By Herp News

An ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) in Itatiba Zoo, Brazil. Photo by João Carlos Medau from Wikimedia Commons. Wild cats — from the small jaguarundi to the large jaguar — are elusive animals. They usually prowl about at night, are difficult to detect, and merge with the background landscape. Researchers often depend on indirect signs that these animals leave behind, such as footprints, to detect them in forests. But footprints may not be so reliable after all, warns a study recently published in Mongabay’s open-access journal Tropical Conservation Science. Researchers from Brazil and Portugal took measurements of front and hind footprints of several captive individuals of four wild cat species found in Brazilian rainforests — jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), oncilla (Leopardus guttulus), and margay (Leopardus wiedii) — and compared them to those of domestic cats. With the exception of the ocelot, the team found that size and shape of footprints of all the wild cat species as well as the domestic cats were similar. “From our data it was impossible to distinguish small felids based on footprint total size and pad size, and configuration as well,” the researchers write in the paper. “This limitation is enhanced in field studies because it is impossible to distinguish between front and hind footprints in such conditions.” Wild felid species tested in the present study and some examples of footprints printed in sand. A – Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis); B – Ocelot footprint; C – Jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi); D – Jaguarundi footprint; E…

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Take 5 and turn your face to the sun today, just like the Frilled Dragon in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user cochran ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is initiating status reviews for 14 petitions that presented substantial information that the species may warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act . The Service will initiate a review of the status of each of the reptile and amphibian species listed below. To ensure that these reviews are comprehensive, the Service is requesting scientific and commercial data and other information for each species. Based on the status reviews, the Service will address whether the petitioned action is warranted.

To see the listing and the information request, click on a species link below.

The official notice was published in the Federal Register on September 18, 2015, and is available at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection by clicking on the 2015 Notices link under Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants. Information can be submitted on species for which a status review is being initiated, using the specified docket number, beginning upon publication in the Federal Register, for 60 days until November 17, 2015.

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By Herp News

Scientists have discovered the first ever glow-in-the-dark sea turtle. National Geographic Emerging Explorer David Gruber said he made the discovery mostly by accident: He was filming biofluorescent coral off the coast of the Solomon Islands when the glowing sea turtle swam right by him. The marine biologist captured the turtle on a specially rigged video camera system designed for capturing biofluorescent sea life. The only artificial illumination the rig uses is a blue light that matches the color of the ocean, while a yellow filter on the camera allows the scientists to see fluorescing organisms. According to National Geographic, this is the first biofluorescent reptile ever discovered. You can watch a video of Gruber’s encounter with the critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle here. Biofluorescence is different from bioluminescence, which is when animals produce light themselves through a series of chemical reactions or by hosting bacteria that are capable of giving off light. Biofluorescent organisms, on the other hand, reflect blue light as a different color, most commonly green, red or orange. It is believed to be used for finding and attracting prey, for defense or for some kind of communication. Still taken from video of biofluorescing hawksbill sea turtle. Credit: National Geographic. Researchers who recently found biofluorescence in a number of bony and cartilaginous fish, including sharks, rays, small crustaceans and mantis shrimp, have speculated that the presence of yellow filters in the eyes of many biofluorescent fish, coupled with the substantive color vision capabilities of…

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By Herp News

Leopards occur in two forms: spotted and black — the black-coated version being the result of the presence of the dark-colored pigment melanin, a condition known as melanism and the opposite of an albino condition. Previous research determined that only melanistic black leopards likely lived in the forested regions of Southeast Asia — perhaps being the only place in the world where an entire population of animals is almost completely composed of the melanistic form. However, a new study by a team of scientists working in the peninsular region of Malaysia has shed some doubt on this hypothesis with the discovery of two spotted leopards at the under-researched Ulu Muda forest site south of the Isthmus of Kra. Map of Peninsular Malaysia and Southern Thailand showing the detection of spotted and/or melanistic leopard. Photo courtesy of Cedric Tan Kai Wei. “This unexpected discovery deepens the mystery into the spatial dynamics of melanism in the region,” write the researchers in a newly published paper in Tropical Conservation Science, mongabay.com’s open-access journal. “These findings are unexpected, because only two other studies have detected the spotted morph amongst many other melanistic leopards caught on camera traps in Peninsular Malaysia,” say the authors. Camera trap photo of possible male spotted leopard. Photo courtesy of Cedric Tan Kai Wei. The new paper notes that until now spotted leopards have only been sighted in study areas north of the Isthmus of Kra — a narrow neck of land…

