Rep. John Fleming, the chair of the House subcommittee on fisheries and wildlife, led a number of his colleagues in the House in dismissing the idea of adding the reticulated python, boa constrictor, Beni anaconda, DeSchauensee's anaconda, and the green anaconda to an existing rule banning the importation and interstate sale of four other species of snake. The committee held a hearing yesterday on the proposed ban, H.R. 511.

From the Tampa Bay Times:

Their staunch opposition greatly diminishes the chances that Congress will approve a bill to broaden the ban on invasive snakes that was proposed by U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and supported by proponents of Everglades restoration.

Opponents cited evidence that these snakes die in cold weather and cannot move farther north to threaten other parts of the country. They said a nationwide ban on importation and interstate sales would thwart pet owners and pinch the livelihoods of sellers and breeders.

"Florida is handling a Florida problem that only exists in Florida," U.S. Rep. John Fleming, R-La., chairman of the House subcommittee on fisheries and wildlife, told witnesses at a hearing on Thursday.

[...]

A Florida member, U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, dismissed the proposed ban as "a solution in search of a problem." He said the bill amounts to an egregious attempt by an overbearing government to rein in helpless small businesses, jeopardizing a $1.4 billion reptile industry.

"I'm dumbfounded," Southerland said. "We got bigger fish to fry here than to target businesses. It's open season on businesses. It's open season on enterprise, on freedom."

To go into force, the bill would have to be approved by the committee, then pass the full House, a Senate committee, and the full Senate, all before Congress closes shop for the year in mid-December.

Read the full story here.

Photo: Tampa Bay Times

Scientific American reports a new species of snake, Imantodes chocoensis, has been identified in the tropical region of Chocó:

Discovered by a group of zoologists led by Omar Torres-Carvajal from the Museo de Zoología QCAZ in Ecuador on 24 April 2007, I. chocoensis was described based on several live individuals and preserved specimens that have been sitting in a number of Ecuadorian and American natural history museums, unidentified since 1994. Also known as the the Chocoan blunt-headed vine snake, it was distinguished from its relatives through an analysis of its DNA, morphological features, and colour patterns. Read more...

It's like an Onion story, but it's real life. Police raided an indoor pot growing facility in Washington State, only to find it being guarded by alligators. Also present: An exotic pole dancer and her pole. The cops put the gators in a tub, and fed them some raw chicken before removing them. No, really. This happened. Read more...

Charles Darwin predicted it, and modern GPS technology proves it: The Galapagos giant tortoise sure gets around:

[S]cientists with the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the Charles Darwin Foundation have used GPS technology and 3-D acceleration measurements to find out that the dominant male tortoise will wander up to 10 kilometers into the highlands of the island - but only the fully grown animals migrate, the young tortoises stay in the lowlands.

Why? And why don't they rest during the dry season? It's a Chelonoidis nigra mystery of science.

Charles Darwin anticipated that the giant tortoises wandered large distances. In the cool dry season, the highlands of Santa Cruz are engulfed in fog which allows the vegetation to grow despite the lack of rain. In the lowlands, however, there is no thick layer of clouds and the tortoises' vegetation is not available year round. Adults, which can weigh up to 250 kilograms, spend the dry season in the higher regions at an elevation of 400 meters above sea level. However, since the food is not as nutritious there, they trek back to the lower zones where there is succulent vegetation, as soon as the rainy season begins. Read more...

Ivan the Komodo dragon suffers from arthritis. So veterinarians and zookeepers at the Phoenix Zoo recruited the same company that made a prosthetic tail for a Florida dolphin, Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics, to rig up a prosthetic device to help him get around without pain.

They got to work, and created a custom splint for Ivan at no charge.

The splint has worked to improve Ivan's mobility, as you can see on this video from NBC News here.

When Lonesome George died last June, he was thought to be the last of his kind, the Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii). Now scientists are saying that, given the will, a little effort, and a hundred or 150 years, they can revive the lost subspecies. From ABC News:

Researchers say they may be able to resurrect the Pinta Island subspecies by launching a cross-breeding program with 17 other tortoises found to contain genetic material similar to that of Lonesome George, who died June 24 at the Pacific Ocean archipelago off Ecuador's coast after repeated failed efforts to reproduce.

Edwin Naula, director of the Galapagos National Park, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that the probability is high it can be accomplished.

"It would be the first time that a species was recovered after having been declared extinct," Naula said.

But it won't happen overnight.

"This is going to take about 100 to 150 years," Naula added.

Scientists took DNA samples from 1,600 tortoises on Wolf volcano, and found the Pinta variety in 17, though their overall genetic makeup varied.

Through cross-breeding, "100 percent pure species" can be achieved, said Naula, a biologist.

Read the whole story, and view video, here.

