By Herp News

Bears hibernate during winters. So do some bats, squirrels, and many other mammals. But very few primates are known to hibernate. In fact, scientists have previously observed hibernation in only three species of lemurs, all found in Madagascar: the western fat-tailed lemur, Crossley’s dwarf lemur and Sibree’s dwarf lemur. Now, researchers have discovered a non-Malagasy primate species — the pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) inhabiting forests of southeast Asia — that hibernates during winter. This is the first record of a hibernating primate outside of Madagascar, according to a new study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports. “There had been anecdotal observations of pygmy lorises that remained inactive for several days,” Thomas Ruf of Universty of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, said in a statement. “Occasionally animals were encountered that felt cool to the touch. However, we discovered only now that the lorises actually hibernate.” Researchers have found that the pygmy slow loris can hibernate for up to 63 hours. Photo by David Haring / Duke Lemur Center|Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 By lowering body temperature and slowing down metabolism, hibernating animals try to conserve energy during cold winters when food is not readily available. The tiny nocturnal pygmy slow loris too, faces shortage of fresh vegetation and insects when ambient temperatures dip. To see if these animals actually hibernate during winter, Ruf and his colleagues recorded body temperature of five pygmy slow lorises in fall, winter and spring in a Vietnamese primate reserve. In the reserve, the researchers…

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This Rainbow Boa is quite festive in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user natsamjosh ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

Extremely rare and hidden in the forests of the Andes, there are still new snake species left to find. This has recently been evidenced by the colubrid serpent, described for the first time in the present article. Enwrapped with questions about their species’ origin and therefore, correct taxonomic clustering, the reptiles have triggered discussions, also addressed in the study.

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By Herp News

What issues to be watching during the Paris climate talks [Nature] There is a little more than week left of the climate talks in Paris and tension has been building among negotiators. Here is a list of the six crucial issues that will be discussed during the second week of talks. Helping our youth to help the world [UN News Centre] The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched a digital mapping initiative called ‘Act Now For Tomorrow’. This project was started as an effort to help young people identify local climate issues and find ways to address them. Poorer countries are refusing to let this issue slide at climate talks [Guardian] Rich countries have committed to providing $100bn to developing countries by 2020 to help them combat climate change. However, there seems to be a large contrast among developed and developing nations on how they define adequate climate assistance. A lion in Kruger South Africa. Photo by Rhett Butler. The House votes to block Obama’s plan to curb greenhouse gas [CNN] While Obama is pushing for the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce limits on electric utilities and coal plants, the House has made it clear that they are not supporting the president’s plan. Possibly the worst disaster of its kind [Deutsche Welle] Just months ago, more than 20 Sei whales were reported stranded in Patagonia. After further investigation, researchers have uncovered the full extent of the horror in Chile. The coast of southern Chile has…

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By Herp News

How do wind energy companies kill protected bald eagles and golden eagles via turbine strikes every year without facing legal repercussions? They have renewable permits issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that exempt them from laws making it illegal to kill the birds. However, the U.S. District Court of Northern California has ruled that the FWS violated federal law by extending the duration of the so-called “eagle take permit” from five to 30 years without first investigating the impact it would have on eagle populations. The court made the ruling in August after reviewing a lawsuit against the FWS’s parent agency, the Department of Interior (DOI). After facing extinction in the mid-twentieth century the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) has rebounded to roughly 10,000 breeding pairs in the U.S., according to the FWS. The agency regards golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) numbers as stable at around 30,000 individuals nationwide. Both species are protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, as well as two other federal laws. However, wind turbines often strike and kill eagles. Up to 75 of the birds have been killed annually by a single wind farm, the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in central California, but mortalities at other installations are less well monitored. A 2013 paper in the Journal of Raptor Research documented 85 eagle kills at 32 other facilities between 1997 and 2012, but notes that the findings “likely underestimate, perhaps substantially, the number of eagles killed at wind facilities in the…

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Happy Ratttlesnake Friday! This Crotalus tigris, found and photographed in AZ, is keeping her eye on you in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user kevinjudd ! Be sure to tell kevinjudd you liked it here!

