A wild python had eyes bigger than his belly recently in Australia when he swallowed a slipper from the home he snuck into. Now I am kinda jealous of someone who has to worry about carpet pythons just wandering into their house, but the poor python was just looking for food. Emergency surgery was done and the snake is stable. And I bet after a quick wash, that slipper will be too! You can check the video out here. To read more, click here. …read more
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What a stunning shot of a Satanic leaf-tailed gecko we have as our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user zmarchetti!
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It is clear from our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Craig_V_Rensburg why some people call Naja nigricollis nigricincta Zebra Snakes! On Rattlesnake Friday, we celebrate ALL things venomous to hep raise their conservation status! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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A True Giant. This Komodo Dragon takes center stage in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cowboyfromhell ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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A prettily marked red sided garter snake in eastern OK.
Although to some degree all of the 12 subspecies of the common garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis, are variable in color and pattern, overall some subspecies are more colorful than others. The red-sided garter snake, T. s. parietalis, of our plains states (and far northward into Canada) are consistently more colorful than some others. But in keeping with the variability of the species, some have bright red bars on the side while on others (especially on old individuals) the red may be seen only on the interstitial skin. Those that Jake and I recently photographed in Kansas ran the gamut of color variations. Old friends to me, this subspecies was a lifer for Jake. All, no matter the color, were welcome.
Continue reading “Red-sided Garter Snake” …read more
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Time to hit the Throwback machine for this one! This hatchling Chuckwalla in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user bj is from 1993! Proof that reptile pets are not a new thing! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This gecko in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user eve is so bright we gotta wear shades. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This black Roughie is monitoring the world in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cynthy07! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Aquatic plants provided food and seclusion for these turtles.

The 2 subspecies of the Trachemys dorbigni, are the southernmost of the red-eared slider group. The northernmost, T. d. braziliensis, occurs in various waterways in northern and central Brazil while the southernmost form, T. d. dorbignyi, occurs in southern Brazil, Uruguay, and northern Argentina. Where the ranges meet intergradation occurs.

Both subspecies are green as hatchlings and juveniles. The green persists the longer on the northern subspecies but, dulls to olive or brown on the southern race. Facial striping is also different on the two, with the northern subspecies having a broad red ear-stripe and the southern having a narrow yellow to orange stripe.

The few that I have had have been very much like typical pet-trade red ears in all respects. The hatchlings and juveniles ate all manner of prepared turtle chow, but seemed especially fond of the floating pond fish pellets fed daily to the goldfish with which they shared the pond. As they grew these slider added aquatic plants of many types to their dietary preferences.

While the babies were shy, paddling furiously to the seclusion of the floating plants, the adults were less inclined to do so.
Continue reading “The Brazilian Slider” …read more
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A much happier #RattlesnakeFriday this week with a baby timber rattlesnake in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user jameswv! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! No round-ups this week, just a look at a new life.

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Poised and watch, what a stunning Mangrove in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ptahtoo! Be sure to tell them you liked it here.

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This female Kimberly Rock Monitor is just hanging out in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user bob! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Although this big eastern diamondback initially coiled when we surprised each other, It soon continued slowly across the road.
The diamondback in front of the car was unhappy. It had emerged from the grassy expanse on my left and made it unchallenged halfway across the road when along came I. Swerving back and forth in a futile attempt to avoid the numerous potholes that stretched in front of me, I was just a few feet from the big rattler before I noticed it.

I had been carefully checking out fallen pines along a shaded roadway and by the time I had reached the road’s end had, for my efforts, found beneath the snags 2 fair-sized scarlet kingsnakes, Lampropeltis triangulum elapsoides.

Having checked obvious herp hideouts on the way in, I was going a bit faster while leaving. When I saw the big diamondback, Crotalus adamanteus, I slammed on the brakes and stopped a mere 4 feet from it. The snake came to the same conclusion as I—this was much too close for either of us—so I backed up a bit.

Despite never slowing its crossing, the snake assumed a typical diamondback defense stance, a position that said as plainly as possible “back off buddy. I’ll go my way and you go yours.”

Which we both did.

Continue reading “On a Sunny Afternoon” …read more
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Photo: Boyd Huppert, KARE 11

When Jenna had her 10th birthday party at the Milwaukee County Zoo, she received a gopher tortoise as a gift from the then director. That was in 1962.

