By Herp News

Farmers and herders across the globe try numerous methods to protect their crops and livestock from predation. They make noise and sleep in their fields, and they use technologies ranging from scarecrows to pesticides to car horns to shotguns. Many prefer passive, non-lethal techniques – those that allow them to stay inside their homes at night and dissuade, rather than kill, the potential predator. Some of these predators are endangered large mammals, so reducing conflict between farmers and wildlife is a critical conservation issue. Photo credit: George Powell Photo credit: USAID Afganistan, Wikimedia Photo credit: Suzanne Palminteri In Australia, a major culprit is the (non-endangered) European Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes), an invasive carnivore that has wreaked havoc on Australian domestic and wild fauna since its introduction there in the mid-1800s as a recreational hunting target. In addition to decimating native bird and small mammal populations, foxes aggravate farmers by preying on newborn lambs. In an effort to combat this problem, Australian farmer Ian Whalan developed the Foxlight, a device that produces light at random intervals to emulate a moving person carrying a flashlight (torch). Foxlight’s commercial photo. Photo credit: Foxlights.com Each Foxlight contains 9 LED bulbs and a computer chip. The lights flash in varying blue and white sequences at 360 degrees and can be seen for about a mile (1.5 km). Light sensors turn the light on automatically at dusk and off at dawn so that they do…

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Researchers examine the response of a variety of insects, reptiles, amphibians and mammals to a natural selection pressure in the form of cardiac glycosides — toxins produced by certain plants and toads for defense against predators.

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Estrogen in suburban yards is changing the ratio of male and female green frogs at nearby ponds, a new study shows. Higher levels of estrogen in areas where there are shrubs, vegetable gardens, and manicured lawns are disrupting frogs’ endocrine systems, according to the study.

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Well, it will be a Gray Treefrog when it grows up! A very cool view of a metamorph Hyla versicolor gets its shot in the spotlight in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user anuraanman ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Another year of lyre snake failure for me!
So, what else is new?

After 50 years of unsuccessfully looking for this little opisthoglyph in Texas’ Big Bend region if I had found one I would probably have keeled over from shock. Other searchers though — mostly the participants of the “Sanderson Snake Days” event, were successful in finding a Chihuahuan lyre snake, Trimorphodon vilkinsonii, and at least one person found 2! In other words these little snakes were found on all sides of Jake and me, but we were never in quite the right position at the right time. For example:

Jake and I had slowly and repeatedly driven an area at which dozens of lyres had been found over the years. Then tiring of that routine we added an extra few miles to one cruise. When we returned, about 20 minutes later, we learned that not one but two of the snakes had been found in the 20 minutes we were gone. A day or two later, on that same trip we were again cruising and hoping. A friend from California was also cruising the road, he in search of gray-banded kingsnakes. He found no kings but watched a Chihuahuan lyre snake cross the road and disappear into the rocky abyss on the south side. We were about 10 minutes behind him and we found neither king nor lyre. You get the idea. We were totally ineffectual.

Well, at least Sky (who had a research permit for the taxon) let me photograph her find, and next year (2016), all things being equal, I’ll give it another try. What the heck–even an old herper needs a goal.

More photos under the jump. >

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In the United States getting bit by a rattlesnake is a very expensive business. With anti-venin prices at the hospital running $2300.00 a vial, and with severe envenomations often requiring 10 or more vials, its not uncommon for a course of treatment to run close to, or more than $100,000.00.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, that same treatment, using the exact same anti-venins, usually costs a tenth, or less, and achieves the same results. Why the cost disparity?

That’s exactly the question researcher Dr. Leslie Boyer at the University of Arizona wanted to find out. The founding director of the VIPER Institute, a research group studying ways to improve the medical treatment of venom injuries, used the numbers to build a pricing model for a typical arachnid anti-venin sold in the U.S. and the disparity is breathtaking. According to the model, a single vial of anti-venin that would cost over $14,000 in the United States would cost one or two hundred dollars in Mexico.

