Because ball pythons lay eggs and don’t have live births and have no need to hibernate, they seemed like the perfect study candidate. In 2020, Dr. Skinner and his colleague Tamara Kumpan placed a mixed-sex group of six pythons for 10 days in a large enclosure — one with enough plastic shelters for each snake — and left a camera running.

To Dr. Skinner’s shock, all six snakes quickly squeezed together in the same shelter and spent over 60 percent of their time together. Assuming that all of the snakes had simply liked something about that specific shelter, the team removed it. But after some initial confusion, the snakes eventually chose another home base in which to curl up together.

The interim rule applies to all species in these 16 genera: Ambystoma, Andrias, Aneides, Aquiloeurycea, Calotriton, Chiropterotriton, Cryptobranchus, Desmognathus, Ensatina, Eurycea, Laotriton, Ommatotriton, Pachytriton, Proteus, Pseudobranchus, and Pseudotriton.
...
Comments on the interim rule regarding newly added species can be made after January 10, 2025, for 60 days (deadline March 11) at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2024-31203/injurious-wildlife-species-listing-salamanders-due-to-risk-of-salamander-chytrid-fungus.

Find the original Salamander Rule species list (201 species in 20 genera) at https://www.fws.gov/page/list-of-salamanders-designated-as-injurious.

Oregon Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said in a press release on Tuesday that his organization is "confident" the pet cat contracted the bird flu by eating Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food.
"This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment, and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other," Scholz said.

At a time when populations of animal species globally have declined by an average of nearly 70 percent, wanton disregard for life—in the absence of imminent threat to humans—bothers Texas A&M University herpetologist Lee Fitzgerald. “The roundups do send a twisted message,” he says. “They’re not helping the way we think about biodiversity. We care about polar bears, but these snakes are worthless?”
...
“I’m blue in the face from teaching people that snakes aren’t out to get you,” Matt Goode said as we hummed through Stone Canyon. “But I don’t know how much progress we’ve made.” Throughout much of the South and Southwest, it’s legal to kill many rattlesnake species. And some people kill a whole lot.

Crocodilians twelve (12) inches or larger;
Large, dangerous, or potentially invasive constricting snakes including reticulated pythons, python reticulatus;
urmese/Indian rock pythons, python molurus; rock pythons, python sebae, and anacondas, eunectes murinus (green anacondas);
Venomous/poisonous reptiles, amphibians, or serpents;

The researchers who described the fossil in Nature today estimate it to be between 161 to 168 million years old, beating the previous record holder by around 30 million years. The find provides solid evidence frogs have had a tadpole stage for at least that long. “It’s a beautiful confirmation of what many experts had suspected,” says herpetologist Alexander Haas of the Leibniz Institute in Bonn, Germany. Reconstructing tadpole evolution based on their diversity today, Haas and others previously predicted that tadpoles would have existed this early on.

The authors note: “While collecting eggs for incubation in May 2022, we were able to identify a unique series of notched tail scutes on a female C. siamensis as she aggressively defended a nest.

“From these markings we determined the female was hatched on 11 August 2012 (age = 9.75 years) and released in March 2014. A camera-trap placed at the nest on 11 May 2022 and recovered on 5 July 2022 recorded 1724 images.

“These images indicated the female remained in attendance at the nest throughout the monitoring period. Camera-trap imagery captured eight nest repair events and two nest defense events; during the later the female defended the nest from village dogs.”

Meet BdDV-1, a viral fragment discovered by scientists whose paper was recently published by the journal Current Biology. The researchers found it in much the same way that one disentangles a knot, by pulling on individual threads to see where they lead. While examining the BD fungus to learn about weaknesses, they discovered a single-stranded DNA virus trapped within the genome of the fungus. Although this only applied to certain strains, when infected they produced fewer spores than the uninfected fungi. Now the next step is to see if researchers can clone and engineer this virus so that it kills BD and saves the frogs.

That will not be the easiest task to accomplish, however, for a big reason: Currently the virus makes the fungus more deadly to the frogs, rather than less so.

Around 11:45 p.m. Feb. 12, someone called 911 to report an animal bite, according to Lakewood Police. It was later determined to be a Gila monster bite.

The victim was taken to the hospital and died four days later. According to the autopsy report, the man suffered a "four-minute venomous Gila monster bite to the right hand."

"The babies prefer to go to the tail of the mother," he says.

And that's when they saw it. A secretion coming from the tail: "A kind of substance, like milk."

Upon further study, the team found that the milk contained lipids and sugars similar to mammalian milk. It was essentially providing the same function.

"It's a very unusual form of nutrition" for an egg-laying animal, says Mailho-Fontana.

