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, August 21 2014
When I was a kid in Springfield, Massachucets, smooth green snakes, Opheodrys vernalis, were among my most cherished serpentine finds. I never considered them common.
In fact, they were otherwise. But with sufficient dedication I could usually find one or two hiding beneath a piece of damp newspaper or a flat stone in some urban vacant lot. Even after I had outgrown the "kid stage" by two or three decades, smooth green snakes were still findable in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and as far west as the Dakotas and New Mexico.
Fast forward to today. Although these pretty little insectivores can still be found here and there over their huge range, if information is correct, some populations have been extirpated. In other locations, where the snake was once common, they have seemingly become rare.
A friend considers them abundant in Wisconsin, but in several areas of Michigan, Maine, and Massachusetts where they were once seen annually, none have been seen for years. This is also true in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, and other portions of their always disjunct range.
I guess that what I am asking is this: are smooth green snakes significantly more rare, or are we, as aging and aged adults whose sight may not be as acute as it once was, merely overlooking these grass blade lookalikes?
More photos below...
Continue reading " Smooth and green--going, going, or just overlooked?"
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Minuet!
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Wednesday, August 20 2014
![](/blog/uploads/BD8.18.14.jpg) A woman saved her great-grandson's pet bearded dragon by performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
From the Daily Mail:
‘I really couldn’t remember how many chest compressions should be given before a rescue breath, but he was blue so I just did it. I was really amazed it worked.’
Working for what she said felt like a half hour, she held the motionless Del and rubbed his belly, then hung him upside down to clear water from his mouth and breathed air past his teeth.
Before long, he opened his eyes and started to move.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user beckherps!
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Tuesday, August 19 2014
Xenodon (Waglerophis) merremi, the giant false viper, is a variably colored and patterned dipsadine snake that has several well-developed defensive mechanisms including body inflation or hood spreading, hissing, and striking.
In these actions, this three and one-half foot long snake is much like North American hog-nosed snakes. Unlike the hog-noses, which are reluctant to bite, the false viper displays no such hesitancy. It is an opisthoglyphid species with enlarged teeth at the rear of the upper jaw and a venom that quickly immobilizes its anuran prey, and which can be painful to humans should they be bitten.
This is an oviparous species and clutches between fifteen and thirty-nine eggs have been recorded. Hatchlings, juveniles, and subadults usually bear light edged hourglass shaped bands that are darker than the ground color. Once adult, the pattern fades and many of the older adults are basically an overall dark olive-gray with a light fleck on each scale.
More photos below...
Continue reading "The giant false viper"
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Chuck H.!
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Monday, August 18 2014
![](/blog/uploads/Coasties8.18.14.jpg) The Coast Guard is known for saving endangered sailors, but one crew can say they saved an endangered turtle.
From MYFOXNY:
The United States Coast Guard has released video showing a crew saving a huge sea turtle from a dangerous, tangled situation off the New Jersey coast.
The video shows Coast Guard members from Station Cape May, New Jersey, and an official from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigatine untangling the leatherback turtle from fishing gear on Saturday, August 9, 2014. The Coast Guard estimates the turtle weighed about 800 pounds.
As soon as the turtle was free of the gear, it swam away, appearing unharmed.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user AnthonyCaponetto!
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Friday, August 15 2014
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user caecilianman02!
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Check out this video "Squirrel VS Snake," submitted by kingsnake.com user PH FasDog.
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Thursday, August 14 2014
![](/blog/uploads/NYDailyNews8.11.14.jpg) No matter how much you like snakes, finding 48 roaming loose in your home can be quite the shock.
From the New York Daily News:
The snakes are small, but they are aggressive, the couple said. They are especially worried for their toddler son, Bentley.
"Our two-year-old is terrified of them," Hisler said. "We've only found one or two in his bedroom so far. Thank God."
So far, Scott and Hisler have caught 48 snakes - a number that increases daily, even though pest control has surveyed the home three times.
Read more...
Of the 5 subspecies of copperheads, Agkistrodon contortrix, I had seen four in the field. I still lacked the Osage form, A. c. phaeogaster.
It seemed that the Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma home range of this, the northwesternmost of the five subspecies, was just a bit out of my normal scope of roaming. When Kenny and I found ourselves herping Kansas a couple of years ago, the Osage copperhead became an eagerly sought snake.
Friends told us to do this or do that and we would be unable to miss seeing the pretty snake, but we had been told this for other taxa and some of these "sure things" not only initially failed but we were, years later, still looking. We had a nice relaxing trip to central Kansas, found a lot of snakes, and were now driving a long route back to Florida via eastern Kansas and central Texas.
