Words cannot describe how cool the second grade class at Conservatory Lab Charter School is. In a project celebrating snakes, they stole a little inspiration from Lady Gaga. To quote the kids:

Don't be afraid, Give snakes a chance!

From press reports that come out of Texas and groups like the Sweetwater Jaycees, one would think that the ground is literally crawling with rattlesnakes, and the entire state is under attack from these deadly beauties.

Yeah, not so much. It took us three days to come across our very own rattlesnake, which happened to be the only thing I wanted to see. Despite the fact that I wasn't overly picky, the last one on my list to see was the Western Diamonback, with a Black Tailed Rattlesnake being my top desire. But ya know, after three days and not a single rattle for our crew I was NOT picky.

Driving down 2886 to the cuts by the radio tower at 65 miles an hour, we were passing a lot of gravel driveways leading to ranchs and farms. I was scanning the right side to see if we could catch sight of a snake off-road. First we had to stop for a white, black and red blur, except it turned out to be a big gulp cup. Drive a little further, I see a "stick" on the right. But wait, that stick looked striped. Sticks really aren't usually striped like that, are they? "Jeff, I think I saw what might be a stick, but it might not. Let's go back" After all, we did stop for the cup.

All the care I had practiced getting out of the truck went out the window. I turned into a squealing, happy little girl. Running with camera in hand and screaming behind me for someone to grab a hook, I was deliriously happy. I found something that rattled. While most were searching for the elusive grayband, I was searching for my sweet rattles. And I found it. It would have been fine with me had one of our crew found it, but the excitement at finding it myself was amazing.

The boys were kind; they congratulated me on a great catch. I had earned my stripes as a herper. I didn't care about finding anything else this trip, because I had found the one thing I wanted. Everything else was gravy. I did have the presence of mind to video the find. After the bump, me in my full snake dork mode, very happy. Yes, I am giggling and squealing. I guess I finally figured out what this field herping business is about.

Friday night we headed east on I-90 with plans to herp the cuts and head to Langtry. That was until we came across a young girl who had run out of gas.

We started the night fairly early, which allowed for us to actually see a ton of lizards. We had Andy, a biologist from Texas Parks and Wildlife; Rom, a paramedic from Arizona; and a reporter and photographer from San Antonio joining us on our runs.

Jeff may have caught the first snake of our trip, but I spotted the first four lizards. Several side blotched lizards and Desert spiny lizards were out all evening. The snakes, however, were not. Or at least for our crew. I had a lot of concern going into this about my ability to spot things on the cuts, but after the lizards, I lost all doubts.

As we were headed towards Langtry on a very sharp and blind curve another herper flagged us down. A girl was trying to make the drive west and had hoped to make Sanderson before she ran out of gas and didn't quite make it. We didn't have gas, but we had a group of MacGyvers who attempted to create a siphon hose out of two camel backs. Unfortunately, we were a bit short. We escorted her as far as she could make it west towards Sanderson, left her at a rock cut with another herper who promised to keep and eye on her, and then ran to town to grab a few gallons to get her the rest of the way.

The oddest thing happened while we were talking. The girl turned out to be a turtle keeper who had never met herpers. She also had never met a woman who liked reptiles! But here she was stranded and we got to share a bit of our world with her. Right after she pulled off and got on her way, we herped the cut. Karma shined down on us, rewarding us with a Suboc that was found on the top of the cut directly above where she was parked! It turned out to be the only live snake of the evening.

We had planned on trekking 285 to the 2400 to look for something that rattles for me, but an accident prevent that route. We went west and worked a few cuts before heading up the highway. About this time Andy and I each grabbed a seat of our own and crashed. Walking the last cut, we both hit that exhaustion wall. It was 3 AM, after all!

Jeff and Ron kept searching and Jeff found his Sanderson grayband. Well, kinda. The organizers of Snake Days placed three plastic snakes on the cuts. Each one has a prize associated with it when we turn them in. As sad as it is for Jeff to not have found a live grayband, I think it is amazingly ironic that the man who started the Alterna Page and kingsnake.com is the man who found the grayband. Almost as if it was fate!