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By Herp News

Migratory birds are awe-inspiring. Every year, millions traverse across oceans and continents, many each racking up thousands of miles as they fly. The longest marathon migrant, the Arctic tern, covers more than 70,000 kilometers (about 44,000 miles) annually during its journey from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and back. However, very few migratory bird species are sufficiently protected across their long annual migratory routes, according to a new study published today in Science. Researchers found that only nine percent of the 1,451 migratory bird species they studied have all phases of their annual migratory cycles — breeding and non-breeding areas, as well as all the spaces in between — adequately covered by  protected areas. In comparison, around 45 percent of the world’s non-migratory bird species appear to be sufficiently covered by protected areas across their global distribution. “The authors’ conclusion that more than nine-tenths of all migratory species are missing key habitats needed for their annual movements is flat-out scary,” William Laurance, an ecologist at James Cook University in Australia who was not involved in the study, told Mongabay. “It underscores a dimension of the modern biodiversity crisis that too few of us have appreciated adequately.” Arctic terns have the longest migration known in the animal kingdom, flying from the Arctic to the Antarctic each year. Photo by Oddurben from Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0. Migratory birds barely protected Previous studies have looked at how some specific migratory bird species are protected in particular parts of the world, Claire A. Runge, lead…

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By Herp News

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Christmas Eve in 1968, on their fourth orbit around the moon, the three American astronauts aboard Apollo 8 were startled to see the Earth, a pale blue orb, rising from the darkness. The astronauts hurriedly snapped a picture, the first to be taken of Earth by a person in space. “It was the most beautiful, heart-catching sight of my life,” Frank Borman, the flight’s commander, recalled years later. “This must be what God sees.” Since the iconic Earthrise photo was taken, our ability to stare at Earth from above has only gotten better. Satellites take high-resolution images and measurements that enable environmental researchers to, among other things, predict weather patterns, track the movements of phytoplankton populations, and monitor active volcanoes. The iconic Earthrise photograph, snapped by an Apollo 8 astronaut on the first manned mission to the moon on Christmas Eve, 1968. Image courtesy of NASA. But so far, environmental scientists aren’t taking full advantage of satellite observation to help fight the intensifying loss of biodiversity. Typically, scientists estimate the biodiversity in an ecosystem by tallying up the number of individuals of different species in a specific area and plugging them into mathematical models. But these results tend to be limited and highly variable. A vantage point in space could prove invaluable, Nathalie Pettorelli, an ecologist at the Zoological Society of London, told Mongabay. Space-based measurements of biodiversity at varying scales could provide a yardstick of an ecosystem’s overall health and help scientists understand…

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SO bright and brilliant, this Yellow Anaconda shines in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mattf77 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Having a bottom 2 1/2 x 3 feet and a height of 5″ allows one to catch all manner of herps, fish, and aquatic insects.
The other day Mike and John came by and borrowed my Goin Dredge (see photo above) to try their luck finding small fish, aquatic salamanders and tadpoles in some of our local shallow (ankle to chest deep are fine, but waist deep seems to be preferred) waters. They had a productive day, one that hearkened me back to the days when Patti and I spent time dredging and photographing the results.

To use the dredge one wades out to floating masses of aquatic vegetation (water hyacinths being among the better plant types) slides the dredge beneath the root masses, lift the contained vegetative mass to the surface and sort through the roots and stems.

Among other things, in this way Patti and I found two-toed amphiuma, 3 species of siren including our first Everglades dwarf siren, dwarf salamanders, river frog tadpoles, mud snakes, striped crayfish snakes, various water snakes, an occasional small cottonmouth, and many interesting fish and invertebrates.

