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Reptile & Amphibian
News Blog Keep up with news and features of interest to the reptile and amphibian community on the kingsnake.com blog. We cover breaking stories from the mainstream and scientific media, user-submitted photos and videos, and feature articles and photos by Jeff Barringer, Richard Bartlett, and other herpetologists and herpetoculturists.
Wednesday, September 18 2024For the Love of Crusher Photo of Lil Crusher and I in August at an educational event. He is well on his way to being healthy here. When I got the text about the alligator that was found by Lake Michigan in November I never realized how attached to him I would become, but ya know, I should have. When the grizzled shelter manager tells me I need to come in because he is worried about the alligator, I should have figured that I would fall head over heels for an animal that I never would live with. He is named Lil Crusher, after Reginald "The Crusher" Lisowski a famous wrestler from our area and if you know me it makes even more sense that this guy is one of my special ones. On that cold November day, 3 South Milwaukee police officers made waves in our local media when they found an American Alligator in a park in Milwaukee WI on the shores of Lake Michigan, the local media went RAMPANT with stories. We had just had the flamingos blown off course by a hurricane, did the alligator come that way too! Did it maybe swim up here? The stories were simply ridiculous. Continue reading "For the Love of Crusher" Wednesday, January 31 2024Rat snake survives eating car part Second Chance Wildlife Center Yeah you read that right. It is well known that Rat snakes are often chased from hen houses for eating eggs and one of the more common dangers to many native colubrids is golf balls because they resemble eggs, but this one rat snake decided he was going for broke, This rat snake was one of the most unusual cases we have treated at SCWC! Upon intake, it was apparent that the snake had ingested a foreign object resembling an egg. This is common in rat snakes, as golf balls and decoy eggs are often mistaken for fresh chicken eggs. In this case, the object had been trapped in the snake’s stomach so long that there was a hole worn through the snake’s skin. The object turned out to be a gear shift knob and was surgically removed by doctors at Second Chance Wildlife Center, in Gaithersburg, Maryland! She is stable and will winter there before being released in spring. To read the full story click here or visit the rescue's page here. Friday, December 29 2023ACTION ALERT FLORIDA: Florida moves to include all species of Iguanas as restricted species Photo of Gideon, a Grand Cayman hybrid bred by Ty Parks in FL, but living his best life safe in WIsconsin - Cindy Steinle Recently, the State of Florida deemed all Green Iguanas (Iguana Iguana) as a restricted species and created quite a stir, confiscating animals from even private zoos and killing the animals rather than allowing them to be rehomed or allowed to remain on display at the zoo. Now in a move to destroy the reptile industry further, Florida Fish and Wildlife is making the move to change the language from Iguana (Iguana Iguana) to simply Iguana. This would thus include all species including Cyclura and Ctenosaura most definitely but potentially all species under the family Iguanidae which would also include Amblyrhynchus, Brachylophus, Cachryx, Conolophus, Dipsosaurus, and Sauromalus as well. This is not only bad for pet owners and breeders, but seriously detrimental to worldwide conservation efforts as many assurance populations of a variety of both Cyclura and Ctenosaura species are maintained safely in Florida. Read the update after the jump or click here to be taken to USARKFL's notice! There is also a link to the bill after the jump. Continue reading "ACTION ALERT FLORIDA: Florida moves to include all species of Iguanas as restricted species" Saturday, December 9 2023Rescuer Struggles as Animal Abuser Gets off with Slap on the Wrist The Snapping turtle in the aquarium at the scene, photo by author When I saw the message pop up from the director of the shelter, I figured she wanted to let me know I might have a few animals to prepare for. My local news was filled with the story of a large confiscation of dogs in my city. I was not expecting what came next. "Cindy, are you available to help us tomorrow? We aren't done. Today was just the dogs and there are a lot of exotics and we need you to look at things. There are alligators." I was still under some restrictions from my shoulder surgery and they knew I was limited in what I could do, but they needed my eyes and knowledge more than my arm. I said the only thing I could. "What time and where do you need me" Continue reading "Rescuer Struggles as Animal Abuser Gets off with Slap on the Wrist" Wednesday, November 29 2023"Jawlene" thriving at Gatorland Do you remember "Jawlene", the alligator that was found without an upper jaw in Florida? Gatorland recently shared an update! It has been such a blessing and a wild ride since this little angel showed up at Gatorland! Jawlene has gained 2 pounds since being there and she is almost fully cleared of parasites. For the full story, with video, visit Fox35 here. Wednesday, October 4 2023Inmates build tortoise habitat