With so many friends and family members spread through the country, I wanted to live stream my talk so they could be here to support me. In fact two of the most important people in my life, my husband and my father, are tucked away in Wisconsin while I was here presenting. The good news is the talk is here for you all to enjoy. This is an ever evolving talk, so if you have more input, please feel free to email me!



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I wish I would have made the David Lazcano talk, I happened to come in at the end and he was funny. Emmanuel Van Heygen was the first talk I caught. Speaking on the North-Western Madagascar and the Phelsuma Geckos he gave a quick break down of each species and its distribution range. Any talk that Emmanuel gives is always accompanied by lovely photos he has taken when in the field. Bamboo sounds as if it is the key to proper husbandry of the Phelsuma geckos. There was a lot of breakdown of each species with photos of them in their natural habitat.

A multi-disciplinary approach needs to be used to look at vet med for endangered species. More than treating the illness but treating the situation and environment. The program that they worked with for the Rio Grande River Cooters targeted the area pollution as well as the water pollution oat the TX-Mexico borders. The compared both pristine as well as contaminated river systems for the research and they used the animals from the Devil’s and Peco’s Rivers as their baseline species.

They did sampling, physicals, blood work, to compare with the Rio Grande population. They also assisted on the Cyclura pinguis project on the Virgin Islands. It was a head start program to help reintroduce the species on the wild. The benefits of releasing head-started animals are obvious, but the drawbacks are issues. They tend to imprint on the birth location, they have a harder time finding hide spots, feeding and basking locations. The project head-started, implanted transmitters and then tracked the animals after release.

The post-lunch talks started with Dr. Gary Ferguson on his field work with the Texas Horned lizards. They are secretive, slow moving, and cute. How true that is.

They are opportunistic insectivores however while they will go after anything that moves it appears the ants are what they can only catch/ The common agreements seem to be that they are a longer-lived animal, with the oldest so far tracked at 8 years ago going strong. In Texas they seem to be a species of concern, but their global status is fairly stable.

In Texas, pretty much everyone knows the Horny Toad; they are the mascot of TCU. In captivity, they are very hard to maintain, but it really is possible. The diet seems to be the hardest part of the husbandry. One lizard can eat between 30-100 ants per day. They also have a very large space requirement and for their size they need an exceptionally large cage in comparison. He explained the UV and thermal gradient studies that they did. Sharing a bit of the natural history of their campsite, he went on to describe the techniques. One difference between the sexes is that the males tend to spend more time midday hiding at ground level under the vegetation, but the females, while still staying out of direct sunlight, they tend to climb higher.

Ari R Flagle then spoke on the basking levels of Boelen’s Pythons.

My original reason for visiting the Albuquerque Bio Park was to see Doug Hotle and his sea snakes, but the prize was the Komodo Dragon. How did I not know there was one there?

After leaving the Chiricahuas early in the morning, Bryan Fry and I headed on our long journey to visit Doug and see his amazing collection. We arrived a bit later than we would have liked, but it worked out in the end as Doug had a slight emergency to deal with in the morning.

After making my first drive in mountains and a very long desolate drive from one side of the state to the other, we arrived at the Bio Park mid-afternoon. Grabbing Doug quickly at the end of the day, we had an amazing tour. Starting with some of the animals in his garter snake program and ending with the sea snakes, it was one of the top venomous collections out there.

The true joy for me came when I turned around in one room and saw the sign on the door. KOMODO. The sheer happiness and excitement that those words put in all of us was epic. But when Doug said we could play, that sent me to insane peaks of ecstasy!

Guiding us in to meet the male, I was very glad I wore shoes that covered my toes. An outgoing man of beautiful shades of turquoise and orange, he slowly took the time to greet each of us. Then one of Doug's assistants made my day offering to allow me to feed him. Snuggling and feeding? Can it get more epic?

More photos after the bump.

Saturday night, the Biology of the Rattlesnakes Symposium ended with an auction to benefit the Student Grant Program. On Sunday, that was followed up with a wonderful barbecue at the Chiricahua Desert Museum, owned by Bob and Sherry Ashley.

Having watched the museum built from the beginning up, I cannot tell you how excited I was to finally get there. The store itself put me into shopping overload and I couldn't decide what to buy (I got a long sleeved shirt), but the main gallery is an amazing walk down memory lane for the reptile community. Letters from famous herpetologists, artwork, a stamp collection, book collections, kitchy items, pop culture -- amazing, all of it. One of the memories I will hold dear and take home is sharing time hearing about Mark O'Shea's hero and sharing the story of my IHS talk with Mark.