We’d return home hours later, soaked, mud-covered, and satisfied. Maybe it’s time to do this again!
Continue reading “Dredging for pollywogs” …read more
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By Herp News

Heads of nations are meeting right now at the COP21 conference in Paris, where they are brainstorming ways to avert catastrophe by limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius over the coming years. Keeping carbon in the ground is a crucial element of this goal, and as forests are still our best bet for doing that, deforestation is playing a central role in the discussions. Cutting carbon emissions from tropical deforestation in half by 2020 is being touted by many as one of the best ways to reach the two-degree target. To create a baseline and help people keep tabs on deforestation and the world’s carbon stores, the World Resources Institute (WRI) yesterday debuted Global Forest Watch Climate. The latest in its Global Forest Watch (GFW) series of forest monitoring platforms, GFW Climate is a mapping and analysis tool that displays the emissions impacts of deforestation in tropical areas around the world. Why the tropics? Because tropical forests are experiencing the world’s highest rates of deforestation. Topping the list of drivers is industrial agriculture, which is clearing trees to grow palm oil and cattle, paper and soy, along with many other commodities. Logging is also having big impacts around the world. For instance, a study in 2014 found Indonesia lost more than six million hectares of forest from 2000 through 2012, primarily to commodity production and timber extraction. Half of this loss occurred in the country’s endangered lowland forests, home to critically endangered orangutans, tigers, and rhinos. Sumatran orangutans (Pongo…

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Photo: SUMA AQUALIFE PARK
Crossing a railroad track is difficult for turtles with their slow speed. They also are at risk for falling between the tracks and getting stuck, until eventually run over or caught in part of the track’s rail-switching mechanism. Not only do the turtles lose their lives, but the trains can become damaged, causing delays in service.

In an effort to prevent more turtle’s deaths while crossing train tracks at Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, Japan a new turtle crossing has been developed and installed. Carving out U-shaped concrete escape ditches that run beneath the tracks they have escape paths conveniently located close to the tracks’ switch points, where turtles most often get trapped.

Ever since the turtle escape tunnels have been implemented this past April, at least 10 turtles left the train tracks via their new route — saving their lives and minimizing any expenses that may have resulted from train repairs and delays.

Read more at Discovery. …read more
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By Herp News

Market Four in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital, sells a variety of wild animals illegally for the pet trade, for consumption, and medicinal purposes. Photo: ©Santi Carneri [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he monk parakeets were small and bright green, crowded, almost on top of each other in a cage the size of two stacked shoeboxes. It was a humid day in crowded, bustling Market Four, a sprawling market in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. The pet vendor’s stall was topped with a tarp and surrounded by fruit and vegetable sellers, their wares piled high. The parakeets shuffled in their cages, stepping on each others’ toes. Some had necks worn raw and red from pecking and infection. The parrots were endangered, protected by Paraguayan law and international treaty: it was illegal to move them out of the country; illegal to sell them inside the country without papers. In the cages next to the parrots were turtles, and little burrowing owls; all wild-caught, all illegal. You could find even more exotic fare too, a local biologist told me, if you knew to ask: monkeys were hidden under the crates of mangos and yucca. “The sellers all work together there,” she said. The pet vendor was a potbellied middle-aged man with red eyes and a twitchy demeanor; unsurprising, given that his merchandise were illegal. As Santi, my photographer, snapped pictures of the birds, the seller moved a piece of cardboard in front of the lens. His goods were not supposed to be there: monk parakeets,…

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Eastern Box Turtle Terrapene carolina carolinaI took this in-situ photograph of a wild Eastern Box Turtle in May of 2015. Despite missing many scutes, this scarred specimen was out searching for food and behaving completely normally. After years seeing thousands of reptiles and amphibians in the field it has been my experience that turtles can be very tough creatures.

I have seen turtles that have survived all kinds of major injuries, including a Common Snapping Turtle, Chelydra serpentina, whose head was cut in half but survived for years. If you have not seen the Red Ear Slider, Trachemys scripta elegans, that survived having its eyes, nose, and mouth parts cut off you should be sure to google that.

I consider myself to be a humane person, and many of my herp friends are as well. None of us want to see an animal suffer, but think twice before you take any sort of humane action against a wild, free-ranging reptile. You might be surprised by the healing powers that many wounded reptiles possess. We have all seen herps run over by vehicles, and in years past even I might be tempted to, “put a snake out of its misery.” However, time and experience demonstrated to me that a lot of these injured animals have the ability to heal and survive for many years. When legal, I am more likely to move an injured animal to safety than to euthanize it, and I encourage all of you to learn from my experience and give injured wild animals a second chance at survival. …read more
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This Tegu peeking out of his transport bag in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user striggs makes you wonder if he is looking to see how far spring is away!! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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It was the first really, really cold night in Mobile this season. There was no choice than to bring Frankie inside.

