Decimated by illegal hunting for both food and the pet trade along with habitat loss, many turtle species will go extinct in the next decade unless drastic conservation measures are taken, according to the report, which was released at a regional workshop hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore and WCS. Seventeen of the 25 species are found in Asia, three are from South America, three from Africa, one from Australia, and one from Central America and Mexico

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"Turtles are being unsustainably hunted throughout Asia," said co-author Brian D. Horne of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Every tortoise and turtle species in Asia is being impacted in some manner by the international trade in turtles and turtle products. In just one market in Dhaka, Bangladesh we saw close to 100,000 turtles being butchered for consumption during a religious holiday, and we know of at least three other such markets within the city."
Liz Bennett, Vice President of WCS Species Program, said: "Turtles are wonderfully adapted to defend themselves against predators by hiding in their shells, but this defense mechanism doesn't work against organized, large-scale human hunting efforts. The fact is that turtles are being vacuumed up from every nook and cranny in Asia and beyond."

The team from University College London (UCL) and Stony Brook University, New York, said the frog would have had a body length of about 40cm (16 inches), and was among the largest of its kind to be found.

"This frog, a relative of today's horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth," explained co-author Susan Evans, from UCL's Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.

"If it shared the aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' ambush tactics of [present-day] horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals.

"Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it's not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs."

What would the National Reptile Breeders' Expo look like? I struggled hard to imagine what kind of people would buy and sell reptiles. May be ‘weird people' — pot-smoking, long-haired, and elaborately-tattooed dudes who drove Harley Davidsons. Rom, who had been to one several years ago, shook his head: “You've never seen anything like it.” And, he was right!

On an August Saturday balmy morning in 2005, as we walked past the long queue, waiting to get inside the convention centre in Daytona, Florida, I was amazed that ‘straight people' outnumbered the freaks. There were elderly people, young couples, teenagers, little kids. You'd think they were going to the supermarket!

By the end of the weekend, thanks to an enthusiastic group of associates, we had raised close to $ 25,000 for gharial conservation from the sale of t-shirts, books, items donated by individuals, zoos and organisations. The reptile fanciers' commitment for the gharial in far-off India was touching. I wondered if we could raise this kind of money for reptile conservation (do I hear an “ugh”?) here, in middle-class India. Sadly, not a chance.

At a science conference in Washington Saturday, marine scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes would be gone by then. It wasn't.

"There's some sort of a bottleneck we have yet to identify for why this stuff doesn't seem to be degrading," Joye told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington. Her research and those of her colleagues contrasts with other studies that show a more optimistic outlook about the health of the gulf, saying microbes did great work munching the oil.

"Magic microbes consumed maybe 10 percent of the total discharge, the rest of it we don't know," Joye said, later adding: "there's a lot of it out there."

Eddie Sigai, nicknamed 'Crocky Balboa' by his friends, punched and gouged the saltwater croc after the powerful animal grabbed hold of his hand.

The 37-year-old, from Weipa, Queensland, was swimming with his daughters Jennifer, 17, and Monica, 12, at a creek last week when the crocodile caught hold of his left hand and dragged him underwater.

"We went and had a good look around the perimeter the following day and I really don't know how it got in," he said.

"Maybe it washed under somewhere in a fence line, but it's too hard to say whether it got in or whether it was put in.

"But I find it hard to believe it did manage to get in by itself."

NT Police said they were told late this morning that the boy was playing with his brothers in a creek at Milingimbi in Arnhem Land when he was apparently seized by a crocodile.

Members of the Milingimbi community began searching the creek and surrounding area for the boy, but there had been no sign of him.

Members of the NT police territory response section were flying to the community from Darwin this afternoon to lead the search for the boy, police said in a statement.

Milingimbi is part of the Crocodile Island group off the coast of Arnhem Land, about 440km east of Darwin.

Chief Minister Paul Henderson is warning people not to play in swollen waterways because flooding has made it easy for saltwater crocodiles to move around.

"We're urging everybody to keep out of those waterways, keep out of those lagoons, keep out of those steams because crocodiles are on the move," he said.

Bob Flemming from the Billabong Sanctuary says his 12 breeding crocs would not surface for several days after the enormous category five cyclone crossed the coast at Mission Beach more than a week ago.

"They were traumatised for a couple of days," Mr Flemming told AAP.


"They stayed underwater for some time and didn't even surface for food."
But he said the crocs, some more than four metres long, have since recovered and are back to feeding again.

His wildlife park lost power but back-up generators kept incubators containing more than 300 crocodile eggs going

The unusually heavy falls in the Burke shire, in Queensland's northwest, also brought a nasty surprise for locals in the form of 5m crocodiles.

"Because the floods bring the dead wildlife, the crocs follow them," said Jake Davis, manager of the Burketown Caravan Park.

"There's a big area of water, six or seven kilometres wide, and the crocs are just going where they like."

“Right now, the numbers aren’t all that different,” said park biologist Skip Snow. “We’re finding them in the same places we’ve been finding them.”

While scientists can only estimate the toll the Big Chill took on the army of exotic reptiles, fish and plants in the wilds of South Florida, field observations over the last year suggest nature knocked them down but not out. Some already are speeding down the road to recovery.

David Hallac, the park’s biological resources chief, said he expected a sharp decline in captured snakes. But last year’s total of 322 fell only about 10 percent from 2009.

Once about as common as coconuts, green iguana have grown scarce all the way down to the Keys. At previously infested Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne, the largest lizards — six-footers that might give a pit bull pause — have vanished.
But Elizabeth Golden, the park’s biologist, said she’s seeing small greens pop up. There also are plenty of black spiny tail iguanas in all sizes, another species that seems to have weathered the chill, she said, possibly protected by its underground burrows.

