Loving this Dumeril’s basking in the sun for a photoshoot in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user liljenni ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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There is no denying the extreme cute factor of this Xenopus laevis in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Krallenfrosch ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Here is to hoping this hatchling albino Siamese Crocodile our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user crocodilepaul helps you survive this Monday!! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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The infamous “stink eye” is glaring here with this Tegu in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user MrSickle ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Often associated with India, the snake also ranges into Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and other nearby countries. Despite the terrible toxicity and efficiency of the venom, when the Russell’s Viper Daboia russelii is available to hobbyists and zoos it is usually quickly purchased. Admittedly, this rough-scaled, grayish to brownish snake is a beautiful species.
To the pleasing ground color add 3 rows of lengthwise black and white edged oval, russet, markings. Dorsally these are occasionally elongated into a broad stripe. The top of the head has a dark edged half oval above each venom gland and the crown is outlined by light scales forming a V with the apex on the nose. Overall, what you now have, is 3 to 5 feet of beauty along a moderately heavy body.
This snake is ovoviviparous, birthing from 5 to 40 neonates. The largest substantiated litter contained 75 neonates. The babies are about 9 ½ inches long at birth.
Russell’s Viper is preferentially crepuscular to nocturnal.
The habitat of Russell’s Viper may vary from relatively dry, overgrown suburban areas to scrublands and open woodlands. These snakes are often seen wherever there are the rodents, their preferred prey. Ricefields form an ideal habitat and, sadly, workers are often bitten.
What seem to be bright colors when captive blend remarkably well with this snake’s natural habitat.
Continue reading “Deadly Beauty, the Tic-Palonga or Russell’s Viper” …read more
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A great shot of a live (as they should be) Pygmy Rattlesnake on concrete in the field in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user JARHEAD1969 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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This Box turtle is loving life in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Jen350 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Alert and always keeping his eye on you, this Basiliscus plumifrons shines in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user kus! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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The camouflage in this Fleischmann’s glass frog in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user rockrox83 is amazing! Awesome field shot! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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A male Barker, content and vocalizing.
We have in the southeastern USA a treefrog, Hyla gratiosa, that is not only large, but is capable of chameleon-like color changes, and that when vocalizing from a flooded ditch or woodland pond has a call that is unmistakeable. Then it is an oft repeated, loud, hollow-sounding, “woooook.” However, while waiting in the warm weather for breeding sites such as ditches and vernal ponds, to be filled by spring and summer rains, this treefrog may ascend high in woodland trees and produce a very different sound, one that is more like a “whirrrrr” than a “woooook.”
As mentioned, Barkers (they’re called this by many) are capable of rather rapid color changes. When “content” such as when inflated and floating on the water surface, often while holding on to an emergent or floating plant stem or sitting on a grassy shallow, they are of some shade of green and have very visible rounded solid or open-centered dorsal spots or ocelli. These may be darker or lighter than the frog’s dorsal ground color. If stressed or for other reasons known only to the frog, the green may quickly become gray or brown, again with or without very visible dorsal spots or ocelli. There is often a white labial and lateral stripe and the belly is usually dark with irregular light spots.
When adult Barkers are of heavier build than most other treefrogs and are also larger, usually being 2 to 2 ½ inches svl (snout-vent length). The skin appears granular.
Most common on the southeastern coastal plain and lowlands from extreme eastern Louisiana to central-eastern North Carolina, there are disjunct populations in more northerly states.
Continue reading “A Most Wonderful Treefrog, The Barking Treefrog” …read more
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What do you mean it is a lizard, it ain’t got no legs! Check out this field shot of a Glass lizard in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user rosycorn found in Florida! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! Massive support is needed in the conservation of the gorgeous Massasauga Rattlesnake all across the country. That is why they take the spotlight today in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user ratsnakehaven ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Although often called incorrectly a rubber eel, this Rio Cauca Caecilian (Typhlonectes natans) in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user chrish is all amphibian! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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This sassy lil watersnake had to stop and eat a toad in the yard before the photographer captured it for our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user dinahmoe ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Through all the years, corn snakes remain our favorite for a great beginner snake! After seeing this one in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cochran, it is pretty obvious why! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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The Northern Leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) is an fairly widespread US Native species that get a spotlight in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Terry_Cox!
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! To end the week, this Jackson’s Tree Snake (Thrasops jacksonii) comes in to represent rear-fangs for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Claus ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world.
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Back to our roots with this alterna found in Sanderson in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user StuTennyson! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Welome this little Chondro in our Herp Photo of the day to the world, uploaded by kingsnake.com user MikeRusso! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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What a stunning boa in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Sharkman20 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Good things come in small packages, like the Rough Earth Snake in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gdy! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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A great shot of a live (as they should be) Pygmy Rattlesnake on concrete in the field in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user JARHEAD1969 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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What a stunning headshot of a Diamond Python in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user CincyGrady ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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It is a whole lotta squee for this pair of hatching Hognose in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user caracal ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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What an awesome shot of this pair of Common Toads in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Krallenfrosch ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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This lacerta is loving to lounge in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user krloucks . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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This is a young adult of the brown-checkered phase of the Eastern Garter Snake.
