By Herp News

Judah DuBois, 4, left, and Chavy DuBois, 6, right, pet a crested gecko during the reptile exhibit at the World of Wonders Science Museum Saturday afternoon.

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Judah DuBois, 4, pets a crested gecko during the reptile exhibit at the World of Wonders Science Museum Saturday afternoon.

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Chase Guin, 8, pets a Columbian tego that Don McLeister is holding.

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By Herp News

A new sea turtle hospital has just been announced for Brevard County. Right now several injured or

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By Herp News

An exotic lizard that can grow up to four feet long has been spotted just outside of Winter Haven. T

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By Herp News

The annual Reptile Roundup is slithering into World of Wonders Science Museum today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The WOW Museum is teaming up with local reptile stores and museums to offer a hands-on day of fun with live reptiles .

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By Herp News

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — An African leopard tortoise thought to be stolen from an Iowa museum was actually trapped behind paneling in her enclosure, and a misguided employee who found her lied to keep up the story about her theft, the museum announced Friday.

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By Herp News

An eastern Iowa tortoise originally thought to be stolen – then returned – was only hiding. Officials at the National…

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Scientists continue to study the genome of the painted turtle, seeking clues in its amazing ability to survive and thrive in difficult environmental conditions that might help human victims of stroke, heart attack, and hypothermia.

From 680News.com:

The shelled reptile, named for the bright yellow stripes that adorn its body, is a fresh water species that can freeze solid and return to life when thawed.

It can also hold its breath for up to four days at room temperature without suffering oxygen deprivation and up to four months when hibernating, said Brad Shaffer of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and one of the lead authors of the study published in the latest edition of the journal Genome Biology.

“Those are fascinating ecological, physiological features that have evolved in turtles … so as a biologist those are fascinating things to learn more about, more about the genes that allow them to do that,” Shaffer said.

Shaffer and his colleagues hope solving the DNA puzzle may one day lead to innovations in treating hypothermia, frostbite, heart attacks or strokes.

The DNA confirmed for scientists that the turtles have evolved at a … turtle’s pace, and have in fact changed little in design over the past 210 million years.

“Turtles are nothing short of an enigma,” Richard K. Wilson, director of Washington University’s Genome Institute and one of the authors, said in a statement. “We could learn a lot from them.”

In addition to their ability to freeze and thaw without suffering organ or tissue damage, they have longevity and continue to reproduce at advanced ages, he said.

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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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The disastrous ExxonMobil oil spill in an Arkansas residential neighborhood is threatening reptiles and other local wildlife.

From The NY Daily News:

The evacuation of almost two dozen homes after an oil pipeline ruptured in Arkansas has left an eerie sight in one neighborhood — and many unanswered questions.

“That neighborhood was like a scene from ‘The Walking Dead,’” state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Wednesday after visiting the Little Rock suburb of Mayflower. “There were still Easter decorations on homes, but there was not a soul in sight other than people in Hazmat suits.”

ExxonMobil is investigating what caused its Pegasus pipeline, which carries oil from southern Illinois to the Texas Gulf Coast, to burst open March 29.

[…]

Officials say at least 16 oily birds, seven turtles, nine reptiles, a beaver and a muskrat have been recovered for treatment. At least seven ducks died as the result of the spill.

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By Herp News

A Seychelles freshwater turtle species declared extinct after decades of futile searches, in fact never existed, scientists said Thursday.

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By Herp News

Last Saturday, an oil pipeline carrying tar sands oil from Canada ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas spilling between 3,500-5,000 barrels of crude (at most 210,000 gallons) into neighborhood streets and lawns. Families from 22 homes have been evacuated while clean-up crews have scrambled to contain the spill. ExxonMobil, which runs the 65-year-old Pegasus pipeline, has stated it will pay for any damage, however critics say the oil spill is more evidence that the Obama Administration should turn down the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

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By Herp News

Last Saturday, an oil pipeline carrying tar sands oil from Canada ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas spilling between 3,500-5,000 barrels of crude (at most 210,000 gallons) into neighborhood streets and lawns. Families from 22 homes have been evacuated while clean-up crews have scrambled to contain the spill. ExxonMobil, which runs the 65-year-old Pegasus pipeline, has stated it will pay for any damage, however critics say the oil spill is more evidence that the Obama Administration should turn down the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

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By Herp News

Last Saturday, an oil pipeline carrying tar sands oil from Canada ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas spilling between 3,500-5,000 barrels of crude (at most 210,000 gallons) into neighborhood streets and lawns. Families from 22 homes have been evacuated while clean-up crews have scrambled to contain the spill. ExxonMobil, which runs the 65-year-old Pegasus pipeline, has stated it will pay for any damage, however critics say the oil spill is more evidence that the Obama Administration should turn down the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

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By Herp News

WWF-Indonesia recently caught the attention of the global media with their announcement that the Sumatran rhinoceros still exists in Indonesian Borneo, some 40 years after being declared extinct there. This sounds like great news for biodiversity conservation. But is it really?