Another memory is meeting one of the more infamous herpers we have ever had grace our site. FR, aka Frank Retes, happened to be there and, amazingly, recognized me. He was not quite what I expected, yet every ounce of what I expected. We had a few long discussions on husbandry and got along like old friends. That is what this community is about, putting aside everything else, sitting down and having a beer together.

Bob and Sherry did a wonderful job and I also want to thank them for their hospitality for the Chiricahua Lodge. Seriously, if you are thinking of somewhere to crash and go herping, you can NOT pass up this lodge.

Photos of the event after the bump.

When talking about coming to Arizona, there was one single animal that was the cream of the crop for me to see in the wild, the all mighty Gila Monster. I love these little tenacious creatures; they remind me of bulldogs with their stocky thick build and big ole smiles.

We headed out in a group caravan after grabbing a quick bite to eat. Hitting yet another location with rocky hills, I didn't fare quite as well as the previous night, taking one amazing tumble and rolling my ankle, spraining it. Unfortunately I sprained it fairly early in the hike, and, well, the Gila were calling. Luckily my girl Linda from the CHS stayed behind and took the slow walk with me.

Our first find was a road kill frog, however we followed that up with a lovely tarantula.

Finding the girl was amazing. Bryan Fry sexed her out as a sub-adult female on look. Smiley stunning girl with that big old grin sillouetted in the moonlight (and, of course, our lamps and flashlights). Tonight we may head out after the banquet for the other goal species, the Sidewinder, but for now, I am a happy girl and can leave Arizona satisfied. BTW, did I mention Chip is a rockstar herper?

We started off today with a quick continental breakfast at the Marriot and then a short bus ride to the Sonoran Desert Museum. All our talks today for the Biology of the Rattlesnakes Symposium will be here.

We got here early enough -- crack of dawn, actually -- to spend the morning hiking. Bill Love and I took turns taking pictures of each other taking pictures, but my highlight was seeing a Ctenosaur similis male sitting proud and big on a rock. I managed to grab a quick coffee and head to the talks at the end of William B. Hayes talk on niche partitioning on living environments. One of the points from the talk was that niche differences do not appear to result from partitioning. It also seems to show that it is related to pre size. The research primarily compared the living environments of helleri and Southern Pacific in California.

Matt Holding spoke next on the effects of short distance translocation on the Northern Pacific rattlesnakes. All images are Harry Greene approved. One thing we need to look at to deal with human and rattlesnake interactions is the biggest thing is we need to observe the location of translocation; however, we also need to train people to properly handle the animals. Long distance translocation is often extremely bad resulting in a high mortality rate. The downfall with short distance, though, is the animals often will return.

Corticosterone is a hormone that, mobilizes energy stores. Chronic rises in CORT can be very detrimental to the health of the animal. What the study looked at was how they can control and adjust handling to adjust the chronic stressors to reptiles. The study also focused on adult males. They took two different blood samples of both baseline and stress sample. To get the stress blood sample, they took baseline, held the animal in a secure bucket and then drew again. When they compressed the data at the end, when the baseline was taken at both initial and final, the baseline levels were equal however the stress level was greatly increased on the second stress induced test. The testosterone levels, however, did not seem impacted in the initial capture, however in final capture; there was a huge drop of testosterone at the final stress testing.

The conclusion is that rattlesnakes seem to bounce back with short distance relocation. Although there is a difference it doesn’t appear to cause long term health issues.

We're on the road again! I'm heading out to represent kingsnake.com at the Biology of the Rattlesnakes Symposium in Tuscon, Ariz., starting today.

Like last summer, you can come with us! From the talks, to the tours, to field herping with the greats, we will bring you along.

This year, follow me on kingsnake connect and you'll see everything I'm doing as it happens. As long as there is life in my phone I will be a posting fool.

You can also follow us on the Kingsnake.com blog here.

We have a photo gallery made specifically for this show. Upload shots from the show while you're down there to share with everyone. You can find the Biology of the Rattlesnakes gallery here.

Be sure to "like" us on Facebook here.

Follow us on Twitter here.

