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, November 12 2014
![](http://gallery.connectedbypets.com/data/46833Picture_062-med.jpg) Asia's high demand for turtle meat is motivating the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to request greater protections for several types of exported turtles.
From Phys.org:
Faced with growing concerns about the hunting of freshwater turtles in the United States for Asian food markets, federal officials this week proposed adding four species to an international list of plants and animals designed to manage commercial trade in the reptiles.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday said that listing the common snapping turtle, Florida softshell turtle, smooth softshell turtle and spiny softshell turtle would allow it to better monitor exportation of these species, particularly to Asian nations, where turtle populations have been wiped out due to high demand for their meat.
Bringing the species under the protection of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora would require exporters to obtain a permit before shipping turtles overseas. That would help the federal agency determine the extent of legal and illegal exportation and decide whether additional conservation efforts were needed.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Alesha_Rae!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Tuesday, November 11 2014
Pierson, Kenny, and I had been out on Florida's western panhandle searching for brook, dusky, and dwarf salamanders. We had done okay and were now working our way back eastward stopping here and there to roll logs and dip our nets in whatever water was available.
We spent a lot of time sorting through aquatic vegetation, finding the tadpoles of various frogs, a few siren and amphiuma, a glossy crayfish snake or two, and in one net-full of vegetation, a neonate cottonmouth.
The finding of a cottonmouth in Florida is seldom worthy of comment for, although many snake species are somewhat harder to find than they once were, cottonmouths remain abundant.
When neonates, most are quite brilliantly colored in oranges, tans, and browns. But this baby, an intergrade between the eastern cottonmouth, Agkistrodon p. piscivorous, and the Florida subspecies, A. p. conanti, was clad in oranges that at some places bordered on red, bright tans, and deep browns, and was much prettier than most neonate cottonmouths.
In fact, I have not yet seen another that equals it.
Continue reading "The prettiest cottonmouth"
![](/blog/uploads/Machetesnake11.10.14.jpg) The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission faces tough questions about its barbaric rules for killing reptiles and amphibians.
From the Pocono Record:
You ask, "shouldn't they be equipped with fishing poles and nets instead of intimidating weapons?" If you are after fish, then the answer is yes. However, if your desire is to legally kill a timber rattlesnake, northern copperhead, snapping turtle or any other unlucky native reptile and amphibian then, these uncharacteristic slaying instruments were recommended to me by Thomas Burrell, Waterways Conservation Office Manager of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
Immediately, several questions come to mind, like:
Are you serious? Can you kill reptiles and amphibians, especially with machetes and clubs in this day and age? Can someone be guilty of cruelty to animals? Isn't the timber rattlesnake protected and is the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's goal to ensure that it stays off of its endangered species list?
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ke!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Monday, November 10 2014
![](/blog/uploads/Cobra11.6.14.jpg) DNA testing may hold the key to identifying the right antidote to use for snake bite victims.
From New Scientist:
Chappuis and his colleagues collected samples from the fang wounds of 749 people at three health centres in Nepal, amplified the DNA and sequenced it. They then looked for matches in a publicly available reference bank of DNA sequences.
They managed to identify the snake species responsible for 194 bites, 87 of which were from species whose venom is harmful to people – most commonly the spectacled cobra and the common krait.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user AJ01!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Friday, November 7 2014
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user anialady!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Check out this video "Watching You," 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!
Thursday, November 6 2014
Although I had encountered Couch's spadefoots, Scaphiopus couchii, pretty much throughout their range in the United States, I had never happened across a breeding congress such as I was then listening to in southern Sonora, Mexico.
Created by the seasonal rains (known as "monsoons"), a newly flooded playa stretched ahead of us in the darkness as far as the beams of our flashlights could penetrate. Spadefoots in the hundreds, probably actually in the low thousands, sat at the edges, floated in the shallows, and continued to access the still enlarging puddle from all sides.
Fortunately it was late and only an occasional vehicle traveled the busy road next to which we were parked. Most of the frogs and toads that attempted to cross made the trip safely.
The incessant bleats of the Couch's spadefoots dominated the chorus, but the quacks, trills, peeps, and burps of other anuran taxa were impossible to ignore.
Couch's spadefoots are little (two to two and a half inch) yellowish "toads" that often have overtones of army green or brown. Like other spadefoots, they have a single heel spade. But in the case of the Couch's spadefoot, the spade tends to be elongated and sickle-shaped rather the the "teardrop" shape of other species.
Unlike the true toads, all spadefoots have vertically elliptical pupils, a definite giveaway.
Continue reading " Sonora: Couch's spadefoots"
![](/blog/uploads/LeopardFrogNew.jpg) The Big Apple is home to a small frog with a very distinctive croak.
From Wired:
The new species, which biologists are calling the Atlantic Coast leopard frog, was hiding in plain sight. Besides its croak, the new species is nearly indistinguishable from several other frog species living in the area. As detailed today in PLoS ONE, the researchers were able to make the identification after comparing the DNA, appearance, and croaking noises of hundreds of frogs.
