George Craig rescued the world's largest captive crocodile and has cared for him for nearly 30 years.

From the Daily Mail:

George captured Cassius in 1987 from a river in the Northern Territory, where he was notorious for his huge size - and was under threat of being hunted down and killed by the local population.

Cassisus, who is missing his front left leg and tip of his tail due to vicious fights, was deemed a massive threat to humans after attacking boats.

So George set about capturing him to save his life, and bringing him to live in his sanctuary.

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What does conservation really mean? And, perhaps more importantly, how do we achieve it?

Living Alongside Wildlife has a fascinating four-part story by Jon Hakim about the Bangladesh Python Project, which is an organization devoted to conserving herps in Bangladesh.

Working primarily in the Lawachara National Park, the Bangladesh Python Project tracks, monitors, and studies snakes, frogs, tortoises, and all manner of herps found in and around the park. The Project and its founder, Shahriar Caesar Rahman, also work with the over 30,000 people who live in the park.

It's this relationship with the local villagers that brings questions about conservation into sharp relief:

If the tortoises, pythons, monkeys, pigs, and other wildlife that call the park home are to have any chance at a future, it'll have to be one where humans and wildlife learn how to accept each other's presence, despite the damage and take that will occur on both sides. Over the course of my nine days in Lawachara, I found that the Bangladesh Python Project had made impressive strides in moving towards coexistence, and that it had a long, long ways to go.

A python that enters a village and kills a villager's ducks has damaged the livelihood of a person who is already living in poverty and depends on all the resources he has to survive.

Yet the pythons aren't invaders; they were here first. How can conservationists find the right balance between protecting endangered reptiles and amphibians and understanding human concerns? How can they best forge relationships with locals and educate them about herps' importance to the ecosystem?

Hakim's series raises these questions and more.

Part one.
Part two.
Part three.
Part four.

A viral origin for a fatal respiratory disease found in captive ball pythons may have been identified.

From Science Daily:

Investigators observed the virus, which they named ball python nidovirus, in eight snakes with pneumonia; virus levels were highest in the animals' lungs and other respiratory tract tissues. The team also sequenced the genome of the virus, finding it to be the largest of any RNA virus yet described.

Ball pythons have become one of the most popular types of reptiles sold and kept as pets, the authors said, because of their relatively modest size, docile behavior and ease of care. Respiratory disease has been noted in these animals since the 1990s but until now a potential cause has not been identified, said senior study author Joseph L. DeRisi, PhD, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, in part because of the limitations of available technology.

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The Wildlife Conservation Society released seventeen endangered Siamese crocodiles in Laos as part of their program to work with local villages to strengthen the crocodile population.

From National Geographic:

The release of the crocodiles is part of the Community-based Crocodile Recovery and Livelihood Improvement Project, designed and implemented by WCS’s Lao PDR Program. ”The program has three key objectives,” WCS explained in its statement today, “contributing to local livelihoods by improving coordination of water resource use and zoning of lands used in local agriculture; conserving and restoring crocodile wetland habitat important for local livelihoods, crocodiles, and other species; and replenishing the crocodile population in the wetland complex and surveying and monitoring the current population.”

The program has worked with nine villages – each village has a “Village Crocodile Conservation Group” (VCCG) to coordinate implementation of program activities in the Xe Champone wetland complex and surrounding areas.

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A fungal disease responsible for killing millions of bats may have spread to snakes.

From Saporta Report:

Bats are dying from the white-nose disease, which has killed an estimated 5.7 million bats and driven one species found in Georgia to the brink of extinction. Researchers plan to count the bat population in Rabun County next week as part of the effort to monitor the disease. Experienced volunteers are welcome to participate.

Now snakes are a concern. The first wild snake in Georgia to be diagnosed with snake fungal disease was found on the edge of a blackwater swamp near Statesboro, and the implication is the disease could be spreading.

The fungus associated with white-nose disease shares similarities with the one connected to snake fungal disease, including that it occurs naturally in soil, according to a statement from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

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A rare two-headed snake was found by a Turkish farmer.

From BBC News:

The young snake appears to belong to the Coluber genus of thin-bodied, fast-moving snakes commonly known as racers. Cuneyt Alpguven, who works at Antalya Aquarium's reptile house, says two-headed snakes are very rare and have little chance of surviving in the wild. "Being two-headed is a major disadvantage, because its anatomical structure makes it more vulnerable to attacks while it also draws the attention of predators."

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Authorities are searching for someone who shot and killed a desert tortoise being tracked by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

From AZ Central:

She was the second tortoise in a Game and Fish study to have a transmitter affixed to her, which had been providing researchers information about the reclusive reptile's movements since 2010. Fourteen other juvenile tortoises in the program have transmitters.