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By Herp News

When we think of what wildness remains on our depleted planet, one place still truly speaks to the human spirit: Africa — site of the last stand of the wondrous Pleistocene megafauna that our forbears largely extinguished across the rest of the world; the final redoubt of the lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos that haunt our ancestral memory. Today Africa is enduring near total war over the fate of its natural heritage against a new breed of poacher — militarized and vicious; armed with military-grade weapons, helicopters and infrared vision; and with ties to terrorists and human traffickers. But amid grisly images of butchered elephants there lies a hidden harm, as thousands of vultures and other scavengers are poisoned by poachers to cover their bloody tracks. Hooded vultures feeding. Photo by Munir Virani courtesy of The Peregrine Fund In June, a report appeared in the science journal Conservation Letters that outlines in alarming terms the rate at which Africa’s great vultures are perishing. In “the first continent-wide estimates of decline rates in Africa’s vultures” ever made, the study’s authors, led by biologist Darcy Ogada of The Peregrine Fund, found that the eight vulture species studied had declined by an average of 62 percent in the past 30 years, with seven having dropped at a rate of eighty percent or more. Of these, says the study, at least six appear to qualify for upgrading to Critically Endangered status under the scientific criteria of the International Union for…

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Loma Linda University is working closely with researchers to determine whether the proteins can reduce bleeding and swelling during and after brain surgery. The study will last until 2019, but if successful it may impact over 800,000 people in aiding in the recovery after surgery including the reduction of loss of functions that may happen when operating on this sensitive area.

“We are tremendously excited about what the findings could mean to medicine,” Zhang said. “Our team is studying surgical brain injury and, currently, when a surgeon removes a brain tumor, the liver, or some other organ is often damaged in the process. By immunizing the patient with snake venom ahead of time, we can reduce the trauma that is associated with the surgery.”

If successful, other the venom of other animals may also be analyzed.

Read more at Adventist Review. …read more
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By Herp News

Legal ivory items for sale in an accredited shop in Beijing in May, 2009. Photo courtesy of IFAW, International Fund for Animal Welfare. On Friday, September 25, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to end commercial ivory sales in their countries. In a joint statement,  China and the United States announced their commitment to enact “nearly complete bans on ivory import and export, including significant and timely restrictions on the import of ivory as hunting trophies, and to take significant and timely steps to halt the domestic commercial trade of ivory.” The two presidents also announced their decision to cooperate in “joint training, technical exchanges, information sharing, and public education on combating wildlife trafficking, and enhance international law enforcement cooperation in this field.” “Two of the most powerful Heads of State want an end to all ivory trade,” Cristián Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement. “That’s only good news for elephants, and we call upon all governments to follow suit.” Around 100 African elephants are killed every day for ivory, according to the UN. Photo by Rhett Butler. China is home to the world’s biggest market for poached ivory. In May this year, the country decided to phase out its domestic ivory markets, and Friday’s announcement marks Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first public commitment to end ivory sales in China, according to a statement released by Wildlife Aid. “Today China has…

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Hopefully this stunning shot of a Painted Mantella (Mantella baroni) in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Hoosierfrogger starts your week out right! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Waffles, you near your third year and thus far think yourself a mere tot of a tortoise. Behold, young tortoise, this is the greatest time of your life: you are discovering who you really are. I am here to walk you through this special time as you come full into being one of the greatest of all beasts: the male sulcata.