“The U.S. needs to re-think how we manage these things, because we have reached the point where the developing world is getting more timely access to better drugs (at least in this field) than we are.” – Dr. Leslie Boyer

According to Boyer, in Mexico authorities determined some time ago that treating venomous snake and spider bites was a public health issue, but to try to implement something similar here would require an act of Congress.

To read more check out the article at the Washington Post. Gallery photo by JeffB. …read more
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By Herp News

The world’s oldest fossil sea turtle known to date has been found by scientists. The fossilized reptile is at least 120 million years old — which makes it about 25 million years older than the previously known oldest specimen. The almost completely preserved skeleton from the Cretaceous, with a length of nearly 2 meters, shows all of the characteristic traits of modern marine turtles.

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[dropcap]U[/dropcap]nderstanding whether conservation programs really work is hard to do, but it is becoming increasingly important for organizations wanting to raise funds and justify their work preserving species and habitats. A recent study published in the journal Biological Conservation demonstrates a new way to evaluate a conservation organization’s work in preventing extinctions by using the IUCN Red List Index (RLI) as a performance indicator. The study was led by Richard Young, head of conservation science at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, and it examined Durrell’s own work as a case study. Durrell is a U.K.-based international non-profit organization that conducts long-term conservation programs to save species from extinction. The RLI is calculated from data in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, widely considered the most authoritative and objective database on the status of species. In the Red List of Threatened Species, species are assessed against criteria for geographic range and population size, structure, and trends. They are then assigned to categories of extinction risk: Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild, and Extinct. From these assessments, scientists can calculate an RLI for any set of species. The RLI indicates the proportion of species that move through the IUCN Red List categories between periodic assessments, either away from or towards extinction. In their study, Young and his co-authors examined the fate of 17 species — one amphibian, seven mammals, and nine birds — that Durrell has worked to conserve in five countries. Durrell’s conservation interventions included…

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ADORABLE! There is no other way to describe the squee of cuteness that this hatchling Peach Throat Monitor has in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user MikesMonitors ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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“Sachin! Checkout this bamboo pit viper, doesn’t look somewhat different?” After observing the pit viper carefully “nooooo brother, it’s a Large-scaled pit viper”. One of the best mornings of my life, just imagine being a hardcore snake lover and you wake up with a beautiful and new snake in front of you in your friends hand; do I really need to describe that feeling?

In July, I had visited a place known as Kodaikanal in the southern part of India and finding the Large-scaled pit viper Trimeresurus macrolepis was the best memory given to me by this place. Large scaled pit vipers look somewhat similar to bamboo pit vipers and few other green tree pit vipers but the scales of these pit vipers are much larger than others and this is the reason these snakes are named as large scaled pit vipers. There hasn’t been much research done on this beautiful reptile and that is the reason there is less information available about this snake including the factors like distribution and habitat.

I had visited this place with my very close herp friend Prithvi Shetty, with whom i have been working together since 3-4 years and he is always a perfect companion on herpings. It was because of his hard work and dedicated herping that I was able to see this beauty. It was early morning and prithvi came to me and tried to wake me up saying that we had to go herping as it was decided, but I would say that I missed a chance of encountering this serpentine beauty in the wild because I didn’t wake up as I wanted to sleep and told him to go alone. After 2 hours he returned with this beautiful gift, so happy I was. And that day I learnt “the one who sleeps a lot, later on weeps a lot”.
Photo by: Prithvi Shetty
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A Mexican national is being held in prison in Guayaquil Ecuador after trying to smuggle out specimens of both species of endangered iguana only found in the Galapagos Islands. The smuggler was trying to transport nine marine iguanas and two land iguanas, all endemic to the islands’ fragile ecosystem, intending to send the reptiles to Uganda

9 Marine neonate (Amblyrhymchus cristatus), and 2 juvenile ground iguanas (Conolophus suscristatus) were found in a suitcase where they had been packed so they could not move. The iguanas are being evaluated and fed before they will be reintegrated into their habitat in the Galapagos National Park.

Authorities said the man had previously committed similar crimes in New Zealand, and are investigating his possible involvement in a global network of traffickers in protected species.

To read more, check out the original press release by the Ecuadoran Environment Ministry.