Watt’s boyfriend came to meet up with her when he noticed something moving in her car.

“He turns around and he sees a tongue,” Watt said.

After they both got out of the car, Watt called 911.

“They told me they could not help because it was not a life-threatening emergency,” Watt told Arizona’s Family.

The Amazon is made up of two separate basins — the large southern Amazon basin and the "much smaller" northern Orinoco basin.

"The southern green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) is found across a vast range spanning Brazil, Bolivia, Perú and parts of French Guiana," he said.

"By contrast, our newly described northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima) is restricted to Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, Venezuela and parts of French Guiana."

Water snakes and semi-aquatic snakes enjoy the lakes in Arkansas. In particular, Greers Ferry Lake, Lake Ouachita, and Lake Fayetteville are popular spots for snakes. Despite the abundance of snakes, these Arkansas spots are still worth a visit. For outdoor enthusiasts, these lakes offer many activities to enjoy, from camping and hiking to fishing and kayaking. Visiting these spots is comforting because water snakes are usually harmless to humans. While semi-aquatic snakes can be venomous, identifying them can help you stay safe in snake territory.

Remember, warrants protect us from unreasonable governmental intrusion. As if that is not bad enough, the bills would make it so that, “The formal rules of evidence do not apply and reliable hearsay is admissible in the postseizure hearing.” Please read that last sentence again! “The formal rules of evidence do not apply and reliable hearsay is admissible…”

First, the formal court rules are tossed out the window. This means that the due process that typically exists in court does not apply. Additionally, hearsay is generally inadmissible in court unless a special exception is provided because it is not considered reliable or trustworthy. If this bill passes, hearsay will be good enough for the seizure and State possession of animals in Arizona. Needless to say, this goes against our constitutional rights as Americans.

New research by myself and colleagues estimated the magnitude of that benefit. We found adult eastern brown snakes can collectively remove thousands of mice per square kilometre of farmland each year, which substantially increases farm productivity.
Our study suggests the benefits of snake populations on agricultural land far outweigh the potential costs, and farmers should tolerate rather than kill them.
.....
Agricultural productivity gains are not the only benefits of tolerating brown snakes on farmland.

It would also allow a reduction in the use of chemical methods for rodent control, which can be expensive and ineffective. The chemicals can also threaten the health of humans, livestock, scavenging wildlife and pets.

Tolerating brown snakes might also reduce the incidence of snake bite. Most snake bites are inflicted when people are trying to catch or kill the reptile.

This rat snake was one of the most unusual cases we have treated at SCWC! Upon intake, it was apparent that the snake had ingested a foreign object resembling an egg. This is common in rat snakes, as golf balls and decoy eggs are often mistaken for fresh chicken eggs. In this case, the object had been trapped in the snake’s stomach so long that there was a hole worn through the snake’s skin.

"The lizards that went down will not be released into the wild themselves, however," Zoo Atlanta's Curator of Herpetology Robert L. Hill explained on Wednesday.

"The plan is that these animals would reproduce in their beaded lizard-specific facilities, and that following a quarantine period, the offspring would then be transferred from La Aurora Zoo to protected areas within the known wild range of the species in the dry forests of the Motagua Valley."

“I really love animals, especially exotic ones,” former US Open champion Thiem told the Brisbane International website. “But they said it was a really poisonous snake and it was close to the ballkids, so it was a really dangerous situation.

“It’s something that has never happened to me and is something I’ll definitely never forget.”

"Venoms never cease to surprise us. Even with so much accumulated knowledge, fresh discoveries are possible, such as unpredictable fragments that are parts of known proteins. Despite all the available technology, a great deal remains to be studied in these toxins," Alexandre Tashima, co-author of the study and professor at the Federal University of São Paulo's Medical School (EPM-UNIFESP), said in a statement.

Costa Rica, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, is home to five of the seven sea turtle species. They are natural-born fighters, as only one in every 1,000 sea turtle eggs will become an adult. Hatchlings are prey to almost everything up until that point.

Once they reach adulthood, which can take up to 30 years, their list of enemies decreases significantly. The biggest predators they face are humans.

In naming the new species, Meyer chose “helioscopus,” which roughly translates into “sun watcher,” and “dickersonae,” which honors his grandmother, Helen Dickerson, his great aunt, Shirley Dickerson, and Mary Cynthia Dickerson (no relation), who was the first curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

“Both my grandmother and great aunt were extremely important people in my life, and my great aunt passed away while I was in the early stages of working on this fossil,” Meyer says. “I was truly honored to have a chance to get to use their family name in this new species, in part as a memorial that will now persist long after I am gone.”