The male sulcata, in all his glory, stands in a state of sublime glory, a marvel to behold, and a beast to revere. Beware to those who would not tremble in our glory for they will see their fences fall.

Really, when you get big you can tear down their fences.

But I digress from this awesome passing of wisdom from one sulcata male to another. Until now you have kept secret your great glory of manhood. You need no longer conceal your true self. You have brought forth that which was hidden, that which now ever forth may be seen and exalted, naught to be hidden again.

Flash! The alien is loose!

But first I must warn of a mysterious human behavior that perplex those male sulcata that have tread before you. Yay, though we celebrate a tortoise’s first issue of its glorious phallus beware of the creepy human exploitation of our sacred male symbol.

Cameras are suddenly everywhere!

Humans will exploit your sacred rites to bring forth and exercise your greatness: to slosh joyously in the clean wet water, to unabashedly explore your untested appendage. Yay, humans will stalk you as you perfect its methods and practice its sublime techniques.

You get no privacy, ever, ever again.

Your instinctive drive to hump all spherical objects and cry loudly your great conquests brings humans endless hours of shameful voyeurism. Appallingly, your human will share a parade of images on Facebook, Twitter, and other human social media, your feats of manliness.

For as long as male sulcata can remember humanoids bringing forth offerings of carrots, hay and hibiscus have we known about this exploitative human indecency. We are aware of their shame.

There seems no end of our exposure so long as we crave their carrots.

So fear not your sacred duties to breed those inanimate objects, it is our nature so never be ashamed by the humans senseless fascination of our manliness.

Go forth, young Waffles and hump.

Welcome, young sulcata male. Welcome.

P.S. Here are a few of my favorites. Feel free to check out the numerous videos of me on YouTube practicing with these beauties. Nope, mom has no shame.

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From the “don’t be an idiot” files…

Stephanie Moore (pictured right), 20, was jailed on a $2,000 bond on a felony warrant on charges of possessing, selling or molesting a marine turtle or eggs nest, according to the Melbourne Police Department’s Facebook page.

Moore was arrested after police in Melbourne, on Florida’s Atlantic coast, responded to a disturbance at a home Saturday and determined a warrant had been out for her.

Moore was allegedly one of two women sitting on sea turtles in photos that were shared online. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission took up the case as a criminal investigation asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspects.

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A retired teacher in Winter Park Florida is in an Orlando hospital after being bitten on the hand Thursday by a 20 inch Gaboon Viper (Bitis gabonica). The reptile owner, a licensed keeper, is expected to recover, and the snake has been secured, as has the rest of his small collection.

“It wasn’t as if the snake had gotten out from my understanding. I think he was bitten on the hand, but based on the evidence, it looks like a simple keeper mishap,” – Steve McDaniel, FWC investigator

Found in the rainforests and savannas of sub-Saharan Africa Gaboon Vipers have the longest fangs, up to 2 inches (5 cm), and the highest venom yield of any venomous snake.
Read more on the WESH web site. Gallery photo by dendroaspis …read more
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Check out this gorgeous Southern Pacific Rattlesnake in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user lichanura ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

Vitus Pango and Albogast Mkude harvest honey from a beehive fence in Tanzania. Photo courtesy of Alex Chang’a. This is a story about elephants, bees, trees, and a drink called Amarula. Amarula Cream is a liqueur distilled from the fermented fruit of the marula tree. The trees’ fruit is beloved by humans and animals alike — elephants and other animals feast on its sweet flesh, and humans use the fruit to make beer, oil, medicine and — of course — Amarula Cream. But now, elephants and humans are butting heads over the marula tree. In protected areas in South Africa, tourists and land managers worry that the concentration of the country’s elephant population into these limited areas could wreak havoc on the ecosystem’s iconic tree species. Swaddling a tree’s trunk in wire mesh can help it withstand an elephant’s attention, but now researchers are testing out an alternative technique, one with potential for a few sweet rewards beyond protecting trees. Back in 2002, Fritz Vollrath and Iain Douglas-Hamilton from Save the Elephants (STE) realized that elephants avoid trees with beehives living in them. That observation led researcher Lucy King to develop a novel technique to prevent elephants from raiding crops: fences with beehives suspended from the wires. Elephants Alive’s Program Manager, Michelle Henley was inspired by Lucy’s work and asked Robin Cook, a student at the University of the Witwatersrand, whether he would be interested in exploring whether hives could protect trees more effectively than wire…