Anyone with information about this killing can call the department's Operation Game Thief hotline toll-free at (800) 352-0700 or visit www.azgfd.gov/thief and refer to case #14-002388. Callers may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

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Why risk your own health by milking snakes? So others can benefit.

From The Mirror:

The pair run the Kentucky Reptile Zoo full-time, a non-profit relying solely on people coming through the gates and the sale of venom.

Kristen added: "Almost any venomous snake is capable of causing severe injury but you are pretty unlikely to die if you get appropriate medical care.

"It's unlikely here as we do everything we can to get appropriate care and have anti-venom on site for everything anti-venom is made for.

"We both believe what we're doing is a good thing - it saves lives."

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Rokkam Kiran Kumar spent ten years rescuing snakes in residential India, and now he wants to take it a step further by educating others in snake safety.

From The Hindu:

Acknowledging his decade-long efforts, he was recently given official permission to rescue snakes by the Chief Wildlife Warden with the support of the Conservator of Forest.

“On an average, I rescue five to six snakes in a day. But some days, I get more than 30 calls and it is difficult for me attend to all of them,” said Kiran. In order to address this issue, Kiran has recently registered his society called ‘Snakes Saver Society’ and formed a team with 16 other members, whom he has trained to catch and rescue snakes. “We now want to reach out to city schools and colleges and conduct awareness workshops on snakes and how to be safe,” he said. “There are about 250 species of snakes found in the region, but only a handful of them are venomous,” he said.

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Hundreds of surrendered Sonoran Desert tortoises are in need of new homes, and turning in wild tortoises compounds the problem.

From AZ Central:

"It's a heartbreaking thing when you see them come here, tears in their eyes, and you try to comfort them," said Daniel Marchand, curator at the Phoenix Herpetological Society, a private sanctuary which takes in surrendered reptiles.

But PHS can no longer take in tortoises due to the scope of the current problem.

Releasing them in the wild is not the answer, because one tame tortoise with a virus can kill an entire neighborhood of wild Sonoran Desert tortoises.

Then there's the issue with people finding tortoises in the wild and turning them in to Game and Fish.

"We don't want people turning in baby tortoises," said Burnett. "They're probably wild tortoises, so we want them to leave them in the wild. Obviously, if they're in the middle of the road, move them to the side of the road, but please don't turn in baby tortoises. Let them be in the wild so they don't have to be in captivity."

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Former kingsnake.com Chat Week guest Adam Britton calls for a better understanding of crocodile behavior to reduce fatal mistakes.

From Yahoo!:

Mr Britton said fatal attacks had very gradually increased since crocodiles were protected in the 1970s, to an average of one every two years.

"You can get three or four attacks within a short space of time, it doesn't necessarily mean there's suddenly been a dramatic increase in the number of crocodile attacks," he said.

"It just means there's been a dramatic increase in the number of people taking unnecessary risks, or putting themselves in a position that they don't think is necessarily safe, and it's tragic when it happens."

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Cars may travel faster on roads, but some snakes don't.

From Live Science:

A speed test for the northern pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus) shows that it takes the snakes 2 minutes to cross a two-lane concrete road. During that time, about 70 cars may pass over a well-used highway to the New Jersey coast. On sand, a trip the same distance would last only 45 seconds, said Dane Ward, a doctoral student in environmental science at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

When a snake moves across a sandy area, it creates sandbanks that it uses to propel itself forward. Concrete does not have enough debris or grip to help with this forward motion, Ward said. "It seems that the snake is having difficulty generating enough lateral thrust to move itself farther," he told Live Science.

To compensate, snakes on concrete roads slither in an "S" motion, which isn't typical for northern pine snakes, Ward said.

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A chef was killed by a venomous snake twenty minutes after he chopped off the snake's head.

From the Mirror:

A police spokesman said: "It is a highly unusual case but it appears to be just an accident. He prepared the snake himself and was just unlucky.

"There was nothing that could be done to save the man. Only the anti-venom could have helped but this was not given in time. It was just a tragic accident."

The snake was being diced up to be made into snake soup, which is a delicacy in the area and a much sought after dish in high-end restaurants. China has seen a rising demand for snake products, not only in restaurants but also for use in traditional medicine.

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How do you save endangered tortoises? Sterilization.

From the Elko Daily Free Press:

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials say they have to curb the backyard breeding of desert tortoises because the growing population of unwanted pet tortoises diverts resources from efforts to preserve the species in the wild.

Mike Senn, assistant field supervisor for the Fish &Wildlife Service in Nevada, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that it can be “a really difficult issue” to explain to people. He said simply breeding more tortoises won’t save the species if not enough is done to improve and protect natural habitat and address threats in the wild.