Photo of Lonesome George in 2006 by Mike Weston, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Thanksgiving stories just don't get much better than this. A pet Sulcata tortoise, who had been missing for months, was re-united with his family in time for the holiday, thanks to the power of social media and the mayor of a nearby Texas town.

From KVUE in Austin:

For the past several months Donna had posted fliers about her missing pet Tortoise, a 40 pound African Sulcata she named John Wayne who escaped from her backyard when he broke through a metal gate.

Little did she know, weeks later and miles away in San Marcos, someone had seen the wandering tortoise and turned him into an Animal Rescue.

San Marcos Mayor Daniel Guerrero who is also a pet lover adopted the tortoise and brought him home.

Through the power of social media, Guerrero had also posted pictures of the new addition to his family.

Different circles of Hays County residents who had seen the fliers and Facebook pictures began to put two and two together.

Three months after he disappeared, “Leonard” as he was named at the Animal Rescue was reunited with his rightful owner Donna.

Read the whole "awwww"-inspiring story here! And Happy Thanksgiving!

Tired of cute and cuddly animals getting all the attention -- and the conservation efforts, too? So is the Zoological Society of London, which is "trying to bring attention to distinct and endangered animals like the olm, a translucent cave amphibian that can live 100 years, and western long-beaked echidnas, which are mammals that lay eggs.... The society ranks endangered mammals, amphibians and birds based on their evolutionary distinct characteristics in order to raise awareness and to begin conservation programs." Read more...

Can the world's business community turn around devastating habitat destruction and save threatened species? "A quarter of the world's mammals, 13% of birds, 41% of amphibians and 33% of reef-building corals are now at risk of extinction," reports the Guardian in a lengthy, in-depth examination of the concept of "natural capital," and the financial benefits of preserving species and habitats. Read more...

It's the largest release of threatened sea turtles in the Caymans in years... but is it a good thing, or bad? CayCompass.com digs into the roots of the controversy:

Last weekend’s event featured the largest number of turtles released in years, as the breeding farm facility and major tourist attraction in West Bay reported a record number of eggs laid and an increased hatching rate. One by one, and in steady succession, captive-bred farm-raised turtles were off-loaded from a truck that delivered them from the Turtle Farm to the beach adjacent to North Sound Golf Club and then carried to water’s edge by eager participants and placed in the sand to be taken into the warm Western Caribbean Sea by the surf.

“Standing here at the seaside, releasing a fresh group, is the ultimate expression of the Cayman Turtle Farm’s conservation mission,” said Tim Adam, managing director of the Cayman Turtle Farm: Island Wildlife Encounter. “As these baby turtles cross the sand, enter the water and start new lives in the sea – it is an awesome moment that gives us hope for the future. Hope that the wild population will continue to grow and flourish with our help."

[...]

The Turtle Farm hasn’t been without its critics though – especially of late.

The Florida-based Sea Turtle Conservancy and the London-headquartered World Society for the Protection of Animals have urged the Cayman Turtle Farm in recent months to stop farming a species designated as endangered. Critics also say there is limited evidence that the release programme has helped grow turtle populations over the years and suggest releasing farmed turtles could pass on diseases to the species in the wild.

Earlier this year, WSPA released a scathing investigation claiming the Turtle Farm had failed to meet baseline welfare criteria by citing video and photographs purporting to show turtles in overcrowded and dirty tanks, as well as turtles missing fins, sporting various injuries, and even one left blind by congenital defects. The advocacy group maintains that some of the sea turtles have resorted to cannibalism in their enclosures and may pose threats to humans by potentially passing on E coli, salmonella and enterococci to visitors who handle and interact with the creatures at the tourist facility.

Read more...

Photo: Darwin's Frog from WTOP/San Francisco State University.

The most popular kids' show on PBS is going to feature Australian animals and the late Steve Irwin's 14-year-old daughter, Bindi.

From Gather.com:

Curious George is going to Australia for his seventh season premiere, and while he's there, he's going to learn about Australian animals from none other than Bindi Irwin, the daughter of the late Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin.

When the monkey and The Man in the Yellow Hat go to Australia, George finds giant footprints in the sand. What can they be? Bindi Irwin helps him find out about that, and about kangaroos, koalas, emus, and more, according to an article at TV By the Numbers.

The episode, titled "Monkey Down Under," starts a whole season of animal-themed shows in which the monkey will learn about all sorts of mammals, birds, insects, and reptiles.

"I was so excited to be a part of Curious George," says Irwin in the article. "He's my favorite monkey, I've loved him my whole life. It's wonderful he could help me teach kids about the beaut bonza animals that live around my home at Australia Zoo."

Read the whole story here.

Photo of Bindi Irwin at the TV Week Logies 2011 by Eva Rinaldi, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

A heartwarming story about the endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle -- with an international twist.

From ABC News:

They named her Flip — a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle found last December, stranded on the coast of Holland. She was injured and stunned by the cold.

