I don’t know about you, but when Spring time hits I get super busy! All of my exotic pythons are laying eggs, boas are giving birth, colubrids are breeding, cages need to be cleaned, snakes are feeding heavily again, work is really busy, sales are brisk due to tax return season…and on top of all that it is finally time to get out and find some wild animals in nature! I like to travel great distances in search of some of the more difficult to find species, but on some weeks I don’t have the time. So it is nice to be able to get out and find some beautiful herps close to home. I live in Louisville, KY, which is billed as America’s 16th largest city but is really the Nation’s largest big town. Even so, it is possible to find all kinds of neat reptiles and amphibians in urban and suburban settings in my area. Sometimes I am stunned by how close neat animals can be found around the city along roads that I drive by at top speeds most every day. Such was the case with this Cave Salamander Eurycea lucifuga. A member of the Lungless Salamander family, he was found in a suburban neighborhood where you could literally see 11 houses and their backyards. It took all of 5 minutes to find this little guy was hiding under a piece of tree bark after a quick trip to the grocery and other errands. When I got home after my big “hunt” the ice cream I bought was still frozen! Fun Times!! …read more
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By Herp News

One thing is obvious: moth’s eyes and snake’s skin are entirely different. Researchers have taken a closer look, however, and have now brought the supposed ‘apples and oranges’ to a common denominator. They have opened up a completely new, comparative view of biological surfaces using a newly developed method, and have thus come closer to the solution of how these surfaces work.

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We hope your day rocks as hard as this Dumeril’s in our herp photo of the day 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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By Herp News

A new study has focused on the role testosterone plays in the evolutionary process of foot-flag signals used by Bornean rock frogs during mating season.

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When taking pictures of reptiles there are two qualities that I struggle to strike a balance between. One is crisp focus/depth of field and the other is proper coloration. In order to get crisp focus across my entire image I use flash so that I can set my f-stops to 18-22. When I do this I get great depth of field, but the flash also puts glare on shiny scales and distorts color. When I do not use flash I get great coloration, but my depth of field suffers and I lose focus quality. This is a very frustrating situation for me that I need to learn how to overcome. In the picture of this corn snake I am very happy with color saturation and lighting but am not happy with my depth of field. Note how there is some blurriness as you move toward the top of the photo. This year I will be experimenting with solutions and hope to find a way to reduce the amount of light my flash units emit so that I can strike a balance between natural coloration and crisp focus/depth of field. Wish me luck, and if you have any secrets please share them with me!! …read more
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Savu Pythons (Liasis mackloti savuensis) breeding
I discovered my Savu Pythons (Liasis mackloti savuensis) mating on 25 April 2016. The day before I noticed my female was swelling so even though the male was about to shed, I introduced the female into his cage. They were breeding the following morning. This pair has been bred before with spectacular results. Unlike many other python species, Savus tend to breed when the temperatures rise and days are longer. In fact, during the winter months my adults resume feeding, but as soon as things warm up my males go off food and switch into breeding mode. I am not sure if this breeding will result in a gravid female. Instead, I view this as an early season warm-up for the pair. The female has been properly pre-conditioned and I am hoping for babies later this Fall! …read more
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By Herp News

Brain sleep appeared early in vertebrate evolution. Researchers describe the existence of REM and slow-wave sleep in the Australian dragon, with many common features with mammalian sleep: a phase characterized by low frequency/high amplitude average brain activity and rare and bursty neuronal firing (slow-wave sleep); another characterized by awake-like brain activity and rapid eye movements.

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By Herp News

Researchers have identified a key action of a watershed gene critical to bone formation and the evolution of vertebrates. The Sp7 or Osterix gene more than likely emerged from an ancestral gene family about 400 million years ago, expanding the diversity of life and programming the development of bone-secreting osteoblast cells. The closest living relatives to vertebrates, including sea squirts and lampreys, lack bone and an Sp7 gene.

