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, September 25 2014
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user davemangham!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Wednesday, September 24 2014
![](/blog/uploads/Cassius9.23.14.jpg) George Craig rescued the world's largest captive crocodile and has cared for him for nearly 30 years.
From the Daily Mail:
George captured Cassius in 1987 from a river in the Northern Territory, where he was notorious for his huge size - and was under threat of being hunted down and killed by the local population.
Cassisus, who is missing his front left leg and tip of his tail due to vicious fights, was deemed a massive threat to humans after attacking boats.
So George set about capturing him to save his life, and bringing him to live in his sanctuary.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user joanmas!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Tuesday, September 23 2014
"Wow! Look at that old place."
"I'll be darned. That's a pump house, Jake. It's been a while since I last saw one of these."
I pulled the car onto the shoulder and we piled out to take a better look. Fond memories came flooding back. Pump houses, you see, were the rat snake meccas of a formative and much enjoyed yesteryear.
Occasional cars and trucks traveled Route US27 south from Clewiston, Florida to Miami. Then a two lane thoroughfare, US27 was lined for miles along the east shoulder and to a somewhat lesser extent along the west shoulder with Australian pines, willows and some Brazilian pepper.
Sod fields and sugar cane were just coming into their own and these crops were irrigated by immense gasoline pumps that were protected from the elements by roofing tin and 2x4 or cinderblock structures termed pump houses. And to these structures, seeking shelter, came the rat patrols of the crops, the Everglades rat snakes, the corn snakes, the peninsula and scarlet kingsnakes and the occasional barn owls. And, of course, to the pump houses and snakes came the seekers of snakes, both hobbyist and commercial. This seemingly normal progression of events continued for years, but eventually all things changed - modernized, if you will.
Route US27 is a now huge four to six lane road with traffic streaming steadily in both directions. In the widening (and return to native species) process, 95% of the Australian pines have been removed. Sod and cane fields have expanded exponentially, redesigning much of the south-central Florida land corridor.
Irrigation techniques have modernized and pump houses - the snake meccas - are no longer needed. Those that stood and acted as snake refuges for decades have, often with the help of careless snake hunters, toppled or disintegrated. They have become things of the past, merely memories to the elder snake seekers and totally unknown entities to the newer herpers.
It was little wonder that I was surprised to find this pump house still standing and in relatively good shape. Neither it nor the several others we found that afternoon contained snakes, but being as modernized as the surroundings they contained herpetological newcomers: Cuban treefrogs and African agamas. We were, however, saddened to find a fresh DOR corn snake on the road in front of one.
In those "old days" when traffic was light and when you could look westward from Route US27 and see waving sawgrass rather than waving sugarcane, when there were more snakes and far more snake habitat both natural and artificial, the many pump houses reigned supreme.
More photos below...
Continue reading "Pump house - snake hotels"
![](http://gallery.connectedbypets.com/data/145868Hypo_Granite-med.JPG) What does conservation really mean? And, perhaps more importantly, how do we achieve it?
Living Alongside Wildlife has a fascinating four-part story by Jon Hakim about the Bangladesh Python Project, which is an organization devoted to conserving herps in Bangladesh.
Working primarily in the Lawachara National Park, the Bangladesh Python Project tracks, monitors, and studies snakes, frogs, tortoises, and all manner of herps found in and around the park. The Project and its founder, Shahriar Caesar Rahman, also work with the over 30,000 people who live in the park.
It's this relationship with the local villagers that brings questions about conservation into sharp relief:
If the tortoises, pythons, monkeys, pigs, and other wildlife that call the park home are to have any chance at a future, it'll have to be one where humans and wildlife learn how to accept each other's presence, despite the damage and take that will occur on both sides. Over the course of my nine days in Lawachara, I found that the Bangladesh Python Project had made impressive strides in moving towards coexistence, and that it had a long, long ways to go.
A python that enters a village and kills a villager's ducks has damaged the livelihood of a person who is already living in poverty and depends on all the resources he has to survive.
Yet the pythons aren't invaders; they were here first. How can conservationists find the right balance between protecting endangered reptiles and amphibians and understanding human concerns? How can they best forge relationships with locals and educate them about herps' importance to the ecosystem?
Hakim's series raises these questions and more.
Part one.
Part two.
Part three.
Part four.