The authors, led by Jeremy Feinberg of Rutgers University, first announced their suspicions of the new species in 2012, when they reported that familiar-looking frogs with unfamiliar croaks were hopping around the wetlands near Yankee Stadium. Although the coloration of the Atlantic Coast leopard frog is very similar to that of other leopard frogs, its distinctive croak, which sounds like a simple, repeated “chuck,” sets it apart.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ahas!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Wednesday, November 5 2014
![](/blog/uploads/Dragonfire11.4.14.jpg) Unlike a mythical dragon, bearded dragons and fire don't go together.
From The Daily Mail:
Crews were called to a terraced house in Bolton, Greater Manchester, just before 11am this morning when a fire began behind the fridge-freezer.
When firefighters arrived they found a woman outside with her two husky dogs, who told them her pet lizard was still inside as smoke poured from the kitchen.
They found the bearded dragon in its tank and took it out to the fire engine where medics treated it with oxygen therapy.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user emysbreeder!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Tuesday, November 4 2014
![](http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/80197IMG_0749-med.JPG) Just when you thought the Discovery Channel couldn't sink any lower. Just when you thought reality TV couldn't get any stupider. Along comes " Eaten Alive," wherein the Discovery Channel will dress a man in a "snake-proof suit" and lett an anaconda eat him alive.
It's not just stupid, it's cruel to the snake. It's not like we don't know what the insides of an anaconda look like, so there's no scientific value.
In fact, the only thing they're "discovering" is how low their audience will go.
Photo: kingsnake.com user mjf
![](/blog/uploads/Goldentoad11.4.14.jpg) It may be possible to estimate the number of extinctions in the past 100 years, but this photo collection shows that it is hard to truly quantify the damage done when a species disappears.
From Pixable:
Below, take a look at every animal (except insects, which are extremely difficult to catalogue but which you can find here) that went extinct in just the last 100 years. The list is based on research provided by the Sixth Extinction, a website created to “enhance free public access to information about recently extinct species,” and in order of their approximate date of extinction. We’ve included all the animals confirmed extinct by the IUCN, and added a few more declared extinct by other credible individuals and organizations.
Read more...
By sundown the towering cumulus were clouding the southwestern sky. Only a few minutes later the clouds were nearer, thunder was rumbling incessantly and bolts of lightning were spearing the heavens. We started eastward then decided to leave the pavement and drive along a sandy desert road. Good choice. A big boa, Boa constrictor ssp., had started to cross.
Although small for a boa (5 to 7 feet) and of dark coloration, this heavy-bodied snake was among our target species on this trip.
Brad and I were in southern Sonora, Mexico. The last time I had been there, about 4 years earlier, this northwestern Mexican state was in the midst of a several year drought and herp movement had been at a minimum. At that time, after seeing only a few leopard frogs and spiny-tailed iguanas, I quickly headed straight back to the border and spent a few days in Arizona before heading home.
But this time, not only was there promise of rain, there was ample evidence that the seasonal monsoons had arrived in the form of dampened earth, replete roadside ponds, chorusing anurans and the boa then on the road before us.
That evening it had poured for well over an hour and the herp activity was spectacular. Before returning to our motel we had seen and photographed more than 20 species. Among these were 4 boas of fair size.
What a difference the rains made.
Continue reading "Northern Mexican boas"
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user rod_mcleod!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Monday, November 3 2014
![](/blog/uploads/SnakeCoffin.jpg) Have any mummy trick-or-treaters this year? What about mummified snakes?
From io9:
Ancient Egyptians didn't prepare only human bodies for the afterlife; cats, baboons, crocodiles, canines, and birds have all been found mummified. But there's something particularly delightful about this long and skinny coffin for snake.
This coffin is part of the Brooklyn Museum's collection and it's dated 664-30 BCE, sometime during the Late Period to the Ptolemaic Period.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Rick Staub!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Saturday, November 1 2014
![](http://gallery.connectedbypets.com/data/109396DSCF1025.JPG-med.jpg) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed including the common snapping turtle ( Chelydra serpentina), Florida softshell turtle ( Apalone ferox), smooth softshell turtle ( Apalone mutica), and spiny softshell turtle ( Apalone spinifera) in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES or Convention), including live and dead whole specimens, and all readily recognizable parts, products, and derivatives.
The Fish and Wildlife Services feels that listing these four native U.S. freshwater turtle species (including their subspecies, except Apalone spinifera atra, which is already included in Appendix I of CITES) in Appendix III of CITES is necessary to allow us to adequately monitor international trade in these species; to determine whether exports are occurring legally, with respect to State and Federal law; and to determine whether further measures under CITES or other laws are required to conserve these species.
To read the USFWS proposal in its entirety and to file a response, please review the USFWS announcement at the Federal Register website. Comments on this proposed rulemaking action must be submitted by December 29, 2014, for consideration.
Gallery photo by kingsnake user d156156156
Friday, October 31 2014
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Snakeskii!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Check out this video "Scary Snake," 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!