Pretty much Frankie has torn up and outgrown his current outdoor habitat. He couldn’t turn around inside anymore so I modified his inside box so he would fit. Then he tore out the doors so I had to build a new front.

New cover for the Frankie Cave

Adding an oil heater made Frankie’s cave good to 40º F and he stayed outside later this year than ever before but when temperatures headed to the 30’s Frankie had to come in for the night.

I don’t like it.

Sulcata tortoises who live primarily outdoors, where they should be, don’t like coming indoors except for some exploration and furniture moving. He spent the next morning in the living room waiting for the door to open.

Occasionally I would open the door and Frankie would decide if it was warm enough to go outside. By noon Frankie headed outside but reluctantly came back inside house about two o’clock. Frankie was greeted by Pepper, our new kitten, who had questions about the large boulder that farted.

Explain this!

There is hope for Frankie. We are building a new outdoor enclosure for him. We are very excited but it’s not ready yet. There is nothing like a 100 pound farting, pooping, sock eating, furniture moving, wall gouging, moving bolder in the house to motive two care takers to get the new outdoor habitat ready.

Frankie got a sneak peek last week inside the his new habitat….

I’m excited because there is room for me to sit with a nice cup of coffee and enjoy the morning with Frankie. I was teasing Greg about adding WIFI and he said, “It’s got WIFI. We can monitor temperatures and watch Frankie on camera.” Alright! Frankie and I can watch The Walking Dead on my computer!

Looking forward to showing everyone Frankie’s new habitat almost as much as Frankie is to move back outside. Until then…

(In Memory of Bob, Maggie’s beloved sulcata who brought us all so much joy. Thank you for sharing Bob with us all.)

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By Herp News

Tens of thousands of African elephants are poached every year for their ivory, which has had a drastic impact on population numbers. According to The Nature Conservancy, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) population declined from 1.2 million individuals in 1980 to just 430,000 in 2014. Conservationists have long argued that, because community and private lands support 60% of Africa’s wildlife, conservation efforts must recognize the vital role of local communities in protecting elephants, rhinos and other key species. Now, a report released by Northern Rangelands Trust, which works with 27 community-led wildlife conservancies in northern Kenya that protect more than 6 million acres, provides compelling empirical evidence that community conservation is indeed an effective means of protecting wildlife. Since 2012, elephant poaching is down some 35 percent in the 27 community conservancies the NRT works with, the report says. A total of 81 elephant mortality cases were recorded by NRT rangers in 2014, with 28 of them being poaching cases, Ian Craig, NRT’s director of conservation, writes in the report. There were 49 poaching cases in 2013. African elephant. Photo by Matt Miller / The Nature Conservancy. “A concerted effort by the Government of Kenya working in partnership with stakeholders has contributed to this reduction,” Craig writes. Last year also saw substantial increases in the amount of ivory and weapons recovered, as well as a higher number of arrests — from 5 in 2013 to 19 in 2014 — according to the report. A recent study…

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Photo: GetSurry
The most comforting thing in young Charlie Burnett’s life is his pet snake. Charlie is a high functioning autistic child and also suffers from Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome (PDA), which can result in emotional meltdowns when stress levels are too high.

“It’s changed Charlie’s world,” she told the Woking Advertiser. “I can’t tell you the difference it’s made to our family. We’ve had hamsters in the past but they have done nothing. He’s not interested in them But now I know I can come home from work, take the snake out of the box and he’ll be calm.”

It has also changed his parents feelings on snakes.

“I’m not a snake lover, I’m petrified of them,” admitted Ms Gridley, saying the same went for her partner.

“But being fearful of them is outweighed by the benefit. We grin through the fear.”

