists may have found a reliable method of monitoring populations of threatened reptiles and amphibians, using a technique once thought limited to the tracking of warm-blooded species.
From Science Live:
Camera traps are frequently used to take pictures and monitor populations of large mammals like tigers and leopards, but until now, they haven’t been used often to count Komodo dragons ― the world’s largest lizards ― or other reptiles and amphibians.
Recent research suggests that they can and should be used to keep tabs on these animals, and that cameras may beat the physical traps currently used to monitor Komodo dragon populations.
Camera traps work by taking pictures when alerted to the presence of an animal by a motion detector, often an infrared one that detects heat. That’s a potential problem for reptiles and amphibians, which are cold-blooded, and thus often have the same temperature as the surrounding environment.
But the study, published online last week in the journal PLOS ONE, found that cameras worked about as well as traps at detecting the presence of Komodo dragons ― and, in certain areas, did even better. Plus, they require much less manpower to operate, and are far less expensive. With cameras, there is also no need to set up a large trap, bait it with goat meat and free the animal afterward.
Find out how this discovery is being used to protect the largest of all lizards here. …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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By Herp News
2013 Turtle Trot 5K:Race packets include official Lovers Key Turtle Trot 5K t-shirt, official race number, course map, and general instructions. Proceeds benefit The Friends of Lovers Key, Inc – (A 501(c)(3) Citizen Support Org.) $25 by 5/5/12 $30 after
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By Herp News
For generations, hundreds of Southwest Idaho families make the trek up the mountain at Lizard Butte for Easter services before the sun comes up. This historic sunrise service near Marsing is more than three-quarters of a century old.
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By Herp News
Tourism is our state’s second largest industry, and fourth largest private sector employer. As children around the country enjoy spring break, the state of South Dakota gears up for the beginning of tourism season.
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By Herp News
The savannah monitor lizard stolen from the Fresno Discovery Center is back at home after he was fou
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By Herp News
A Central California science museum has recovered one of four reptiles that were taken by a burglar who was caught on surveillance video shoving the lizard and three snakes into a garbage bag. The 3 1/2-foot …
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By Herp News
Federal wildlife officials are recommending that a rare California lizard be removed from the endangered species list, saying the reptile has recovered.
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By Herp News
Caught with a corner of the market.
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Scientists have squenced the genome of the western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii).
From RedOrbit.com:
Publishing the work in this week’s Genome Biology, researchers describe that much like the turtle itself, the rate of genome evolution is very slow. Their data show that turtle genomes evolve at a rate that is about a third that of the human genome and a fifth that of the python, the fastest genome analyzed to date.
Through extensive research, scientists have discovered many interesting facts about these abundant North American reptiles. They are long-lived, can withstand low temperatures and can survive long periods with no oxygen. The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperature at which the egg develops rather than through genetics. The painted turtle can survive up to four months under water depending on the temperature.
Previously, analyses of fossils have shown that the painted turtle has existed for more than 15 million years, and four regionally based subspecies have evolved during the last Ice Age. The western painted turtle is by far the largest of the four subspecies and can grow to 10 inches long.
The painted turtle is the first of its genus to have its genome fully sequenced, and only the second non-avian reptile to undergo the analysis. Data has revealed some very interesting insights about the bizarre features and adaptations that exist only in the turtle genome.
Read more here. …read more
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By Herp News
Captain Kirk and the reptile from the 1967 “Arena” episode learn they aren’t as spry as they used to be. read more
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By Herp News
A reptile thief is still on the run. Caught on camera overnight breaking into Fresno’s Discovery Center. CBS 47 has the video that can help catch him. The center on Winery Avenue, near McKinley and Chestnut in Fresno recently re-opened. There’s been plenty of police activity there. CBS 47′s Lemor Abrams is live inside the center. He looked around for cameras, but the thief seems to have no …
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By Herp News
Police are looking for a man who was caught on surveillance video at the Fresno Discovery Center.
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By Herp News
Madagascar’s color-changing chameleons originated in Africa and crossed over to the island some 65 million years ago, concludes a study published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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Resistant bacterial infections and human immune system disorders may one day be conquered with the help of alligator blood.
After a lifetime of fascination with and study of crocodilians, Mark Merchant of McNeese State University has focused his research on the antibacterial power of alligator serum.
Merchant knew from what he had seen that the alligator’s immune system far surpassed that of humans, so he began investigating the “mechanism of action” behind this phenomenon.
Experiments using alligator serum (a component of the blood that is left after the coagulants and the blood cells are removed) gave an indication that he was looking in the right direction.
A simple experiment of placing a drop of the serum in a petri dish of bacteria demonstrated its powerful effect as an antibiotic by killing all the bacteria exposed to it.
Unfortunately, because of the size of its cells, the serum cannot be safely injected into human blood veins at the risk of anaphylactic shock — the body would recognize it as foreign, triggering a massive allergic response.
However, a drug synthesized to match the serum’s chemical makeup could still have topical applications including treatment of burn victims, diabetics, AIDS patients and others who suffer from skin lesions that are difficult to heal, Merchant said.
But the research wasn’t over there — they just needed to go deeper.
“We turned our interest to the white blood cells,” he said.
They found that a tiny protein or peptide within the white blood cells also acts as a powerful antibiotic.
He and his researchers found these proteins have a strong positive charge. Bacteria have a strong negative charge on their outer wall, so the two are drawn together like magnets.
They bind by electric attraction, and the protein kills the bacteria by rupturing its outer wall.
Merchant believes this is a breakthrough that could lead to “a whole new class of drugs with an entirely different mechanism,” though he cautioned “this isn’t without potential problems.”
Read more here. …read more
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By Herp News
This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on March 28, 2013 and cumulati
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By Herp News
The snapping turtle that was seized from Arneek Wright’s home Monday, Mar. 25, 2013.
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By Herp News
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The western painted turtle ( Chrysemys picta bellii ) is one of the most widespread species of turtle in North America. This creature is found in fresh, slow-moving waters from southern Canada to northern Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And because this species has been widely studied, it only makes sense for researchers to …
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It’s crazy what lengths we go to domesticate these beautiful animals. It’s crazy the feeling we get for these animals. It’s crazy how your local bet hustles you cuz you go no choice but them, anyways what’s not crazy is that Ninjas dead!! Worked so hard payed so much money for Ninja n still nothing. Wish my son would have never brought home that turtle cuz it sucks to lose em! …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
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