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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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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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.

For more pictures, click below.
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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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By Herp News

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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According to scientists at Arizona State University, climate change will be very hard on many species of lizards, driving many species to, or over, the brink of extinction. Biologists led by ASU investigators determined that lizard embryos die when subjected to high temperatures(110 degrees F) even for a few minutes.

“Lizards put all of their eggs in one basket, so a single heat wave can kill an entire group of eggs,” Ofir Levy – lead investigator

Embryonic lizards are immobile in their eggs and cannot seek shade or cool off when their surrounding soil becomes hot. Given the potential impacts of climate change on embryos, many more places in the United States could become uninhabitable for existing lizard populations than previously expected.

To read more check out the article on the ASU News site. Gallery photo by stevereecy …read more
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It was my first herping adventure and one of the best memories in my herpetology career. I am a snake-researcher but I also have to accept the fact that I belong to the society of herpetologists and also need to accept whatever Mother Nature throws at me. The Deccan banded Gecko or Deccan Ground Gecko Cyrtodactylus deccanensis was one of the gifts of Mother Nature which I happily and enthusiastically accepted.

This reptile is commonly found in out-skirts of my area. Looking at the pictures of these creatures one couldn’t but stop themselves to admire the unique beauty of these lizards. The color pattern of these geckos is simply amazing, the body is reddish-brown with thin yellowish white bands and the average size of this gecko is 2.25cm.

Whenever you set out for herping adventure, you never know what you are going to encounter, sometimes your wishes are fulfilled and sometimes you return empty. As it was my first herping trip I was expecting to see some snakes but I ended up finding just a lizard, a beautiful lizard, and the best part was that I found something new.
Photo: saleel gharpure
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By Herp News

Life on an island isn’t always easy. To make the most of the little there is to eat on many Greek islands, the digestive system of Balkan green lizards has evolved considerably compared to family members on the mainland. Surprisingly, many of these insect-eating lizards even have special valves that help to digest plants.

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We’ve all had experiences with that one guest that just won’t leave the party.  First you try the subtle approach to get him or her to leave, and then in desperation, the more forceful approach, but s/he still won’t budge. Now imagine that this guest was content to stay on until s/he had eaten every last bit of food you had stored away in your fridge- How would you react? That hungry, persistent guest. Photo credit: Sue Palminteri In the Trans-Mara district, in Kenya, this scenario is more common than you would expect, only that the uninvited guests weigh up to 6 tons and can eat through a whole year’s worth of food supplies in a few hours. Elephants that raid crop farms can destroy a farmer’s entire season’s worth of harvest in one night. In the Trans-Mara District, an unprotected area adjacent the Masai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) in Kenya, many people grow crops as a livelihood. However, to make way for their crops (and to make a bit of extra money from charcoal production), farmers in the Trans-Mara are clearing the local forest, which is known to be a key resource and habitat for elephants and an important dispersal area for the Mara-Serengeti elephant populations. The destruction of this habitat is therefore disrupting the natural movement of elephants between the Trans-Mara and the MMNR, and with progressively limited forest habitat available, elephants increasingly turn to crop raiding.  As you would imagine, this has a highly negative…

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The West Alpine locality momma is holding tight to those new eggs in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user oursnakes ! Be sure to tell oursnakes you liked it here!

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By Herp News

A new study shows that frogs have begun to use humanmade ponds to their benefit.

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By Herp News

In the attempt to choose a mate, it’s no surprise that females will select the more ‘attractive’ of two males, but now a new study reveals that female tungara frogs are susceptible to the ‘decoy’ effect, where the introduction of a third, inferior mate results in the female choosing the less attractive of the first two options.

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By Herp News

The team surveyed cases of green turtle fibropapillomatosis disease, which creates unsightly pink tumors on the turtles’ flesh. Although benign, they can impede turtles’ vision and movement, as well as feeding, swimming and organ function. The virus is not thought to be dangerous to humans. Over two years, around 13 percent of green turtles found in waters had the disease. In contrast, fishermen did not land any diseased turtles during this period, even though they were fishing in areas where diseased animals were prevalent.