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A stunning shot from Ghana of this Crowned Bullfrog steals the limelight in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Slaytonp ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Hatchling and juvenile Baird’s rat snakes have prominent saddles
“Snake!”

Jake had grimmaced as I stopped again to photograph the ever-changing and increasingly beautiful West Texas sunset. Within minutes I was back on the road and traffic was still quite light. We dipped and had started up a gentle incline when a female striped skunk with 5 trailing kits started across the road. As I slowed the female bolted leaving 5 very confused skunklets milling around. I stopped and moved the kits from the pavement into the roadside grass. Whoops. Guess I got sprayed. Jake was really grimmacing now–and holding his throat and hanging out the window. This had all the makings of a great night.

I was back up to cruising speed now and still extolling the beauty of the sunset and the skunks when Jake hollered “snake.” It was a good thing that one of us was watching the road. I stopped, backed up and there sure was a snake–and it was a silver-blue beauty–3 feet of Baird’s rat snake, Pantherophis bairdi. This beautiful constrictor may attain an adult length of 5 feet, is the westernmost representative of the Pantherophis obsoletus complex, and is certainly one of the prettiest.
Continue reading “Baird’s Rat Snake, a Serpentine Beauty” …read more
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By Herp News

Vitus Pango and Albogast Mkude harvest honey from a beehive fence in Tanzania. Photo courtesy of Alex Chang’a. This is a story about elephants, bees, trees, and a drink called Amarula. Amarula Cream is a liqueur distilled from the fermented fruit of the marula tree. The trees’ fruit is beloved by humans and animals alike — elephants and other animals feast on its sweet flesh, and humans use the fruit to make beer, oil, medicine and — of course — Amarula Cream. But now, elephants and humans are butting heads over the marula tree. In protected areas in South Africa, tourists and land managers worry that the concentration of the country’s elephant population into these limited areas could wreak havoc on the ecosystem’s iconic tree species. Swaddling a tree’s trunk in wire mesh can help it withstand an elephant’s attention, but now researchers are testing out an alternative technique, one with potential for a few sweet rewards beyond protecting trees. Back in 2002, Fritz Vollrath and Iain Douglas-Hamilton from Save the Elephants (STE) realized that elephants avoid trees with beehives living in them. That observation led researcher Lucy King to develop a novel technique to prevent elephants from raiding crops: fences with beehives suspended from the wires. Elephants Alive’s Program Manager, Michelle Henley was inspired by Lucy’s work and asked Robin Cook, a student at the University of the Witwatersrand, whether he would be interested in exploring whether hives could protect trees more effectively than wire…

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As if life wasn’t hard enough during the last Ice Age, a new study has found Australia’s first human inhabitants had to contend with giant killer lizards. Researchers working in Central Queensland were amazed when they unearthed the first evidence that Australia’s early human inhabitants and giant apex predator lizards had overlapped.

