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.
Planned for the Tottenham Hotspur football club, a new athletic facility has halted development because the land is home to great crested newts.
From the Irish Mirror:
“Surveys confirmed the presence of a medium-sized breeding population of great crested newt within the pond on site, and individual long-eared and common pipistrelle bats roosting in the agricultural buildings as well as the presence of grass snake on site.
“This being the case; the proposed development will result in the loss of a great crested newt breeding pond, confirmed bat roosts, amphibian/reptile suitable habitat and mature trees.”
It states that before planning permission can be granted the newts and bats must be "looked after" and that the club must "demonstrate that the favourable conservation status of the species will be maintained within the whole of the site".
This hatchling Gulf Coast spiny softshell gives us just enough of the "awwws" to make it through a Tuesday in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gambusia!
Using computer models of jacky dragons, researchers have learned it's the order of a jacky dragon's movement that makes communication possible.
From Johns Hopkins:
Woo and Rieucau conducted a playback experiment using computer animations of lizard displays. They created three simulated animations of lizards that differed in their shape and skin texture and performed the displays either with natural syntax or reversed syntax. There was the “cyberlizard,” which had normal shape and skin texture; a lizard with normal shape but without realistic skin texture; and an object shaped generally like a lizard but lacking texture.
The researchers found the order of the actions was critical for signal recognition. Even the animated lizards with abnormal shape and texture elicited responses from the jacky dragon subjects, as long as the actions were in the correct order.
The lizards responded to animations with correct syntax by making social signals of their own. These included aggressive signals like fast head bobs or the entire visual display pattern (tail flick, quick arm wave, and push-up body rock) or submissive displays like slow arm waves and slow head bobs.
There is just something adorable about the Bushveld rain frogs, and the cute, catchy video game music makes this a great way to wake up and start your weekend!
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!
Looking hopeful that spring's around the corner, this wood turtle will bring a smile to your face in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user kensopher!
85 million year old aquatic reptile fossils were found in Israel, a reminder of a time when Israel was covered in water.
From the Jerusalem Post:
“This is the first time that a fossilized animal like this has been found in Israel during this period,” she said. “It’s very rare for an animal like this to be fossilized.”
Researchers found roughly 30 fossilized remnants of the reptile known as the Elasmosaurus, which Ashckenazi- Polivoda described as the “cousin of dinosaurs.” It was 8 meters long, with its elongated neck constituting a third of its body, she said.
“The most exciting thing is that this is the first time that a single species’ bones [of this type] were found in the same place here,” she added. “We’ve found similar fossils from 10 million years later, but never during this time.”
Years of studying redtail coral venom has finally paid off.
From Johns Hopkins:
For more than a decade, a vial of rare snake venom refused to give up its secret formula for lethality; its toxins had no effect on the proteins that most venoms target.
It comes from a reclusive redtail coral snake, or Micrurus mipartitus, which is primarily found in Costa Rica and parts of South America.
But recently, an international team of researchers figured out the venom's recipe—a toxin that permanently activates a crucial type of nerve cell protein, causing deadly seizures in prey. The details were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.
Hump day blues kicking in? This leopard gecko hatching in our herp photo of the day is the new beginning we need to make it the rest of the week, uploaded by kingsnake.com user alkee42!
A new water frog species was discovered in a place thought to be thoroughly explored.
From sci-news.com:
The specific name ventriflavum comes from the Latin venter, meaning belly, and flavus, meaning yellow and refers to the golden yellow and orange coloration on the body.
The populations of several species of the water frog genus Telmatobius have declined dramatically over the past 30 years, and the genus is now thought to be extinct in Ecuador. These declines have been associated with the spread of the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.
Telmatobius ventriflavum was discovered in the species-poor coastal valleys of central Peru, a region well studied but apparently still hiding surprises.
What is it about frogs that just make us smile? They pose without realizing it! This cute gray tree frog is just hanging out in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gerryg!
Conjoined Quince monitor lizard twin, who were dead before hatching, were found in a zoo in 2009.
From Live Science:
It is possible that the reason the lizards were conjoined was partly due to the low amount of genetic variation that stemmed from having parents that were siblings, according to the report. In 2002, research was published on snakes, called Natrix tessellata, which showed a link between an increased rate of developmental abnormalities and a low genetic variability in small populations that had a limited number of ancestors.