Jenna named the tortoise George and she grew up like any other normal Milwaukee kid in the 60’s, except she had a pet tortoise. When she went to college, when she met the love of her life, family vacations, everything in life, George was there.

Today Jenna is 65 years old and living in Minnesota. And George? He is 56 and still alive and kicking and living life with Jenna. He has outlived several family dogs and a few walk abouts, the most recent being about 30 years ago.

“He doesn’t sit on your lap and can’t take him on walk, but he’s a great pet,” Kirby says.

The Smiths have also owned a series of Labradors. Their pictures grace the refrigerator of the Smiths’ St. Paul home.

“He’s gone through five dogs,” Kirby says smiling. He says the dogs all did their share of barking at George, but, “he got the last laugh by outlasting them.”

In George’s life, his species has declined severely in the wild and has become protected and endangered. to have a gopher tortoise now, there are permits and restrictions.

When someone asks what you will do with your pet reptiles when you get old, just pause and think of George and Jenna.

Read the full story and see the video at kare11.com. …read more
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Such a lovely contrast against the blue, this Angolan Python takes the spotlight in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user EdCB ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Scattered roofing tins were eagerly sought by herps and herpers alike.

I’m unsure of the year, but it was probably in the late 50s or early 60s, Gordy Johnston and I motored to Arkansas to visit Denny Miller. At that time there were woodlands, trash piles, pieces of cardboard, and discarded newspapers (today, in any form, the latter are an endangered species) along many of the rural roads that we travelled and beneath the scattered debris were kingsnakes bearing varying degrees of speckling, and rat snakes.

Today, traveling those same roads, there are instead of the old sights and sites, some woodlands, many homes and businesses, and an almost total lack of the trash that those long ago snakes called home.

Other states are the same way. Wayyyyy cleaner than they used to be. Gone, but not forgotten, are most of the illegal trashpiles within and beneath which herpers used to find scarlet kings, bullsnakes, coachwhips, garters, rat snakes, and others. Gone, too, are the collapsed wooden billboards and (because of those darned tubeless tires) the innertubes that once lay in profusion beneath the long removed Australian pines along Florida’s US27 south of the Big Lake. Those tubes and trees were home to Everglades rat snakes and Florida kings during the cooler days of winter. Gone too are the wooden railroad trestles, piles of deteriorating wooden railroad ties, wooden bridges over rural streams, pumphouses, scattered roofing tins…

Those long ago, ample trash-times, provided the Halcyon Days—Halcyon years in fact, If the term allows for such extensive prolonging, for herpers. Simply stated, trash, either in piles or scattered, meant snakes, sometimes many snakes, and finding snakes made for many herping excursions, the trips that provided the fodder for the fond memories of today’s older herpers, including yours truly.
Continue reading “Gone But Not Forgotten” …read more
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Looking into the Rattlesnake Pit – Sweetwater Texas – Photo Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur

Nothing says “quality family time” like beheading live animals with blunt force trauma to the head, or skinning them alive! If you have young children, they can paint in the blood of the recently slaughtered on the hand-print wall in the children’s section. There is even food and a beauty pageant, where the winner will prove she likes to skin animals alive!

Yes, it’s time for that disgusting annual event known as the Sweetwater Jaycees Rattlesnake Round-up, the largest and most infamous such celebrations of brutal cruelty toward wildlife — or as its proponents call it, a great way to celebrate a lovely spring weekend in Texas.

Family fun – Sweetwater Texas – Photo Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur

To most people who are non-herpers, it sounds like I’m exaggerating or even making it all up, but to those of us in the reptile community, this is all too real. The annual spring Rattlesnake Roundups are just as horrifying as they sound: Hibernating animals driven from their dens, in some cases being gassed out of their home. The gas poisons the dens, the soil, and the environment. The animals are left in squalid conditions for days, until they are beheaded or skinned alive. The venom milked is not able to be used in any legitimate manner as it milked in unsanitary conditions, so it is just wasted, despite the promise of being used in medical research.

There are several of these events each year. The events in Oklahoma are just as brutal, and in Apache and Magnum they give the added benefit of selfies with a live rattlesnake. If that sounds dangerous, don’t worry; it had its mouth completely sewn shut with garbage bag ties after having the fangs ripped out with pliers, so you need not worry about a snake bite while seeking your moment in the Instagram Hall of Fame.

