The Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) is caring for 521 tortoises seized at Ivato Airport in Madagascar.



From the TSA website:

On Sunday, May 11, 521 tortoises – all juveniles - were seized prior to being loaded on a Kenya Aiways flight to Nairobi; the smuggler ran away when his name was called by the information desk and was not apprehended. The shipment included 512 Radiated Tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) and nine Ploughshare Tortoises (Astrochelys yniphora) that were placed with the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) for initial care and safe keeping.

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Photo: TSA

Of course you like snakes. But do you want a snake robot slithering its way into your heart?

That's just what the Modsnake does -- as well as crawl around inside pipes and similar systems looking for damage, and just about anywhere else you'd like to send a snake cam.

Watch below:

The media usually doesn't do a very good job with its coverage of snake stories, so when it does, we take notice.

Compare these two articles: One uses science to tell its story, and one uses media panic.

London's Camden New Journal gives an overview of the discovery of a colony of around 30 Aesculapian snakes living nearby:

But the "non-native species" has been ranked "of high concern" by the London Invasive Species Initiative (LISI), a government advisory quango which has called for the "foreign" family of snakes to be eradicated. It claims, if not stopped, the snakes could spread, causing "serious negative impact" on the eco-system.

This tough-line stance was this week disputed by Dr Wolfgang Wuster, a snake venom expert and senior lecturer of the School of Biological

Science in Bangor University, who told the New Journal: "Any attempt to eradicate the Aesculapian snake would require justification of resources to be devoted to an almost certainly non-problematic introduced species with little prospects of spread, as opposed to the many far more damaging species already out there."

Sane. Balanced. Investigative, even.

Then there's the Daily Mail, whose coverage can be well-summed up by the headline: "Colony of killer snakes 'capable of crushing small children to death' on loose in London."

Of course we all know the Aesculapian snake (now Zamenis longissimus, previously Elaphe longissima, is built much like our native bull snakes. and obviously not large enough to kill a child. But why should that get in the way of some sleezy tabloid clickbait?

Photo: kingsnake.com user nechushtan

Check out this video "Baby Turtle eating raspberry," submitted by kingsnake.com user Minuet.
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While dad's out screwing around, glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni) embryos have to take care of themselves -- and they do.

From Discovery News:

(S)cientists discovered that glass-frog eggs hatched about 21 percent earlier on average when the fathers were removed. They hatched up to about 34 percent earlier when conditions were drier, suggesting that dehydration was the cue the eggs relied on to hatch early.

"Embryos can cope with delinquent dads," Delia said.

The researchers suggest this kind of embryo behavior may be common among species that provide care to eggs, such as insects, bony fishes and amphibians. "Variation in parental care seems to be the norm rather than the exception," Delia said.

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Photo: kingsnake.com user rockrox83

Fines from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill are being used to help save the lives of sea turtle hatchlings.

Disoriented by the lights of civilization, the newly-hatched turtles often blunder into traffic instead of the sea. By retrofitting nearby homes and businesses with LED lights, however, the risk to the baby tutles is dramatically reduced, because they operate on a frequency the hatchlings can't see.

From Scientific American:

A lot of the money to fund these retrofits comes out of criminal penalties from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which killed or otherwise affected an estimated 100,000 sea turtles. The first two years of the STC’s retrofit efforts were financed by the Recovered Oil Fund for Wildlife (which itself was created with money from Deepwater owner British Petroleum); the organization just received additional funding from the similar Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, both of which are administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

This restitution money, Godfrey says, "has allowed us to actually work with private property owners to go ahead and convert their lights, to work with them, to supplement the money they’re spending. We match money they put in. In some cases where the problem is particularly heinous and the property owners just don’t have the money to fix the problem, we can actually go in and do it for them. That funding mechanism, which has been made available following the spill, has allowed a lot of major progress on this issue."

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In case you ever wax nostalgic for the age of the giant reptiles, a quick read of The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi will probably change your mind.

In this image, for instance, the artist has depicted the events that must have led to a block of fossils found in Utah. Not exactly anyone's idea of a good time.



See more over on Wired Science.

Christian Dior fine jewelry creative director Victoire de Castellane likes snakes. If you like her beautiful designs, however, be prepared to bring a bucket of money -- prices start at $150,000 per piece.

Fortunately, looking is free.



Read more...

Check out this video "Leopard Gecko Morphs," submitted by kingsnake.com user PH FasDog.
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You don't normally think Burmese pythons when you hear about therapy animals helping kids, but that's just what they're doing at Nova’s Ark in Brooklin, Ont.



Read about it here.

Photo: MSN Canada

Now, see, this is what we mean when we say "decent media reporting about snakes where the reporter actually takes a few minutes to do his or her job," which is something we don't get to say much.

Sadly.

So thank you, Brian Hicks, of the Post and Courier, for pointing out that the media frenzy over the Gaboon viper threatening a small South Carolina town is probably based on... absolutely nothing.

Read it here.

Photo: Wikicommons, released to public domain

Check out this video "Boa on a stroll," submitted by kingsnake.com user Minuet.
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Nothing must ever happen in South Carolina, given the insane levels of hype over a supposed stray Gaboon viper roaming its streets. So with all that free time and dearth of current events to report on, you'd think the media could, you know... investigate? Or maybe just hit Wikipedia? Anything other than what they've been doing.

From the Charleston Post Courier:

Michelle Reid, of Animal Rescue and Relief, removed the traps and gear Monday after learning that the nearest any antivenin can be found is Africa, and the antivenin can't be brought to the United States until the Federal Food and Drug Administration approves it. She is trying to get that approval.

We thought this seemed implausible, so we checked with Jim Harrison over at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo. This is what he had to say:

Unfortunately, the media did no research on the subject. At the very least, two facilities carry South Africa polyvalent antivenin . They are Riverbanks Zoo and Alligator Adventure. We at Kentucky Reptile Zoo have over 30 vials at the moment of the antivenin. Further more, their experts are lacking as well with their information on trapping as well as the natural history of the Gaboon. It appears they may have spent their time watching Animal Planet rather than researching the real husbandry of the the species.

There's a few facts for you, South Carolina media. You're welcome.

Photo: Wikicommons, released to public domain