Going where no gecko has gone before, Russia launched a research satellite filled with geckos who will, hopefully, mate in a zero gravity environment. The satellite briefly stopped responding to mission control's commands, but contact was restored three days later.

From the Washington Post:

At this very moment, a Russian satellite full of geckos -- (possibly) having sex -- is floating around in space -- and mission control has lost the ability to control it.

The Foton-M4 research satellite launched on July 19 with five geckos on board. The plan: To observe their mating activities in the zero-gravity conditions of Earth orbit. Several other earthly creatures, including plants and insects, were also placed on board for experiments.

But shortly after the satellite made its first few orbits, it stopped responding to commands from mission control. The equipment on board, however, is still sending scientific data back to earth, a spokesman for Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems said.

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Photo: kingsnake user snake_lab

Suburban homeowners in Georgia don't like sharing their backyards with native copperheads, giving rise to a disturbing trend.

From Slate:

Some people are trying to fight snakes with snakes. People in one neighborhood nearby, Druid Hills, which backs up to the Fernbank Forest, imported and released a bunch of black rat snakes into their yards. They hope the snakes will crowd out the copperheads and compete with them for the same food sources. The other day I attended my first-ever snake release party—complete with balloons on the mailbox, a local snake expert, and a kingsnake in a box—right in my own neighborhood after a small child was bitten on the foot while chasing fireflies.

This cannot be normal, can it?

To find out, I reached out to David A. Steen, a wildlife ecologist and research fellow at the Alabama Natural Heritage Program at Auburn University. (And a blogger and occasional writer for Slate.)

“Wow—I don't even know where to start with what's wrong with that,” he said of the snake release efforts.

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Photo:kingsnake.com user coolhl7

As the organism that causes chytridiomycosis in amphibians threatens their existence worldwide, a study published in the journal Nature suggests that turning up the heat and the frogs' own immune defenses may hold the key to beating the fungus.

From the New York Times:

To find out, the scientists swabbed Bd onto the bellies of Cuban tree frogs. After the frogs became infected, the scientists cured them by taking advantage of a weakness of the fungus: it can’t survive for very long at high temperatures.

[University of South Florida chytrid expert Dr. Jason R.] Rohr and his colleagues kept their frog chambers heated to 86 degrees for 10 days, after which the fungi disappeared. The scientists then repeated this procedure three more times.

Frogs that had already been exposed to Bd produced a much stronger immune response to a new infection, the scientists found. They produced more immune cells, and the fungus produced fewer spores.

The exposed frogs were also much more likely to survive an infection than a frog exposed for the first time. What’s more, these effects became stronger after each exposure.

Dr. Rohr and his colleagues also found that amphibians can learn to avoid the fungus. In another experiment, they put oak toads in a chamber. One side of the chamber was contaminated with fungal spores, while the other was fungus-free. They found that toads that had never been exposed to the fungus would explore both sides of the chamber, becoming infected along the way.

But toads that had previous been exposed (and cured with heat) tended to avoid the side of the chamber with the fungus. If they were exposed more than once, they were even less likely to go to there. Dr. Rohr and his colleagues are investigating how the toads learn to avoid exposure to Bd. It’s possible that the toads can detect a chemical made by the fungus.

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Photo: kingsnake.com user Lachesis1

The very first Philippine crocodiles to be bred in Britain made their debut at the London Zoo.



From the Orange News:

The six new-born critically-endangered crocs - born over a 48 hour period - are among the world's rarest reptiles.

As they are native only to the Philippines the baby crocodiles were named after the islands they typically inhabit; Jolo, Luzon, Mindoro, Samar, Sulo, and Mindanao.

It is hoped that their arrival will help to boost the numbers of the species which has been hit by habitat loss and hunting for their skins.

The parent crocodiles. which play a significant role in the European breeding programme for the species, were born at a conservation centre in the Philippines.

Deputy Head of the Reptile House, Iri Gill, said: "The arrival of these six Philippine crocodiles at ZSL London Zoo is a massive cause for celebration for us, and we couldn't be more thrilled."

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A 4-foot alligator was rounded up near Wisconsin's Sheboygan River.



From the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:

A team of sheriff's deputies and Sheboygan police officers corralled and snared the snarling reptile in a ditch near the Sheboygan River after a brief search that started in the 2700 block of Indiana Ave. in the city of Sheboygan, Sheriff's Sgt. Matt Spence said Sunday.

The sheriff's office received a call around 10:30 a.m. Sunday of an alligator sighting in that block, east of S. Taylor Drive, Spence said.

After the gator's snout was taped shut for the officers' safety, the animal was turned over to a conservation warden with the state Department of Natural Resources, according to Spence.

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Photo: Sheboygan County Sheriff's Office

As temperatures in their native ranges change, male reptiles may need to disperse to survive. That's according to a study published in the journal BMC Ecology.

From BBC Nature News:

Alligators, some turtles, and the tuatara - found only in New Zealand - all produce offspring whose gender is determined by temperature.

These species are considered to be especially vulnerable to climate warming, because at higher temperatures they produce only one sex.

Previous studies have suggested that the best way for reptiles to respond is to alter the temperature of their nest by seeking shaded areas, digging deeper nests and nesting earlier in the season.

But the authors say their study is the first to demonstrate that dispersal by the sex that occurs least in a population may be just as important, if not more so, in compensating for the effects of climate change.

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Photo: kingsnake.com user randyprobst

Don't you just hate it when the tortoises turn on you?