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This hatching Albino Pied Ball Python in our herp photo of the day should help kick your work week off right, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Bigfoots ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Hatchling Reeve’s turtles Chinemys reevesi usually have a yellow facial pattern
When I was a kid there used to be 5 and 10 cent stores–real ones where you could but things for 5 or 10 cents or more. Some of the stores were small, some were huge, and all were places of wonderment to a youngster. And among the wonders offered were the little “Japanese coin turtles” in the pet departments. These little dark-colored turtles would show up only periodically, usually after the supplies of “green turtles” (red eared sliders) and “gray turtles” (Mississippi map turtles) had been exhausted. I’m not sure how long it was before , or even how, I learned that the proper name for the coin turtle was Reeve’s turtle, or that its scientific name was then Chinemys reevesi (today it is known as the Chinese pond turtle or the Chinese three-keeled pond turtle and has been reclassified as Mauremys reevesi) but learn it I did. But I do know that it didn’t take me long to learn that these little 49c turtles seemed even easier to keep than the American species that they seasonally replaced.

I hadn’t thought of a Reeve’s turtle for several decades but for reasons unknown I began thinking of them a few weeks ago. It took a while to find a breeder of this species but thanks to the aquatic turtle classifieds on Kingsnake.com I succeeded and, yes, they had a few hatchlings (but sadly they were more than 49c each). But with that said, guess what the FedEx driver delivered to me this morning.

Now all I need is a tiny plastic turtle tank bedecked with a proportionately tiny plastic palm tree. Reliving childhood– but just kidding about that old-timey turtle tank!

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From June of next year, Sanofi Pasteur’s stock of anti-venin Fav-Afrique will be exhausted and no more will be produced by the company. The technology used to create the anti-venin will be used in rabies treatments, according to manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur.

“Fav-Afrique is no longer being manufactured so vulnerable farmers will lose their lives or limbs.” – Abdulrazaq Habib Bayero University

Treating bites from snakes like mambas, vipers and cobras just does not add up any more, Sanofi Pasteur said. But tens of thousands may die, unnecessarily, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as it demanded action over the withdrawal of Fav-Afrique. MSF says there will be no alternatives to replace the Sanofi Pasteur treatment for at least two years and that five million people are bitten by snakes each year, 100,000 die and 400,000 are disabled or disfigured.

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By Herp News

The world’s oldest fossil sea turtle known to date has been found by scientists. The fossilized reptile is at least 120 million years old — which makes it about 25 million years older than the previously known oldest specimen. The almost completely preserved skeleton from the Cretaceous, with a length of nearly 2 meters, shows all of the characteristic traits of modern marine turtles.

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The Dog-Faced Water Snake Cereberus rynchops is one of a number of snakes named after a mammal, like others such as cat snake, wolf snakes, rat snake etc. but totally different in appearance and habitat. This mildly- venomous reptilian dog is that it is found on paddy fields of both marine and fresh water, so you can encounter this snake in mangroves as well as in coastal areas.

In India this species is found in all coasts on the mainland, and also found in both the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Coasts of Gujarat are its western most limits. These snakes can be identified by their brownish dorsal surface marked with darker bands or blotches and the scales of these snakes are very rough and keeled. The maximum length of these snakes is 100cm and it is viviparous by nature, the female giving live birth to 6-30 young ones.

The dog-faced water snake usually feeds on fish and frogs but interestingly eels are one of its favorite meals. I have been lucky to find this snake a couple of times, but I am eagerly waiting to witness this snake hunting and feeding on an eel in its natural habitat.

Photo: Saleel Gharpure
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From his toothy grin, even this Nile Crocodile knows today is a holiday in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user CDieter ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

A new model for snow-fed mountain wetlands projects that this year’s dry conditions could be common by the 2070s, affecting the Cascades frog and other mountain species.

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Scientists have determined that Eunotosaurus africanus is the earliest known branch of the turtle tree of life.

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Scientists have determined that Eunotosaurus africanus is the earliest known branch of the turtle tree of life.