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Christy Talbert!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Monday, September 22 2014
![](http://gallery.connectedbypets.com/data/10600firefly_male-med.jpg) A viral origin for a fatal respiratory disease found in captive ball pythons may have been identified.
From Science Daily:
Investigators observed the virus, which they named ball python nidovirus, in eight snakes with pneumonia; virus levels were highest in the animals' lungs and other respiratory tract tissues. The team also sequenced the genome of the virus, finding it to be the largest of any RNA virus yet described.
Ball pythons have become one of the most popular types of reptiles sold and kept as pets, the authors said, because of their relatively modest size, docile behavior and ease of care. Respiratory disease has been noted in these animals since the 1990s but until now a potential cause has not been identified, said senior study author Joseph L. DeRisi, PhD, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, in part because of the limitations of available technology.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user BoaZilla!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Friday, September 19 2014
Check out this video "Lizard Greets Man Like a Dog," submitted by kingsnake.com user Minuet.
Submit your own reptile & amphibian videos at http://www.kingsnake.com/video/ and you could see them featured here or check out all the videos submitted by other users!
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user amazoa!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Thursday, September 18 2014
Patti and I stood in front of the beautifully planted terrarium at the National Aquarium in Baltimore talking with Jack Cover. Jack, the General Curator, seemed justifiably proud of the success being had with the beautiful taxon we were watching: the Panamanian Golden Frog, Atelopus zeteki.
We watched as the frogs, yellow or yellow with black spots, moved slowly about their terrarium. Although they sometimes moved in short hops, more often they progressed in a deliberate hand-over-hand manner. Hand waving, a form of silent communication, was frequently used by the frogs.
Learning that this frog was almost extirpated in the wild (since 2007, no wild examples have been found) lent sadness to the beauty and enjoyment we were experiencing at the aquarium.
I first met the Panamanian golden frog, Atelopus zeteki, back in the 1960s when it was still a subspecies of A. varius and known as A. varius zeteki. At that time it was inexpensively, but only occasionally, available in the North American pet trade.
Through the years, the golden frog withstood not only the ravages of over-collecting, but of deforestation that resulted in habitat losses and increasing pollution of the streams along which it lived. But this frog, like many others, was not able to withstand the onslaught of chytridiomycosis, the now famous amphibian fungus disease that rose from virtual obscurity to formidable prominence in the 1990s. As researchers are wont to say, the disease (specifically Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) knew no boundaries, affecting and killing frog populations both in and out of protected areas.
But back to the aquarium now: We were encouraged to further learn that there are more than 4 dozen participating facilities in the recovery program for this endangered anuran. Still lacking, however, is a program to reintroduce this taxon safely to the wild; to the wild where the pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, is still lurking.
More photos below...
Continue reading "Panama's gorgeous and endangered golden frog"
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user tapython!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Wednesday, September 17 2014
![](/blog/uploads/Siamesecrocs.jpg) The Wildlife Conservation Society released seventeen endangered Siamese crocodiles in Laos as part of their program to work with local villages to strengthen the crocodile population.
From National Geographic:
The release of the crocodiles is part of the Community-based Crocodile Recovery and Livelihood Improvement Project, designed and implemented by WCS’s Lao PDR Program. ”The program has three key objectives,” WCS explained in its statement today, “contributing to local livelihoods by improving coordination of water resource use and zoning of lands used in local agriculture; conserving and restoring crocodile wetland habitat important for local livelihoods, crocodiles, and other species; and replenishing the crocodile population in the wetland complex and surveying and monitoring the current population.”
The program has worked with nine villages – each village has a “Village Crocodile Conservation Group” (VCCG) to coordinate implementation of program activities in the Xe Champone wetland complex and surrounding areas.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Chuck H.!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Tuesday, September 16 2014
![](/blog/uploads/sicksnake.jpg) A fungal disease responsible for killing millions of bats may have spread to snakes.
From Saporta Report:
Bats are dying from the white-nose disease, which has killed an estimated 5.7 million bats and driven one species found in Georgia to the brink of extinction. Researchers plan to count the bat population in Rabun County next week as part of the effort to monitor the disease. Experienced volunteers are welcome to participate.
Now snakes are a concern. The first wild snake in Georgia to be diagnosed with snake fungal disease was found on the edge of a blackwater swamp near Statesboro, and the implication is the disease could be spreading.
The fungus associated with white-nose disease shares similarities with the one connected to snake fungal disease, including that it occurs naturally in soil, according to a statement from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Read more...