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By Herp News

African grey parrots are known to be smart, talented mimics. Alex, one of the most well-known African grey parrots in the world, could mimic over 100 human words, differentiate between various shapes and numbers, and would even wish his trainer “goodnight”. Predictably, these birds are extremely popular as pets. But their popularity has taken a heavy toll on their wild populations, according to a new study funded by Spain’s Loro Parque Foundation, and published in the journal Ibis. In Ghana, close to 99 percent of African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) have disappeared since 1992, largely due to unrestricted trade, researchers have found. Once abundant, these birds are now extremely rare in the country. “We knew the Grey Parrot had suffered serious population declines over the last two decades but we did not envisage the declines were this severe in Ghana,” Nathaniel Annorbah, lead author and doctoral student at the Manchester Metropolitan University in U.K., told Mongabay. “Populations declines in the region of over 90% are potentially catastrophic to the survival of the species in Ghana.” International pet trade is decimating African grey populations in the wild. Photo from Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0. African grey parrots are one of the most commonly traded of all birds. More than one million wild grey parrots were likely traded between 1982 and 2001, the authors write. To assess the impact of such widespread trade on wild African grey parrots, Annorbah, and his colleagues, reviewed the bird’s historical distribution in Ghana, and surveyed…

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This little White’s Tree Frog has his eye on you in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user exoreds ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This is a large and typically colored Yonahlossee salamander
A couple of months ago Patti and I were “leaf-peeping” in western NC. We had visited Grandfather Mountain, driven along US221, and accessed the Blue Ridge Parkway, and were now sitting at Yonahlossee Overlook. This of course brought back many memories. Yonahlossee— the word is said to be of Cherokee origin and to mean “the trail of the bear.” Yonahlossee Trail— once a stage coach road between Linville and Blowing Rock, NC, had also allowed access to logging crews. Trees were cut, trees regrew, and the countryside was now a gently sloping forest of greenery growing between immense boulders and outcroppings on one side of the road and a precipitous forested drop on the other.

But my memories centered more on rainy nights of about 25 years ago when, then living in Asheville, the region was but a short drive that allowed me easy access to one of the world’s most beautiful caudatans, the Yonahalossee salamander, Plethodon yonahlossee. The largest of the genus, the adult length of 8 1/2 inches rendered the big red-backed salamanders easily visible as they left the safety of the verdant, rocky, woodlands to cross the twisty-turny roadway during summer rains. Fortunately for both salamanders and me, the road was not heavily traveled at night. I actually saw very few of the caudatans fall victim to traffic and I was always ready to avoid approaching vehicles.

Fond memories—the stuff of blogs!

Continue reading “Big and Beautiful—The Yonahlossee Salamander” …read more
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By Herp News

Fresh analysis of a reptile fossil is helping scientists solve an evolutionary puzzle — how snakes lost their limbs. The findings show snakes did not lose their limbs in order to live in the sea, as was previously suggested.

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Photo: Photo: Sun Sentinal
The Palm Beach Zoo recently noticed Hannah, one of their Komodo Dragons (Varanus komodoensis), was showing pain symptoms. After a CT scan to better pinpoint the source of her discomfort, they brought in a new treatment, acupuncture, to comfort her without the possible side effects from medications. Although acupuncture is a common treatment for humans and other mammals, it is a relatively new treatment methodology in the reptile world.

“Although the research is still inconclusive, current findings suggest that the mediators released by acupuncture may serve to lessen or block the pain response.” Dr. Cara Pillitteri

Hopefully more holistic treatments like acupuncture will prove to be successful and can be used to treat other reptiles who suffer as well without medications and their side effects.