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Kick off your weekend with this gorgeous Prairie Rattlesnake in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user akcoldbliss ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

Asia’s Endangered fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) went missing in 2003, and was thought to be extinct in that nation. That’s why researchers were so delighted when the fishing cat showed up recently in candid shots snapped by their camera traps in two Cambodian preserves. The sightings were made in a recent camera trap survey conducted by Cambodia’s Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (CBC) in partnership with Fauna & Flora International (FFI), and the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). Fishing cat photographed by a camera trap in Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo courtesy of Fauna & Flora International/Royal University of Phnom Penh. FFI project leader Ret Thaung said that the fishing cat’s preference for wetland habitat — and the degradation of that habitat by agriculture and other development — had led to severe population declines throughout much of its range. “Asian wetland habitats are rapidly disappearing or being modified by human activity, so fishing cat numbers have declined dramatically over the last decade and the remaining population is thought to be small,” she said. Interviews with local Cambodian villagers led the researchers to believe that the fishing cat might still be found in southwest Cambodia. So they set out 32 cameras at five locations and waited. Sifting through the gathered images, the scientists were thrilled to find pictures of the fishing cat snapped in the Peam Krosaop Wildlife Sanctuary in Koh Knong Province, and in Ream National Park in Sihanoukville Province. “This is a remarkable discovery,” said…

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By Herp News

Asia’s Endangered fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) went missing in 2003, and was thought to be extinct in that nation. That’s why researchers were so delighted when the fishing cat showed up recently in candid shots snapped by their camera traps in two Cambodian preserves. The sightings were made in a recent camera trap survey conducted by Cambodia’s Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (CBC) in partnership with Fauna & Flora International (FFI), and the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). Fishing cat photographed by a camera trap in Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo courtesy of Fauna & Flora International/Royal University of Phnom Penh. FFI project leader Ret Thaung said that the fishing cat’s preference for wetland habitat — and the degradation of that habitat by agriculture and other development — had led to severe population declines throughout much of its range. “Asian wetland habitats are rapidly disappearing or being modified by human activity, so fishing cat numbers have declined dramatically over the last decade and the remaining population is thought to be small,” she said. Interviews with local Cambodian villagers led the researchers to believe that the fishing cat might still be found in southwest Cambodia. So they set out 32 cameras at five locations and waited. Sifting through the gathered images, the scientists were thrilled to find pictures of the fishing cat snapped in the Peam Krosaop Wildlife Sanctuary in Koh Knong Province, and in Ream National Park in Sihanoukville Province. “This is a remarkable discovery,” said…

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By Herp News

It’s well known that climate change is significantly affecting the world’s oceans as sea level rise and water acidifies. But forests are also experiencing big impacts. Shifting precipitation patterns are bringing droughts to the Amazon rainforest, and warmer winter temperatures are allowing tree-killing beetles to spread farther north in boreal regions. Now, new research finds that climate change may be making tropical forests “move.” A study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that over the last decade, tropical forests in north-western Colombia have been shrinking and changing directionally with time as a likely response to climate change. Areas in the northern Andean montane forests and adjacent lowlands of Colombia are experiencing a phenomenon called “thermophilization,” the study says, meaning that the abundance of cold-tolerating highland species is decreasing while only heat-loving, lowland tree species are being left behind. These patterns are consistent with the expectations of upwards species migrations due to climate change, the authors write. The study found strong links between tree species composition and temperature changes. On the surface, the changes to these forests seem deceptively small, Kenneth Feeley, co-author of the PNAS study and Assistant Professor of Biology at Florida International University, told mongabay.com. “If you were to go to the forest every year and look around, you would see lots of green, healthy vegetation,” he said. “It is only with precise measurements of which species are there, how many of each species is there, and how big each tree is, that…