Captive tortoises threaten native populations because they can carry diseases with them when they escape or are released illegally in the desert.

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Soldiers in Nicaragua were deployed to prevent poachers from stealing sea turtle eggs.

From France24:

The first 1,400 Olive Ridley turtles arrived to nest Thursday at the Chacocente Wildlife Refuge on the Central American country's southern coast, regional military commander Jose Larios told the Nuevo Diario newspaper.

They were followed by hundreds more on Friday and Saturday, said Larios, whose troops are guarding a 1,500-meter (one-mile) stretch of beach where the turtles lay their eggs.

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Conservationists in Scotland search dunes and marshes by flashlight, looking for critically endangered natterjack toads.

From BBC News:

The scientists search the area after dark, using torchlight to find the natterjacks.

The toads are then measured and photographed.

James Silvey of RSPB Scotland said: "The beautiful thing about natterjacks is they each come with their own individual fingerprint, and that's in the form of the big warts and the yellow stripe on their backs.

"Each of the toads we photograph today could potentially live for 10 or 15 years and if we photograph it again we'll know that individual was found here at Mersehead in 2014.

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A critically endangered tree frog has just been discovered in Madagascar.

From Newsweek:

Boophis ankarafensis, as the scientists have dubbed the amphibian, is bright green with red speckles red on its head and back. It was found on the Sahamalaza Peninsula in the Ankarafa forest, from whence its name comes.

The frog’s call—a series of high-pitched trills, followed by three clicks—differs slightly from related frog species, which stop at a pair of clicks. Its body size and coloration are also slightly different; genetic analysis proved that it is indeed a separate species, according to a study describing the animal published today in the journal ZooKeys.

Although the Sahamalaza-Iles Radama National Park, where the frog is found, remains protected in name, deforestation is rampant in the surrounding forests, the researchers wrote.

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Scientists hope a new discovery about the origin of snake venom can lead to more effective treatments of snake bites.

From Laboratory Equipment:

The genes encoding these proteins have been duplicated at some point in the past and one of the resulting copies has been restricted to the venom gland, where natural selection has acted to develop or increase toxicity. This differs from the long-standing hypothesis that venom proteins are “recruited” from body tissues, in the sense that these proteins are already expressed in the venom or salivary gland prior to becoming toxic.

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A woman saved her great-grandson's pet bearded dragon by performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

From the Daily Mail:

‘I really couldn’t remember how many chest compressions should be given before a rescue breath, but he was blue so I just did it. I was really amazed it worked.’

Working for what she said felt like a half hour, she held the motionless Del and rubbed his belly, then hung him upside down to clear water from his mouth and breathed air past his teeth.

Before long, he opened his eyes and started to move.

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Check out what Slash says for Turtle Conservancy.

Turtle Conservancy - Slash from Turtle Conservancy on Vimeo.

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The Coast Guard is known for saving endangered sailors, but one crew can say they saved an endangered turtle.

From MYFOXNY:

The United States Coast Guard has released video showing a crew saving a huge sea turtle from a dangerous, tangled situation off the New Jersey coast.

The video shows Coast Guard members from Station Cape May, New Jersey, and an official from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigatine untangling the leatherback turtle from fishing gear on Saturday, August 9, 2014. The Coast Guard estimates the turtle weighed about 800 pounds.

As soon as the turtle was free of the gear, it swam away, appearing unharmed.

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No matter how much you like snakes, finding 48 roaming loose in your home can be quite the shock.

From the New York Daily News:

The snakes are small, but they are aggressive, the couple said. They are especially worried for their toddler son, Bentley.

"Our two-year-old is terrified of them," Hisler said. "We've only found one or two in his bedroom so far. Thank God."

So far, Scott and Hisler have caught 48 snakes - a number that increases daily, even though pest control has surveyed the home three times.

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Experts in India think a multi-state antivenom pool is needed to stem the tide of deaths caused by snakebites.

From the Times of India:

The number of deaths caused by snakebites in the country has reached nearly epidemic proportions therefore there is a need for setting up a multi-state cooperative for extracting snake venom, said renowned herpetologist Romulus Whitaker.

Whitaker, who was instrumental in setting up the Irula Snake-Catchers Industrial Cooperative Society (ISCICS) in Tamil Nadu, pointed out the drawbacks in the present system of venom collection.

"There is a lot of variation in venom. The same snake, the Russell's viper is found in four corners of India, but its venom composition varies according to where it is found. But the anti-venom produced from a Russell's viper in Tamil Nadu may not be good enough for a person bitten by a Russell's viper in West Bengal or Punjab," Whitaker told TOI.

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