Read more and see the video at Sun Sentinal. …read more
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By Herp News

Future of the Chinese white dolphins — also called pink dolphins — in Hong Kong waters could be severely imperiled. Proposed expansion of the Hong Kong airport and ongoing construction of a new bridge from Hong Kong to Macau could be a “nail in the coffin” for the dolphins, conservationists say. “We think that if that project goes ahead, then it will probably drive the dolphin away from Hong Kong waters,” Samuel Hung, chairman of the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, who has been monitoring activity of these dolphins for almost 20 years, told Agence France Presse (AFP). “In some ways it seems like we are pushing them closer and closer to the edge of the cliff and if we’re making that final push, they will be gone forever. I think now is the time to get our act together.” The Chinese white dolphin is believed to be a variety of the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin, although some biologists consider them to be a separate species called Sousa chinensis. These dolphins are distributed from east of India to China and Australia, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Hong Kong, these dolphins are major tourist attractions because of their unusual white or pink skin. However, their numbers in Hong Kong waters have dropped drastically, Hung said, from 158 in 2003 to just around 60. Chinese white dolphin off the coast of Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Photo by Leonard Reback, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike…

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Here’s to hoping this IJ Jag in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user StonedReptiles makes your monday a bit brighter!! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! For Black Friday, we just HAD To bring you this Black-tailed Rattlesnake for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user bigdnutz ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

What doesn’t kill you could cure you. A growing interest in the therapeutic value of animal venom has led data scientists to create the first catalog of known animal toxins and their physiological effects on humans.

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By Herp News

Every two years, primate experts compile a report that highlights 25 primates that are in severe crisis. These are the most endangered monkeys, apes and lemurs in the world. On Tuesday, an international coalition of 63 primate conservation experts — including the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC), Bristol Zoological Society, the International Primatological Society (IPS), and Conservation International – released the latest edition of the report “Primates in Peril: The world’s 25 most endangered primates”. The 25 primates are most threatened by habitat destruction, hunting for food and illegal wildlife trade. “The purpose of our Top 25 list is to highlight those primates most at risk, to attract the attention of the public, to stimulate national governments to do more, and especially to find the resources to implement desperately needed conservation measures,” Russell Mittermeier, Chair of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group and Executive Vice Chair of Conservation International, said in a statement. “In particular, we want to encourage governments to commit to desperately needed biodiversity conservation measures. Roloway monkeys have been steadily extirpated in Ghana. Photo by Hans Hillewaert CC BY-SA 3.01, Wikimedia Commons. As in 2012, Madagascar is on top again with five species making it to the list, according to the report. Indonesia and Vietnam are a close second with three species each in the list, followed by Brazil, which has two. One primate species each from Cameroon, China, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ghana, India,…

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We are thankful for sausages and skinks. Skinks are kinda like sausages, right? We are thankful for this Shingleback Skink in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user albinorosy ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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The Delta map turtle is one of the “sawbacked” types.
At the time I decided I wished to photograph the Delta map turtle in the wild, it was considered a named subspecies, Graptemys nigrinoda delticola, the darker and easternmore of the 2 forms of the. black-knobbed map turtle. Even back then, the subspecific differences, hence validity, had been questioned. And with the 2 races interbreeding widely and seeminly at every given opportunity, the differentiating features between the western and the eastern races were fast melding. It was becoming ever more difficult to separate them by appearance alone. But it still seemed that the map turtles at the eastern most periphery of the species range north of Mobile Bay were darker overall, often had linear postorbital markings, and had larger dark plastral figures than examples from further west. So, when, a couple of springs ago, I still wanted to see this turtle, Curtis suggested a “can’t miss” locale and Kenny and I, in the region for other reasons, headed northward from Mobile Bay.

Within 10 miles the sky darkened, the sun was obscured, immense cumulus clouds gathered and we drove into storms so intense that traffic was almost at a standstill. Still we crawled northward, eventually left the rain (but not the clouds) behind. An hour and a half later, in late afternoon, when we arrived at the map turtle destination it was still so dark that the cameras had problems focusing on the few Delta maps that were still hoping for sunlight on exposed snags. Although we decided to remain overnight and try our luck the next morning, cloudy conditions continued to prevail. The few pix we managed to take were suitable for vouchers but marginal (as you can see here) for more definitive purposes. Next time though—next time!