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By Herp News

It’s well known that climate change is significantly affecting the world’s oceans as sea level rise and water acidifies. But forests are also experiencing big impacts. Shifting precipitation patterns are bringing droughts to the Amazon rainforest, and warmer winter temperatures are allowing tree-killing beetles to spread farther north in boreal regions. Now, new research finds that climate change may be making tropical forests “move.” A study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that over the last decade, tropical forests in north-western Colombia have been shrinking and changing directionally with time as a likely response to climate change. Areas in the northern Andean montane forests and adjacent lowlands of Colombia are experiencing a phenomenon called “thermophilization,” the study says, meaning that the abundance of cold-tolerating highland species is decreasing while only heat-loving, lowland tree species are being left behind. These patterns are consistent with the expectations of upwards species migrations due to climate change, the authors write. The study found strong links between tree species composition and temperature changes. On the surface, the changes to these forests seem deceptively small, Kenneth Feeley, co-author of the PNAS study and Assistant Professor of Biology at Florida International University, told mongabay.com. “If you were to go to the forest every year and look around, you would see lots of green, healthy vegetation,” he said. “It is only with precise measurements of which species are there, how many of each species is there, and how big each tree is, that…

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By Herp News

Officials have arrested Guinea’s former wildlife director under allegations that he helped illegally export hundreds of chimpanzees and other wildlife from the West African nation since 2008. Ansoumane Doumbouya was arrested August 21, following an undercover investigation by various authorities, including INTERPOL, according to a press release from the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), an initiative of the United Nations. He faces 10 years in prison if he is convicted. Ansoumane Doumbouya, a Guinean wildlife official arrested for allegedly trafficking in chimpanzees and other species. Photo courtesy of the Great Apes Survival Partnership. “Ansoumane Doumbouya has been identified for years as central to the illicit traffic of apes from West Africa,” GRASP coordinator Doug Cress said in the press release. “To finally have him under arrest is a major achievement.” Doumbouya was commander of Guinea’s National Wildlife and Forestry Mobile Enforcement Brigade, the main agency charged with combating the country’s illegal wildlife trade. He also served as served as Guinea’s authority to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the international treaty governing wildlife trade, according to the press release. The full extent of Doumbouya’s involvement in illicit wildlife trafficking remains under investigation. He allegedly issued fraudulent CITES permits for the export of various species, including chimpanzees, monkeys, manatees, and parrots. Blank CITES export permits were found in his possession, the press release stated. In 2011, CITES officials found that 69 chimpanzees had been exported the previous year, en…

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Researchers involved in an international collaboration across six institutions have successfully identified the exact composition of sea snake venom, which makes the future development of synthetic antivenoms more realistic. Currently, sea snake anitvenom costs nearly USD 2,000, yet these new findings could result in a future production of synthetic antivenoms for as little as USD 10-100.

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By Herp News

Researchers involved in an international collaboration across six institutions have successfully identified the exact composition of sea snake venom, which makes the future development of synthetic antivenoms more realistic. Currently, sea snake anitvenom costs nearly USD 2,000, yet these new findings could result in a future production of synthetic antivenoms for as little as USD 10-100.

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Hatchling Texas banded gecko Coleonyx brevisWhat a difference a little rain makes. Last year (2014) when Jake and I made a 12 day jaunt to Texas’ Big Bend region in late August dryness had prevailed. We did well with herp-diversity but one normally often seen taxon, the little Texas banded gecko, Coleonyx brevis, had proven difficult to find. In fact, we saw only 4, 2 adults and 2 hatchlings, on the entire trip.

But on the June 2015 trip, on each of the several days allocated for nighttime road-cruising, we saw from 2 to 10 of the little geckos, more on the damp nights than on dry ones. It seemed that the sightings were back to normal in frequency.

The Texas banded gecko is actually a common little nocturnal lizard. When moving they tend to stand rather high on their legs and to wag their tail. They could conceivably be mistaken for a scorpion or a mouse when in the glow of headlights the lizards are seen darting across a desert roadway. Juveniles of both sexes and adult females tend to be the more prominently banded while the bands of adult males often have irregular edges and the overall pattern may be more reticulate.

In the time span we were in Texas we saw 20 or 30 of these delightful lizards. Seeing these helped transform the trip from merely mediocre to a resounding success.

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This gorgeous pair of Blue Tree Monitors can see the weekend coming in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user roadspawn ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Yet another cobra is on the loose, this time in Orlando Florida, and this time it’s an 8 foot king cobra.