Are you a regular Twitter user? We have started a hashtag for the event! Post from the show with #bor to join in on the fun! Not familiar with how hashtags work? No problem! Check out this helpful link for more information.

Safe travels to all on their way to and from the show. If you see me, please stop and say hi! But don't be shocked if I ask for a photo with you!

A recent discovery in Saxony of a perfectly petrified tree-dwelling lizard shows that lizards came well before the dinoosaurs. The animal resembles the modern day Green Iguana, but is currently being dated to the Permian period between 300 million and 250 million years ago.

“Most other reptiles lived on the ground,” (Jörg Schneider, professor of palaeontology at Freiberg University) told The Local. “For the first time we really know this animal was specialized for living in trees … They have unusually long and slim fingers and very long tails … It is a completely new form that is unknown.”

The Permian period was marked by the diversification of land vertebrates and appearance of modern trees such as conifers. All of the modern continents were clumped together in the single supercontinent, Pangea.

Mammal ancestors such as the famous fan-backed Dimetrodon flourished but the period ended with a massive extinction 250 million years ago that wiped out about 70 percent of land vertebrates, probably through a combination of climate change, volcanic activity and asteroid strikes.

The petrified forest on the outskirts Chemnitz is remarkably intact because it was buried in fine ash from a nearby volcano eruption. Normally such fossil remains of animals have been washed some distance from where they lived and died and then preserved in lakes and sediments, Schneider said.

The Chemnitz forest, by contrast, has been preserved virtually as it stood 290 million years ago, complete with trees, insects, spiders and snails as well as larger vertebrate animals. The reptiles were found at the foot of the trees from which they fell.

“You could call it the Pompeii of Saxony,” Schneider said. “They are exceptionally well-preserved skeletons because of this very fine ash. We could see every bone, we could see the outline of the skin and beautifully preserved scales. It looks like they just died days ago.”

To read the full article, click here.

Despite the lack of external ears, German physicists have found that snakes do in fact hear -- and they hear in stereo!

(T)hey do have complete inner ear systems, including functional cochlea, which are carefully connected to and stimulated by their lower jaw. Resting on the ground, a snake's jaw can detect vibrations as small as an angstrom in amplitude (a motion roughly as large the diameter of a single atom), which act like sound waves to the inner ear.

The physicists performed a geometric study of the anatomy of horned desert vipers as well as the ground waves created by the footfalls of their prey. They showed mathematically that the jaw-to-cochlea system is sensitive to the frequencies of the prey's ground vibrations.

From their analysis, the physicists also found that the snake's notorious ability to unhinge their jaws and swallow their prey whole means that the right and left side of their jaws can receive vibrations independently, and the snakes hear in stereo.

For the full article, click here.

One hundred thirty years is a long time to live, even for a tortoise. This past week the reptile community lost of one their ancient giants: Methuselah, a 130-year-old Galapagos Tortoise, passed away quietly at Reptile Gardens in South Dakota.

Originally named Earl, he was born in 1881 on the Galapagos Islands and joined the Reptile Gardens family in the 1954. I had the pleasure to meet him and his yard mates, Quasi and Tank, last summer on our family trip to the Gardens. Both Tank and Methuselah were exceptionally friendly and they loved to have their long necks scratched. Both also loved dogs; who knew!

From the Reptile Gardens blog post on his passing:

Those of us who worked with the tortoises on a daily basis learned each one’s personality, their habits, preferences, and behaviors. Methuselah, honestly, always had the most personality. He was smart and knew how to get what he wanted. He could be cunning even. Sometimes you could tell he was thinking, as though he was formulating some plan.

Farewell, Methuselah! It was a pleasure to have known you. You were a great ambassador for reptiles everywhere.

Photo: Reptile Gardens Curator of Reptiles, Terry Phillip, and Methuselah share a quiet moment on our vacation in July 2010.

The US Fish and Wildlife said this week that the Gila Monster population in Utah is not large enough to warrant endangered status.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday that a petition seeking to protect the Utah population of the Gila monster under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) does not contain substantial scientific information to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted, because the population does not constitute a distinct population segment (DPS) as defined by the ESA. The finding will be published in the Federal Register Tuesday.

Despite the announcement by the USFWS that the species will not receive further consideration for listing under the ESA at this time, the agency will continue to work with its partners to conserve and protect the Gila monster throughout the species’ range, according to the announcement.

[....]