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Sumatran Rhinoceros photographed in Gunung Leuser National Park (inside Leuser Landscape). Photo courtesy of Leuser International Foundation and the Gunung Leuser National Park Researchers have identified what could be the last safe havens for the Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), according to a new study published in the journal PLoS One. Only about 100 such rhinos remain in the wild, mostly on the Island of Sumatra. “Our study provides hope for the survival of the Sumatran rhino,” Wulan Pusparini, lead author from WCS-Indonesia and a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told Mongabay. Between 2007 and 2011, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Leuser International Foundation (LIF), the Sumatran Tiger Trust, and government staff members surveyed three Sumatran forests — believed to be rhino strongholds — for signs of the animals. These forests included the Leuser Landscape, Way Kambas National Park and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in Sumatra. On analyzing the data, the team found that Sumatran rhinos seem to occupy only about 13 percent (~382,500 hectares or 1,477 square miles) of the forests surveyed. Bina at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. Photo by Tiffany Roufs Within the small forest patches where these rhinos do occur, the researchers have identified and mapped five sites where conservation efforts could be prioritized. “We’ve identified the core areas (most are inside national parks), and we’ll intensify our efforts to strictly protect these areas with government and NGO partners,” Pusparini said. These priority areas can be…

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This American Alligator is peeking out and looking forward to it’s future 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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By Herp News

Since seabirds rely on healthy oceans to feed and thrive, scientists consider them excellent indicators of the marine ecosystem’s health. But a recent study found that global seabird populations appear to be rapidly dwindling, a possible sign of overall marine ecosystem decline. Seabirds “travel far and wide to forage… and, unlike most marine species, return to terrestrial colonies where their population sizes tell us a lot about the health of the world’s oceans,” Michelle Paleczny, a zoologist at the University of British Columbia and the lead author of the new paper, told mongabay.com. The present study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, showed that marine systems are apparently becoming gradually less able to support seabirds. Researchers collected data on seabird population sizes from a variety of primary sources, including books, academic journals, and unpublished reports. They focused on populations that scientists had monitored at least five times between 1950 and 2010, which accounted for 19 percent of the world’s seabird population, encompassing 162 species. Populationof the world’s monitored seabirds between 1950 and 2010. The total population in 2010 was about 30 percent of the population in 1950, representing a loss of nearly 70 percent. (Dashed lines represent 95-percent confidence intervals.) Image by Paleczny et al. (2015). The researchers then tracked the birds’ population sizes over time by applying a modeling system to their database that extrapolated missing population data and estimated errors in the collected data. This model allowed the researchers to obtain a comprehensive look…

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Just in time for World Rhino Day comes an announcement out of South Sumatra, Indonesia. Way Kambas National Park will soon be celebrating the arrival of a new rhino calf that will be joining the other 5 rhino residents of the national park’s Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. Ratu, whose name means, “queen,” is estimated to have been born in 1999 in Way Kambas National Park. She is the second youngest female Sumatran Rhino living in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. The mother is expected to give birth to her new calf in May. Her first calf, Andatu, was born at the sanctuary in 2012. Both calves were fathered by Andalas, born at the Cincinnati Zoo and was moved from the Las Angeles Zoo to Indonesia in 2007. Andatu, the first Sumatran rhino born at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, takes tentative first steps on his first day of life in 2012. Andatu is Ratu’s first child. Ratu is currently pregnant with her second calf — due in May 2016 — and the new calf will resemble its older brother. Photo courtesy of the International Rhino Foundation. This announcement gives special significance to World Rhino Day as this new pregnancy offers new hope for the endangered species. “One birth doesn’t save a species, but it’s one more Sumatran rhino on Earth,” said Dr. Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, in a press release. “The new calf affirms that there is expertise in Indonesia to breed Sumatran rhinos. This pregnancy comes at…

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kingsnake.com gallery photo by Eve
In the animal kingdom, just like the disco, the flashiest males often have more luck attracting a mate but when your predators hunt by sight, this makes them more of a target according to a new study published in Ecology and Evolution. Using models that replicated the coloration of male and female lizards, they found that the male lizard models were less well camouflaged and more likely to fall prey to bird attacks.

“In females, selection seems to have favoured better camouflage to avoid attack from avian predators. But in males, being bright and conspicuous also appears to be important even though this heightens the risk of being spotted by birds,” Kate Marshall, University of Cambridge

Using visual modelling, Marshall and her colleagues tested around 300 color variations to find ones that matched the male and female colors in order to make the 600 clay lizards used in the study and then placed models in ten sites on each of the two islands and checked them every 24 hours over five days to see which had been attacked by birds.

