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.
Friday, March 29 2013
It's spring! Although many in North America knee deep in snow might argue the point.
Nonetheless, field herpers in the U.S. are already gearing up and making plans for local hunts and the "big trip" to Sanderson Texas for it's second annual "Snake Days" field event. With reptile and amphibian symposiums during the day and field trips out into the desert at night Snake Days is fast becoming the "go to" event for field herpers, as well as a nationally known gathering of the "old guard", renowned field herpers of the 60's 70's 80's and 90's that spent countless nights chasing the herpetofauna of the Trans-Pecos.
Held in the heart of Gray-banded Kingsnake country. the festival will be June 7, 8, 9 in the tiny desert town of Sanderson, halfway between Del Rio and Alpine Texas on US Highway 90. Hotel accommodations in Sanderson are available but limited and filling up fast. kingsnake.com will be there with the Zombie snake hunting truck, handing out free bumper stickers during the day and prowling the desert with a truck load of herpers at night. For more information on Snake Days or for hotel information, please visit the Snake Days web site at http://snakedays.com
Friday, March 22 2013
Earlier this month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced it would suspend all inspection and clearance of wildlife imports/exports during overtime hours.
The lack of inspection services would likely have caused needless death or injury to live animals, as many international flights arrive during overtime hours and also encounter delays. The herp community acted swiftly, and on March 15, just two days after the announcement, USFWS lifted the restriction of overtime operations. Thank you to everyone who supported the herp community by participating in efforts to reverse this action. This was a team effort. Special thanks to Marshall Meyers of PIJAC and everyone who utilized the USARK Action Alert campaign.
USARK and our D.C. legal team are currently analyzing HR 996 (a reintroduction of HR 669: Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act to summarize), corresponding with assigned committees and building an appropriate plan of action. It is prudent to develop our strongest strategy. USARK will keep you updated on noteworthy happenings. (View a summary of the bill here.)
NARBC Tinley Park, March 16-17, was another great show. The auction demonstrated amazing generosity to support Rico Walder and his fight against brain cancer by raising $10,200 for Walder. Amazing generosity was displayed by Timberline, Marc Bailey Reptiles, Ozzy Boids and others by bidding well over retail prices on items donated by iHerp.com, kingsnake.com, Living Art Publications, Rodent Pro, PM Herp/BARRS, Timberline, Goss Reptiles, and others. Several cash donations were added to the pot, including contributions from Marc Bailey and a group of Australian herpers who see the importance of supporting the entire global herp community. Not enough can be said about the strength and support of the herp community. USARK wishes Rico well.
A donation from Reptiles by Mack raised $500 for the Ohio Association of Animal Owners, thanks to a strong bid from Shay Hamper. The Saturday night auction also raised $17,645 for USARK and PIJAC. A huge thank you to everyone who donated and attended the auction.
Continue reading "Phil Goss of USARK on the state of herp community"
Thursday, March 21 2013
Spotted Turtle Mid-March 2013, Somewhere on the Southeastern Coastal Plain. |
It was only a flooded roadside ditch and, as roadside ditches go, although lengthy, not even a very big one at that. At its widest it was perhaps 6 feet, and maybe 3 feet at its deepest. The water, clear and very slowly flowing, had been well-chilled by the just ending winter, and was still very cold. The firm bottom was covered with up to a foot of decomposing leaves and the ditch, itself, was spanned in many places by sizable fallen limbs and trunks.
Although the records were 25 or more years old, the ditch—all 10 miles of it—was a verified locale for the Many-lined Salamander, a species that a friend and I wished to photograph. And it was the hope of finding these that had drawn us to the locale. We accomplished this at our first stop but decided to spend another hour slowly driving the entire length. Within minutes we were glad for that decision. And within those same minutes the emphasis had changed from caudatans to chelonians.
The first turtles that caught our attention were several adult red-eared sliders that were assuming basking positions on a large diameter sun-drenched pine log. As we drove by Kenny exclaimed “There’s an eastern painted turtle with them.” But the moment I slowed to scan the group more carefully the entire lot cascaded into the water and submerged. There were more sliders on the next log. On the third log were a slider or two and a couple of huge, very dark cooters. With no carapacial markings visible on any of the cooters seen on the drive, coupled with extreme wariness, their identification remains a mystery. They could have been either or both of the two species that occur in the region, river cooters, unlikely in these quiet waters, or, more likely, Florida cooters, a turtle of quiet ponds, ditches, and canals.
The next couple of logs were vacant. Then Kenny said, "Spotted!" Let’s see now—did that mean he had spotted another turtle or that he had seen a Spotted Turtle, Clemmys guttata? He clarified: Spotted Turtle. About that time we approached another log and this time I needed no clarification—there were four Spotteds aboard. Fantastic. We had known the species to be in the area but hadn’t even thought about them in this locale.
And so it went for the entire length of the ditch. Wherever there was water (the ditch had dried in some areas near the distal end) both on the spanning logs and on the banks, we saw Spotted Turtles. The total for the day was about 40. Most were adults, but a few 2-inchers were also seen. Add to the turtles already mentioned a very large adult common snapping turtle seen in a deeper section of the ditch, and you will see that it had definitely become a chelonian kind of day.
Continue reading "Spotted Turtle, Southeastern Coastal Plain"
Tuesday, March 19 2013
. Black-shouldered Treefrog Jan 2013; Madre Selva Biological Preserve, Rio Orosa, Dpto. Loreto, Peru. |
Well, darn, I exclaimed. I know what this treefrog is. It’s one I’ve been looking for more than 15 years. It’s the Black-shouldered Treefrog, Trachycephalus (formerly Phrynohyas) coriacea!
My exclamation was so loud and unexpected that all other members of the herp photography tour stopped and looked curiously at me. Many were snake enthusiasts and could not really understand this excitement over a treefrog that was barely 1½” snout-vent length. But a few were amphibian enthusiasts and well understood my delight.
I had just sat looking at the frog’s rose colored sides and brown back for nearly a half an hour before the realization hit me. I had known I had seen the frog before but I simply couldn’t remember where or when -— warm brown dorsum, rose sides. Why did it look so familiar?
And then, just as I was about to release it into the forest, the frog turned its head slightly and in so doing lifted a heavy tympanal skin fold to reveal a large black spot shoulder spot it had been concealing.
After that recognition clicked. I had seen this pretty rainforest anuran in Rodriguez and Duellman’s 1994 publication Guide to the Frogs of the Iquitos Region, Amazonian Peru. I was very familiar with the other two species in this genus, but had neither seen nor heard of the T. coriacae prior to that publication. Nor in the ensuing 17 years had I again seen it either in photos or life until now. And just because those drooping tympanal folds had so effectively concealed the identifying black shoulder spots on this half grown treefrog, I had nearly bypassed an opportunity to make its acquaintance.
Continue reading "Black-shouldered Treefrog, Peru"
Monday, March 18 2013
In addition to bringing you herp news, photos, and site updates, the kingsnake.com blog is launching a featured contributors program, bringing the biggest names in reptiles and amphibians to share their decades of experience and knowledge with our site visitors.
Leading the launch this week is author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett, one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife, Pat, have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity.
Check out the kingsnake.com Richard Bartlett bookstore!
Coming soon: Featured contributors Phil Goss of USARK, Slayer's Kerry King, Dr. Dante Fenolio of the San Antonio Zoo, Carole Allen of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project and more!
Continue reading "Welcome to kingsnake.com's "featured contibutor" page!"
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