We had plenty of time to stop and search for copperheads. We straggled into northeastern Kansas and barely turned southward when we noticed a rocky wooded spot such as we had been told to watch for. We stopped, hopped out, turned a half dozen rocks, found two burrowing crayfish, some plains ring-necked snakes, and ---what do you know-- our target, a beautiful two-foot-long Osage copperhead.
Although we looked for and found more on the way south, the finding of that first one was for both Kenny and me the most exciting. It rounded out an already great trip.
More photos below...
Continue reading "The 5th Subspecies!"
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gradba!
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Wednesday, August 13 2014
![](http://gallery.connectedbypets.com/data/197040P1010739-med.JPG) Experts in India think a multi-state antivenom pool is needed to stem the tide of deaths caused by snakebites.
From the Times of India:
The number of deaths caused by snakebites in the country has reached nearly epidemic proportions therefore there is a need for setting up a multi-state cooperative for extracting snake venom, said renowned herpetologist Romulus Whitaker.
Whitaker, who was instrumental in setting up the Irula Snake-Catchers Industrial Cooperative Society (ISCICS) in Tamil Nadu, pointed out the drawbacks in the present system of venom collection.
"There is a lot of variation in venom. The same snake, the Russell's viper is found in four corners of India, but its venom composition varies according to where it is found. But the anti-venom produced from a Russell's viper in Tamil Nadu may not be good enough for a person bitten by a Russell's viper in West Bengal or Punjab," Whitaker told TOI.
Read more ...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user biophiliacs!
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Tuesday, August 12 2014
![](/blog/uploads/Lucky100008.7.14.jpg) Advocates hope the the discovery of world's 10,000th reptile species leads to greater protections for endangered herps.
From Mongabay News:
The new milestone is important because it means reptiles are as diverse as birds, which are generally considered to include around 10,000 species. Uetz predicts that reptiles will soon surpass birds given the rate of recent discoveries, making it the second-largest vertebrate group after fish which contains over 32,000 species.
Globally, there are around 5,500 mammal species and 6,400 amphibians currently.
But despite being among the most diverse vertebrate groups, reptiles are largely unrepresented by the IUCN Red List, which determines whether or not a species is endangered. Approximately all mammals and birds have been evaluated by the IUCN, and over 90 percent of amphibians have been evaluated. In contrast, only 43 percent of reptiles have been evaluated (the number is even worse for fish sitting at 35 percent).
Read more ...
We were a couple of nights into our Peruvian Amazon tour and the group, 10 field-herpers including me, had decided that this would be a good night to try to see a caiman or two.
We all piled excitedly into the Amazon equivalent of a John-boat and were, with our Peruvian guide, motoring slowly into a quiet oxbow that was outlined with overhanging shrubs and had great patches of emergent vegetation protruding from the shallows. Flashlight beams probed the darkness, each hoping that it would be their beam that found the reflective eyes of the caiman and each wondering whether it would be a "caiman blanco" (the local name for the spectacled caiman, Caiman crocodilus) or the more uncommon "caiman negro" (the black caiman, Melanosuchus niger) that would be the first to be found.
We didn't have to wait long to find out. The boat edged carefully around a fallen tree and ahead was eyeshine. The lights of all but the guide in the prow were turned out (this prevented the guide from being silhouetted and easily seen by the caiman).
Slowly, slowly, the boat edged forward and the prowman whispered "blanco." We were approaching a spectacled caiman. A quick grab by the prowman and the 24 inch long caiman, a lifer for many of the tour participant, was passed back for us all to see.
But there was an extra added attraction here because it quickly became apparent that the surprised (but unharmed) caiman had a half-swallowed something in its mouth. And after a couple of convulsive hiccups by the caiman the something disgorged proved to be a 15 inch long snake--a beautiful snake bearing narrow rings of black, red, and white. A coral snake? No. A coral mud snake, Hydrops martii, a second and very unexpected lifer found in a most unorthodox manner!
More photos below ...
Continue reading " A caiman with a hiccup"
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user MVH4!
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Monday, August 11 2014
![](/blog/uploads/Snappingturtle8.6.14.jpg) It's not Godzilla threatening the Japanese ecosystem, but invasive snapping turtles.
From BBC News:
Snapping turtles originally come from the Americas, but turned up in Japan as pets in the 1960s, Kyodo news agency reports. Some turtles must have escaped to the wild, as there were an estimated 1,000 turtles roaming the Chiba Prefecture 10 years ago. The turtles have been classed in Japan as an invasive species and are eating up fish, bird and weed stocks, and chewing their way through fishermen's nets.