Read more at: http://phys.org …read more
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These adorable Crested Geckos are just hanging around in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user MOC_Reptiles ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This is a pretty but pale Big Bend western diamond-back.
Where were the western diamond-backed rattlesnakes, Crotalus atrox? Jake and I began asking ourselves that question on our first night in Val Verde County, TX, and continued wondering throughout our 10 nights in West Texas. We were no closer to an answer on that 10th night than we had been on the first. We knew only that 14 months earlier (August 2014) we had seen more western diamond-backed rattlers than any other snake species. And that over the years I had found this to often be the case. We found diamond-backs from the time of night that the desert had cooled enough to allow snake movement until the wee hours of the morning when, if we looked eastward, we could see the first evidence of a new dawn. We found them crossing the roadway. We found them quietly coiled, as if basking, on the pavement. We even found them stretched fully out as they swallowed prey, often a kangaroo rat. In other words, there was no shortage of Crotalus atrox. It was other rattlers, black-tails, rock, and Mohave that we had been difficult to see.

But now, a year later, our findings were very different. It was mid-June and we were seeing very few of these big, usually feisty, rattlers. In fact during the 10 days we were in the range of the taxon we saw only 4 C. atrox . 3 were prowling and 1 was coiled in ambush position in a small cave in a low rock cut.

I do have to mention though that where we had seen western diamond-backs a year earlier, we were now encountering rock rattlers in fair numbers, many black-tails. and a few Mohaves. Although the reasons for this species shift remain unclear we actually found the tradeoff quite satisfactory. And I’m already wondering what next year’s trip will bring?

More photos under the jump

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By Herp News

The African clawed frog’s process for adaptive color vision is full of mysterious twists and turns, an evolutionary biologist explains in a new article about the frog’s shift from ultraviolet to violet vision.

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More than 130 crocodiles have been captured and fitted with waterproof transmitters as part of a long term University of Queensland study into how the creatures use the environment. The data-gathering program is the largest and longest of its type, beginning in 2008 and set for another 10 years thanks to a new generation of acoustic tags.

“Our goal is to understand the role of crocs in the ecosystem and look how they move into the river systems, estuaries, creeks and waterholes,” – Craig Franklin, UQ School of Biological Sciences

The study found small crocs hide in creeks, while reptiles in the five metre category rule water holes and that estuarine crocs can move 1000km in a year and up to 60 km a day. Professor Franklin said his team was using the information to build computer models that might predict the travel plans of estuarine crocs when influenced by climate change.

For more, check out the article at the Brisbane Times You can follow the movements of several of the tagged crocodiles online at http://www.uq.edu.au/eco-lab/crocodile-tracks. …read more
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The world is gifted with beautiful flora as well as fauna but still there are many hidden creatures in this ecosystem who work behind the scenes to contribute to the tremendous beauty which we see today. Often these beauties ‘who work behind the scenes’ are poorly known and leave the world mystified about their salient features and habits.

Curiosity regarding these undiscovered species has brought herpetologists from around the world to document India’s hidden mysterious creatures. The habits of the Giri’s Bronzeback Tree Snake Dendrelaphis girii is one. Relatively unknown before 2011 it was due to the efforts of renowned naturalist Varad Giri this elegant creature has become much more familiar to the herpetological community. The Giri’s Bronzeback is widely spread across the western ghats of India. It is assumed by the experts that there are still many more undiscovered species to identify in India and it’s expected their efforts will continue to uncover more gems like this in the future..

With a thin, long and slender body covered with smooth scales, the color of bronzeback tree snakes has always fascinated me. When they stretch their body one can see the beautiful bright blue color hiding behind its scales. If you look at the picture given abve, the head of the snake appears as if it has been polished by mixture of gold and bronze, and you can also see the blue color. The maximum length of these snakes is 105cm and it feeds on lizards, frogs and small rodents.