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This adorable pair of Tiger Salamanders in our herp photo of the day in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user persephonie are just popping out to see whats for dinner! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Winter is long, cramped, and filled with stressful family and social gatherings. It is so nice when all that stuff is over, the sun begins to shine again, and Spring arrives in full force. This photo sums up what Spring is all about for me. Few moments in life compare to that rejuvenating and magnificent time when friends can venture out across the countryside and use snake hooks to flip metal with sexed pairs of Kingsnakes preparing to breed underneath. Capturing these in-situ moments with cameras is an absolute must because Winter returns in the blink of an eye and I find myself staring at these pictures on my computer during snowy nights longing for the days when the Sun shines bright and the snakes return. Nothing Beats Spring!! …read more
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Manouria emys phayrei, like the ones in our herp photo of the day in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user emysbreeder are among the most entertaining and fun of our shelled friends! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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These Uroplatus pietschmanni in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mcamo3 ,show us what amazing masters of camoflague they truly are! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

Researchers have uncovered dozens of fossilized teeth in Kuwajima, Japan, and identified this as a new species of tritylodontid, an animal family that links the evolution of mammals from reptiles. The finding suggests that tritylodontids co-existed with some of the earliest mammal species for millions of years, overturning beliefs that mammals wiped out mammal-like reptiles soon after they emerged.

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Do you know a diabetic? LLet them know that animals like this Gila Monster in our herp photo of the day in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user LJs Herps Are helping to save their lives! Medication made from the venom of Gila Monsters helps to keep blood sugar balanced for millions in the world. We celebrate all things venomous on Rattlesnake Friday to help remind people of the importance of the malaligned animals Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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We hear ya buddy! We feel the same about mondays as this Eastern Coachwhip in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user jodscovry does. Gotta love colubrids of all types! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

A team of scientists set up camera traps in Peru to record the biodiversity of that area of the Amazon Rainforest.

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This Massasauga looks forward to the weekend in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user venombill! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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How cool is this African Herald Snake (Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia) in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user MVH4 . Gotta love colubrids of all types! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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A portrait of the beautiful green vine snake.

Get it Carl, get it! And although Carl tried, really tried, the snake beat him across the clearing and once in the water of the coche (oxbow) it was gone forever. The snake was a green vine snake, Oxybelis fulgidus, and Carl? Well he knows who he was.

But there is one thing that we watchers are still trying to figure out. While we were standing on the high ground talking to Carl he was fully clothed. Then 100 feet or so away the vine snake made its appearance.

Seconds later, when in hot pursuit of the snake Carl plunged into the silted water of the Amazon coche, he was wearing only his skivvies and his outer clothing was strewn along the pursuit path. How had he accomplished this seeming feat of magic?

I’m not going to show you a photo of Carl or his discarded clothing but here are a few pix of the snake species that caused the uncanny unclothing occurrence.

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Spring has sprung and when we think spring, we think Amphibians! We are LOVING this shot in the field of the southern red-backed salamander (Plethodon serratus) in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user tex540 . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Three cheers for one of the best reptile pets, the Bearded Dragons here in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Rick Millspaugh ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Juvenile Baja California rat snakes are prominently patterned.
In May of 1984, 2 miles east of Mountain Spring, Imperial County, California, a dead snake was found on Interstate 8. The snake was a Baja California rat snake, Bogertophis rosaliae. The finding of this specimen, before and since unknown to occur in the USA, then stirred much controversy. Controversy continues today with some researchers believing this locality to be genuine, but with the lack of other examples of this snake species north of the border causing other researchers to question the validity of the find.

There is, however, no question that the Baja rat snake, is a common species along almost the entire length of the peninsula for which it was named. And it is still hoped that its presence in the USA will someday be confirmed.

While hatchlings and juveniles of the Baja California rat snake are blotched dorsally, the adults of this bug-eyed snake, whether olive, lavender, or orange, are unicolored.

The genus Bogertophis is bitypic, with the only other species in the genus being the much better known Trans-Pecos rat snake, B. subocularis.

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Everyone remembers their first wild herp and for many of us it was the same. All hail the mighty Garter Snake in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user TomDickinson for being so many of our first wild herp! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

Thousands are bitten by rattlers and other venomous snakes each year, and a new treatment may serve as a “bridge” to buy time until medical care is available.