Read more ...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user AJ01!
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Friday, August 8 2014
Check out this video "Garter Snake Catching Fish," submitted by kingsnake.com user PH FasDog.
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It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user felicianolis!
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Thursday, August 7 2014
![](http://gallery.connectedbypets.com/data/10600DSC_65430002-med.JPG) After crashing her car into a firehouse, a woman was found wearing an unusual accessory: a ball python.
From ABC News:
Fire personnel at the scene rushed to aid Espinosa when they "discovered a small ball python snake wrapped around the defendant's neck," which they promptly removed and secured, according to the police report.
"Third Precinct officers responded and determined Espinosa had stolen the snake from [a Garden City] PETCO," according to the report, which also stated that Espinosa was in possession of marijuana at the time of the accident. The snake is sold at Petco for $89, a store employee said.
Espinosa was treated and released from a hospital, and the snake was returned to its home at the store, police said.
Read more ...
About 10 of us had bunked down in the dormitory on Santa Cruz Forest Reserve on the banks of the Rio Mazan, about an hour and a half north of Iquitos, Peru. We had arrived earlier in the day after traveling southward from Madre Selva Biological Preserve on the more northerly Rio Orosa where we spent the last 5 days.
After several herp-filled hours in the field at Santa Cruz, most of us were were more than ready to call it a night. But it seemed that some of the herps weren't.
It began raining an hour earlier making use of digital cameras in the field difficult. Since we do allow some field collecting to assure that all tour participants have an opportunity to photo all herps found, there was a bag or two that contained snakes in the dorm. All would be photographed and released the following day.
Suddenly, from one end of the pitch black dorm came the query "Did one of you lose a snake?" Flashlights came on. Bags were checked. The answers from beneath 3 mosquito nets were "no," "no," and "no." All bags were secure.
"Well, I think there's a snake next to my bunk."
Instantaneously awake, we all clambered down to the far end of the dorm and, sure enough, stretched over the loose end of Jerry's mosquito netting was a beautiful 4 foot long Brazilian rainbow boa, Epicrates c. cenchria (these were once thought to be the Peruvian subspecies, E. c. gaigeae, but have now been synonymized with their better known Brazilian counterpart). We had seen several during that evening's walk and since everyone had taken photos, our visitor was taken outside and released.
You just can't help but love the Amazon.
More photos below ...
Continue reading "A nocturnal serpentine visitor"
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Bricun1!
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Wednesday, August 6 2014
A California tortoise had a brush with law enforcement after police picked him up near a city intersection.
![](/blog/uploads/TortiseintheCity8.5.14.jpg)
From Yahoo! News:
The roaming reptile, named Clark, was reunited with its human family on Sunday after it was spotted near the intersection of Sixth Street and Norwood Place, in the southeastern part of the city, at around 1 p.m. Saturday and retrieved by police.
Someone cornered Clark until officers arrived, Alhambra Police Department Sgt. Esther Rodriguez told ABC News in a Sunday interview.
"Since he was kind of heavy, two officers picked him up, put him in our trunk and transported him to our station," where he was placed in a kennel until Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control arrived shortly afterward, Rodriguez said.
Read more ...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Ophidiophile!
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Tuesday, August 5 2014
![](http://gallery.connectedbypets.com/data/77099fem_silver_3.jpg) If you have trouble keeping your garden free of slugs and mice, consider these tips to turn it into a snake sanctuary.
From the David Suzuki Foundation:
Tip 1: Avoid pesticides
Slug bait is harmful to snakes, other wildlife, children and pets!
Tip 2: Imitate nature
Avoid monocultures of plants that are planted in straight lines.
Tip 3: Use stones
Move objects like stones and slate carefully. They may be providing cover for your snake friends.
Read more ...
Photo: kingsnake user ssssnakeluver
Have you ever heard that old saying, "A frog is a frog is a frog"?
What? You haven't? Well, fret not! I don't think that I've ever heard it either. In fact, I'm neither sure that anybody has heard it, nor that it was ever said. But it is a truism. Just look at any ranid frog up here in the USA and then compare Rana palmipes, the Neotropical green frog of Amazonia, and the similarities are immediately apparent.
Lately, rather than a question of appearance, my question has become one of abundance of the latter species. One time, and one time only (20 years ago), in one locale on the Rio Nanay, I found dozens of this pretty taxon. But since then I have neither seen nor heard of this species being found in Amazonian Peru. As folks are now wont to say, what's up with that? This has just become a January 2015 target taxon!
More photos below...
Continue reading "A frog is a frog is a frog"
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