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, December 15 2021
Wash away your winter gloom by falling in love with this hatchling Big Head Turtle ( Platysternon megacephalum) in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user stingray ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Tuesday, December 14 2021
What a beautiful boa constrictor in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user biophiliacs . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Monday, December 13 2021
Kismet thinks Iguanas are better to lead Santa's Sleigh in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Really! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
![](http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/61334Christmas_Kismet_2-med.jpg)
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![](/blog/uploads/edgar1.jpg) Edgar at age 20.
Species: Eastern Diamond-backed Rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus.
Photographed: 29 Oct 2021.
Age: 4 days over 20 years.
Current Length: 7 feet 2 inches.
Where: Off display but ensconced at the Central Florida Zoo, Sanford FL.
Comments by Nick Clark, Supervisor: “A bit overweight but very placid, Edgar’s namesake is Edgar Winter an albino blues musician. Most the kids nowadays have no idea who that is, so even when I explain the names origin I receive blank stares and any humor that was intended is lost.
For the "story of Edgar" Fred Antonio and I wrote a paper that was published in the 1st volume of "Biology of Rattlesnakes" Reproduction in the Eastern Diamond-Backed Rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus, under Optimal Conditions in Captivity.
It tells of Edgar's birth and the following 3 breeding and birthing events.”
My comments: To all at the Central Florida Zoo who allowed me photographic access to Edgar, Many, many, thanks.
Continue reading "Meet Edgar the Magnificent"
Friday, December 10 2021
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! While not a Rattlesnake, this stunning head shot of a Gaboon Viper our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user 1Sun still keeps the focus on conserving and educating about the wonderful niche our venomous creatures share in the world and how important they are to it! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Thursday, December 9 2021
This Cape Gopher is on fire our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pitparade . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
![](http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/190436Cape_Kingsnake_2012_Male_098-med.jpg)
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Wednesday, December 8 2021
This Milk snake is just hanging out our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gerryg . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Tuesday, December 7 2021
How cute is this baby Fox snake in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user TJ. ? Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Monday, December 6 2021
Does a kingsnake really need an intro for our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user trevid ? Nope, but hey nice grayband. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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![](/blog/uploads/dejavu1.jpg) Great Basin Rattler on the side of the road in the headlights.
Snaaaaake! Jake hollered. Rattler.
“OK” I said. “It’s about time.”
And it definitely WAS about time for we were on the last night of our trip and were on the way to the motel.
Brakes. Camera. Action. Finally.
Jake and I had again decided to make a quick trip—4 or 5 field days—to Utah in hopes of finding a Great Basin Rattler, Crotalus oreganus lutosus. Earlier in the year we had traveled over pretty much the same route with the same snake subspecies in mind. On that earlier trip we had found one of rather bland color and pattern. But that one was also found on the last run of the last night. We had thanked our lucky stars.
Now here we were, 2 months later, on the same roadway. Again here we were on the last run of the last night. The principal differences were the phase of the moon and rather than being dead center on the road, the snake for which we had just come to a screeching halt was almost out of sight on the side of the roadside. But it was a beauty and well worth the expended effort. I’m ready to head back Jake?
Continue reading "Deja Vu"
Friday, December 3 2021
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! We are seeing red with this gorgeous shot of a Pygmy Rattlesnake our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Tamers1 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Wednesday, December 1 2021
This Western Fence Lizard is chilling like a villain in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user chrish ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Tuesday, November 30 2021
Love this gorgeous Moluccan python , Morelia clastolepis, in all its shimmering beauty in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user krantz!
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Monday, November 29 2021
This Rainbow Boa is helping us celebrate Hanukkah in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user natsamjosh ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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![](/blog/uploads/blackmilk1.jpg) Juvenile color and patterning may remain visible until the Black Milk Snake is nearing adulthood.
Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae is an Interesting Milk Snake. Brightly tricolored at hatching, not only does this subspecies undergo rather remarkable ontogenetic changes, but this Central American (Costa Rica and Panama) subspecies is also the longest and probably the heftiest of the milk snakes, attaining the rather remarkable length of 7 feet when adult!
Hatchlings are 10-12 inches long, a notable length for any member of this group, and they are strongly tricolored and can easily consume pinkies. By the time a hatchling has undergone 2 or 3 sheds, a suffusion of melanism will be seen dulling the hatchling brilliance somewhat and by the time the snake is a subadult there will be no doubt about its parentage. It has been many years since I last kept tricolors of any subspecies, but I still recall the amazement felt when I compared hatchling photos with those taken as growth ensued. Try this beauty yourself. I think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised. And strangely, in these days of upwardly spiraling hobbyist costs, I think that the price of Black Milk Snake hatchlings remains comparatively affordable.
Continue reading "Big and Beautiful, the Black Milk Snake"
Friday, November 26 2021
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! A little Black Tail action ( Crotalus molossus) in Portal, NM in our photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user erindonaldson for this Black Friday! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world. It is our goal to help dispel the fears surrounding our beloved venomous creatures.