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This Black Pakistan Cobra takes it’s very first breaths in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user PHNajak! On Rattlesnake Friday, we celebrate ALL things venomous! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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What a great shot of a truly wonderful tortoise pet! The Russian Tortoise gets it’s close-up in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user bradtort . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Most brilliant when a young adult, eastern mud salamanders usually dull with advancing age.
Florida was far behind. Jake (hoping for his lifer eastern mud salamander) and I were sloshing through soupy mud topped with shallow water. The water, itself, was capped with oily looking iron slicks. Long dead trees lay helter-skelter, most in advanced states of decomposition, the trunks of others more newly fallen, still hard and unyielding. Working separately, after an hour or so we had between us turned and replaced more than 100 logs and limbs, and had found nothing beneath but more mud. Disappointed, we decided to bring our hunt for the eastern mud salamander, Pseudotriton m. montanus, to a halt and move on to the next target.

We were 25 miles north of the locale when Justin called and Jake told him of our failure. In a few sentences Justin explained that we had been searching the wrong area of the vast swamp and gave Jake some more precise directions. Jake wanted to try again so we turned and returned. Forty five minutes later we were trudging past the area of the swamp we had so recently left and continued along the trail for another half mile.

More soupy mud and more logs in various stages of decomposition now lay in front of us. Having seen many eastern mud salamanders in other areas I elected to search for other caudatans along the shore. But Jake, slogging, slipping and flipping, persevered in the foot deep mud. And a half hour later his perseverance paid off. He found and we photographed his lifer eastern mud. Now it really was “next target time.”

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My first Albino Carpet Python clutch of 2016 hatched from 23-25 March and I was lucky enough to be able to capture several nice pictures of the process.

For me, hatching snake eggs is something that keeps me involved in snakes year after year. It is the big reward. All year long I work hard to clean my snakes and keep them watered. I pay thousands of dollars to keep them warm and on rodents to feed them. My feed night is Friday each and every week, so I never get to go out for a night of fun on Fridays. Instead I am stuck at home after a long day at work with about 5 hours of extra work. But somehow all of that and the other downsides of keeping snakes vanish and disappear once eggs begin to hatch. It is a powerful moment when our eggs hatch and new life is brought forth. Where there once was nothing, there is suddenly something…and it is alive! Life can be messy, so I really liked getting this image where there is tons of bubbly egg goo all around the new living baby snake.

I am often asked why I like snakes and my response is that if you have to ask that question there is no way you would ever be able to understand. Seriously, if you can’t look at a picture of a baby python taking its first look and first breath on earth and find some way to be able to appreciate that the rest of us will enjoy living in an environment where people can marvel at even the lowest forms of organisms entering our rough world for their own one shot at LIFE. …read more
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How awesome is this group of breeding Gharials in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Lucky_7 . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This large, gravid, aquatic caecilian was netted from the grassy shoreline of an Amazonian river.
It was about midnight. A half dozen of us had just returned to the river boat from a long Amazonian rainforest walk. Several frogs and a few snakes had been found and we now sat on deck discussing the herps that had been seen and what had been missed, watching occasional meteors in the star-spangled sky, and sipping coffee or cold drinks. One by one the participants all headed for the showers and a well-earned few hours of sleep.

I grabbed a net and walked the gangplank to the weedy shore intending to net up a few tropical fish to photograph in the morning. Cichlids and rivulids were common and if lucky I might get a few interesting catfish as well.

But I was really lucky. After a few sweeps of the net I brought up a baby swamp eel, Synbranchus marmoratus, and…I could hardly believe my eyes, a 15” long aquatic caecilian, Typhlonectes compressicauda. I had known that the latter occurred in the region but I hadn’t until then found one. A few more net-sweeps in the shallows brought up another caecilian, this one a bit smaller. Both would be photographed and released in the morning.

Although I had actually kept and bred this interesting amphibian, the “rubber eel” of the aquarium industry, I was happy to make its acquaintance in the field. But it was late and the showers were beckoning. In just a few hours the titi monkeys would be vocalizing, signaling the start of another day of Amazon herping. Life was good.

Continue reading “Remember the Rubber Eel?” …read more
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By Herp News

Researchers warn that the extinction to two amphibian species — the southern toad and the southern leopard frog — may be hastened by the combined effects of climate change and copper-contaminated wetlands.