Photo from Monroe County Sheriff's Office Animal Farm The Monroe County Sheriff's Office Children's Animal Farm is a unique animal sanctuary located on the Stock Island Dentention center in the Florida Keys. It's 100% what it sounds like, a petting zoo at a jail, but that is only the outside of the story. The zoo started in 1994 with some ducks and chickens who were plaguing a local golf course and expanded from there as more special needs animals needed help. The Farm is run by one paid staffer and then the prisoners work the farm. Those prisoners get new skills doing work they never may have encountered in the real world, like their recent project. They built a new tortoise habitat for their Redfoots! To follow the farm, visit them here! Monday, September 18 2023Injured Alligator finds sanctuary Eustacia Kanter Alligators are resilient man. I mean really resilient, they are true survivors. This little gator has been spotted for the last month or so in Florida and was recently captured. The injury, likely from a boat propeller appears to be several months old. "At first, my brain couldn't comprehend that its entire upper jaw was missing," Kanter told FOX 35. "When I realized, I felt terrible for him and snapped as good a photo as I could get with my cell phone standing at a distance so that I could share it and try to find help." For video with the awesome Savannah from Gatorland, and the rest of the story from Fox, visit here. Tuesday, April 11 2023Holy Thursday Massacre: The Killing Fields of Florida An FWC officer smiles as he surveys the scene after the killing of 34 pythons and a pregnant pet boa by FWC officers (Photo by Chris Coffee, who has granted permission for this photo to be published and disseminated) In 2021, Florida changed their ownership laws but promised that pet owners were able to keep their animals for the lifetime of the animals. Breeders stopped breeding and started moving animals out of fear of repercussions. Animals that were legally owned under a "Conditional Species Permit" were now considered illegal, however according to FWC, they were grandfathered in for the rest of their lives and could live out their lives in their current homes. "I want to make sure the public's aware that if you currently own one of these reptiles, you're allowed to keep it until it's death. So no one is telling you you have to get rid of your pet or euthanize it and no one from the state is going to take it from you." Rodney Barreto , Chairman - Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Public commission meeting February 25, 2021 Continue reading "Holy Thursday Massacre: The Killing Fields of Florida" Thursday, July 28 2022Help a Herper! Tim Cole medical fundraiser Long time member, friend and nemesis of kingsnake.com, Tim Cole of Austin Reptile Service has been hit with some major heath issues. He has been in and out of the ICU. Last week he was placed in a medically induced coma due to breathing issues. It as learned that he has an enlarged thyroid and they do not know if it is cancer or not, but surgery happened yesterday. Pathology is going to take about a week. Tim is back in the ICU with breathing issues. While Tim can be a bit of a pill at times, he has been a great asset to the reptile community. His dedication to rescue and education is amazing. His support of up and coming herpers is amazing. I can speak from personal experience that even while Tim and I would butt heads over what he could and couldn't do on this sit, he was always there to offer support and guidance with my rescue work, while badmouthing my moderation skills. Tim is self-employeed like so very many of us are in the reptile community. It has been a few very hard years for everyone but if you could consider even donating $5.00. He has been in the ICU over a week, he has had surgery, he is eating hospital food. He has a TON of rescue animals at home. His GoFundMe can be found here. Also Tim is a bit of an old school kinda fella. For those not local who feel so inclined, I bet he would love actual get well cards. You can mail them to: 4500 Williams Drive, Suite 212-113 Georgetown, TX 78633 Tuesday, June 7 2022IHS: 25 years of Rescue This week I have the honor of speaking at the International Herpetological Symposium in Atlanta. I will be sharing a variety of stories of my over 25 years working in reptile rescue and with a limited time, only so many stories can be shared. I thought I would share one that didn't make it here as a preview!The IHS is a fantastic conference held annually in different locations around the world in partnerships with local zoos. The speakers range from people like me who love reptiles and people in the trade to experienced researchers, vets and zoo professionals. There is always the greatest banquet and behind the scenes tour at the local zoo. Just in case you were unaware of what IHS is. One story I had to cut was that of Wylde Stallion. Sit back and grab a drink, because this is a long one. Continue reading "IHS: 25 years of Rescue" Thursday, July 16 2020World Snake Day 2020 Happy World Snake Day! What is that? Well it is a day that is an easy one! It is a day to focus on conservation and education about snakes! Snakes are one of the greatest fears in the world, but their importance to our environment as well as our health is enough reason to work to change