Continue reading “The Search for the Delta Map Turtle” …read more
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By Herp News

A smuggled and confiscated crocodile ashtray, now part of the “Buyer Beware Exhibit” at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Photo by Bill Butcher courtesy of USFWS [dropcap]L[/dropcap]ast March, a four-year manhunt finally paid off when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) investigators teamed with Mexican officials to arrest a notorious American wildlife trafficker. Isaac Zimerman, 66, was apprehended near Metepec, Mexico and later extradited back to the US. In 2009, he’d been charged for using his company, the Hawthorne, California-based River Wonders LLC, to smuggle piranhas and river stingrays from South America for sale in the US — species barred under California state law. He was later slapped with other charges for trafficking pirarucu fish (Arapaima gigas) out of the US into Canada and Bermuda while on pre-trial release. Zimerman turned fugitive in 2010. Special agents with USFWS tracked his movements through Europe to Israel and finally into Mexico, an investigation that included assistance from US Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security, the US Department of Justice and INTERPOL. In a 13-count indictment, Zimerman is now also accused of a slew of federal charges, including conspiracy, obstructing an investigation, false statements and falsifying documents. On November 9th, he pleaded guilty in US District Court to knowingly exporting pirarucu — the world’s largest freshwater fish, which are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) — without required permits. He could face up to 10 years in prison. Map courtesy of…

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By Herp News

Genes for important skin proteins arose in a common ancestor shared by humans and turtles 310 million years ago, a genome comparison has discovered.

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A new snake crosses your table, although it exhibits traits of a known venomous snake, it is missing several key markers.

What is it? Is it venomous? If so, just how venomous is it?

The situation becomes less an exercise in academics when the unknown subject of your research bites you.

That is the situation herpetologist Karl P. Schmidt found himself in at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in 1957. After being bitten his time was limited and he knew it. So he did what any good researcher would do, he documented it. He knew there was no accessible anti-venom, but never believed he had received the full dose of venom. In a short video, you spend those last hours with him as he documents his experience.

Read more at Science Friday. …read more
Read more here: King Snake

Photo: Science Friday
A new snake crosses your table, although it exhibits traits of a known venomous snake, it is missing several key markers.

What is it? Is it venomous? If so, just how venomous is it?

The situation becomes less an exercise in academics when the unknown subject of your research bites you.

That is the situation herpetologist Karl P. Schmidt found himself in at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in 1957. After being bitten his time was limited and he knew it. So he did what any good researcher would do, he documented it. He knew there was no accessible anti-venom, but never believed he had received the full dose of venom. In a short video, you spend those last hours with him as he documents his experience.

Read more and watch the video at Science Friday. …read more
Read more here: King Snake

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Fallout from two highly publicized cobra escapes in Florida is leading to changes in Florida venomous snake regulations in 2016.

According to a memo released by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (see above), the state is banning the use of melamine/particle board enclosures due to their tendency to be warped or damaged by moisture. Venomous Permit holders in Florida have until February 28th, 2016 to bring their caging into compliance.

Also, the Florida is moving ahead with the revision of it’s venomous regulations, a process begun last year, before the escapes, with a series of public meetings that began in December of 2014. Based on the input from those 8 meetings, FWC staff is reviewing the recommendations and is preparing draft rules and options for stakeholder input.

If you have questions about either memo, please contact the FWC Captive Wildlife Office at 850-488-6253
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This four pack of itty bitty ATBs are keeping their eyes on you in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user micahdenton ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
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By Herp News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEgfGlsHZWw&feature=youtu.be In a rare moment, a camera trap videoed a rare Amur tigress, trailed by her three cubs. The camera belongs to a network of camera traps set up by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Russia’s Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve to study Amur tigers. In the video, “the cats are using an overgrown forest road as a travel corridor; the same type of road patrolled by poachers with spotlights,” according to a statement released by WCS. Fewer than 400 adult and sub-adult Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) remain in the wild, over 90 percent of which occur in Sikhote Alin region. The Sikhote Alin Biosphere Reserve, where the video was captured, covers around 400,000 hectares (~1,000,000 acres), and is the largest protected area within the Amur tiger’s range, according to WCS. The video, which shows a mother with her cubs, provides a glimmer of hope for these endangered big cats, WCS noted in the statement. To protect tiger populations in the region, WCS is also working with logging companies there to stop usage of logging roads in and around the reserve. In March this year, another camera trap set up by WCS caught an unusual series of photos of an Amur tiger father followed by the mother and three cubs.