Thursday, October 30 2014
It had been another 109 degree day in Texas's Big Bend. Not only had the day been hot, but a couple of hours after sundown the heat of the day was still palpable. As it approached 11:00PM, the thermometer was still registering 99 degrees Fahrenheit. But at least at 50 miles per hour we had a breeze on these mountain roads.
On this, our last night in the Big Bend region, we were varying our tactics. We'd drive a while, then check a couple of roadcuts, then drive some more. By midnight the temperature had plummeted - to 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Pocket mice and kangaroo rats skittered and hopped across the roadway. My search for a Texas lyre snake continued, but showed little promise of fulfillment. I worked one side of a roadcut. Jake worked the other. I found a female black widow with egg cases, Jake found a...
Well, I didn't know exactly what Jake found until well after the fact. In a kidding manner, Jake had mentioned finding an iconic gray-banded kingsnake, Lampropeltis alterna, at the end of the cut but I hadn't seen it. Although he continued to kid, I somehow failed to take him seriously - and he still hadn't shown me the snake!
He did flash his light at me a few times, just before I returned empty-handed to the car. I thought he just wanted to be picked up. So that's what I did. I picked him up and we made another run out the road and back. It was still a roasting night and even at 2:30AM the only snakes we saw were a few western diamondbacks and a single juvenile Mohave.
The next day during the long drive home we compared notes and Jake made a comment or two about gray-banded kingsnakes. The comments went right over my head. In only a matter of hours we were unloading Jake at his house and he was grinning all the while like a Cheshire Cat!
At the end he made some comment like, "Whoops. I forgot that bag in back of my seat. Could you get it and check it for me?" I could and did. Gray-banded kingsnake. A big one. A beauty of the gray banded phase. I was the last to know. Hoodwinked! Jake was laughing so hard at my amazement that he could hardly stand.
Our trip had been even better than I had known.
More photos below...
Continue reading "An unsuspected gray-band"
![](/blog/uploads/Newt10.30.14.jpg) How old were you when you started studying herps? Callum Ullman-Smith has been at it for years - and he's only twelve.
From The Press and Journal:
He has dedicated his free time over the past three years studying a set of nine rock pools on the shore of Loch Alsh, near Reraig.
His Loch Alsh studies have unearthed an unexpected breeding population of palmate newts and has been monitoring their numbers.
It is an unusual find because the newts generally live in freshwater, rather than the more challenging conditions of the sea loch.
His work has been noticed by the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust who have invited him to present his findings to the experts at the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Symposium in Edinburgh this weekend.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user apeltes!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Wednesday, October 29 2014
![](http://gallery.connectedbypets.com/data/177352Beach_Turtle-med.JPG) Florida officials reported strong nesting numbers for several threatened species of sea turtle.
From the Associated Press:
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the number of loggerhead turtle nests remained high and the number of leatherback turtle nests reached a record this year.
Researchers surveyed more than 800 miles of Florida beaches for two reports that document the number of nests and nesting trends.
Read more...
It's our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user draybar!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Tuesday, October 28 2014
Successful though our trip to the Big Bend region of West Texas had been, Jake still didn't have an opportunity to hunt roadcuts for the fabled gray-banded kingsnake. Of course, since this was Jake's first trip to the "Bend" he was interested in photographing nearly anything he could and would see, be it a black widow or a crevice lizard.
But I was being a bit more selective. Having, over the years, found more than my share of gray-bands, I was primarily interested in finding a Texas lyre snake, a dweller of the rocky deserts and roadcuts that eluded me for the more than 60 years I sought it.
Guess what? It eluded me again just as the gray-band had so far eluded Jake. In fact, I was beginning to wonder whether we should be road-hunting rather than walking the cuts. Were we just wasting our time by walking? So far all we had seen was heavy traffic. But my outlook quickly changed when Jake, suddenly brought up short in mid-stride, stated "Milksnake" and asked "What kind is out here?"
My mind stopped working when I heard milksnake. I knew that the subspecies would be the beautiful New Mexico milk, Lampropeltis triangulum celaenops, a snake I had found elsewhere in its range but never in the Big Bend.
As I turned and hustled towards Jake I saw him bend and pick up a wriggling candycane, one of the prettiest New Mexican milks I have yet seen. I just couldn't imagine this subspecies getting much brighter than the example Jake was holding. When you check out the 3 accompanying pictures, I think you'll agree.
Our walk had suddenly taken on a far more favorable aspect.
More photos below...
Continue reading "An unexpected kingsnake"
![](/blog/uploads/Virginsnake10.27.14.jpg) For the first time, parthenogenesis (or virgin birth) has occurred with a reticulated python.
From National Georgraphic:
"Pythons are an old, ancient species. We've seen this in more advanced species like garter snakes," said Booth, adding that the discovery helps scientists learn more about the snakes' evolutionary family tree.
It's still a mystery as to why parthenogenesis happens, though Booth hypothesizes that geographic isolation from males and captivity may have a lot to do with it.
In Thelma's case, her virgin birth may have been triggered by ideal living conditions, zoo curator McMahan speculates.
Read more...
|