We were the last to roll in at 5 AM. Everyone else was asleep and we stumbled into our rooms leaving a trail of field gear from the door to the bed. We were up at 10 AM in the morning to make the talks and plan for the night.

Lead photo John Lassiter just before we hit the road, the orange vest is required when working the roads.

A bad night snake hunting is better than a good day at work, right?

Well, Jeff and I can combine snake hunting and work and rationalize heading to Sanderson, Tex., to join the Snake Day celebration. I got off the plane right around noon and hopped into the "Herpin' Death Truck," and we began the long trek from Austin to Sanderson. Jeff gave me some tips and explained a bit of the natural history and how to search the cuts. I am an amateur and I readily admit that, but I think Jeff was quite pleased that I didn't think each tire strip on the highway was a snake.

We rolled into Sanderson around 8:30 pm with some very impressive storms surrounding us. We managed to completely miss all of it on the drive so we unloaded our gear, put on the new fashion trend hitting the herp world (orange reflective vests with 144 square inches of reflective tape) and hit the road.

Despite our best efforts, we turned up a ton of inverts, but only one snake. A night snake popped out about 5 minutes before the rain hit Sanderson. We also found a few of Wayne Howell's "surprise snakes," but since they were planted animals, they really do not count. I think the rain skunked us all. Jeff and I headed back to the Desert Air at 2:00 am and collapsed.

We are preparing to head to the convention center shortly for registration and then I suspect we will take a nap so we are raring to go tonight. Here's to finding something that buzzes!

Are you in Sanderson with us? We have a photo gallery set up for the event! Please post all of your finds here.

The endangered San Salvador Iguana (Cyclura rileyi rileyi) has a second chance at survival, thanks to efforts of Tom Crutchfield, William Hayes, and funding provided by Seacology and CIBC FirstCaribbean.

From the official press release announcing the new facility, San Salvador Living Jewels:

“We are really excited to have this facility,” says Tom Rothfus, Director of the Gerace Research Centre. “Now we have something people can get behind, and see that there is an endangered animal we're protecting right here—and the greater significance of protecting their communities and environments.”

Public education comprises a major goal of the Iguana Conservation Centre. Guests at the Centre will be able to see the highly photogenic iguanas in the beautiful open air pen. Attractive signage describes the plight of these iguanas and some of their more fascinating habits. Prior to the creation of this facility, few visitors to San Salvador even knew the iguanas existed. Presently, the lizards are largely confined to a few offshore cays and to small islets in the inland lake that are difficult to access. Although a few iguanas persist on the main island, they are very rarely encountered.

[...]

Another goal of the new iguana facility—perhaps the most important—is to bring formal protection to San Salvador Island’s unique but highly threatened habitats. In addition to the iguanas, the island hosts some of the largest and most diverse seabird colonies in the archipelago. Other endemic animals found nowhere else cling to a tenacious existence on what many believe was the first land in the New World that Columbus set foot on. Beautiful reefs surround the island, which comprise a major tourist attraction but are susceptible to overuse.

According to Michael Goffe, President of San Salvador’s Living Jewels, “we hope to work closely with the Bahamas National Trust to reinvigorate our efforts to establish a new national park on this island. Many of the island’s residents want the benefits that come from habitat protection.”

Saving one species opens minds to the need of conservation. Thank you to Tom Crutchfield for keeping us in the loop. After the bump, a video from Conch Salad TV, and a few more photos.

The Ohio Dangerous and Wild Animal bill (SB310) was officially signed into law on June 5, affecting owners of snakes exceeding 12 feet, venomous species, and crocodilians.