Moreover, a study on sand lizards "revealed a significant effect of parental genetic similarity on the risk of hatching malformations," van Schingen said.
However, previous reports have also pointed to other potential causes of malformations in reptiles. For instance, in 2010, researchers described a case of a crocodile hatchling with eight legs and two tails in Venezuela that was found in an area that was exposed to chemicals from agriculture, according to the report.Another cause of deformations in reptiles may be adiet that is not well-suited to the needs of animals kept in captivity, which has previously been the case with bone malformations in green iguanas, van Schingen said.
Despite being treated as one of the most 'disposable' of reptile pets, their regal nature is unmistakeable. Gotta love big green iguanas like this female in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cycluracornuta!
After waiting 80 days, a clutch of bearded dragons finally begin pipping and hatching! Talk about taking it to the limit! What is the longest your eggs have gone?
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!
This adorable crested gecko reminds us that it's always 5 o'clock somewhere! See why in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user BryanD!
One police officer brought a blue-tongued lizard into the station 30 years ago, and lizards have had a home there ever since.
From ABC News Australia:
The site now has a purpose built courtyard for the lizards which are mascots for the station.
Cheryl Hackett, the Belconnen Station's administrator, said being the chief lizard carer at the site was on the job description when she took over the role last year.
"They're beautiful, they really are, I never had a lizard, never owned one but I just love 'em," she said.
Earlier this week the lizard population at the station swelled from eight to 18 when one of the females gave birth.
If all snow was as beautiful as this snow splash sand boa, we might look forward to winter more. See the beautiful coloring in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user SerpentsPlus!
The alligator population in North Carolina is growing, but allowing a hunting season may hurt their long-term security.
From newsobserver.com:
Moorman, coordinator of N.C. State’s fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology program, said he couldn’t estimate the state’s overall population. He said the survey didn’t try to tabulate all possible gators. They’ve shown up in recent years in inland waters as far west as Harnett County, which is between Raleigh and Fayetteville.
An alligator hunting season could manage growing populations and potential nuisance gators, offer a hunting opportunity to sportsmen and sportswomen, and provide revenue from permit sales to fund the monitoring of populations.
Nevertheless, “alligators in North Carolina may be more vulnerable to environmental stochasticity (randomness), including harsh winters and frequent hurricanes, than elsewhere, so predicting long-term effects of a sustained hunter harvest is especially difficult,” the researchers cautioned.
This copperhead is proof gold isn't the most precious of metals. See what we mean in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user HerpLver!
Not much is cuter than the sight of a baby radiated tortoise catching his first breath of air in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user marcp!
Seeing a loggerhead turtle tangled in a net, surfer Mitu Monteiro did the only sensible thing - he rescued the turtle.
From the New York Post:
Mitu Monteiro, 31, had spotted the Loggerhead while catching waves at Serra Negra Beach on Sal Island in Cape Verde, Africa after the little fella became tangled in a plastic net, Caters News Agency reports.
Upon further inspection, Monteiro noticed the neck and fins of the turtle were terribly entwined in the frayed edges of the packaging.
Thinking fast, the heroic surfer scooped up the turtle, placed him on his board and sailed back to shore — where the net was removed with the help of other surfers, according to Caters.
Here's to hoping this smiling albino fire salamander (Salamandra s. terrestris) in our herp photo of the day brightens up your Monday morning! It's uploaded by kingsnake.com user alessio.
If you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with! It's a tortoise's idea of romance for Valentine's Day!
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!
Melbourne is building a new venom library, where researchers can investigate new anti-venoms and medicinal uses for venom.
From the Guardian:
Over the past six months, scientists have collected 12 snakes and milked them of their venom. The snakes have been stored in a fluid preservative.
The snakes belong to the tiger snake lineage of species, with variants including two species of copperhead snake, a white-lipped snake and a small-eyed snake.
The venom library will progressively add other species, such as blue-ringed octopus, spiders, scorpions, platypus – which has a venomous spur - and other snakes. It will be the first facility in Australia to have a dedicated storage of venom along with full tissue samples of the animal the poison has been extracted from.