Photo by: Saleel Gharpure
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Way better than pumpkin spice, this Elongated tortoise brings on fall in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user reptileszz ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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In celebration of all things venomous, ciccada is on the menu for this Copperhead in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user coolhl7 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

An unprecedented action took place earlier this year at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy based in northern Kenya: the translocation of black rhinos to Sera Community Conservancy, where rhinos have been absent for 25 years. The move represents the first time in East Africa management of this endangered species is being put in the hands of community leaders instead of scientists and other conservationists. Black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) have declined 90 percent in three generations, and are listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Rhino conservationists say translocation to other areas is crucial to their survival, especially as Lewa faces pressure from sustaining a growing and healthy population in comparison to only around 630 individuals in existence across Kenya. And so, in May, researchers moved 10 rhinos to Sera Community Conservancy. “Sera [rhino translocation] has been a project in the making for the last five years,” said Ian Lemaiyan, rhino scientist in Lewa’s research department. “In the 80s and 90s rhino populations in Kenya had plummeted to a depressing number. [Sera is] among the last areas in northern Kenya for rhino to be translocated to save them from extinction.” A black rhino is successfully released into his new home inside Sera. Photo courtesy of Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Sera contained this species historically and provides excellent habitat far from towns and human settlements. The target outcomes are immensely positive according to Chief Conservation Officer, Geoffery Chege, who heads the research department inside Lewa. Once rhinos establish themselves, the conservationists…

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This Desert Horned Lizard has us looking forward to the weekend in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Brockn ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Our trip had been replete with rattlesnakes. The roadways and rockcuts in the Big Bend area had offered up a western diamond-back or two, a few Mohave rattlers, many black-tailed rattlers and a sufficient number of mottled rock rattlers to keep things really interesting. We had found rock rattlers having pearl gray ground colors on some cuts, those having a bluish-gray ground color on other cuts. and Kenny had found and shown us one from a more westerly cut that resembled a banded rock rattler as much, or perhaps even more, than it did the mottled subspecies.

But the ones that most caught my attention had an olive-fawn ground color with faint pinkish overtones and warm brown irregular barring. In color they looked far more like the rock rattlers from the rather distant Davis Mountains than the populations nearest to the snakes at hand. And their colors camouflaged them more effectively than those of any of the other populations we visited.

Judge for yourselves how inconspicuous the warm overtones rendered these rattlers when they were lying quietly amidst the rocks and soils of their natural habitat.

For us the question quickly became how many had we overlooked rather than how many we actually saw.

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Continue reading “Mottled Rocks Amidst the Rocks” …read more
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An wonderful field find in Mexico of this Lyre Snake brightens the middle of the week in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Chuck_Ch ! 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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If you are a regular reader of my blog posts then you might find this title a bit familiar as it is somewhat a sequel of one of my previous blog posts ‘Vine Snake: The hidden predator’.

Vine snakes, or whip snakes, are one of the most beautiful snakes on earth and luckily in India you can find 5-6 species of vine snakes. Today I want to talk about the “brown phase” of the the green vine snake. As I said in the title disguised in brown, these snakes are a sub-species of Green Vine Snake, named Ahaetulla nasuta isabellinus and it is usually known as brown morph of the green vine snake.

The size and structure of this snake is similar to green vine snake Ahaetulla nasuta,the only difference is these snakes are brown. These snakes look amazing and its brown appearance helps camouflage it from both predators and prey.

When I saw the brown morph of the green vine snake for the first time, I was mistaken thinking it was a Brown Vine Snake Ahaetulla pulverulenta, another species of vine snake, but with the help of few experts I came to know that it is a green vine snake in brown costume.

