Every year I see students come in my room who are kind of uncomfortable or a little bit nervous but very quickly they realize that the snakes are not these scary monsters that they thought they were," said Duncan.
"They play a really critically important role in their ecosystems. They are very, very important to preserve their presence and keep them around."

Keeping these snakes around is just what Duncan is working to do.

"At first, my brain couldn't comprehend that its entire upper jaw was missing," Kanter told FOX 35. "When I realized, I felt terrible for him and snapped as good a photo as I could get with my cell phone standing at a distance so that I could share it and try to find help."

Kanter contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and an environmental conservation nonprofit in hopes they would help find and rescue the gator.

The alligator appears to be four to five years old and will be kept on a special diet while away from other animals for a while. Gatorland believes it lived in the wild without half its jaw for at least six months, likely eating snails and frogs.

It all started back in the early 1990s, when government researcher Dr. John Eng discovered that Gila monsters have a special hormone in their venom. The hormone is quite similar to a hunger-regulating hormone humans harbor in the small intestine, which helps control blood sugar levels.

In people, it's called glucagon-like peptide-1. In Gila monsters, Eng named it exendin-4.

But despite the lizard's small stature, its sharp teeth would have delivered a menacing bite, which inspired the paleontologists to name it Cryptovaranoides microlanius; the species name means "small butcher," while the genus means "hidden" and "lizardlike," a nod to the decades it spent languishing unnoticed in NHM storage. When C. microlanius was alive, it likely preyed on arthropods and small vertebrates on the limestone-rich islands that once surrounded what is now Bristol, according to the study.

"Finding hatchlings for the first time in four years gives us a good indication of habitat, where they are nesting and breeding successfully," he said.

"It means we can target follow-up surveys there and we can learn a bit more about their nesting and early life stage ecology."

“The discovery of the first-ever nest and young pink iguanas together with evidence of the critical threats to their survival has also given us the first hope for saving this enigmatic species from extinction.” Paul Salaman, president of Galápagos Conservancy, says in a statement. “Now, our work begins to save the pink iguana.”

We have been posting relevant updates on our main alert here (scroll down). To be brief, the “CHIPS-Plus” bill that passed in the Senate passed the House on 7/28 (243-187 vote). This bill includes some of the technology initiatives included in the America COMPETES Act, USICA, and other bills. The portions of COMPETES that were not germane to the intent of the bill (including the bad Lacey Act amendments) were not added to the CHIPS-Plus package. This should be the end of any threat from these Lacey Act amendments for this Congressional session.

-Makes all king snakes (Lampropeltis spp.) and hybrids illegal to own, breed, and sell without a scientific collection permit or permit from the Commissioner. Currently, only Eastern, prairie, and black “speckled” king snakes are listed.
-Makes it illegal to own more than one box turtle (all Terrapene spp.) or sell/trade a box turtle without a scientific collection permit or permit from the Commissioner.
-There are other new rules including, but not limited to, additional protected nongame species and Eastern diamondback rattlesnake regulations.

From Kristen Penney Sommers of FWC to USARK FL President Elizabeth Wisneski on June 9, 2022:
"Per our discussion yesterday, the attached list is a repository of species that we have either had risk work completed on, or species that have been suggested to have risk work conducted on. In no way is this the “white list” that your members are claiming. One of the duties of the Nonnative Fish and Wildlife program is to evaluate the risk of species that may be introduced into the state. This spreadsheet is in part documentation of our efforts to address responsibilities to all of the citizens in Florida."
While use of the term "White List" was discouraged by Sommers and other FWC staff at the last "Technical Assistance Group" (TAG) meeting, FWC did introduce the terms "Unrestricted List," "Restricted List," and "Not Allowed List."

1. Provide that the Lacey Act bans the interstate transport of species listed as injurious. Specifically, it replaces Lacey’s current language ‘‘shipment between the continental United States’’ with ‘‘transport between the States.”
2. Create a “white list” of species that can be imported. This means that any animal (reptile, amphibian, fish, bird, mammal, invertebrate) that is not on the white list is by default treated as an injurious species and is banned from importation.
3. Create a new authority allowing FWS to use an “emergency designation” that becomes effective immediately after being published in the Federal Register unless an extension of no more than 60 days is allowed. That means no due process, public input, hearings, advanced notice, etc. for injurious listings.
4. Permit FWS to not allow importation if a species has not been imported in “minimal quantities” (to be defined) in the year prior to the enactment of this Act.
The effective date would be one year after the enactment of this Act.

Through Feb. 2, contact the House Rules Committee and your federal Representatives. Remember to be civil and professional at all times. Please personalize/edit your letters, if possible. If the bill passes the House with the amendments, then attention must turn to the Senate.

1. Call your Representatives’ offices (link below) and the Rules Committee at (202)-225-9091;
2. Email Representatives (link below);
3. Fax letters to (202)-226-9191 and your Representatives;
4. SHARE this and encourage others to complete the Alert!!!