But the scientists and animal lovers who rescued her took advantage of a key fact about Kemps’ Ridleys — that while they’re endangered, they are also among the world’s great long-distance travelers. Specialists nursed her back to health, and released her into the water today — off the coast of south Texas.

“We couldn’t have asked for it to go any better,” said Iain Scouller, the general manager of Sea Life Aquarium Grapevine, based near Dallas-Fort Worth. “We set her loose at high tide, and off she went.”

Read the story -- and watch video of the release -- here!

Where on your post-rattlesnake bite to-do list is "update Facebook status"? For a California teen who nearly died from six rattlesnake bites, it was right after "get in car to go to hospital."

From ABC News:

(Sixteen-year-old Vera Oliphant) said she was in a fog, her eyesight and her consciousness fading. How she got to the house, she cannot fully recall. “I was feeling numb and paralyzed. I had black vision and I saw bubbles. It felt like needles were stabbing me… it burned so hard and it felt like a bomb just exploded in me. It’s really hard to describe,” she said.

“I struggled to get my key out, and I was too weak to ring the bell. I desperately tapped at the window and cried, ‘Help me,’ and that’s when my uncle took me to a hospital 15 miles away,” said Oliphant.

On the way to Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, Oliphant was somehow able to put a post on her Facebook page: “i got bit by a rattle snake & now i,m about to go to l.C.U .. it hurts like a ___ & my leg is paralyzed ._.”

Soon after, she went into anaphylactic shock twice and lost consciousness four times. She arrived at the hospital in the nick of time.

What's next, a Tweet saying, "Am being mauled by lions. Hurts. #shouldneverhaveclimbedintothebigcatenclosureatthezoo"?

"Sensitive" is probably not the word that springs to mind when you think of a crocodile's jaws, but it turns out they're more sensitive to vibration and touch than a human fingertip.

From a Discovery report on a study in the Journal of Experimental Biology:

"We didn't expect these spots to be so sensitive because the animals are so heavily armored," co-author Duncan Leitch said in a press release. Leitch, a graduate student, performed the studies under the supervision of Ken Catania, a professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University.

The technical name for the spots is "integumentary sensor organs" or ISOs. Scientists over the years have speculated that they held all kinds of functions, from secreting oil to detecting electrical fields. A study in 2002, however, suggested that they detected ripples made by water, so that led to the latest research.

"This intriguing finding inspired us to look further," Catania said. "For a variety of reasons, including the way that the spots are distributed around their body, we thought that the ISOs might be more than water ripple sensors."

Read the full story here.

New kingsnake.com classifieds launch Dec. 1

There's a whole new kingsnake in testing now! The new version of the kingsnake website will focus on reptiles and amphibians and the community from a local perspective, with news and events, local breeders and businesses, and, of course, local classified ads broken down by state. The all-new classifieds will be quicker and easier to use, as well as mobile- and tablet-friendly, and will feature a new layout, new search engine friendly URLs for things like individual ads, and a mobile version supporting IOS, Android, BlackBerry, Bada, Windows Phone, palm webOS, symbian, and more. The new classifieds ended beta testing this month, and will launch Dec. 1. Watch for updates!

Year-end housecleaning

We're doing some year-end housecleaning on kingsnake.com , removing or archiving older projects and content, combining some forum and classified ad categories, discontinuing some advertising platforms, and changing the general look and feel of the site while retaining its functionality. Expect to see some changes over the winter break, but plan on kingsnake.com being a leaner, cleaner, faster-loading site come spring!

kingsnake.com advertising sale

kingsnake.com will have a one-week holiday advertising sale starting Friday morning on leaderboard, full, and medium rectangle banners, as well as on storefront/business directory listings and reptile event listings. The sale starts at noon Central Time on Friday, November 9, and will run until noon Central Time on November 16. Banners will be half price, directory listings $100 per year ($50 off), and event listings will be $50 each ($50 off). Watch for the link in kingnsnake.com's header starting Friday, and give your holiday advertising a Christmas goose!

kingsnake.com site coordinator moves on

Longtime staffer and volunteer Cindy Steinle has moved on to other opportunities, and all of us at kingsnake.com would like to wish her success. For many years she has been an important part of our community and our family, and we will miss her. If you have an outstanding kingsnake.com related issue requiring attention please contact us at communityreview@pethobbyist.com.

NRAAC 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Planning has started for the 2013 National Reptile & Amphibian Law Symposium & Workshop, to be held in the Washington, D.C., area. PIJAC and the ARAV have signed on to co-host the event with the National Reptile & Amphibian Advisory Council (NRAAC). Discussions have been opened regarding co-hosting with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC), and the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), and so far are looking favorable. Once stakeholder input has been received, it is hoped that a location and date will be determined and announced for the event, probably sometime in early December.