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Cold-Blooded Chronicles
The newsletter of kingsnake.com
Winter 2002

From the Site Coordinator

Herpy Holidays from the staff here at kingsnake.com!!! It's now that time of year when many of us are extra busy with our holiday festivities. Regardless of which holiday(s) you celebrate, remember to check on all your pets, both those with scales and without. Power outages at this time of year always lead to horror stories of what had to be done to save our reptilian friends, especially. Take the time to make your plan now, so that you won't be caught by surprise.

Some of those who have written in have asked what charities are reptile-related that they could donate money to at this time of year. I've checked into it, and unfortunately, there are scarce few that would be able to offer any kind of tax-receipt. But here are some ideas for you: 1) National organizations such as PARC and SSAR could probably use the donation, and may offer a tax-exemption. 2) Find your closest reptile rescue or shelter, and donate money, time, or goods. They are always in need, just as the shelters for traditional pets are. Some of them have 501c(3) status, some don't. Either way, they can use the help. 3) Find your local reptile-oriented hobbyist group, and see if they have a particular need (many clubs rent their facilities each month, so a great "gift" would be to offer a month's rent).

To find clubs and rescues in your areas, try these pages on kingsnake.com that have links to many of them:

http://www.kingsnake.com/society.html
http://www.kingsnake.com/adoption.html

If you have herp friends on your holiday shopping list, don't forget to stop by our Reptile and Amphibian Art Gallery and the kingsnake.com Bookstore! Books and art make great gifts!

Also, don't forget Chat Week coming up starting on Sunday, December 8! There are some fantastic chats scheduled for all of the communities in the PetHobbyist.com group, especially some great ones for the kingsnake.com folks. Our scheduled guests include Tracy Barker, Richard Bartlett, Bob Clark, Jeff Ronne, Bob Applegate, Andrew H. Price, Ph.D., and more; a complete lineup for kingsnake.com is listed here:

kingsnake.com Chat Week Schedule

Guests for the entire PetHobbyist.com Chat Week lineup are listed here:

PetHobbyist.com Chat Week Schedule

I hope to see you there!!

We hope you enjoy this edition of the Cold-Blooded Chronicles, and welcome your submissions for consideration. You can send them to me, or to

PH Scales
Site Coordinator, kingsnake.com
PHScales@pethobbyist.com

Holiday Contest

Ho Ho Ho, somebody is going to have a very merry Christmas!

Continuing kingsnake.com's holiday tradition of having a most excellent Christmas contest, PetHobbyist.com is having its biggest contest ever. This is a chance for pet lovers all over the continental United States to get their stocking stuffed with a NEW Gateway™ 42-inch plasma TV, thin enough to hang on the wall! Now you can watch TV or plug it into your computer and surf the web with the latest in flat screen plasma technology.

Visit our Holiday Contest Page for details!

Fire Safety:
A Winter's Tale
By Susan Jacob
AuntPhiben@aol.com

My tortoise and my lizards have extended time out in the sunshine in the summer. Once fall arrives, it's time to start getting everyone indoors. Here in New York it is not good reptile weather after late September. The lizards have their own set ups, but the sulcata tortoise, being as big as she is, is in a pen in my boiler/laundry room. I have 80-degree temperatures in that room for most of the winter, with an occasional drop when the weather is really cold. Most of the animals can take that and I don't keep the heat too high at night. I always keep the tortoise on fresh timothy or alfalfa hay and I switch off in the winter when she isn't getting the green grass of the lawn to graze on. In the past few winters I used an UVB/heat bulb over her pen, but always had a problem getting it to stay put. I use the metal light bulb holders with the clips and it seems they always slip and fall sideways directing the heat to the other direction or worse into the plastic wall of the pen. I meant to buy a holder to keep the light fixture upright, but kept putting it off.

I was doing laundry at the time in the basement and that day the tortoise was hiding under her hay, so I adjusted the UVB/heat bulb in her direction, using the clip on the back of the fixture to attach it to my husband's workbench, which is along side her pen. Ten minutes later, I was supposed to leave to go food shopping, but had put it off a bit to go online and check my email. Thank God I did, because that little sidetrack probably saved my house. I was upstairs for maybe five minutes, tops, when the downstairs fire/smoke alarm went off. I was busy on the computer and it took about three seconds to realize what it was. I was thinking it was the alarm on the washer when it goes out of balance. When it finally hit me I took off for the basement. I swear I took the last four steps in a leap, twisting my calf muscle in the process. When I rushed into the reptile room the lamp had popped off and was lying fully on and operational down in the hay in the tortoise enclosure. The room was smoky and the hay was blackened and smoldering. I grabbed the light and put it on the floor and grabbed the entire armful of blackened hay and ran and dumped it in the slop sink and turned on the water. It had not ignited in a flash, but I believe if I had been a few minutes later it would have flashed into flames. The entire pen, my laundry room with hanging clothes and all my lizard litter enclosures would have been on fire. My basement ceiling is only six feet, so if the hay had blazed upwards and caught the ceiling I would never have been able to stop it.

