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.
Thursday, June 27 2013
We began the next morning of our Bimini reunion by seeking additional Bimini Green Anoles.
We hoped, but failed, to photograph a displaying male. Bimini curlytails were already out sunning on sidewalks and garden walls. The cross-channel ferry to the South Island was nearing. It was our plan to return to the airport and work our way southward to the tip of the island, searching for twig (also called ghost) anoles, geckos and whatever else we could find.
As it turned out the twig anoles, Anolis angusticeps oligaspis, were rather easily found as they thermoregulated in the morning sunshine at the tips of slender, sparsely leafed, twigs.
Continue reading "Bimini, Bahamas: Eight taxa left to find!"
Tuesday, June 25 2013
My yard in Ft. Myers, FL, was well-populated with Green Anoles, Anolis carolinensis. Although most males that I saw had dewlaps of bright pinkish red, dewlaps that I then referred to as “normal” a small percentage had dewlaps of greenish-white, gray, grayish green, or (I suspected) when a normal and a gray interbred the dewlap would be pale pink broadly edged with gray or white.
But if the dewlap wasn’t normal then the lizards were referred to as “abnormals.” But truthfully, I never thought too much about the dewlap color. I just enjoyed the lizards for what they were.
Then in 1991 the unthinkable happened. In the Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society, Thomas Vance elevated these gray throats to subspecies status and dubbed them Anolis carolinensis seminolus.
I was perplexed by this listing then and remain so today, for as I understood the subspecies concept (and I am a believer in subspecies), two subspecies could not populate the self same niche, and to qualify as a subspecies 75 percent of a population must display the stated characteristics.
Continue reading "A dewlap of a different color"
Monday, June 24 2013
Responsible herpers in the West Fargo have been working for twelve months to rewrite a city ordinance prohibiting large constricting snake species.
The ordeal began in July of 2012, when a man brought his 8’ Burmese python into a public park and the police informed him it was illegal for the snake to be in the city. This triggered a reaction that brought to light an unregulated ordinance that banned “any poisonous, venomous, constricting or inherently dangerous member of the reptile or amphibian families.” The city’s police chief stated than he was not a fan of snakes and the mayor has similar feelings. The city officials were initially against changing the ordinance but the reptile folks have won the fight.
The python owner originally addressed the city council at the first open meeting following the incident and failed to receive a majority vote. At the next city meeting, dedicated reptile keepers and members of the Fargo Herpetological Society, with assistance from the National Herpetological Congress, addressed the ordinance in a professional manner and began the process of revising the ordinance with the city officials.
After months of work with an anti-reptile city board, the largest species of snakes are now allowed in the city on a permitted system. The herp community in West Fargo could have been inactive and left the original ordinance in place, but by educating the city officials and putting forth some effort, they now have the opportunity to keep large constrictors.
Continue reading "Herpers work with city to rewrite ordinance"
Thursday, June 20 2013
Although Jake and I both live in Florida and thought that we were rather used to the heat of summer, we both found the lack of available shade on Bimini a bit disconcerting. True, there was always the dense scrubby woodlands, but these were so amply packed with poisonwood (to which we are both very allergic) that neither of us chose to spend much time therein. The lack of transportation on South Bimini was also taking its toll. Departure time was drawing ever nearer and we were still nine taxa short of our goal.
Then came a bit of good luck. Asked by a store owner what we were doing on South Bimini, we explained that we were photographing reptiles but weren’t having the best of luck.
His response was “Look up Jack and Jill (fictitious names as I don’t know whether they would choose to be identified). They know all about the reptiles here.” So that afternoon we did just that. Not only did these kind folks allow us to photo a Bimini Boa, Epicrates striatus fosteri, that was temporarily in their keeping, but they provided a few locales for us to check that evening.
So after supper, as darkness enveloped us and the BSDs (blood-sucking dipterids in the forms of mosquitos and no-see-ums) came out to play, we were back on South Bimini.
Continue reading "Bimini, Bahamas: A 40 Year Reunion, Part 4"
Wednesday, June 19 2013
My first tokay gecko was purchased on a whim. I was living in Albuquerque, NM, just out of college, living back home while looking for work with no idea of where I'd end up. I made one of my regular trips into the only pet store in town that sold reptiles, and came eyeball to eyeball with a tokay gecko.
For someone whose lifetime experience with lizards had been limited to whiptails and what we called sand lizards ( Uta sp.) the tokay was breathtaking. Money changed hands (I think the gecko cost $6.95) and I went home, proudly bearing my new treasure in a brown paper bag. I had a glass-fronted cage made from a dresser drawer leftover from my high school days, so I dug the cage out and set it up. I opened the bag with the gecko inside and placed it inside the cage. Pretty soon Fido Fidas Fidarae, Fido for short, came out of the bag and clung enchantingly to the back wall of the cage. I sat and watched him. He was something to look at, grey with powdered blue and deep red tubercles.