Ranging in Atlantic versant tropical forests from Mexico southward to Panama, the spiny-headed tree frog, Anotheca spinosa, is a beautiful and unique hylid species.
It is the only species in the genus Anotheca. Although it may occasionally call from arboreal bromeliads, it is more often found and heard in treehole situations. It is easier to find by following the hollow-booping nocturnal calls to their source than by sight.
Interestingly, the eggs are deposited above the water level and take nearly a week to develop and hatch. The light colored larvae darken within a few days after hatching into typically dark tadpoles. The tadpoles feed on various aquatic organisms including unfertilized eggs produced at several day intervals when the female returns to the breeding site.
Laying of these food-eggs seems induced by nudging the female by the tadpoles. As an aside, this tree frog has now been bred in captivity, and it is from these captive breedings that we have learned much of the reproductive biology.
Anotheca is a relatively large hylid with adults varying between 2 1/2 and 3 1/4 inches. The pattern of variably sized dark spots and blotches against a grayish ground color produces a pleasing but easily overlooked camouflaged tree frog.
Metamorphs and juveniles lack the head spines from which both common and specific names are derived, but on adults the coronet of conical spines is very apparent.
More photos below...
Continue reading "Spiny-headed tree frog"
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user the4thmonkey!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Monday, September 15 2014
![](/blog/uploads/2headedsnake.jpg) A rare two-headed snake was found by a Turkish farmer.
From BBC News:
The young snake appears to belong to the Coluber genus of thin-bodied, fast-moving snakes commonly known as racers. Cuneyt Alpguven, who works at Antalya Aquarium's reptile house, says two-headed snakes are very rare and have little chance of surviving in the wild. "Being two-headed is a major disadvantage, because its anatomical structure makes it more vulnerable to attacks while it also draws the attention of predators."
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user carlovandun!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Friday, September 12 2014
Check out this video "Snapping Turtle refuses to move," submitted by kingsnake.com user Minuet.
Submit your own reptile & amphibian videos at http://www.kingsnake.com/video/ and you could see them featured here or check out all the videos submitted by other users!
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user RobertSmolka!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Thursday, September 11 2014
![](/blog/uploads/lat-la-me-cobra-la0020898506-20140903.jpg) Is the albino cobra recently captured in Los Angeles a domesticated animal?
According to the dictionary, "domestication: means:
to adapt (an animal or plant) to life in intimate association with and to the advantage of humans
According to Wikepedia:
Domestication (from Latin domesticus: "of the home") is the process whereby a population of living organisms is changed at thegenetic level, through generations of selective breeding, to accentuate traits that ultimately benefit the interests of humans.
By all above descriptions the albino cobra is indeed domesticated. This animal, with its inability to blend properly and camoflauge itself is unable to thrive in the wild, and was bred in captivity to specifically as a pet.
Reptile keepers universally agree that secure caging is part of responsible ownership. Does this mean escapes will never happen?
Of course not. Dogs and cats escape daily by the thousands. Stray pets end up at shelters from incidents as simple as a cat sneaking out of the door while groceries are being brought in or dogs accidentally getting out of a fenced yard due to human error. These incidents are far more common than a reptile escape.
While stray animals of all types happen, the fact is for the number of reptiles owned in the U.S., the percentage of escaped pets is exceptionally low.
Yes, it's dangerous when a venomous snake escapes. However, a snake such as the albino cobra would have been easily preyed upon due to its inability to hide properly. This is a big reason the snake was easily captured.
Kenny had a break in his scholastic pursuits and wanted to see a mink frog, Rana (Lithobates) septentrionalis.
I had a bit of time to spare, and the birding side of me wanted to see trumpeter swans and common loons and the herping side wanted more and better photos of the odoriferous little mink frog. Mink frogs are a green frog lookalike of the boreal climes that are named for their smell. The back and sides of this frog may bear large spots, small spots, or be reticulated.
We hopped in the car and started northward. Fifteen hundred miles later, we were at Seney National Wildlife Refuge in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. A quick palaver with the refuge biologist and we were on our way to the first of four ponds that this little frog called home.
We slowed for a bend in the road and a half dozen trumpeter swans swam rapidly away from the shoreline. Tick. We stopped at pond one. Green frogs were abundant, but no mink frogs were in sight. We continued to pond two. Same scenario. Lots of greens, no minks. As we continued to pond three, we drove by an immense lake and, as if waiting for us, a pair of common loons floated on the near side of a bed of emergent vegetation. Tick.