The green and yellow venomous snake was reported missing by its owner Wednesday from a home on North Apopka Vineland Road used as an exotic animal rescue, TV station WFTV reports, citing Florida Fish and Wildlife. The snake’s owner is licensed to own exotic animals and followed proper reporting procedures when it was discovered the reptile was missing.

FWC officials are canvassing the area and ask that anyone who comes across the snake to call FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922 and urge residents not to approach the animal.

To read more check out the news article at WFTV …read more
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By Herp News

Today the California Senate approved legislation that would ban the ivory and rhinoceros horn across the state. AB 96 passed 26-13, reflecting widespread support for the measure, which aims to take a step toward reducing pressure on wild elephants and rhinos that are being poached at unprecedented levels across Africa and Asia. But some critics say the bill’s exemption for “antique ivory” will make the legislation difficult to enforce if it is signed into law by the state assembly and governor Jerry Brown. Nonetheless, the move was welcomed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) which is leading a campaign across the States to ban ivory. “WCS and the 96 Elephants campaign praise the California Senate for passing AB 96,” said John Calvelli, WCS Executive Vice President for Public Affairs and Director of the 96 Elephants Campaign. “The ivory issue is not something that’s only happening half a world away – there is a major ivory market right here in the U.S., and California is among the largest consumers. Now, California is poised to play a direct role in saving elephants from the ravages of the illegal wildlife trade.” Baby elephant in South Africa. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The 96 Elephants Campaign aims to stop the trade in elephant ivory. It is named after the 96 elephants WCS estimates are killed each day for their ivory. If AB 96 is signed into law, California would follow New York and New Jersey as states that have banned elephant…

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Time to have a little fun in the sun with this Florida Softshell in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Amazoa ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Today I want to bring to your notice the Sochurek’s Saw-scaled viper Echis carinatus sochureki, some would say the elder son of saw-scaled viper family. This tiny creature. which is a member of the big four, and responsible for many injuries, rightfully has a bad, feared reputation in India.

This sub-species has similar features to that of other saw scaled vipers, it’s primary difference is that it is a much larger size compared to the actual saw scaled viper Echis carinatus It also appears to be darker in color. The maximum length of this snake is 1.7ft and viviparous by nature.

This snake is usually common in desert areas and can also be seen under rocks which is probably its main shelter. But there have been a few occasions that these snakes have been sighted on height of 20 to 25ft on trees. Even my friend Saleel Gharpure had been fortunate to have a meeting with this admiring creature on an unusual habitat. For me it is yet an unsolved mystery as to what is the requirement of these snakes to climb on trees when they can live a happy life on earth. This is what makes me so passionate towards snakes. Whenever I try to reach out to them they always surprise with something or the other which is an enjoyable addition to my encyclopedia of snakes.
Photo: Saleel Gharpure
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By Herp News

A thought-to-be-extinct toad from the highlands of Ecuador has been rediscovered by three teams of scientists. The Azuay Stubfoot-Toad (Atelopus bomolochos) hadn’t been seen since 2002 and was presumed by some researchers to be extinct in the wild due to chytrid, a deadly fungal disease that has taken an especially heavy toll on members of the Atelopus genus, a group that is famed for its colorful markings and unusual hand- and foot-waving to communicate with other frogs and deter predators. But last month three teams independently found individuals during assessments near Cuenca, Ecuador. “Two teams, one from Ministerio Ambiente Ecuador, and one from Universidad del Azuay, independently rediscovered the presumably extinct species at two localities in the vicinities of Cuenca, Ecuador,” wrote Tropical Herping in a Facebook post. “One day after one of the initial sightings, a team of biologists from Zoológico de Cuenca ‘Bioparque Amaru’ and Tropical Herping, visited the locality to assess the health of the population and to evaluate the best actions to prevent the disappearance of the species. In the process, the team photographed several individuals of this beautiful toad species for the first time since it was last seen in 2002.” Male of the recently rediscovered Azuay Stubfoot-Toad (Atelopus bomolochos) foraging on moss. Caption courtesy of Tropical Herping. Photo by Paolo Mars. The discovery was a surprise given the disappearance of the once abundant species after chytrid spread through its habitat. Several surveys over the past decade had failed to turn…