![](http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/228246IMG_8331a-med.jpg)
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Wednesday, November 24 2021
May this adorable pair of Lygodactylus williamsi in our herp photo of the day brighten your midweek, uploaded by kingsnake.com user jamesmatthews ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Tuesday, November 23 2021
What a stunning female Coastal Carpet Python in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user AJ01! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
![](http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/139483Coastal_003.jpg)
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Monday, November 22 2021
Amazon Tree Boas are some of the most photogenic snakes in our world, like this one in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user BPruett , always perfectly posed! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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![](/blog/uploads/rodentpatrol1.jpg) Kingsnakes (this is a South Florida or Brook's phase) may hunt their prey in surface or sub-surface locales.
Interestingly the different groupings of rodent-eating snakes tend to orient themselves a bit differently. For example the nonvenomous rat snakes, prominent members of the serpentine rodent patrol, tend to be more ubiquitous in their hunting techniques than, let’s say, the kingsnakes, milk snakes, or pit vipers. The former, the rat snakes seek prey (rats, mice, and other unwanted furry visitors) on the ground, in barns and other out-structures, in trees, and under surface debris. Even long grasses and shrub cuttings may suffice as a harbor for rodents and these predators.
The venomous pit vipers, rattlers and moccasins, tend to be ambush rather than active predators. To heighten chances for success, these, especially the rattlers, often seek out rodent trails and position themselves next to a fallen tree or other such visual barrier in hopes of a careless rat or squirrel coming along. Small rattler species may be more active. Cottonmouths often seek out road-killed carrion and pry it from the pavement. Copperheads overindulge on cicadas and other insects as well as frogs, lizards, nestling birds and rodents.
Kingsnakes, milk snakes, and members of the bull/pine/gopher snakes clan are often active ground-surface predators that follow trails of mice, voles and other prey through grassy/weedy tunnels and may follow prey trails into subterranean burrows. In fact the pine/gopher/bullsnakes are dedicated hunters of gophers and voles within the burrows. Kingsnakes and milk snakes are adept at following rodents or herps but are not as specialized at burrow-hunting as the gopher snake group.
Snakes seek prey wherever the trails lead them. Besides their individually preferred hunting sites almost all snakes—yes even kings and pit vipers, are capable of ascending trees. We humans, or Mother Nature, will either purposely or accidentally create the habitats. Our friends, the snakes and their prey often closely follow.
Continue reading "The Rodent Patrol"
Friday, November 19 2021
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! The true American Icon, the Atrox, or Western Diamondback stands his ground in our photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user juzior ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world. It is our goal to help dispel the fears surrounding our beloved venomous creatures.
![](http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/1062712ssssa-med.jpg)
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Thursday, November 18 2021
This Helmeted Iguana or Hernandez's helmeted basilisk ( Corytophanes hernandezi) in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user chrish is quite the break from our usual. What a regal and stunning animal! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
![](http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/5263corytophanes_hernandezi-med.jpg)
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Wednesday, November 17 2021
This sulcata is happy basking in the sun while he mows the lawn in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user dinahmoe ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Tuesday, November 16 2021
The sunlight really brings out the depth in colors of this Green House Snake in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user kamiki77! Be sure to tell them you liked it here.
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Monday, November 15 2021
What amazing colors Uros come in, like this ornate in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user plietz! Be sure to tell them you liked it here.
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![](/blog/uploads/CarolinaPygmy1.jpg) The Carolina Pygmy Rattler of the Sandhills can vary widely in ground color but are usually light with well defined dorsal blotches.
The Variably Colored Carolina Pygmy Rattlesnake, Sistrurus m. miliarius is the most northeasterly, most variable in color, and marginally the smallest of the 3 subspecies of Pygmy Rattlesnakes. It ranges southward from the Albemarle Peninsula of North Carolina to South Carolina, Central Georgia, and westward to Northern Alabama. At the southern extremes of its range it intergrades with the Dusky subspecies in the east and with the Western subspecies in the west. Adult size is a stocky 15 to 20 inches. It seems as if the record length is 25 inches.
It is in color that this little buzztail varies most. Two of the most often mentioned color phases are the “sandhill” phase and the “red” phase. The latter seems restricted to neGA and eNC while the lavender sandhills phase, restricted to the NC sandhills, is aptly named.
Besides the lavender and red ground colors already mentioned, this little snake may vary from gray to brownish. It lacks the dark stippling of the dusky phase but has clearly defined light edged dark dorsal saddles as well as lateral smaller lateral blotches. In areas of intergradation stippling is heavier and the patterns are less clearcut.
Between 2 and 9 young are produced in each clutch. Neonates measure a rather slender 6 inches in total length.
The tail is usually dark on adults but yellowish on neonates.
Continue reading "The Variably Colored Carolina Pygmy Rattlesnake"
Friday, November 12 2021
This Western Green Mamba ( Dendroaspis viridis) is screaming "Happy Rattlesnake Friday" to everyone in our herp photo of the day in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user fangfatale We celebrate all things venomous on Rattlesnake Friday to help remind people of the importance of the maligned animals. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Thursday, November 11 2021
You know it is going to be fun when you start out the day with an Eastern coachwhip in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user jodscovry! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Wednesday, November 10 2021
SO bright and brilliant, this Yellow Anaconda shines in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mattf77 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Tuesday, November 9 2021
The Curly tailed lizard is a common sight in the southern US, but not so common as pets. They are totes adorbs as you can see in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Upscale!
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