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By Herp News

Dams and reservoirs affect fish and other riverine fauna by creating barriers to movement, both upstream and downstream. Many fish in the Amazon migrate thousands of miles as part of their life cycle, a journey that can involve complex patterns of movement through river flows and flood plains. Migrating fish often move upstream from black-water and clear-water flows in the Amazon Basin to spawn in whitewater reaches in the Andean headwaters. In Brazil, the list of fish that make this journey includes most, if not all, commercially valuable species, in terms of nutrition and economics, such as the tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) and giant catfish (Brachyplatatystoma sp). Fish that can’t migrate could go extinct, with a predictable effect on the biodiversity — and the economic viability — of the world’s largest river basin, says Elizabeth Anderson, director of international research programs for the School of Environment at Florida International University. “This is globally important from a conservation perspective.” A free flowing Amazon river system will help guarantee the well-being of the region’s aquatic wildlife and the stability of freshwater commercial fisheries. Photo by Peter Angritt licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Location makes a difference. Dams built in the lower stretches of a river system generally need large reservoirs to create a dependable year-round source of water pressure to drive electric turbines. Dams higher in the headwater portion of a river system have the advantage of steeper gradients, and some designs work with…

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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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The Arizona Game & Fish Department is planning a large adoption event Sept. 5th to help find new homes for about 60 desert tortoises. They’ve had about 300 tortoises end up at their center over the past year, so many that they don’t have names, but rather numbers to keep track of them all. To help make room, Game and Fish started an adoption program for the tortoises.

“We’ve been having an issue with people breeding in their homes or people need to surrender their tortoise, and they have nowhere to go,” Tegan Wolf – Tortoise Adoption Specialist

There is no fee, but there is an application and certain requirements you have to meet, including having an appropriate habitat and burrow. Starting in December it’s going to be illegal for captive desert tortoises to be bred in the home. For more info, click here to read the story at KPHO
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“There’ one!”

I slammed on the brakes, pulled a 180, and sped back to–to another rock. Another 180 and we were moving westward again. The last “turn” had brought the false sightings up to Five. Five times we had thought we had sighted a round-tailed horned lizard, Phrynosoma modestum, basking on the pavement and five times it had been a rock or a piece of flattened vegetation.

I had about brought the old car back up to 65 mph when Jake screamed again. This time I didn’t turn, I merely stopped at roadside and told Jake “Go get it.” He hopped out, ran back a couple of hundred feet, and stooped to pick up another “rock.” But unless he was taunting me he usually didn’t pick up rocks. Maybe–just maybe…

By the time Jake had returned to the car he was grinning from ear to ear. That last “rock” actually was the horned lizard we (and especially he) had wanted so badly to see.

We had failed to find a round-tail on the first 10 of the 12 days allocated to this 2015 trip to the Big Bend and had begun to wonder whether 2015 would replicate 2014’s trip when we had not found the species. We no longer had to wonder. Success, finally!

Now to find my camera.

More photos under the jump…
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Most of the time during my herping trips if I spot lizards I usually tend to ignore them, but if it is some unique or beautiful lizard I make sure to mention them in my blogs. So today I present you one of the most beautiful reptiles from India, the Leopard Gecko Eublepharis macularis.

The Leopard Gecko is a ground dwelling lizard found in India and also in Pakistan, Afghanistan and some parts of Iran. Leopard Geckos spend most of their time in burrows during the day. They become active at dawn and dusk when the temperature is favorable, so they are mostly nocturnal. These geckos are called leopard geckos because of their coloration, an adult leopard gecko having spots on its body like a leopard. I find the juveniles more beautiful than the adults, having a black body with thick yellow and white bands on it. These geckos primarily feed on crickets and earthworms and the size varies from 20-27cm.

I always prefer to maintain a distance from lizards because I am a bit scared of them but if there are such beautiful species like leopard gecko, they always fascinate me.
Photo: Saleel Gharpure
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By Herp News

An Indonesian artist is preparing to put in place the second in a series of giant underwater installations meant to serve as a home for fish and raise awareness about the archipelago’s embattled coral reefs. The project began last year when painter and sculptor Teguh Ostenrik built Domus Sepiae, or Squid House, and assembled it with a team of scuba divers on the ocean floor off Senggigi, the main tourist strip on the island of Lombok, the next island over from Bali. Next week, Teguh will set up a similar installation in the waters of Wakatobi, an islands and district in Southeast Sulawesi province, to commemorate Coral Day there. Similar Coral Days were held in other parts of the country earlier this year. While Domus Sepiae resembled a cephalopod, Domus Longus, or Long House, is a replica of a bright yellow longnose butterfly fish (Forcipiger flavissimus), the mascot of Wakatobi National Park, which lies in the Coral Triangle and is known as one of the world’s best dive sites. Both sculptures are made of iron and equipped with biorock technology, which sends electricity through the metal to spur coral growth. “For me, art does not always have to be in museums and galleries,” Teguh told journalists recently. “It can be underwater. When we’re talking about conservation or revitalization [of reefs], we can also see art.” The plan for Domus Longus is depicted in an illustration. Photo courtesy of the ARTificial Reef Foundation Teguh, who coined the…