It was perhaps a year, or possibly 2 years, ago that Jake and I began to notice that in North Central Florida we were no longer seeing garter snakes. This was strange because in one form or another, one color or another, one subspecies or another, garter snakes were one snake that we had always counted on seeing.
We looked most for the Eastern Garter Snake, T. s. sirtalis, and often on a normal drive we’d see a couple. Today (midJune 2021) we feel lucky if we see one at all.
Dr. Sam Sweet, who is conducting rat snake studies along FL’s “Nature Coast”, has told me that the Blue Striped Garter Snake, T. sirtalis similis, remains relatively common in his study area.
On the other hand Jake and I (or I alone) have seen only a single Eastern Garter Snake in the last year. The actuality of this paucity was brought home to me when earlier this year I started a serious search for a specific color phase in ncFL. This is a brown, checkered, phase. I had photographed this color phase about 5 years ago when we saw one on almost every trip but wished now to take new photos. But now, after couple of thousand miles of driving and poking about, I have seen only one and it was a DOR example. Is the reduction in sightings real or contrived?
Seems the only solution is to keep looking, racking up the mileage, and hoping to see a garter snake population resurgence. In the meantime here are a few old pix.
Continue reading “Mention of Florida’s Garter Snakes” …read more
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! All venomous snakes need our support! This Cottonmouth is screaming it from the field in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user BowieKnife357 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Get Naked! Ok maybe not, but this Ball python was slipping into something a little more comfy in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user tylerwork ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Bearded Dragons are always such characters like these two in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user TazziesMommy is all amphibian! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Look closely or you might miss the Uroplatus pietschmanni hiding here in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mcamo3 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Look at what a good momma this blood python is in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user AJ01! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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During breeding or territorial disputes the throat of the male blushes to a brighter orange.
No, this attractive lizardis not extinct. But it has been about 35 years since this species has made an appearance in the American pet trade. But I still get inquiries regarding the lizard even though many of the askers are not old enough to have ever seen it.
As indicated by its common name, this 15 to 18-inch long (including the lengthy tail) is endemic to the lowlands of the Chilean Pacific coastal regions.
Of the family Teiidae, Callopistes maculatus is apparently of ancient lineage and is considered a forerunner of the tegus and other teiids. Dorsally it is multicolored, being bedecked in 4 rows of white-edged black spots on a brown back. Laterally there is a row of more poorly defined black-edged white spots. The gular region of males is orange and is brightest during courtship and aggressive interludes.
Food items include insects, other arthropods, small mammals such as nestling mice and rats, and carrion.
This is an oviparous species but little seems known about the breeding and hatching sequences.
And now to the pix of this pretty lizard.
Continue reading “Gone but not forgotten, the Chilean Dwarf Tegu” …read more
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! To end the week, a whole lotta squee for these baby Death Adders for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Oxyrhopus ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world.
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Gotta love this stunning pair of Chondros in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user NYCMedic ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Happy Wednesday from this pair of Crowned Bullfrogs (Hoplobatrachus occipitalis) in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Slaytonp ! Yes they are “wrestling” otherwise known as amplexus. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Love the color variation that this mottled Mexican Redtail Indigo (Drymarchon m. rubidus) has in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user alanB ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Saturday may have been World Lizard Day, but to is EVERY day is a lizard day. This Utila Island Iguana is just chilling in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user s4sainz . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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This is the “Christmas Tree” Eyelashed Palm Pit Viper so favored by hobbyists.
Last week we discussed one of the more rarely seen of the Palm Pit Vipers, the Yellow-blotched, B. aurifer. This week let’s take a brief foray into the world of what is probably the best known and most variable member of the genus, the 2 to 3-foot long Eyelashed Palm Pit Viper, Bothriechis schlegelii. This is a slender snake with a strongly prehensile tail. The supraorbital “eyelashes” are legend. Despite being venomous, the variability of color and patterns and the fact that this snake is hardy attracts many hobbyists to this lowland Central American and northern South American pit viper.
Color? You name it. This snake can vary from the dullest of grays, with or without darker patterning, to the brightest of sunshine yellow, again with or without patterning. The gold-phase is often referred to as the “Orapel,” Spanish meaning gold and glittery. Then there are the greens, gray-greens, dull greens, or a hobbyist favorite, the “Christmas tree phase, this latter being a bright green with reddish patterning. The tiger phase, a golden snake with broad green banding is also a favorite.
This is a humidity loving snake that in its forested habitat may often be found at about face-level along bush and tree-shrouded watercourses. There it quietly waits for prey that includes small arboreal rodents, treefrogs, lizards and birds.
Along with the already mentioned attributes, hobbyists are now taking pride in designing enclosures for this quiet snake as rainforest replicas with living plants, perches, and occasionally with mini-waterfalls. Humidity is good, wetness is not.
I’ll close here by saying that although this is often a “laid back” and quiet species, as with any venomous snake, extreme care should be used when maintenance and or handling becomes necessary. Continue reading “The Eyelashed Palm Pit Viper” …read more
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The photo may be a bit blurry, but there is no mistaking that is a gravid Masssasauga in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user LetsConservate24 in the field! We can only imagine the excitement at this find! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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