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This little Dumeril’s Boa is ready to rock 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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Typically our photo of the day is of an amazingly beautiful animal, but today we would like to take a moment to congratulate the Chicago Herpetological Society on another very successful ReptileFest. ReptileFest is the longest running, all educational event about reptiles. This event as occurred for over 20 years. The view from above of the Box Turtle pen in 2003, uploaded by kingsnake.com user PHFaustis not only a blast from the past, but also a shining example of hands-on education needed to in our community! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

Thank you to the Chicago Herpetological Society for your continued dedication to education!

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Wild in nature. One of the best places to see this Great Basin Rattlesnake found in Utah, but shared with us in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user crocman6594 ! On Rattlesnake Friday, we celebrate ALL things venomous! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

Pool frog (Pelophylax lessonae) tadpoles have the amazing ability to grow at different rates depending on changes in temperature. A new study has revealed that this species, which requires relatively warm environments for breeding, speeds up its capacity for growth in Sweden during the warmest time of the year in order to take full advantage of short periods of high temperatures. This trait may be the key to this frog’s survival in cold climates.

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Four-toed salamanders in their sphagnum habitat.
The bed of sphagnum stretched away from the small woodland stream in a semicircle of perhaps 20 yards. Beyond this, scattered smaller patches of sphagnum could be seen. All in all, the habitat looked ideal for the small salamander for which Jake and I were searching on this cool winter day, the four-toed salamander, Hemidactylium scutatum. But even amidst sphagnum habitats four-toes are not evenly distributed, preferring streamside locales where newly hatched larvae can attain, with just a little squirming, access to saturated moss and shallow water.

This area was intersected by several seepages as well as the main stream but it was along the latter that we finally found the 4-toes. Several females, most with egg clutches were seen. Within the egg capsules well developed, soon to hatch, larvae were wriggling.

The plethodontid genus Hemidactylium contains only this 3” long species. Usually reddish dorsally and grayish laterally, the most prominent diagnostic factors of the species are a white belly that bears well-separated black dots and a noticeable basal constriction on the tail. The tail autotomizes readily at the constriction.

This salamander occurs in a great many disjunct populations that range southwestward from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia to extreme seOK and eLA.

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Natural beauty at is finest in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pitparade with this Kankakee County locality Bullsnake. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

Conservation biologists have found that many adult loggerhead turtles are migrating to areas of the Mediterranean where they are dying, trapped in fishing nets used by small scale fishing operations in Cyprus, the Middle East and North Africa.

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How adorable are Kelsey and her pal Stubby the BTS in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user danielle4girls4 ?! Seriously, this is why we fight so hard to have our pets! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Two of the several American crocodiles near the Everglades Marina.
I was standing at the edge of the marina near the docks at the general store in Flamingo. It was a quarter moon, partially cloudy, night in Everglades National Park. A slight breeze stirred a few tiny wavelets to life. Their sloshing against the pilings nullified many of the surrounding sounds. But the splash of a surfacing fish could occasionally be heard and a barred owl repeatedly asked a mournful “who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all” from a tree closer to the road. On the docks laughing gulls and black skimmers stood mewing and murmuring , the gulls ghostly pale, the skimmers inky dark. Some ripples below me caught my eye and I turned the headlight on. A fair sized American crocodile had surfaced! My night was complete.

On almost every Everglades trip, day or night, I take a few minutes and stop by the marina to try and search out a basking crocodile. Occasionally one or more will be on the near bank or near the fish-cleaning house, but more often a croc can be found on the far bank. With diligent searching it is almost always possible to see 1 or more American crocodiles, Crocodylus acutus. Most are between 6 and 10 feet in length, but occasionally—I guess it would be more accurate to say “rarely–” a hatchling or yearling may be seen.

From a Florida population in the low hundreds a few decades ago, the number of this very cold sensitive, endangered, croc now probably exceeds 2,000. Known nests are carefully monitored by both federal and state biologists. It has been recorded in coastline habitats from Tampa Bay on the Gulf coast, southward through the Keys, then northward to Jupiter Beach on the east coast. As expected, and as always in the USA, it is most common in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

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