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The island of Nosy Hara, Madagascar. Photo credit: Louise Jasper. Dr. Charlie Gardner, a conservation researcher at the University of Kent, UK and his wife, Louise Jasper, a nature photographer, have lived on the island of Madagascar for a decade, and have had the good fortune of working in many of the nation’s wildest places. At the end of two challenging projects in 2014, they decided to reward themselves with a vacation to an out-of-the-way place. So in April 2015, they headed to Nosy Hara, an uninhabited island off the northwest coast of Madagascar. “Nosy Hara was near the top of our list because it is so remote, little visited and unspoilt, and we had heard great things about it from friends,” Gardner told Mongabay in an email interview. Sea turtles are still abundant on the isolated island, and they nest on the beaches. The coral reefs are vibrantly healthy, because there is very little stress from fishing. The island is also home to amazing animals like the Brookesis micra, the world’s smallest chameleon, and the Critically Endangered Madagascar fish eagle. What the couple couldn’t have guessed was that they were about to have the experience of a lifetime — the discovery of what may be a new species. Dr. Gardner and his wife went out on a night walk, a tradition they keep in any new forest they visit in order to spot nocturnal reptiles and amphibians. On one such walk, they came face-to-face with…

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One more day to the weekend when you can go out and dine with friends. Until then, the Box Turtles will save you a spot at their trough in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user boxienuts ! Be sure to tell boxienuts you liked it here!

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A California man may lose his hand after an attempt to take a ‘selfie” with a rattlesnake went wrong. Alex Gomez, 36, spotted the four-foot snake in a field by his family’s ranch. Alex’s nephew, Ronnie, who was with him says the reptile gave plenty of warning.

“It was really thick and had ten rattles on it, it was rattling,” “It was pretty mad.” – Ronnie

After being bitten, Gomez experienced excruciating pain, his hand swelled up and his body started to tingle.

To read more check out the story and video at kcal9
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By Herp News

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of lizard, named Gueragama sulamericana, in the municipality of Cruzeiro do Oeste in Southern Brazil in the rock outcrops of a Late Cretaceous desert, dated approximately 80 million years ago.

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The best assest of any Rainbow Boa is their iridescent sheen, which is captured wonderfully in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user curaniel ! Be sure to tell curaniel you liked it here!

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By Herp News

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]o achieve greater rigor of verdicts for those convicted of wildlife crimes, who often receive light sentences, Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry is reaching out to judges to upgrade their knowledge, according to a senior official. “We’re aware of the situation,” Ridho Rasio Sani, the ministry’s new director-general for law enforcement, told mongabay.com. “That’s why we’re initiating a meeting with judges to train them on environmental issues.” In July, the Bengkalis District Court in Riau province was criticized by activists and officials when seven elephant poachers each received one-year prison sentences and fines of 3 million rupiah ($212), a verdict deemed weak even by the minister herself. Around the same time, the nearby Medan District Court in Sumatra’s largest port city sentenced prominent wildlife trafficker Vast Haris Nasution to two years imprisonment and and fined him 10 million rupiah for trying to sell a baby orangutan on Facebook. While the latter verdict was hailed by conservationists as a possible sign of greater stringency, it was still an outlier. Sani hopes improving judges’ understanding of wildlife issues will encourage them to hand out stronger sentences. “It could be that judges have little understanding of the impacts [of wildlife] toward [human] life,” Sani said. “Most of them might be thinking, ‘Oh, it’s only animal [killings], what harm could it bring [to humans]?’ But animals and plants are also important to be protected as much as humans.” A mahout sits atop a Sumatran elephant in Indonesia. Photo: Rhett A.…