Of course, that snake need not worry about drinking during the remainder if its life, either!

Leader Board – Sweetwater Texas – Photo Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur

The solution isn’t easy. The Sweetwater event generates over 8 million dollars. For an economically depressed area of Texas, that certainly helps. The second issue is that these animals are rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes do not get love from animal rights organizations, or most people in general.

The hardest part of stopping these events is explaining why it’s important to save rattlesnakes and their deadly venom. But rattlesnakes offer a lot to humanity. They are part of the natural balance of the environment, keeping keep diseases like rabies and Hanta virus. Both viruses are carried by rodents, and well that is their primary diet. In fact, preservation of all venomous animals is integral …read more
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This American Alligator is chilling like a villian in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user mwright82 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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In February, with temperatures still in the mid-40s, Florida green water snakes were basking and breeding.
My target on that seasonably warm mid-February morning was Florida round-tailed muskrats. In the 3 hours I spent scanning the marsh, discounting the underwater activities of the little rodents, the total number of muskrats seen was a resounding zero. But the day was far from wasted, for atop the many muskrat lodges a major courtship and mating game was being played out—by Florida green water snakes, Nerodia floridana. The morning air temperature, a sunny and rapidly warming 45F (water temps, although not measured, were undoubtedly many degrees warmer), were adequate for the snakes to seek the dry basking areas. It seemed a near invariable that the females emerged from the water first but each was soon followed by one or more males.

Now, about a month later, the females, now gravid and noticeably heavier in girth, continue their daily basking but the males are more actively foraging. If the gestating females successfully avoid/evade the bitterns, egrets, and great blue herons, there should be a banner crop of neonates late this spring. I’ll keep you posted.

Continue reading “Florida Green Water Snakes” …read more
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How cute is this Pacman Frog in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user doobie119 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Love this gorgeous Moluccan python, Morelia clastolepis, in all its shimmering beauty in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user krantz!
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The best way to overcome fears is to confront them head on and learn and that is why we love seeing these types of news stories! Recently in Australia, where everything can kill you, Sharna Ayton and her Tamworth Reptile Awareness show worked to change some perceptions.

“It’s about giving reptiles a voice and getting awareness out there that they’re not such bad animals,” Miss Ayton said.
….

“I grew up on a farm and could never understand why (some people) hated them and always shot them.”

Huge kudos to Ms. Ayton and every other person who takes time to do educational outreach! We Salute you!
Read more about this outreach event here.

Police have a rough time with some suspects and it is even worse when that suspect escapes after being in police custody! Thankfully the staff at New South Wales Police Department also have a sense of humor (and compassion when it comes to reptiles):

A danger noodle, apprehended in Cronulla last week, escaped custody and bamboozled those on duty when it decamped across a keyboard (looking for a mouse?!). Luckily, the nope rope was coaxed back to its holding cell (bag), with custody transferred to a local snake catcher.

Get the full scoop and the giggles here.

Speaking of compassion, Sydney snake catcher Sean Cade and the staff of the Ingleburn Veterinary Hospital saved a venomous Red-bellied black snake from a net in backyard.

‘It would have kept struggling and struggling and struggling and because of the diameter holes in the netting and the thickness of the snake it wouldn’t be able to swallow anything,’ he said.

Read the full story and watch the video here.

And speaking of videos, we saved the best for last. Sometimes you get hangry and really don’t want it on video. Sometimes you are a hangry monitor that just doesn’t care. This amazing video from 2013 at Alice Springs Golf Course, shows the hunt and feeding of a Perenties Monitor. If this is the first time you have seen the video, please kow it is …read more
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Today’s herp photo of the day reminds us to always flip that tin! This five-lined skink was found with her eggs under a paving stone, uploaded by kingsnake.com user CDB_reptiles!
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This Cuban giant toad was active near our motel.
It was 10PM and I was strolling around the hotel at Playa Giron in Cuba’s Cienega Zapata, wearing a headlamp, just as if I knew what I was doing. In reality I knew only that it was dark and that in this general area there lived a giant toad known to us as Peltophryne peltacephalus (pelta = shield, cephalus = head), that I’ll just refer to as the Cuban giant toad. I was as unsure of even a large bufonid being active in Cuba’s extended drought as I was of the legalities of strolling between the cabins of the hotel. But perseverance paid off. About a half mile from the office eyeshine drew me to a hand-sized toad sitting quietly on a sun-dried lawn. And when I neared the hotel office I lucked into 2 others, an adult and a juvenile. As it turned out this was the only amphibian species found on the trip. But I hope to be returning during the rainy season (July) to look up additional anuran taxa on this friendly, neighboring island. An extensive trip is in the planning. Wish us luck.

