The family of the late Steve Irwin has come under criticism for their work with crocodiles and other animals.

From Smithsonian Magazine:

“It’s an honor and a privilege to work with the largest living reptile and largest terrestrial predator on the planet,” Robert tells me in the singsong tone of his television-ready family. “An awesome animal that roamed the primeval landscape for millions and millions of years.”

Daisy’s sawtooth tail whips the prone boy to the left. “The jaw pressure of the crocodile is incredible—3,000 pounds per square inch!”

Daisy’s tail whips him to the right. “I so admire the crocodile’s ability to kill with just its teeth. It’s quite amazing!”

Robert’s 16-year-old sister, Bindi, looks on solicitously. An actor, singer, game show host and, last year, a People cover girl, she’s confirming Daisy’s gender by inserting a finger into its cloaca and feeling around for genitalia. “It’s a girl!” she says. Her smile conveys a disarming buoyancy. “Here’s an animal that many people think is just a stupid, evil, ugly monster which kills people. That’s so not true!”

Read more here.

Fences designed to protect woodland habitats in Canberra are having unintended consequences for the herp population.

From ABC Australia:

Lead author Bruno Ferronato said more than 100 animals died because the fence restricted their natural movement patterns.

"Usually they will move to other ponds, usually during springtime, looking for ponds to feed," the University of Canberra researcher told 666 ABC Canberra.

"The fence is interrupting with the migratory habits of turtles. When they're trying to move between ponds they're hitting the fence and some of the animals are dying there."

Read more here.

Our Herp Video of the Week is the arrival of a new Iguana named Phoenix to the family.



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Unlike the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, eastern coral snakes have the same venom, no matter where they're found.

From Genes to Genomes:

In a recent issue of GENETICS, Darin Rokyta and colleagues reported the results of a large survey of venom diversity across two snake species sharing nearly identical ranges and similar habitats in the southeastern United States. As expected, the mix in one species—the eastern diamondback rattlesnake—varied considerably from place to place. But the eastern coral snakes told a completely different story. In contrast to its rattlesnake neighbors, no matter where a coral snake came from, its venom was always the same.

Rokyta says the team was shocked by this lack of variation. “This is the first time anyone has looked at venom variation at this scale, and everybody has assumed that the co-evolutionary arms race would cause local populations to diverge quickly.”

The results not only challenge this assumption, they provide crucial information for rattlesnake conservation and coral snake antivenom development.

Read more here.

The failure to reintroduce relic leopard frogs in a Nevada pond shows that conservation is a constant battle.

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Clark County and the Nevada Department of Wildlife spent about five years trying to get the rare frog to thrive at a pond along the Muddy River. But nearly 2,000 frogs later, the county scuttled an agreement Feb. 3 with state wildlife officials after multiple failed efforts. It’s likely now that no frogs live at the pond, county officials say.

In a way, frogs and other amphibians are a barometer of an area’s overall environmental health. Their moist skin doesn’t take kindly to environmental hazards in the air. Nor will frogs survive if water, the lifeblood of their natural environment, disappears.

The relict leopard frog’s plight isn’t unusual in the amphibian world. Amphibians throughout the U.S. and worldwide are in decline, according to a 2013 federal report.

But don’t count out this particular frog just yet. Officials aren’t giving up on the tiny 2-inch frog, believed to be extinct in the 1950s.

The county hasn’t put all of its frogs in one pond.

Read more here.

Have you seen this amazing picture of a frog riding a beetle? The photographer tells the story of how he captured the incredible images.

From GMA News:

No, this is no camera trick: this frog is indeed riding this rhinoceros beetle, cowboy-style.

Indonesian wildlife photographer Hendy Mp captured the scene near his house in Sambas in Kalimatan Barat in Indonesia, UK's Daily Mail reported.

The Daily Mail report said the "rodeo"—in which the Reinwardt's Flying Frog jumped on top of the woodboring beetle and put its front leg in the air—lasted no more than five minutes.