The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) worked with legislators to obtain amendments favorable to reptile keepers, including:

having boa constrictors removed completely from list of restricted snakes

ensuring that any species of constricting snake listed as a "restricted" snake may be owned without a permit if the snake is less than 12 feet in length

exempting constricting snakes from liability insurance/surety bond mandate

allowing employees and volunteers of permitted facilities to not be considered “members of the public”

permitting public contact with constricting snakes for educational purposes for school-aged students

prohibiting the Director of Department of Natural Resources to add new animals to the restricted list by going through the legislative process

reducing signage requirements to only require owners of restricted snakes to post signs on the cage of the snake or any vehicle transporting the snake.

To read the full press release from PIJAC, click here.

From Governor Kasich's Facebook page:

Good to have the support of Jack Hanna as I signed the Dangerous Wild Animals bill into law this afternoon. It's an important bill that helps improve the safety of both humans and animals alike, and it's thanks to bipartisan efforts that this day was possible.

You can read the full law here.

"Some people think it's cruel for us to kill these venomous snakes. We would like for you to know we are protecting ourselves and our animals."

These words, spoken by a cute little blond third grade boy from Snyder Elementary School in Texas, left me in shock while I was watching the KC3-4Kids (Kids Creating Community Content) 2011 Contest presented by CILC and CISCO. The program was also shared with a school in Arizona.

The level of mis-information was shocking -- for example, they were taught that snakes only eat twice a year, that a headless, dead snake can still hurt you, and that the venom milked at the notorius "rattlesnake round-ups" is used to create anti-venom. No less staggering was the children discussing how pouring gas into snake den is a necessary measure to capture, the danger to all the cattle (even though they have to leave the ranch and head to rocks to capture the animals).

Adults prepared the script for these children, by the way. Children are the future and it is what they learn at this time that shape their minds. In Snyder, Texas, they are learning to practice and justify animal abuse.

Tell the program organizers this is not eduction, this is cruelty. Contact the program sponsors here:

Bev Mattocks
Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration
bmattocks@cilc.org
Tweet @cilcorg

John Earnhardt
Cisco Corporate PR and Social Media communications
jearnhar@cisco.com
Tweet him @urnhart
Tweet Cisco @CiscoSystems

Tag your Tweets with #stopanimalcruelty for additional impact.

ETA: It worked! The video has been removed:

The Mountain Chicken frogs now have a new chance at life in their native island of Montserrat, and things are looking good for the species.

The frogs have been hunted for their meat, and Smith says that they were served up to restaurants and hotels to tourists that visited the island.

Not only does the island’s active volcano threaten the species, but also the infectious disease known as Chytridiomycosis.

Only two uninfected populations remain, and conservationists from Durrell, London Zoo, Chester Zoo and Parken Zoo set out an emergency rescue mission to airlift 50 of the frogs from the island.

A dozen of the frogs were then relocated to Jersey, U.K., where herpetology keepers successfully bred them in captivity.

After breeding, the conservationists then released 33 healthy frogs back onto the island in January, and since then a field team has spent three months tracking their progress.

“Some of the frogs were calling in the forest in the first night,” Smith told BBC. “Three months later the fact that we still have live frogs in the release site looking healthy and calling is a very encouraging sign.”

To read the full article, click here.

There are very few Louisiana pine snakes remaining in the wild, but exact numbers are unknown. The good news is efforts are underway to re-establish this native snake.

Scientists don't know how many Louisiana pine snakes exist. They're native only to Louisiana and Texas, and it's been several years since one was trapped in any of the three Texas areas where they had been caught in the 1990s and early 2000s.

That's "cause for pretty serious concern," Craig Rudolph, a scientist at the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station in Nacogdoches, Texas, said Wednesday. The other four populations, like the Kisatchie reintroduction site, are in Louisiana.

Another cause for concern is that plans to release 50 to 100 hatchlings a year have been stymied. Only 20 hatched in 2010 and 14 last year. Louisiana pine snakes have the largest eggs and hatchlings of any North American snake, coming out of the egg about 18 to 22 inches long, but each female lays only three to five 5-inch-long eggs.

"Some of the snakes in the zoos are getting older and not breeding," said Beau Gregory, a zoologist with the Louisiana Natural Heritage Program.

To read the full article, click here.