Continue reading “Cuban Giant Toad” …read more
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! What a stunning albino Southern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri) for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user lichanura ! 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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This Sulawesi Forest Turtle looks like he is ready to take on the world and dominate it in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user andystorts ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This yellow example was found hanging from a low limb only a few meters from camp.
Amazon tree boas! The finding of one of these variably colored snakes was always exciting. More often than not, the color of Corallus hortulanus would be of some shade of brown dorsally and orange to off-white ventrally. But there was always the chance of happening across one clad in scales of yellow or red. Since these primarily nocturnal snakes were almost always found by their eyeshine while rather well obscured high in wateredge trees, there usually was abn animated group discussion about how we could determine the size and color. If we were lucky we would have Segundo with us and he would clamber up the tree, carefully catch the snake (or the boa would less carefully latch on to him) and both would return earthward. At other times the snake was more accessible and we all got good looks, photos aplenty, and the snake was never bothered. But there were those, and they were many, that to us were never more than an eyeshine in the rainforest.

The Amazon. Fond memories were always being made!
Continue reading ” Amazon Tree Boas” …read more
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What amazing colors Uros come in, like this ornate in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user plietz! 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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The crocodile tegu is a largely aquatic, 2 foot long, Amazonian species.
Kayaking the shallows of the Rio Orosa, a beautiful river in Amazonian Peru, whether by day or night, was always a pleasurable and sometimes an exciting pastime. Finding birds and an occasional caiman, with the possibility of finding such taxa as caiman lizards, anacondas, pink river dolphins, great potoos, and dozens of other taxa, or of doing a little quiet fishing, made the time spent on the water well worthwhile. And there was always the possibility of finding something just a bit different, something not really expected. That was what had happened one morning about 25 years ago. A couple of us, each in a kayak, set out shortly after sunup to check fallen trees and thickets of shrubs along the river. And we got a real surprise!

Quietly basking on one of the snags was a 2 foot long lizard that, except for the throat and the tail, appeared to be an overall bluish gray. The throat was yellow, the tail was orange dorsally and blue gray on the lower sides. This taxon was new to me in the wild, and although I was familiar with the lizard from former years it took some thought to put a name to it—Crocodile Tegu, Crocodilurus amazonicus.

Although we have found many since, the finding of that first example was surprising. I had been told by another researcher that although the taxon was well known in neighboring Brazil, they (with no reasons given) had been extirpated from Peru. That made the finding of example number one all the more memorable.
Continue reading “Crocodile Tegu” …read more
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Monday’s are just a giant load of bull sometimes. Sadly it is not usually as fun as the load of Bullsnakes in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user hermanbronsgeest ! Be sure to tell oursnakes 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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The West Alpine locality momma is holding tight to those new eggs in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user oursnakes ! Be sure to tell oursnakes you liked it here!

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A suitcase full of smuggled tortoises seized in a raid in Madagascar. Photograph: Courtesy of Alliance Voahary Gasy (AVG)

Most animals found on Madagascar are only found there and that is where the attraction lies. For years, those trying to protect the animals on the island have run into corrupt government officials and weak laws in their attempts to keep the animals safe. When the fine for being caught with a stolen Ploughshare tortoise is only $5, it is easy to take the risk.

For Lewis, what happened next was deeply dispiriting. “The person was arrested, went to court, was found guilty, and given a fine of 15,000 ariary ($5)” said Lewis. “I remember the minister [of the environment] saying ‘This is ridiculous’,” Lewis said. “This is somebody en flagrant délit – caught in the act – and gets a couple of dollars’ fine. Something’s wrong somewhere.”

…

In a country where corruption is rife, laws protecting wildlife can be little more than theoretical. All exports of Malagasy rosewood, for instance, have been prohibited since early 2010 – but some of Madagascar’s loggers and exporters also hold seats in parliament. Enforcing the ban is a different matter.