I knew nothing about geckos, and no idea Fido was nocturnal, although his large eyes gave me a basic clue. When he didn't immediately drink from his water dish, I was worried because I knew that reptiles need water. I opened the cage, covered my hand with a hand towel (I'd been bitten by race runners and knew lizards could nip) and picked him up. I offered him fresh cool water, streaming from the bathroom sink. He thanked me by turning inside the towel and latching onto the very end of my index finger. I saw stars. I tried to free my finger by pulling gently. He tightened down so hard his eyeballs sank in. I took him into the utility room and tried to gently pry his mouth open with a screwdriver. His jaw bent alarmingly and his eyeballs sunk in.
The two of us wandered around the house, my free hand supporting the lizard/hand/towel combination. I wondered what to do next, imagining the lizard as part of a bridal bouquet. I didn't even have a boyfriend at the time, but it was beginning to feel as if this lizard was going to be a permanent attachment. I returned to the bathroom sink, filled it partially with cool water, and stuck my lizardhand, already a single word in my vernacular, into the water. To my numbed delight, Fido let go. I drained the sink, covered him with the towel, and picked him up carefully and returned him to his house.
I moved to Florida a few months later, and Fido went with me. He lived for years, drinking sprayed-in water droplets from the sides of his tank and feeding on thawed, frozen mice. He took them with such intensity his eyeballs sank in, and it always made me flinch.
Things turned out OK for me and Fido, but the moral of this story is simply know what you're getting into before you plunk down your cash.
Your fingertips may thank you.
Continue reading "Tokay gecko: Knowing what to expect"
Tuesday, June 18 2013
Of the four anole species on Bimini, the twig or ghost anole is the most diverse and the most difficult to find.
This attenuate brownish gray, sharp-nosed, anole is very arboreal and prefers to move slowly and stealthily. The male’s dewlap is a pale yellowish peach and does not seem to be distended as readily as the dewlaps of most species. If approached, the twig anole will quietly and slowly sidle around the branch on which it is resting, adroitly keeping the branch between itself and the observer. The grayish coloration and lineate pattern blend so well with the bark of the trees on which this anole lives that the lizard is very easily overlooked.
In 1948, based on cranial scalation and lamellae count, Jim Oliver thought the Bimini twig anoles sufficiently distinct from those on Cuba and elsewhere in the Bahamas to assign them their own subspecies. He named them Anolis angusticeps chickcharnyi, the subspecific name being based on a mythical being -- a ghost, if you will, or perhaps a goblin -- that supposedly appeared on Andros Island.
Continue reading "Bimini ghosts and goblins and anoles, too"
Thursday, June 13 2013
Our plan was to take a taxi to the South Bimini Airport and walk the several miles back to the ferry slip when we wished to return to the hotel. The taxi ride was fine, the walk back was horrid.
Near the airport we encountered numbers of Bimini Whiptails, Ameiva auberi richmondi. I recalled that the last time I had visited the island I had been able to run this speedy, alert, taxon down. This time though? Not a chance. Had something to do with advancing age — mine, not the lizards.
Continue reading "Bimini, Bahamas: A 40 Year Reunion, Part 2"
Tuesday, June 11 2013
Two and a half hours after departing Miami, the ferry gently nudges the dock on North Bimini. This was Jake Scott’s first trip and the first time I had visited since 1973—40 years prior. On that earlier venture I had found every one of the 16 species of reptiles and amphibians (with the establishing of the Amerafrican House Gecko there are now 17 taxa) in less than a day of looking. I couldn’t help but wondering what changes had been wrought in the ensuing four decades.
Disembarking, clearing customs and immigration, and checking into the hotel took less than a half an hour. Even before we had cleared customs we had seen the first lizard species, the Bimini Curly-tail, Leiocephalus carinatus coryi.
Continue reading "Bimini, Bahamas: A 40 Year Reunion, Part 1"
Friday, June 7 2013
Can herpers fight back and win against unfair legislation targeting our animals? Yes, if you do it right!
Scott Snowden faced new legislation that would have made his pets illegal. A city ordinance was proposed concerning dogs with language attached that would have banned all constricting snakes.
Scott stepped up, addressed the issue and was successful by educating the city officials. His professionalism and dedication were rewarded. Thanks to everyone who supported Scott and thank you, Scott, for being an inspiration to the herp community.