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The pace of rhino killing in South Africa is running well ahead of last year’s record, report authorities. On Sunday Environmental Affairs Minister Ednah Molewa said 749 rhinos have been killed by poachers so far in 2015, five percent more than this time last year. 544 rhinos have been poached in Kruger National Park, South Africa’s most famous wildlife reserve. That represents a 19 percent increase over 2014. The results indicate that poaching outside Kruger has dropped by about 20 percent. Rhino near Kruger National Park. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Molewa noted that despite the increase in killing, arrests have also risen inside the Kruger from 81 last year to 138 this year. Home to roughly 80 percent of the world’s wild rhinos, South Africa has become the epicenter of the global rhino horn poaching crisis. Most of the horn ends up in Asia, especially China and Vietnam. Last year’s death toll from poaching in South Africa amounted to 1,215 rhinos.

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There was that rather cloudy long ago morning in Portal, AZ when I was hoping to photo black-tailed rattlers, Crotalus molossus. I had looked and looked but had found none. Then, as I was about to give up an elegant trogon (then known as the coppery-tailed trogon) flew right over my head and alit on a nearby oak limb. I immediately decided a trogon in the viewfinder was a whole lot better than a non-existent rattlesnake. So off I went, my interest now focused on the rather uncommon bird.

Luckily I had managed to get just about near enough to take the bird’s pic. There. Click. Got at least one pic. Deciding to try and get just one step closer, I stepped between two boulders, and BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Not good. Being wedged between two huge boulders was not an enviable position and when I looked down and saw the snake–a big angrily defensive black-tail, I realized how close I was to getting bitten. Have you ever heard of levitation. I levitated backwards over one of the boulders and somehow managed to avoid both a broken shoulder and what had seemed to be an inevitable envenomation.

But, a few minutes later (I never did get that closer trogon photo), still shaking, I did go back and photograph the snake. No sense in wasting a perfectly good photo-op!
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It’s not just you. It’s your frog too.

Give a female frog two potential mating options, an attractive frog and an unattractive frog, and she’ll pick the attractive frog nearly every time, but if you throw in a third, less attractive frog, all bets are off.

In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers showed that the Central American túngara frogs can be tricked into picking “ugly” mates — even when their prince charming is just within hopping distance.

The scenario, known as the “decoy effect,” is similar to the way in which a consumer might behave when purchasing a new car. A customer may opt to buy a cheap car with poor fuel efficiency instead of a more expensive car with good fuel efficiency. But the custumer might reconsider when a salesmen presents a third option that is the most expensive and also has good fuel efficiency. The customer won’t choose the third option, but he might instead choose the second most expensive.

For more information check out the published article at Science Magazine

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Tiny but stunning, this Oophaga ventrimaculatus shines in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user obeligz ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

A Cat Ba langur group hangs out on a rain-pitted limestone outcrop. Photo by Neahga Leonard and courtesy of the Cat Ba Langur Conservation Network. Life isn’t easy on Cat Ba Island. Situated about 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Haiphong — Vietnam’s third-biggest city — Cat Ba is a jumble of limestone boulders, coral terraces and mangrove forests. The landscape is slashed by deep crevices, marked by dangerous cliffs and covered in dense vegetation. The island’s only source of freshwater comes from two shallow ponds, both of which disappear in dry times. Rain, meanwhile, has pummeled the rocks for millennia, creating hazardous beds of limestone needles with saw-toothed edges — blood is more common than freshwater on Cat Ba. Despite this seemingly inhospitable environment, Cat Ba and its surrounding waters — all part of the Cat Ba Archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site — are home to more than 1,500 species of flora and fauna, dozens of which exist nowhere else on Earth. These include the southern serow (Naemorhaedus sumatraensis), a species of goat-antelope; the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta); leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis); black giant squirrel (Ratufa bicolor); and civet cat (Viverricula indica, Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), along with 27 species of bats and a wide range of unique ocean life. The island’s forbidding coastal terrain, with its extreme tidal shifts, makes research from boats challenging. Photo by Neahga Leonard and courtesy of the Cat Ba Langur Conservation Network. Also part of that…

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