Wilcox... said Guinness wants to discourage future attempts like this.

"Snakes are solitary animals, and we've been advised to not encourage Guinness World Records record attempts where they are forced to live together for long periods of time as there is a possibility of opportunistic cannibalism depending on the species," she said. "Our animal expert has also advised against exposing such animals to human presence for long periods of time."

Jones said that Guinness told him they haven't acknowledged any previous sit-ins and have no interest in adding the category.

"His caudal end is buoyant," said the stranding team's Christina Trapani, and Dr. George translated: "He floats with his rear end up like a crab pot marker."

Jersey George was found on a New Jersey beach Aug. 1, 2009. He had been hit by a boat propeller, resulting in three large cuts across his back and paralyzing his rear flippers.

The aquarium agreed to take him into rehab, and J. George has responded well over the past year. But periodically his rear end floats up, a problem for an air-breathing animal that must dive for food.

Then there's the woman known as the "Turtle Rehabber," Kay Frasher. Frasher, who works as a vet tech at the Holt Veterinarian Clinic, is licensed as an animal rehabilitator and specializes in turtles native to Michigan.

"Anytime we get turtles, they go to Kay," Sagaert said. Frasher says cleaning a turtle with Dawn liquid detergent, using cotton tipped swabs for the creases in its neck and legs, can take from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on how tarry it is. It's painstaking work that often involves a few bites, especially in the attempt to grab the turtle's head in order to clean its neck.

Frasher, though, isn't complaining. "I've really been amazed to see this come together in such a short time," she said of the large rescue site in Marshall. "I'm honored to have been called and to be here." There are countless examples of loving dedication every day at the rescue site.

The bespectacled Republican couldn't help but crack a joke about his search for the harmless indigo, one of the largest snakes in North America.

"They're so much more pleasant than the crowd in Washington," he told the TV station.
Kingston, rated by some as the most conservative member of Congress, looks like a typical guy with a wife, four children, two dogs and two cats. But what about those snakes?
"It's golf for one guy, fly fishing for somebody else, it's snakes for me," he told WMAZ.

Antonio said the Lake site provides an ideal arena for study and breeding the reptiles, allowing researchers to construct individual open-air enclosures that mirror the eastern indigo snake's natural habitat. He said the enclosures will keep the snakes in and black bear, foxes and other animals out.

"It's a species that needs to come back," said Commissioner Jennifer Hill, who studied the group's website, met with the property owners and read about the black reptile, a predator of rattlesnakes. "It's a very good snake."

The eastern indigo snake preys on frogs, lizards and small mammals but prefers to eat other snakes.

In a report at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society on August 26, the team of stalwart frog-fanciers described enlisting colleagues worldwide to ship secretions from hundreds of promising frog skins to their laboratory in the United Arab Emirates. Using that amphibious treasure trove, they identified more than 100 antibiotic substances in the skins of different frog species from around the world. One even fights "Iraqibacter," the bacterium responsible for drug-resistant infections in wounded soldiers returning from Iraq.
[....]
One substance isolated from the skin secretions of the Foothill Yellow-legged Frog -- a species once common in California and Oregon but now facing extinction -- shows promise for killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. MRSA is a "superbug," infamous for causing deadly outbreaks of infection among hospitalized patients. Now it is occurring in settings outside hospitals, including schools, nursing homes, and day care centers.
The skin of the mink frog, likewise, contains secretions that show promise for fighting "Iraqibacter," caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumanni.

The mini frogs (Microhyla nepenthicola) were found on the edge of a road leading to the summit of the Gunung Serapi mountain, which lies within Kubah National Park. The new species was named after the plant on which it depends to live, the Nepenthes ampullaria, one of many species of pitcher plants in Borneo, which has a globular pitcher and grows in damp, shady forests. The frogs deposit their eggs on the sides of the pitcher, and tadpoles grow in the liquid accumulated inside the plant.

With amphibian populations around the world declining quickly and a third at risk of extinction, the unprecedented search could help scientists better understand the crisis.
“The rapid and profound change to the global environment that has taken place over the last fifty years or so – in particular climate change and habitat loss – has had a devastating impact on these incredible creatures,” Conservation International’s Robin Moore, who has organized the search for IUCN’s Amphibian Specialist Group, said in a press release August 8.
“We’ve arranged this search for ‘lost’ species that we believe may have managed to hang on so that we can get some definite answers – and hopefully learn about what has allowed some tiny populations of certain species to survive when the rest of their species has been lost,” Moore said.

The first of the new batch was born on Aug. 8. The remaining dragons hatched over the following 11 days.
"These hatchlings are a result of a lot of work and dedication on the part of zoo staff," said Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians Ian Recchio. "We're excited to be among the few zoos that have successfully bred Komodo dragons. The hatchlings from this clutch will go on to help ensure the survival of the species."