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By Herp News

WWF-Indonesia recently caught the attention of the global media with their announcement that the Sumatran rhinoceros still exists in Indonesian Borneo, some 40 years after being declared extinct there. This sounds like great news for biodiversity conservation. But is it really?

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By Herp News

WWF-Indonesia recently caught the attention of the global media with their announcement that the Sumatran rhinoceros still exists in Indonesian Borneo, some 40 years after being declared extinct there. This sounds like great news for biodiversity conservation. But is it really?

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By Herp News

Described by a number of media outlets as “the size of your face” a new tree-dwelling tarantula discovered in Sri Lanka has awed arachnophiliacs and terrified arachnophobes alike. But the new species, named Raja’s tiger spider (Poecilotheria rajaei), is likely Critically Endangered according to the scientist that discovered it in northern Sri Lanka.

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By Herp News

Described by a number of media outlets as “the size of your face” a new tree-dwelling tarantula discovered in Sri Lanka has awed arachnophiliacs and terrified arachnophobes alike. But the new species, named Raja’s tiger spider (Poecilotheria rajaei), is likely Critically Endangered according to the scientist that discovered it in northern Sri Lanka.

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By Herp News

An accused reptile thief is due in court Thursday. Detectives say 21-year-old Devin Madej broke into Fresno’s Discovery Center and smashed up glass cases to steal multiple snakes and other reptiles . Since the break-in, the museum is beefing up their security.  The center already had a video surveillance system, which recorded the thefts and helped lead to the arrest of Madej. They have since …

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By Herp News

The turtle species Pelusios seychellensis regarded hitherto as extinct never existed. Scientists discovered this based on genetic evidence.

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I am the master of all I see.

It’s a pretty huge place.

I like my leaves

I like my rocks

My staff occasionally add things

What is this?

This is too small.

This one is great!

Someone clean my pool!

I do this a lot.

This is an awesome slide!

I used this as a kid? It still works.

Time to cut the grass again….I’ll get you started.

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By Herp News

In a report released Tuesday, Public Policy Polling looked at conspiracy theories on a variety of issues.

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By Herp News

Byline: The Lizard RNLI launch to channel collision Page Content: The Lizard RNLI lifeboat was launched at lunchtime today, Wednesday 18 March 2009) to assist a French yacht, feared sinking following a collision with a merchant vessel. Fortunately the incident was not as critical as first thought and the lifeboat was soon stood down. The two man crew of the yacht had recently picked up the newly …

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By Herp News

PARIS, France – A Seychelles freshwater turtle species declared extinct after decades of futile searches, in fact never existed, scientists said Thursday, April 4. While Man has the extinction of several turtle and tortoise species on his conscience, DNA evidence has now cleared him of exterminating Pelusios seychellensis, a team from …

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By Herp News

Turtle extinction is a serious crisis, with approximately half of around 328 species at risk of becoming extinct. In Asia, around 75 percent of freshwater turtle species are threatened or endangered. However, a German team from Senckenberg Research Institute in Dresden reported today that one species of supposedly extinct turtle never existed at all. That […] Extinct Turtle Never Existed is a …

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By Herp News

Local youngsters got an opportunity to get up close and personal with some slithery creatures last week when the Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall hosted a session with Mike’s Critters. The mall is running children’s programs every weekday during the two weeks of Spring Break.

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Usually when the words “endangered wildlife” and “smuggling” get used in a headline, the story is set in some exotic tropical location. Not this time.

From Syracuse.com:

A North Country woman who smuggled more than 200 turtles, alligators, iguanas and other wildlife into Canada pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Syracuse.

The endangered and threatened animals were worth “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Benedict in a news release.

Olivia Terrance, 28 of Hogansburg, NY, faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced Aug. 5, Benedict said.

Court papers show she smuggled the rare animals across the Saint Lawrence River into Canada on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, which spans both countries. The animals were transported on two dates: by car on July 8, 2009 and by boat Aug. 4, 2010, according to a memorandum by U.S. District Court Judge Norman Mordue.

Terrance was delivering the animals to her cousin, Dennis Day, in Canada, to sell to retailers and collectors, prosecutors said.

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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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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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Zoo Atlanta officials are looking to build a new facility to house its amphibian and reptile complex.

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On a recent canyoneering trip to southern Utah, I saw several small, healthy-looking lizards darting along the canyon walls.

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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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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.

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