Changes are happening however, with the help of a group of wildlife organizations, people are now seeing real punishment for the damage that is being done to the island’s rare endemic species.

Read more about this amazing effort here.
…read more
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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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As an adult, the mock viper attains a length of only 15 inches.
Hirnan, our boat captain, was not a great fan of snakes. Frogs, salamanders, turtles, crocodilians, lizards were all OK, but when snakes were encountered, they and Capitan Hirnan quickly parted company.

We had been were on a discus (tropical fish) finding foray along waterways on the Peruvian side of the Rio Putumayo, a river that serves as a border between Peru and Colombia. The search took us up and back along many creeks, and I usually found time for at least a cursory search for herps.

At most stops we found anoles, geckos, and at least a few fer-de-lance. The presence of the latter kept us all on our toes, but none of us moreso than Hirnan. But there was this one memorable stop—the one where there seemed to be a fer-de-lance near every tree and a few just coiled quietly in the rather tall grass. So Hirnan did what every human who is adverse to snakes would do. He reached down and picked up a fair-sized limb, about 8 feet long, to brush the pit vipers out of the way. Happily Hirnan lifted the improvised snake stick, brought it upwards to a vertical position, let out a scream, and headed, on the run, back to the boat? Apparently a small snake, a mock viper, Thamnodynastes pallidus, had n crawling over the limb, held to and been lifted to a position over Hirnan,s head, lost its grip and fallen on his shoulder.

What’s that saying about the best laid plans of mice and men?

Continue reading “A Mock Viper” …read more
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An Aldabran giant tortoise from the Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean, feeding on algae. A new study suggests these giant tortoises might once have been hunted by giant, prehistoric crocodiles. Credit Dennis Hansen/University of Zurich, Switzerland

Today Aldabra Atoll, part of the Seychelles, is predator free, but a recent discovery of a fossilized jaw bone gives some insight to what really preyed on the Aldabra Tortoises.

Dr. Hansen found about 180 fossils near a pond on the atoll. One was a jawbone of an ancient crocodile that he first thought was a tortoise longbone. But when he turned it over he saw it had holes where teeth could fit. He sent some of the fossils to his colleague Torsten Scheyer, a paleontologist also at the University of Zurich, for further examination.

The size of the fossil opens up a whole new chapter to the history of the area.
To read the full article, click here. …read more
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It is National Love Your Pet Day and to not be outdone by our mammal counterparts, a very old pic of a member and his pet Crested Gecko in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pac-man! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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ps, sorry for sharing your teen pic Pac-Man but it was just too perfect for the day – <3 PHFaust …read more
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This is a large adult grotto salamander from deep in a Missouri cave.We were looking for a cave. Road 1 took us about 3 miles in the right direction and then we encountered a fence. The GPS hadn’t foreseen that. Back we went to the main highway. Road #2, same scenario. We were about ready to give up but before quitting decided to try road #3. 2 miles no fence yet. 4 miles, still no fence. Could it be possible? Could this bumpy dirt road be the right one?

Jake and I had spent a few days photographing salamanders in Arkansas, and had only 2 more caudatan taxa targeted. One was the widespread cave dweller, Eurycea spelaea, the grotto salamander. This is a unique beast. The adults, terrestrial and 4 to 5 inches long, are cave dwellers with atrophied eyes while the larvae, which may live either in or out of the home cave, have well developed eyes.

Arkansas is both a land of caves and of salamanders, but not too many of the former remain open to the public, and of these not all can boast populations of the latter, the grotto salamander. We had been assured that the cave for which we searched fulfilled both hopes admirably. So we floundered onward.
We passed through a small village, then a few isolated homesteads. Finally encouragement–a pretty stream appeared, followed by a widened spot where we parked. Up the mountain we went, around an abutment, and…ah ha! A cave! We were there. And better yet, we found that once we had entered and passed beyond the twilight zone with its resident dark-sided salamanders, in the zone of perpetual darkness, the realm of the grotto salamander, Eurycea spelaea awaited. Success. Thanks again, Brad B.
Continue reading “Grotto Salamanders” …read more
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Not a very common sight, but these Brahminy blind snakes are the spotlight today in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Canes05! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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