Never seen before in Tennessee, the Gulf Coast spiny softshell turtle, is the newest subspecies of turtle native to the Conasauga River.

“We are very excited about our new resident here in the state," Hedrick said. "The last time a new turtle was found in Tennessee was in 1986 when threatened bog turtles were discovered in Northeast Tennessee."

When contacted about the zoo’s discovery, Dr. A. Floyd Scott of the Department of Biology at Austin Peay University said, “David Hedrick and Rick Jackson’s discovery of the Gulf Coast spiny softshell turtle is significant because it adds a new taxon to the vertebrate fauna of Bradley County and, more importantly, to the state of Tennessee. Their find, coupled with a preserved specimen [recently confirmed as the Gulf Coast spiny softshell] in the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences that was collected in 1974 from the Conasauga River in eastern Bradley County, suggest there is an established population there that has been overlooked until now."

The spotting of this subspecies is especially momentous because softshelled turtles are an extremely wary aquatic species that disappear at the first sign of danger. They spend a great deal of time buried in the stream bottom, waiting to ambush prey. Their necks are long, and they have tiny, pig-like noses that allow them to stretch up to the surface and breathe while the rest of their body remains buried in the sand and mud.

To read the full article, click here.

Recently, the newsworthy public displays of reptiles in the US have been the disgusting animal abuse events called Rattlesnake Roundups.

In Italy, things are different. There, in the tiny town of Cocullo in the Province of L'Aquila of Italy, the first of May is the Festa dei Serpari, or Snake Festival.

From Wikipedia:

Cocullo is known for his singular patron saint's holiday, named Festa dei Serpari, in which the patron saint's statue (Domenico di Sora) is transported in procession covered with lot of snakes (mainly four-lined, aesculapian, grass and green whip snakes). The reptiles themselves are transported in procession by local serpari[4], a sort of "snake breeders", and released in the surrounding woods at the end of the holiday[5][6]. The festival, set every first May since 2012 (in the past it took place every first thursday in May), is a receptive event for Italian and foreigner tourists. In 2009 it was cancelled due to some structural damages occurred into the village after the L'Aquila earthquake [7]. This tradition, present also in coat of arms symbolism[8], substituted the ancient Roman mythologic ritual of Angitia, a snake goddess worshipped by the Marsi.

A few amazing slideshows are out there. Check out the first one from the UPI and the second one at Demotix.com. The inset photo was taken from Demotix.com.

The most amazing and unusual of the crocodilians, the Gharial, is getting a new chance at life at the Crocodile Breeding Centre at Kasara.

The farm in Chitwan National Park, some 82 km (51 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, was opened in 1978 by the government with support from the Frankfurt Zoological Society in an effort to save the rapidly dwindling gharial, which is also found in neighboring India.

Six decades ago, gharials -- known for their long, slim snouts and great length, with some growing up to 7 meters (23 ft) long -- were numerous in Nepal. There were 235 in the Narayani-Rapti River, which flows near the park, alone.

But their numbers fell rapidly as they were killed for their skins, used to make purses, shoes and belts. Their eggs have been stolen for food or as a remedy for tuberculosis.

In addition, their riverside habitat has been lost to agriculture and water-control projects, with fishing nets also taking a toll.
As a result, their population is now confined to only a small area of Nepal's major rivers. A national census last year found only 102, numbers at which survival in the wild becomes difficult without help -- but that was still up from 50 in 1970, Sharma said.

The centre has three male and 12 female gharials for breeding. Workers also collect eggs from the wild before the onset of the annual floods in July, raise hatchlings in captivity and then release them into the wild.

"If it were not for this, you and I would not be able to see them now. They would have been extinct 15 to 20 years ago," Sharma said.

To read the full article, click here.

In a partnership between UK and Indian scientists, a new caecilian was discovered -- by pure accident!

The creature - about 168mm in length and pink in colour - belongs to an enigmatic, limbless group of amphibians known as the caecilians.

Ramachandran Kotharambath, lead author of the report, told the BBC Tamil Service that the animal was identified as a new species following extensive comparisons with other, similar examples from this amphibian group.