Pond three, heavily vegetated, held a few green frogs. There, floating, one front foot on a lily-pad, about 3 feet from shore was a single mink frog. The trip had been a success. Now we had only the 1,500 miles back to Florida and we could take a breather.
More photos below ...
Continue reading "Mink frogs"
![](/blog/uploads/Tort9.8.14.jpg) Authorities are searching for someone who shot and killed a desert tortoise being tracked by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
From AZ Central:
She was the second tortoise in a Game and Fish study to have a transmitter affixed to her, which had been providing researchers information about the reclusive reptile's movements since 2010. Fourteen other juvenile tortoises in the program have transmitters.
Anyone with information about this killing can call the department's Operation Game Thief hotline toll-free at (800) 352-0700 or visit www.azgfd.gov/thief and refer to case #14-002388. Callers may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Mantafish!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Wednesday, September 10 2014
![](/blog/uploads/SnakeMilk9.8.14.jpg) Why risk your own health by milking snakes? So others can benefit.
From The Mirror:
The pair run the Kentucky Reptile Zoo full-time, a non-profit relying solely on people coming through the gates and the sale of venom.
Kristen added: "Almost any venomous snake is capable of causing severe injury but you are pretty unlikely to die if you get appropriate medical care.
"It's unlikely here as we do everything we can to get appropriate care and have anti-venom on site for everything anti-venom is made for.
"We both believe what we're doing is a good thing - it saves lives."
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cochran!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Tuesday, September 9 2014
When I think of the tiger salamander-like axolotl (pronounced ax-oh-lot-ul), Ambystoma mexicanum, my mind drifts back to the 1960s and rather than the genetic oddities of today, it is images of albinos, leucistics, and normals that I first picture. In those days there were few breeders of this salamander, with the primary source being the research colony at Indiana University.
The species is now apparently known primarily (if not exclusively) from the Chalco wetlands region south of Mexico City where the wild examples are now at least marginally protected.
The axolotl is a neotenic (paedomorphic/perennibranchiate) salamander. Simply stated, it is a salamander that rarely metamorphoses, and is capable of attaining sexual maturity while in its larval state. As a larva, the axolotl retains its 3 pairs of bushy gills, has non-protuberant, lidless eyes, and has a noticeable vertebral fin and pronounced caudal fins.
Dermal glands of this aquatic salamander also differ from those of the rare terrestrial adults. Adult size is normally between 8 and 11 inches, but 12 inch long examples have been seen. Appendages such as feet, legs, and tail parts, can be regenerated if lost or damaged.
Hatchling and juvenile axolotls can be (and often are) cannibalistic and are best kept singly, but subadults and adults are relatively peaceful. A 2-gallon aquarium is large enough for an adult and as long as the water is kept clean (changed every day or two), filtration is neither needed nor preferred. Chloramines and chlorine should be removed from the axolotl's water.
Today, axolotls of many colors (several albino forms including the very beautiful gold albino, normal, melanic, piebald, and leucistic, GFP varieties that glow under black lights, and other genetic colors) are readily and inexpensively available. This morning I noticed axolotls of most colors and sizes being advertised on Kingsnake.com. No longer are hobbyists restricted to a single source.
For more information, I suggest that you peruse Susan T. Duhon's paper, Short Guide to Axolotl Husbandry. This helpful and easily understood paper may currently be found online here.
More photos below...
Continue reading "Axolotls"
![](/blog/uploads/Catcher9.8.14.jpg) Rokkam Kiran Kumar spent ten years rescuing snakes in residential India, and now he wants to take it a step further by educating others in snake safety.
From The Hindu:
Acknowledging his decade-long efforts, he was recently given official permission to rescue snakes by the Chief Wildlife Warden with the support of the Conservator of Forest.
“On an average, I rescue five to six snakes in a day. But some days, I get more than 30 calls and it is difficult for me attend to all of them,” said Kiran. In order to address this issue, Kiran has recently registered his society called ‘Snakes Saver Society’ and formed a team with 16 other members, whom he has trained to catch and rescue snakes. “We now want to reach out to city schools and colleges and conduct awareness workshops on snakes and how to be safe,” he said. “There are about 250 species of snakes found in the region, but only a handful of them are venomous,” he said.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Serpentin!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
|