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Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]o achieve greater rigor of verdicts for those convicted of wildlife crimes, who often receive light sentences, Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry is reaching out to judges to upgrade their knowledge, according to a senior official. “We’re aware of the situation,” Ridho Rasio Sani, the ministry’s new director-general for law enforcement, told mongabay.com. “That’s why we’re initiating a meeting with judges to train them on environmental issues.” In July, the Bengkalis District Court in Riau province was criticized by activists and officials when seven elephant poachers each received one-year prison sentences and fines of 3 million rupiah ($212), a verdict deemed weak even by the minister herself. Around the same time, the nearby Medan District Court in Sumatra’s largest port city sentenced prominent wildlife trafficker Vast Haris Nasution to two years imprisonment and and fined him 10 million rupiah for trying to sell a baby orangutan on Facebook. While the latter verdict was hailed by conservationists as a possible sign of greater stringency, it was still an outlier. Sani hopes improving judges’ understanding of wildlife issues will encourage them to hand out stronger sentences. “It could be that judges have little understanding of the impacts [of wildlife] toward [human] life,” Sani said. “Most of them might be thinking, ‘Oh, it’s only animal [killings], what harm could it bring [to humans]?’ But animals and plants are also important to be protected as much as humans.” A mahout sits atop a Sumatran elephant in Indonesia. Photo: Rhett A.…

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Read more here: herpetofauna.com

Scientists at Oregon State University are currently studying a baby salamander encased in an amber sample found in an amber mine in the Dominican Republic. There are no salamanders living on islands in the Caribbean today, but the amber-coated amphibian found shows there once were.

“There are very few salamander fossils of any type, and no one has ever found a salamander preserved in amber,” – OSU Professor Emeritus George Poinar, Jr.

The sample containing the salamander hatchling measures under an inch in length is an extinct, and the amphibian is a previously undiscovered species, now named Palaeoplethodon hispaniolae, that dates back to between 20 million and 30 million years. For more details check out the paper published online in the journal Palaeodiversity.
Photo: George Poinar, Jr., Oregon State University …read more
Read more here: King Snake

By Herp News

For one Asian giant softshell turtle, a single person’s kindness meant the difference between life and death-as-soup. In July, Serene Voo Nyuk Wei stumbled on a 15 kilogram (33 pound) Asian giant soft shell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) at a market in her hometown of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah. “I love and respect all living creatures. I knew that buying that animal would encourage the trade, but I could not face the fact that this poor turtle was going to end in someone’s soup,” said Serene Voo Nyuk Wei, who paid RM 700 or about $165 U.S. dollars for the massive freshwater turtle. Serene Voo Nyuk Wei and the freshwater turtle that she rescued. Photo credit: Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre She then took it home and contacted Sabah’s Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) for aid in setting the endangered turtle free. “Once we received the animal, a full medical check up was carried out to evaluate the health condition of the poor turtle,” said Diana Ramirez, WRU’s assistant manager and a wildlife veterinarian. “It had a slight malformation on the carapace, but after a few days on observation and receiving vitamin supplements, we decided that it was a good candidate to be released back into the wild.” Things moved fast after that. Within a few days, officials drove the turtle from the bustling metropolis of Kota Kinabalu to the rural quiet of the Danau Girang Field Center and…

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Read more here: herpetofauna.com

By Herp News

For one Asian giant softshell turtle, a single person’s kindness meant the difference between life and death-as-soup. In July, Serene Voo Nyuk Wei stumbled on a 15 kilogram (33 pound) Asian giant soft shell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) at a market in her hometown of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah. “I love and respect all living creatures. I knew that buying that animal would encourage the trade, but I could not face the fact that this poor turtle was going to end in someone’s soup,” said Serene Voo Nyuk Wei, who paid RM 700 or about $165 U.S. dollars for the massive freshwater turtle. Serene Voo Nyuk Wei and the freshwater turtle that she rescued. Photo credit: Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre She then took it home and contacted Sabah’s Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) for aid in setting the endangered turtle free. “Once we received the animal, a full medical check up was carried out to evaluate the health condition of the poor turtle,” said Diana Ramirez, WRU’s assistant manager and a wildlife veterinarian. “It had a slight malformation on the carapace, but after a few days on observation and receiving vitamin supplements, we decided that it was a good candidate to be released back into the wild.” Things moved fast after that. Within a few days, officials drove the turtle from the bustling metropolis of Kota Kinabalu to the rural quiet of the Danau Girang Field Center and…

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Read more here: herpetofauna.com