Of course I was a shaky mess after all of this, and the tortoise, ET, was casually sitting in the pen looking at me as if to ask what I did with her hay. Thank God for smoke alarms! I shudder to think what would have happened to her. So the lessons to be learned here include, have a smoke/fire detector in your reptile area, as with all the heat lamps you can't be too careful. Don't clip lamps where they will start a fire if they come loose and pop off. I bought a lamp stand that day. Make sure you have a fire extinguisher handy. I do, but the slop sink was closer and easier because of the smoldering hay. I worked for years at a fireman's training center in Long Island so I know how fast fire can spread. Hay is highly combustible and that's why so many barn fires end in tragedy. So before you get all your critters winterized, check everything twice for fire safety. The only bright spot of this entire story was that I was so traumatized by the event that I had to break into the left over Halloween candy I was saving for the nieces and nephews. After all, nothing calms the nerves better than chocolate!

Copyright 2002 by Susan Jacob. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Rana subaquavocalis:
The Rarest Frog in the U.S.
By Terry Gampper
PHFrog@pethobbyist.com

In 1988, Creighton University (Omaha, NE) professor of biology James Platz received a tip from a stranger on a desolate road in southeastern Arizona. At the end of the road, Professor Platz found a big frog. Although it looked very much like a typical leopard frog, it turned out to be a brand new species. The frogs reside in a couple of small ponds located in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista, Arizona. It is popularly known as the Ramsey Canyon Leopard Frog. Platz gave it the scientific name Rana subaquavocalis for their unusual vocalizing behavior -- the males call for their mates from three feet underwater. This species is described in the June 1993 issue of the Journal of Herpetology.

According to Platz, the next steps are to determine how vulnerable this species is to extinction. They are known to live in two places. There are about 45 individuals living in Ramsey Canyon and about 55 living in nearby Brown Canyon.

The frog is green and olive-brown in coloration and about 6 inches in length. Some of the individuals were at least 10 years old, about twice the age that most leopard frogs get. By the way, the age of frogs is determined by counting the annual rings found in the toe bones.

The professor believes that the frogs were quite common about 17,000 years ago when glaciers covered most of the country and the climate was much cooler. As the glaciers retreated, the climate became hotter and dryer forcing the frogs to move to mountain streams. The frogs at the low altitudes perished but those who made it to the mountains survived. They were isolated from the gene pool of other leopard frogs for several thousands of years and eventually became a new species.

Platz returned to the area in 1989 equipped with a tape recorder and hydrophones. He found several egg masses, which indicated that the frogs were breeding. However, one important factor was missing: there were no vocalizations. He placed the hydrophone in the water and was greeted by a plethora of frog calls. Why would frogs call from underwater? Platz offered these hypotheses:

1) A frog calling at the edge of the pond may be heard by a predator and thus placed at a disadvantage;
2) Sounds emitted underwater travels much farther than on land, giving males a better opportunity to attract a mate;
3) Frogs would avoid the cooler evening temperatures, since water cools more slowly than land; and
4) The frogs can begin their breeding season earlier in the year giving tadpoles time to grow up and prepare for winter.

In 1995, Platz and other conservationists began trying to increase the population of these frogs by collecting eggs and raising the tadpoles in large horse tanks for later reintroduction. Also, efforts to improve the habitat of the area are being planned. The frogs live in canyon ponds within the Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve. As more people became involved in the project, a third population of the frogs was discovered. Dr. Platz is working with the conservancy, the ranch owner, the U.S. and Arizona fish and game departments, and the military to draft a recovery plan for the frog. The U.S. Army is involved because Ramsey Canyon borders a large military reservation. The plan also calls for the eventual establishment of 8 population groups that are close enough so the frog can migrate from place to place.

The Nature Conservancy has a detailed article about Rana subaquavocalis in the September/October 1997 issue of Nature Conservancy Magazine.

Sources:

Omaha World-Herald, "Frog Lover Happens Onto Hoppers", October 9, 1993

Omaha World-Herald, "Frog Man Has Found New But Dying Species", July 14, 1995

Cold Blooded Chronicles is copyright 2002 by OnlineHobbyist.com unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.