Yet another cobra is on the loose, this time in Orlando Florida, and this time it's an 8 foot king cobra.

The green and yellow venomous snake was reported missing by its owner Wednesday from a home on North Apopka Vineland Road used as an exotic animal rescue, TV station WFTV reports, citing Florida Fish and Wildlife. The snake’s owner is licensed to own exotic animals and followed proper reporting procedures when it was discovered the reptile was missing.

FWC officials are canvassing the area and ask that anyone who comes across the snake to call FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922 and urge residents not to approach the animal.

To read more check out the news article at WFTV

It's not just you. It's your frog too.

Give a female frog two potential mating options, an attractive frog and an unattractive frog, and she’ll pick the attractive frog nearly every time, but if you throw in a third, less attractive frog, all bets are off.

In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers showed that the Central American túngara frogs can be tricked into picking "ugly" mates -- even when their prince charming is just within hopping distance.

The scenario, known as the “decoy effect,” is similar to the way in which a consumer might behave when purchasing a new car. A customer may opt to buy a cheap car with poor fuel efficiency instead of a more expensive car with good fuel efficiency. But the custumer might reconsider when a salesmen presents a third option that is the most expensive and also has good fuel efficiency. The customer won’t choose the third option, but he might instead choose the second most expensive.

For more information check out the published article at Science Magazine

The community of Chilliwack has constructed an amphibian tunnel to stave off deaths of frogs and toads during periods of mass migration.

From the Chilliwack Progress:

There's a spot on Elk View Road where tiny toadlets no bigger than a dime were getting crushed by vehicles as they tried to migrate across the road.

A new amphibian tunnel completed in June in the hills above Chilliwack should help.

"One of the really neat aspects is this is a solution that other communities can implement as well," said Joanne Neilson, executive director of Fraser Valley Conservancy.

There's province-wide concern about declining amphibian species in areas where development is spring up around wetlands, so the tunnel structure is being touted as a potential model for others to follow to reduce mortalities.

B.C. communities might one day look at culvert replacement in a more toad-friendly way.

Last month special fencing was used to guide the toads and frogs through the newly built culvert for the first time.

Read more...

More than 600 sea turtle babies were released near Boca Raton, Florida, after almost missing their one chance at survival.

From the Fort Myers News-Press:

With the odds against them — only about 1 in 1,000 sea turtles survive to adulthood — the hatchlings had missed their instinctual dash to the ocean and had been collected after routine beach nest inspections by the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.

Stored in several plastic bins and cramped on top of each other as when they first hatch, the tiny turtles about 3 inches long were brought on board by members of the Coast Guard.

Most of the hatchlings were baby loggerhead sea turtles, but four young sea turtles that had been rehabilitated at the nature center also made their way back into the ocean.

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Fear of the Caiman runs high in the fishing waters of Colombia. But conservationists are working to preserve the species and end the hunting of the endangered species, and trafficking in their skins.

From the City Paper Bogota:

Even though crocodile attacks are fewer are further between these days, local fishing communities still remain fearful of coming into contact with the grey-skinned reptile and which feeds on prey and in the same mangroves where fishermen gather molluscs and fish.

In the Bay of Cispatá, near San Antero, Sucre, marine biologists have been studying the Magdalena Caiman to be able to give this creature a fighting chance for survival. Last February, a team of international biologists visited the fresh- water lagoon to see first hand how a 10 year-long project by the Asociación de Caimaneros de Cispatá, Asocaimán, has farmed 3,000 eggs and returned to the wild some 4000 baby crocs.

Part of the responsibilities of Asocaimán is to work closely with local communities to dissuade them from hunting the endangered creature in order to sell their skins on the global black market.

Colombia is one of the world’s leading exporters of exotic leathers and legal exports of local crocodile skins totaled USD $12 million in 2014. According to the Colombian Association of Zoo Farms, Azoocol, some 600,000 alligator skins are sold every year to luxury brands, especially in Asia where demand for legally-farmed alligator handbags and accessories remains high.

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It's not often you get to see a snake swallowing a lizard, but photographer Nicolas Cegalerba got some beautiful shots of just that.

From The Daily Mail:

These incredible photos capture the stomach-churning moment a snake sneaks up on a lizard and swallows it whole.

The white-spotted cat snake, measuring about 1.8m in length, spent around half an hour consuming the lizard after slithering up on it as it slept.

The chameleon forest dragon, also known as a Javan humphead lizard, usually sleeps at the ends of branches which makes it an easy target for predatory snakes.

The unlucky reptile, which was around 25cm long, was resting on a branch 3m off the ground in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in South Sumatra, Indonesia.

See the rest of the amazing photos here...