I am very thankful to my friend Saleel Gharpure for allowing me to share these amazing pictures of this magnificent reptile.
Photo by: Saleel Gharpure
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By Herp News

The Sira Currasow is a critically endangered bird that lives only in the high altitude tropical forests of the Cerros del Sira mountain range in central Peru. It’s proven nearly as elusive as it is rare: Scientists first described the species in the 1970s, but wouldn’t observe the bird again for another three decades. But now an expedition to the Cerros del Sira has captured the first ever footage of the Sira Currasow (Pauxi koepckeae). “We were shocked by the incredible results we found,” Andrew Whitworth, a researcher from The University of Glasgow who was part of the expedition, told mongabay. “One of the coolest things is that crowdfunding supported a third of the expedition funding, along with the Royal Geographic Societies Neville Schulman Challenge award.” Whitworth and team say there could be as few as 250 mature adult Sira Currasows alive right now, and their population is in decline due to habitat destruction and being hunted for meat. Prior to this footage, there has only ever been one photograph of the bird. Map by Exploration Sira. The expedition, led by biologists from the University of Glasgow as well as the University of Exeter, used 22 camera traps to capture the footage, and the Sira Currasow wasn’t their only big find. The team also captured the first hard evidence that Andean spectacled bears live in the Sira Communal Reserve, established in 2001 to protect the unique biodiversity of the isolated Cerros del Sira range. The Andean spectacled…

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Read more here: herpetofauna.com

A local herpetologist is moving his reptiles to comply with a city zoning ordinance that bars him from running a rescue and rehabilitation center at his house. Chad Griffin, the owner of CCSB Reptile Rescue & Rehabilitation Center, said he is looking for a site and will move the reptiles

Because Griffin is cooperating with the city, officials are working with him to find a new site and to move the animals, said Chris Murphy, the deputy director of planning and development services.

“Our end objective is compliance with the ordinance” Chris Murphy – Deputy Director Winston-Salem, N.C.

Griffin has about 10 days to remove the outdoor enclosures that house the alligators, 30 days for venomous snakes and up to 60 days to stop operating the business in his home, Murphy said. He will be able to keep some reptiles in his house, including nonvenomous snakes, that are considered pets.

kingsnake.com would like to remind everyone that keeps herps to make sure you your not violating any local or state laws or ordinances so you don’t find yourself in similar circumstances. Read more at the Winston-Salem Journal
Image by David Rolfe …read more
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While we sat in Study Butte eating the evening meal, the sky darkened. For the last hour or so lightning had been flashing east of us and we had heard a very occasional rumble of thunder. Suddenly the wind picked up and the outside was obliterated by a dust storm. Driven by the lusty gusts a self-opening tent scooted by. It was followed closely by a young lady attempting to recorral the errant canvas. Then quiet. The wind dropped, the tent was caught by the chaser, and a bolt of cloud to ground lightning followed immediately by a deafening clap of thunder–the desert storm was upon and around us. And as every herper knows, a desert storm of any significance (and even many of lesser impact) means amphibians. Amphibians emerge from nooks, crannies, and burrows to set up very temporary housekeeping in the newly formed, very ephemeral, desert pools.

While monitoring nearby rainfalls on his iPhone, Jake determined that the strongest storms had been about 50 miles away. So off we went, reaching the area a few minutes before sunset. It took just a few minutes to learn that almost every swale was in flash-flood stage and only a few more minutes to determine that huge pools now sat atop desert flats that had until only a few hours earlier been long parched. We knew then that our choice had been a good one.

By nightfall a few tentative anuran vocalizations were heard. Among the first to call were the Couch’s spadefoots, Scaphiopus couchii. Shortly thereafter red-spotted toad, Bufo punctatus, had joined the spadefoots in chorus. By full darkness the voices of western green toads, Bufo debilis insidior, and Texas toads, B. speciosus, had been added and the roadway was fairly seething with all 4 anuran species.

It was a night that we would long remember.

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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!

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

More than half the world’s sea turtles have ingested plastic or other human rubbish, an international study has revealed. The study found the east coasts of Australia and North America, Southeast Asia, southern Africa, and Hawaii were particularly dangerous for turtles due to a combination of debris loads and high species diversity.

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