From the BBC:

A police officer in Uganda has reportedly shot a tortoise dead after being attacked by the "aggressive" creature.

The incident happened in the Nebbi district in the north of the country near the Congolese border. The officer - named as Charles Onegiu by the New Vision newspaper - said the animal entered his home and attacked him while he was enjoying a post-work cup of tea. "I tried to scare it but the tortoise became very aggressive. I took a stick to chase it but it instead became more violent," he told the paper. After attempting to fend off the tortoise with a plastic chair, he said he "instinctively" drew his firearm and shot it dead. A local Christian group later prayed for Onegiu, "before burning the dead reptile to ashes."

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So, that snake infamously fished out of an Alabama toilet? It was retrieved by police officer Ali Thompson and identified by Hueytown Police Chief Chuck Hagler as a venomous cottonmouth. Local herpers came out of the proverbial woodwork, however, to say he was wrong.



From AL.com:

tidey : Don't know about fangs... but this appears to be a rat snake. Very common and not poisonous. Doesn't have the markings of a cottonmouth or copperhead.
umgrizz1: good grief... I know any kind of snake in the house is frightening... but that snake is NOT even venomous, much less a cottonmouth...
AUwildlife81: All snakes can't climb, primarily here in Alabama only the rat snake and corn snake are able to climb because they also feed on birds they would need this ability. Water moccasins eat fish and fish don't live in trees so they don't need to climb. Water moccasins as with most venomous snakes have stocky bodies which will prevent them from climbing. I have a degree in wildlife biology have taken numerous herpetology classes and I used to remove snakes for living. Yes other snakes can climb but those snakes are found in South America, Asia, and Africa.

Hagler's standing firm on his ID, however.

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Photo: Hueytown Police Department

The eastern hellbender may be joining its Ozark cousin on the endangered species list.



From Fox News:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting an assessment of the eastern hellbender — one of two subspecies — to determine if it should be added to the federal endangered species list. The other subspecies, the Ozark hellbender, found only in Missouri and Arkansas, was declared endangered in 2011 after a 75 percent decline.

Such a designation could free up federal money to protect their habitat and aid in their recovery.

Hellbenders — the origin of the name isn't known — have been present on this continent for at least 10 million years and are found in hill-county rivers and streams in the area stretching from New York to Missouri to North Carolina.

"There's nothing else like them in North America," said federal biologist Jeromy Applegate, who's leading the eastern hellbender assessment.

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Researchers have found a chemical in Missouri waterways that is making male turtles' sex organs develop more like those of female turtles.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

A pilot study conducted at the University of Missouri showed that the synthetic chemical bisphenol A — or BPA, which is known to mimic estrogen and disrupt hormone levels in animals — can alter a turtle’s reproductive system after exposure in the egg. Turtles are perfect creatures for this type of study, because their sex is determined by the temperature of the environment during their development in the egg.

“Cool dudes or hot babes,” explained Sharon Deem, director of the St. Louis Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Medicine and a lead investigator on the study.

The researchers dropped a liquid form of the chemical onto hundreds of eggs that were incubated at cooler temperatures required to produce male turtles. A few months after they hatched, the turtles’ sex organs were removed and studied. The male turtles had developed gonads that were closer to ovaries than testicles.

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Photo: Huy Mach/St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Jamaican iguana, one of the rarest lizards in the world, came back from extinction once already. Can he do it again?

From the Jamaica Observer:

The Jamaican iguana is listed as a critically endangered species, but it has been saved from extinction. However, this triumph of the conservation movement is now threatened by the plan to turn the Goat Islands into a $1.5-billion economic zone, transshipment port and logistics hub.

The official name for the project is the Portland Bight Economic Zone and Transshipment Port, and foreign journalists seem to be converts to the campaign against it. The Guardian newspaper in London recently published a portfolio of beautiful photographs of the lizard by the prize-winning photographer Robin Moore.

But it is not just the lizard that is threatened. The livelihood and way of life of fishing communities in and around the Goat Islands would disappear. And the flattening of the Goat Islands, as well as the dredging involved, would threaten 50 species of plant life found only in Jamaica, including 17 that are endangered.

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Photo: Jamaica Observer

Not all venomous snakebites are created equal -- and neither are all antivenoms. Now researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) have identfied important differences in venoms that may lead to breakthroughs in snakebite treatment worldwide.

From Phys.org:

LSTM's Dr Nicholas Casewell, first author and NERC Research Fellow, said: "Our work shows that venom variation observed between related snake species is the result of a complex interaction between a variety of genetic and postgenomic factors acting on toxin genes. This can involve different genes housed in the genome being turned on or off in different snakes at different stages of venom toxin production. Ultimately, the resulting venom variation results in significant differences in venom-induced pathology and lethality and can undermine the efficacy of antivenom therapies used to treat human snakebite victims."

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Photo: kingsnake.com user HerpLver

How do you save turtles and protect motorists' lives? Build a tunnel.

From KARE 11:

It's a specialized culvert built in Germany, which has small holes at roadway level to allow sunlight to get into the tunnel.

The location was picked after the MN Herpetological Society documented a large number of turtle crossings which were deemed hazardous to both turtles and motorists, who were stopping on the two-lane highway to avoid hitting them.

The $50,000 price is paid for with a $10,000 grant from the University of Minnesota, a $37,000 grant from the DNR's Legacy funding, and $3,000 from the Herpetological Society.

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Photo: KARE