Read more here.

Hundreds of toads in the UK die as they try to cross roads during migration, so volunteers for Toad Watch are getting ready to help them out.

From itv.com:

A training workshop is being held today in Midhurst in collaboration with the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. The free raining will be provided on a number of aspects of toad conservation.

Common toads are very particular about their breeding sites, often returning to ancestral breeding ponds each year from hibernation areas. They will follow the same migratory route, often moving as an entire colony, which will inevitably lead to having to cross roads.

Read more here.

The authorities in Mexico have stopped traffickers that were abusing and selling animals.

From Fox News Latino:

The discovery in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, was the result of a joint investigation by Profepa and the Attorney General's Office.

Officers found a freezer containing 40 dead animals, among them 17 python regius snakes, two sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), two eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), two black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus), one squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) and one cotton-top tamarind (Saguinus Oedipus).

They also found one parrot (Psittacidae), two common kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), three water monitor lizards (Varanus salvator), two swamp crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletti), four Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus), one corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus) and red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas).

Read more here.


Photo by kingsnake.com use ke.

Home to some of the rarest crocodile species, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust is fundraising to bolster their work.

From the New Indian Express:

Meanwhile, even as it is struggling to raise the money needed for undertaking its initiatives, the facility also has to rebuild a portion of it which would be affected by the ongoing road widening work.

“The front counter and the entrance office will go. So we are planning to revamp the frontage and three exhibits near the entrance first,” said Zahida.

The MCBT and Center for Herpetology was started in 1976 by Herpetologist and reptile conservationist Romulus Earl Whitaker, and was the first crocodile breeding centre in Asia, set up to save the dwindling crocodile population and preserve snakes.

Read more here.

California's flat-tailed horned lizard is a candidate for endangered species protection, and further research may give it permanent protected status.

From the Yuma Sun:

"From our perspective the most important thing is now the state is going to have to be consulted on for any development that happens within the flat-tailed horned lizard habitat," she said.

There is dispute over whether the species is in fact declining, and how many live in the dunes. A biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, Larry LePre, told the Yuma Sun in December the dunes aren't prime habitat since they don't have many of the harvester ants which are the basis of the lizards' diet, and there's no reliable data to suggest they're going up or down in numbers, mostly because they're difficult to detect.

The BLM, which maintains the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, is part of a joint Rangewide Management Strategy for the species covering almost 500 acres in California and Arizona. The center's petition contends this is inadequate since most of the land is open to off-road vehicle use.

Read more here.

Hundreds of live and dead reptiles were found in cigarette containers and children's books, as men tried to smuggle them out of Perth Airport.

From the Daily Mail:

Skinks, geckos, frogs, pygmy pythons, and a dead death adder - one of the most venomous snakes in the world - were found in the staggering haul.

A number of invertebrates and 33 dead reptiles, which appear to have been tagged for use as specimens, were also discovered amongst more than 157 reptiles and amphibians being transported out of Western Australia.

Four men were arrested and charged - two from Russia and two from the Czech Republic - at Perth International Airport on February 6 after an investigation by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and the WA Department of Parks and Wildlife.

Read more here.

No matter how often we see turtles eat, it never fails to bring a smile to our faces. Never stop dreaming the big dreams!



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Alligators have a natural immunity to infection that could help humans combat bacterial illness.

From Bay News:

The government-funded study took place at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park over the past four years.

"Alligators live in a pretty inhospitable environment, “ said Barney Bishop, one of the lead researchers. “Many of them live in stagnant water where there is lots of bacteria. And while they are predators, they also eat carrion, so they must have a robust immune system to fend off infection in these situations."

The researchers were able to isolate those infection-fighting peptides in the alligator blood. The hope is to use alligator blood as battlefield medicine. Soldiers wounded in battle are vulnerable to bacteria, such as MRSA. Alligators have a natural resistance.

Read more here.

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