A personal letter from Scott Snowden:
My family and I cannot thank USARK and its members nationwide enough for coming to the aid of responsible snake owners in the Montana town of Laurel. I first contacted USARK on February 28th after learning that our city council was attempting to put language that would ban all constricting snakes within city limits to a proposed dog ordinance. USARK President Phil Goss greatly supported my efforts and spoke with me several times via phone and email. USARK responded with a national alert and a link that sent emails from all across the nation to our town’s elected officials. I also spoke before city council, stating our case and asking them to simply follow the existing state laws that govern prohibited species. I spoke to the head of the safety services committee last week and learned that the ordinance has been sent to the legal advisers with NEW language that complies with the state law and does not put a blanket ban on all constricting snake species. He cited the significant public outcry as playing a key role in their decision to modify the ordinance’s language. Thank You! We won’t be totally out of the woods until the ordinance is presented back to the city council, ratified, and signed by the mayor, so we are staying vigilant in our monitoring it. That said, we are taking a moment to celebrate and say thank you to everyone that has supported us!
Sincerely,
Scott, Mandy, & Kiara Snowden
Continue reading "Stopping bad herp laws? Yes, you can!"
Thursday, June 6 2013
While perusing Facebook a few days ago, an entry on the page of the Turtle Hospital at Marathon, FL, caught my eye. I first glanced at it then read it again:
This cute little guy was washed ashore and found floating in a bed of Sargassum weed inside a marina at The Sea Breeze Trailer Park in Islamorada. Because there was a large saltwater crocodile in the marina too the turtle was netted and turned over to the Turtle Hospital for rehabilitation. At just over 10cm long, Crush qualifies as juvenile Hawksbill and is probably less than a year old.
Hawksbill researcher Larry Wood had told me that although they were rare on the mainland, only a few miles to the east of Palm Beach, amidst the sargassum, hawksbills gathered and grew, probably for years, before dispersing. Each year some would disperse and a new cohort would appear.
Bette Zirklebeck, the Turtle Hospital manager, thought “it was likely that strong currents pushed this turtle (dubbed Crush) the wrong way and he floated in to shore.” Zirklebeck continued “Crush appears to be in pretty good shape and staff plans to give him plenty of squid bits and make sure behavior is normal before his release in just a week or two!”
Prior to the advent of fancy plastics, hawksbills were hunted for their shells and the intricately colored carapacial scutes were made into fancy jewelry and glasses frames. Hawksbills are an endangered turtle species and are rigidly protected over most of their wide range.
We wish Crush a lifetime of good luck.
(More photos under the jump!)
Continue reading "A Visit with Crush"
Wednesday, June 5 2013
Years ago, when I first moved to Florida, my then-boyfriend took me out to look for cage furniture. We needed pieces of dead wood, curled tubes of bark, odd bits of driftwood, clumps of moss, the sort of item that helps turn a cage from "pathetic" to "that'll do."
The boyfriend was living in north Tampa, not too far from wooded areas and the Hillsborough River, and he was a herper (required) so I was pretty sure he'd know good areas to look.
On that day, we parked by SR 301 (then a tiny two lane) and walked into the woods. We had really good luck and within a few hours our arms were laden with exactly the right sort of stuff. I said OK, let's head back. My boyfriend looked at me as if I suddenly was speaking German. "Head back?" he said. "Which direction?" A short silence followed while I just l looked at him. He gave a short embarrassed laugh. "The last time I did this, I had to spend the night and then find my way out by the sound of traffic."
I thought, this was the all-time clumsiest effort at seduction I have ever seen. Spend the night in the woods indeed, and there's not even a tent? Was this guy for real?
Continue reading "Cage furniture: A tale of romance and seduction"
Tuesday, June 4 2013
This “little project,” or more accurately long term fact-finding mission, started out years ago after several seasons of seeing my diamond pythons breed but not having my females ovulate. Why was this happening? What was I doing incorrectly? Well, I still don’t have the answer to these two questions, but while I was meditating on them I started the current project.
Diamonds are the southeastern most race of carpet pythons or, more correctly, carpets are more northerly and westerly races of the diamond python. It is well documented that diamond pythons at the northerly end of their range intergrade with the southernmost coastal carpet pythons. And, unlike the difficult diamond pythons, the southern carpets are easily bred. How about the diamond-coastal intergrades? Time to find out.
Pure diamond male
So I enlisted the help of Will Bird, owner and cage slave to a wonderfully varied collection of herps at Extraordinary Ectotherms. Will bred diamond and carpet pythons of varying lineages. To give the project a head start I borrowed a couple of first generation diamond-carpet babies and we were on our way.
Female 75 percent pure diamond
The babies matured and were successfully bred to one of my full blooded diamond males. She laid a few eggs amd voila, I had babies that carried 75 percent diamond genes. They matured and were bred to another diamond male and this year I have hatchlings with 87.5 percent diamond genes.
Newly hatched 87.5 percent diamonds, 2013
If continued, when these babies mature, the project will produce snakes having 93.75 percent diamond genes followed next generation by babies that are 96.865 percent diamonds. I’m hoping that these higher percentage diamonds remain easily bred, and I know they will look like pure diamonds. Ease of breeding added to the beauty of the diamond python should interest many hobbyists, old and new alike.
Continue reading "A diamond by any other name is... ?"
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