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Read more here: herpetofauna.com

Gallery Photo by user dallashawks
Currently the genomes of only 9 species of reptiles (among 10 000 species) are available to the scientific community. To change this a team at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Swit- zerland, has produced a large database including, among others, the newly-sequenced genome of the corn snake, Pantherophis guttatus, a species increasingly used to understand the evolution of reptiles. Within the same laboratory, the researchers have discovered the exact mutation that causes albinism in that species.

Suzanne Saenko collaborated with a Swedish team, to identify in the corn snake the mutation responsible for amelanism, a form of albinism due to a defect in the production of melanin (the black and brown pigments of the skin). The skin of the wild type corn snake exhibits a light orange background colour covered with a pattern of dark orange dorsal saddles and lateral blotches that are out- lined with black, however, some individuals lack all signs of melanin in the skin and eyes. The Swiss team decided to search for the DNA mutation that determines that specific coloration. To this end, they bred wild-type corn snakes with amelanistic individuals and they sequenced each offspring born from that cross.

Thanks to the newly-sequenced genome of the corn snake, the precise identification of other mutations responsible for multiple variations of snake skin coloration will be greatly facilitated.

Read more at phys.org …read more
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By Herp News

Twenty-three days before a major earthquake in 2011 animals began disappearing from part of Yanachaga National Park in Peru. By 24 hours before the quake they had completely vacated the area. A recent study documenting the animals’ retreat with camera-trap data suggests that animals may have an uncanny ability to sense and flee from irritating portents of seismic activity. Historically, scientists have dismissed accounts of animals acting strangely before earthquakes, mostly due to the anecdotal nature of the accounts and a lack of reliable sources. “[T]he infrequency and unpredictability of earthquakes means that most relevant pre-earthquake studies suffer, of necessity, from small sample sizes and from difficulties with reproducibility under comparable conditions,” states the recent study, published in the journal Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. However, a few credible observations of odd animal behavior do exist. For instance, before a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy, in 2009, researchers detected unusual toad behavior in areas where they also detected atmospheric disturbances that typically occur before earthquakes. Paca rodent (Cuniculus-paca). Photo courtesy of the TEAM Network. The present study relied on images from motion-capture cameras set up in Yanachaga National Park by the Virginia-based conservation group Tropical Ecology and Assessment and Monitoring Network. For 30 days leading up to the earthquake — and one day after — the cameras operated round the clock in nine separate locations throughout the park, capturing animal movements. Zoologist Rachel Grant of Hartpury College in Gloucester, England, and her colleagues geophysicist…

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By Herp News

A family of vicuñas at Apolobamba, Bolivia. Photo by Daniel Maydana [dropcap]C[/dropcap]orsino Huallata Ibarra was helping his parents round up their herd of llamas at their home in the Bolivian countryside when the sound of gunshots made him jump. Scanning the horizon, distant movement caught his eye. He could just make out the forms of several vicuñas — alpaca-like animals whose wool is some of the finest and most expensive in the world — seemingly fleeing from something. Ibarra, a veterinary professor at the Public University of El Alto in La Paz, knew well what the gunfire likely meant. Across their range in the high Andean plateau, vicuñas — a protected species — are increasingly targeted by poachers who leave behind a trail of dead animals stripped from the neck down of their valuable hides. “Every shot that occurs in the highlands are vicuñas being hunted,” Ibarra says. Poachers also do not hesitate to turn their guns on any human who tries to interfere. Last January, two Chilean police officers were killed at the Peruvian border when they stopped vicuña traffickers. And that same month, Ephraim Mamani Arevillca, a state conservationist and friend of Ibarra’s, was found murdered. “In Bolivia, he was the only governmental employee fighting on the frontlines against vicuña-related crooks,” Ibarra says. Poachers are presumably to blame for Arevillca’s death, although no arrests have been made. Vicuñas are herded and captured in the community of Villazón. Photo by Daniel…

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Read more here: herpetofauna.com