Let's face it. Snakes are not most people's favorite animals. They slink and slither without making much noise, have a forked tongue with unblinking eyes, and fangs that bite or coils that wrap. Some snakes are so dangerous that people have died from the encounter.

According to a 2010 report by the World Health Organization, at least 20,000 people are killed by poisonous snakebites every year. Not surprisingly, snakes are commonly feared, disliked, and even hated.

And yet, snakes are some of my favorite animals, and I have been bitten more than my fair share. When I tell the stories of how I've been bitten, I always acknowledge that it was my fault, and that the snakes were acting solely out of instinct and self-preservation.

However, as venom continues to evolve, this creates areas Fry calls "hot spots," where venoms have evolved radically and could result in a decrease in the ability for antivenom to do its job. However, as dangerous as the situation can be, there is also opportunity.

These "hot spots" are where novel toxins will appear within venom, which can then be studied and analyzed for future use in drug design and development.

"Venoms have had a huge role in drug design and development such as Captropril, a high blood pressure medication developed from the study of the venom of Bothrops jararaca, [which] kill more people than any other in the region," said Fry.

Therefore, not only has antivenom saved countless people from pain, limb loss, and even death, but the study of venom has also helped develop various products that increase human health.

Not too bad for an animal long thought to symbolize evil.

The scientists' high-resolution 3D images suggest the legs in this particular species, Eupodophis descouensi, grew more slowly, or for a shorter period of time.

It is a conclusion made possible only after seeing all the bones obscured inside the limestone, and determining that although the creature possessed ankle bones, it actually had neither foot nor toe bones.

"This study reveals the degree of regression of the legs," said Dr Alexandra Houssaye from the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) in Paris, France.

[....]

Two theories compete. One points to a land origin in which lizards started to burrow, and as they adapted to their subterranean existence, their legs were reduced and lost - first the fore-limbs and then the hind-limbs.

The second theory considers the origin to be in water, from marine reptiles.

This makes the few known bipedal snakes in the fossil record hugely significant, because they could hold the clues that settle this particular debate.

Denver Zoo staff assisted a breeding project at the Huachipa Zoo in Lima, Peru, in December and met with experts from around the world on strategies to preserve the giant frogs in the lake that straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia at 12,500 feet.

The Lake Titicaca frog is the Denver Zoo's top conservation project. Since 2007, the zoo has spent about $100,000 and advised local conservationists in the effort.

Although the five hatchlings did not survive, their births were considered a major step forward.

The question is, is there enough of a problem here that prompted this?

Apparently there is, in fact last year a man who runs a center to help exotic animals. Said this legislation needed to go through specifically about alligators he says he sees.

Senator Richard Alloway is expected to introduce a new bill that Jesse Rothacker says is long overdue. In Pennsylvania it's legal to buy pet alligators that start out tiny and end up huge.

The bill would amend Title 30 and make it illegal to buy or sell American alligators or venomous snakes.

The report said the rate of dead, disabled and diseased sea turtles discovered in the months following the massive April 20 spill was four to six times above average. The analysis, by the National Wildlife Federation, the Sea Turtle Conservancy and the Florida Wildlife Federation, was conservative and only took into account turtles found on shore, not those rescued or recovered at sea.

Researchers with the federal government said it would take years to determine the full impact of the spill on sea turtles. Necropsies have been done on more than half of 600 turtle carcasses, and while some may have died from oil, most of the turtles drowned in fishing gear, said Monica Allen, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association spokeswoman.

Unseasonably cold temperatures last winter were also detrimental to sea turtles, most of which are considered endangered, said Gary Appelson, policy coordinator for the Sea Turtle Conservancy. "Sea turtles have had a tough year,'' Appelson said.

The study follows on the work co-author David H. Rakison of Carnegie Mellon University did with spiders and infants as well as research Susan Mineka of Northwestern University did with monkeys, which when raised in a lab show no fear snakes. When Mineka attempted to instill a fear of rabbits, flowers, and snakes in the monkeys they much more readily learned to fear the snakes.

Arne Ohman at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden showed that for humans, once a fear of snakes or spiders is established, when a photo of a snake or spider is shown the fear response will last longer than a fear response learned to something less immediately threatening such as a mushroom. The research suggests an evolutionary tendency for humans to have the ability to quickly learn to fear these creepy crawlies and then respond metabolically longer in that state of fear during an encounter.

“Ideally, we’d like to have something that will either minimize or eliminate cancer cell growth in the body,” said Mackessy.

They are focusing on three different types of cancer: melanoma, colon and breast cancer.

“One of the reasons for looking at those three is that they’re very, very common in humans here in the United States. It’s a critical health concern,” said Mackessy.

Smith said both tracts are waterfront property that have unique wetlands habitats.

"Both tracts need to be conserved, but one in particular, the one that we call the Heron Bay tract, happens to be the only stronghold of the last remnant habitat for the diamondback terrapin, which is a big deal," Smith said.

"There's a lot of interest in that habitat and some universities have been studying that area for years, and that's basically the last remaining habitat in the state of Alabama for the diamondback terrapin, so we're really excited that we’re getting this award to purchase that property."

Smith said the state Forever Wild program will provide $379,500 in matching funds to buy the property.

The diamondback terrapin is the only turtle in North America that spends its life in brackish water. About 40 to 60 of the turtles are believed to live in south Mobile County, according to a 2008 Press-Register story. The reptile is listed as a species of 'highest conservation concern' by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.