According to the researchers, specimens of the novel caecilian - named Gegeneophis primus - were collected during field works in two consecutive monsoons, first in October 2010 and then in August 2011.

They were discovered at a valley on a plantation in the Wynad district of Kerala.

The new finding was made as part of a longstanding research collaboration between the department of zoology at the University of Kerala and London's Natural History Museum. The Central University at Kasargod in Kerala also contributed to of the discovery.

To read the full article, click here.

The Anhui Yangtze Alligator Nature Reserve working is on its eighth release of the endangered Chinese alligator:

So far, the nature reserve has succeeded in releasing 45 Chinese alligators into the wild, and the six new members will bring the total to 51, sources with the reserve said.

"The experiments were successful, as the released alligators began laying eggs in 2008 and the alligators that hatched in the wild are in good conditions," said Wang Chaolin, deputy director of the nature reserve.

Wang said researchers need to choose young and healthy alligators so they will survive harsh natural conditions. The alligators will also undergo DNA testing before being released to avoid in-breeding.

To read the full article, click here.

Is lemonade a trigger for deadly python attacks?

No, but you wouldn't know it from a recent HSUS press release that sounds like a script for a new movie, Snakes in a Suburb :

"Unsuspecting people across the country are encountering, and even being attacked by someone else’s escaped or released constrictor snake while tending to their gardens, making lemonade in their kitchens, pulling laundry from their washing machines, or sleeping in their beds."

Now, compare that to the original article about the incident:

Apartment managers have vowed to fully investigate the report, but they have yet to confirm its validity. Residents, who were told to notify apartment staff or animal control if they see the python, have not reported any sightings to authorities.

Despite the fact that nobody has actually seen the python, the report, which very well could be a mean-spirited hoax, has been enough to rile up some residents. Some have expressed that going outside the apartment has become a scary proposition. Others are hoping the python cannot sneak its way into the building.

A snake that no one has verified, that no one is claiming to own, that no one has seen in the complex before the single sighting in the parking garage. My sister's cousin's best friend from first grade once saw a python, too!

The reptile community as a whole looks down upon those who release any pets into the wild. This includes dogs and cats, along with any other type of pet. I don't see HSUS releasing a press release regarding dogs being let into the wild only to kill you while you sleep, but in their continued attack on the reptile community, they take fear mongering to a whole new height.

Having worked animal control, I can verify that most snakes sighted in garages and basements are actually things such as bungee cords and hoses instead of an actual snake. But HSUS relies on sensationalism and paranoia instead of those pesky little things called facts. Why do we let them get away with it?

Educational outreach is the key to changing people's perceptions about reptiles, PERIOD. It creates a personal connection to reptile ownership that will override misconceptions put out there by the media and others.

With that thought in mind, I am locked and loaded for this year's ReptileFest, an event hosted and organized by the Chicago Herpetologial Society. I will be both exhibiting and covering the event for kingsnake.com. Coverage will be a bit sporadic however, as I will be staffing 12 tables with my slave labor and good friend Chris Law. My exhibit combines my beautiful beloved morelia, my reptile rescue group. and the International Reptile Conservation Foundation. Keep an eye here or on our Facebook page for fun stuff!

It is a very unusual event in that it will have no live animal sales, but that isn't all that makes it special. The fact that there will be around 400 animals and 200 species on display is pretty special. The really cool part is that 99 percent of these animals are privately owned. These are people's pets, and they can share the day to day joy on a far different level than, say, a zoo keeper would.

Our exhibits will range from a 5-year-old darling girl and her corn snake display, to professionals like Rob Carmichael from the Wildlife Discovery Center showing off Illinois native venomous and doing proper public education without sensationalism.

As I get ready to turn the house over to my husband and pick up my trailer of supplies before I head down to Chi-Town, I hope that this weekend will serve as an inspiration to others. Remember, Snake Day is May 14!

Photo courtesy of Mike Heinrich - ReptileFest 2011