minds. I grabbed a few fun articles for you to read and share today to help reach out and share the joy of snakes. These articles give a breakdown on the holiday and the issues facing snakes. This post from RepublicWorld is a very basic breakdown that you can readhere. Another option is this article from Newsd. It has some fun little trivia tidbits and again very basic info and can be found https://newsd.in/world-snake-day-2020-here-are-some-snake-facts-you-must-know/. Continue reading "World Snake Day 2020" Wednesday, July 3 2019Saving Injured Turtles with Bras When you have to put a turtle shell back together sometimes you need to get creative and that is exactly what the folks at Carolina Waterfowl Rescue did! To stabilize the shell pieces and help them stay in place, they superglue the bra clasps to the shell to help offer additional support to the cracked shell pieces! As can see in the photo, it is brilliant! To read more about the story, click here. And if you happen to have a few old bras laying around that are past their prime, consider checking with your local wildlife rehab group to see if they can use them! Thursday, April 11 2019Happy National Pet Day Today, social media will be flooded with photos of dogs and cats to celebrate National Pet Day. If I show you mine, will you show me yours?This is Karen, an adult male iguana who came to live with me recently through my rescue. Karen was left behind in an eviction, so I really know nothing of his past. Being a green iguana, he came with metabolic bone disease, a few infections, and was just beaten down from neglect. He is slowly recovering and showing signs of breeding behaviors. While he is "technically" available for adoption through my rescue, I know he will live his life out with me. Seriously, I do.Living in Wisconsin, he got his first taste of sunshine recently and I can honestly say this is one happy iguana here! Friday, March 9 2018Rattlesnake Round-ups Celebrate Animal Abuse Looking into the Rattlesnake Pit - Sweetwater Texas - Photo Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur Nothing says “quality family time” like beheading live animals with blunt force trauma to the head, or skinning them alive! If you have young children, they can paint in the blood of the recently slaughtered on the hand-print wall in the children's section. There is even food and a beauty pageant, where the winner will prove she likes to skin animals alive! Continue reading "Rattlesnake Round-ups Celebrate Animal Abuse " Friday, December 2 2016Fire destroys reptile rescue - they need your help now! photo courtesy of Maxmax Reptiles Rescue from CNY Kids' Expo. Late this morning, a fire broke in the home of Scott Dombrowski and Diana Sleiertin, the founder of Maxman Reptile Rescue. Their home sheltered many of the rescue's animals as well as the family's personal pets. The only one home at the time was Scott, who was critically injured while attempting to save animals. Scott's condition is at present critical and unstable. Diana is with him at the hospital while friends and family attempt to go determine what, if anything, can be saved at the house. Having spent most of my life doing reptile rescue, I know the life Diana has lived. We shared stories of our rescue work the year she visited the Reptile Fest. Everything she had, she put into the animals, and she rescued everything. While her work and heart lay in reptiles, she worked with other area organizations to save as many as possible. Right now they need our help. Scott's condition is currently listed as critical. Donations to the family can be made at their gofundme. As we learn more information, we will keep you posted. Monday, March 9 2015We need you to help giant snakes in need! Reptile rescues need the community's support now more than ever. With the recent addition of the the reticulated python and all species of anaconda to the injurious species list, rescues will lose a large adoption and placement pool. I have operated my rescue for 21 years now, and for much of that time I have relied on my friends to the south to assist when I had giant species. Depending on what I have in the rescue at any given time, I may need to call upon my Illinois friends to take even a large boa constrictor. Thankfully, I still have that outlet for boas, but at the end of our 30-day grace period, I will lose that ability with retics and all anacondas. Crossing state lines with those species will no longer be legal, and working with my partners in Illinois would make me an instant felon. I am not alone in this; there are rescues across the country that will need assistance from our community. As the community rallies behind USARK in the upcoming battle to remove these species from the list, it would be wonderful if those of you who have the ability to own one of the restricted species would take this moment and reach out. Contact your local herp society, which undoubtably runs a rescue program, as well as local reptile rescues to let them know you are willing to help. Need help locating a rescue near you? Please post in the comments or check out our rescue listing located here. Monday, January 5 2015Snake rescue - Indian style!
If you’re a snake lover in India and you wish to do something for the welfare of these reptilian friends, one of the best ways to do so is to become a snake rescuer.
 However, should you undertake this difficult ordeal, realize it’s not what you do but why you do it that counts. It’s a journey, like the one that married couples take, to understand and empathize with these wonderful creatures. Indian culture and snakes are made for each other. There are certain popular myths that have existed for over thousands of years that have caused a great deal of destruction of snake habitats. Some common mis-beliefs include that snakes drink milk and snakes are vengeful by nature. Having said that, I would like to add these myths are also among the reasons snakes have been protected to certain extent. For example, snakes are worshiped to prevent their malevolent behavior or responses.  Until recently, snake rescue culture grew slowly in India. Today, one can find snake rescuers in every part of India. However, you will rarely come across a full-time snake rescuer as there is little scope for herpetology and for most population it's inaccessible. One would discover, like I did, that most snake rescuers are hobbyists or affiliated with non-governmental organizations. This calls for a great deal of effort to gain the required knowledge and skill to handle snakes properly. For examples, you'll only find snake shelters in urban areas. Usually,most snake rescuers free the snake back to nature in forested areas. Mostly, snake calls in India are distress calls. For example, recently one of my friends called me up on a holiday. He was panicking after he found a snake at his place. Over the years, it's become almost predictable as to which snakes are found in certain areas in different seasons. However, they never seem to stop surprising me. Snake rescuing culture in India is still developing. Although it has gained some momentum, it still has a long way to go. Tuesday, December 23 2014The problem with 'heroes in a half-shell' Contrary to popular beliefs, the most common reptile in rescue is not a giant. I see and receive requests to surrender more water turtles, primarily red eared sliders, than any other reptile. In fact, in one week I will get more requests to surrender sliders than I have received to surrender Burmese pythons in the entire existence of my rescue.With Christmas around the corner, I am cringing. The wildly popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie will lead to a lot of impulse slider purchases. They are small, cute and cheap, and available at almost every pet store. They also live a long time, take a lot of care to set up properly and while the animal itself is inexpensive, a good set-up is not. I have no problem with gifting a pet, but slider acquisitions are often made on impulse. Research will be minimal and the care sheets that are handed out are less than wonderful. The animals will come from a big box chain, and the likelihood that they have a chance to talk to an actual reptile person will be minimal. The end result will sadly be people who talk about how horrible reptile pets are. This takes more than a blog post to fix. Reach out to friends who may be thinking of getting their very own "hero in a half-shell" for their children. Let them know the real commitment that a water turtle will take, and let us hope they do not follow the historical trend of movie impulse purchases. Friday, December 12 2014'Eaten Alive' creates problems for reptile rescuers There's nothing like really bad science and equally bad reality TV to make problems for reptile rescuers.Discovery Channel, in their brilliant glory, ran a farce of a documentary last weekend where a man got into a snake proof suit, slathered himself in pigs blood and then pretended like he was going to be "Eaten Alive" to boost their ratings. Unfortunately, it's created a big headache for reptile resue groups like mine. My first call was to find out if anacondas are able to live in Wisconsin. The answer is no. Despite the fact that we have a lot of rivers and swamps, as the caller pointed out to me, the temperatures are far too cold for an anaconda to survive. I mean seriously, it is 22 degrees outside right now. Three emails followed that asking about anacondas. All three inquired as to if anacondas could really eat people and if they do all the time. It was about this time my head started to hurt and that is when I logged onto Facebook and realized that "Eaten Alive" had aired the previous night. Several emails followed, all asking a variety of questions about large species of snakes and their deadliness to humans. By the end of Monday night, I had a pre-typed email as a response and was several beers into my 12-pack. A call this morning also induced severe head pain (no, it wasn't a hangover!), but thankfully I was able to talk the person down and into keeping their pet. The caller had a ball python and wanted to surrender it because they ate meat. Not the snake, mind you, but the pet owner! They were concerned because the "scientist" who appeared on the show used pig's blood, and since they eat meat, their snake would become dangerous. Thankfully, I was able to explain the reality of snake ownership and also touch on cleanliness issues relating to owning any pet. Monty still has a home tonight and the owner no longer fears her pet. While the show claimed it was aimed at educating about conservation, it merely introduced a new level of fear for those who live among reptiles. It is time that the media on all levels let go of the hype and stick to the facts. Photo provided with permission by Mike Pingleton Thursday, October 16 2014Road trip for red-eared sliders Dave Pauli is taking banned Montana red-eared sliders on a trek to Texas.From the Independent Record: The lake is on a wildlife sanctuary created for relocated Grand Canyon burros. Pauli’s trip is no pedal-to-the-metal exercise. Turtles take time. The ones Pauli receives will spend weeks in large ponds in Montana getting used to catching food, diving deep and swimming beyond the glass walls of an aquarium. Read more... Monday, July 28 2014Tortoise Rescue to parents: Real turtles aren't 'Mutant Ninjas' American Tortoise Rescue is asking parents not to let their kids get pet turtles just because they love the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. From Today Parents: Hundreds of thousands of live turtles were purchased after each of the previous movies in the franchise, with many later dumped, deliberately killed or flushed down the toilet, the group said on its website. It estimates 90 percent of the animals died. Read more... |
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