In Utah, it is found only in the southern portion of Washington County, which comprises less than one (.01) percent of the species’ total range.

To read the full article, click here.

After dying off in Chambal, Gharials are making a comeback thanks to conservation efforts and reintroductions. And the natives, they couldn't be happier!

Over four years ago, more than 20 gharials were found dead on the Chambal. They seemed to have been poisoned – dying from kidney failure and gout from eating contaminated fish from polluted rivers. "What a horrible death! Poor gharials," sympathises David, as we imagine the sick reptiles suffering.

But a few weeks later we hear some welcome news. The new breeding centre further up river, in the Sheopur district, is proving a success. More than 1,000 baby gharials from more than 40 mothers have hatched in the last month. On the drive back on the bus we talk to a few locals who are very excited about the gharial babies. One young boy tells me thousands have been born; a young woman tells me that there are tens of thousands.

"You have to see the babies diving in the water," urged one boy. The small crocodilians have become local celebrities. Families are now taking picnics on the river at weekends to see the gharials play and feed.

To read the full article, click here.

The Leatherback Sea Turtle gained protection recently off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California offering them a better chance at survival in nesting habitat.

The endangered leatherback sea turtle enjoyed a huge conservation victory this week. The hulking, jellyfish-eating reptile will be protected in ocean waters off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington due to a settlement filed by the National Marine Fisheries Service and conservation groups. The current settlement proposes protecting 70,600 square miles of critical habitat, but the government has until November 15, 2011 to make a final rule.

The settlement marks a major turning point in a many-year effort by conservation groups to protect the embattled turtle, which travels some 6,000 miles from the western Pacific to the cool waters along the Western United States each summer and fall to feed on scores of jellyfish. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, “as few as 2,300 adult female western Pacific leatherbacks remain.”

To read the full article, click here.

The final 30 sea turtles being treated for complications related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill were recently released back into the wild.

From the Associated Press:

"It took a little time but they actually all healed up very nicely," said aquarium veterinarian Cara Field.

A federal contractor released the turtles Friday off of Venice, Audubon Nature Institute spokeswoman Sarah Burnette said Wednesday.

Burnette said most were healthy enough for release last year, but the remaining 30 wintered at the institute. Earlier this spring, it was either too cold or seas were too choppy for the release, she said.

The worst injured and sickest was the Kemp's ridley sea turtle with one line of puncture wounds in his shell and another in the flat plastron over his abdomen, indicating that he probably escaped being eaten by a shark, Field said.
....
Field said some were anemic because of the exposure to oil. Others had low calcium, broken flippers and a couple had infected toe-bones.

For the full article, click here.

The Cantor's Softshell Turtle has not been spotted in the wild since 2003, but an American based conservation group is working to change that.

From the Associated Press:

U.S.-based Conservation International said it opened the Mekong Turtle Conservation Center on Wednesday in Kratie province, 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Phnom Penh.
A 40-pound (18-kilogram) female turtle and six babies were released into the conservation pond at a Buddhist pagoda on the Mekong River at the center's launch. The ceremony was attended by six Buddhist monks — who blessed the female turtle by painting scared markings on her body — and more than 100 villagers.
"Our goal is to conserve Cantor's turtle populations in their natural habitat, the Mekong River, through the Mekong Turtle Conservation Center and the community-led nest protection scheme," Conservation International said in a statement.

To read the full article, click here.

Days before researcher Luke Yeoman was to open his King Cobra Sanctuary, he lost his life working with the very animals he loved the most.

A protege of Rom Whitaker, Luke was highly respected in the venomous community for his work with King Cobras and his study of their behavior. In a recent article celebrating the opening of his sanctuary, he compared keeping King Cobras to some people keeping fast cars:

"People do say that I am mad but I say it's better than people saying you're bad. I think everything I am doing is good," he said.

Luke loved the species he chose to dedicate his life conserving. Describing his work with them in another article, he said:

My life is about the conservation of the king cobra. Our breeding colony here is a safety net in case the king cobra becomes extinct.

[....]

Writing on his sanctuary's website previously, Mr Yeomans said: 'The King Cobra Sanctuary was born from my lifelong love for this amazing snake species and my concerns that it could eventually disappear from the wild.

'Until mankind changes the way he treats the natural world, a living 'Ark' is required for the survival of many animal species.

It is thought he died of a heart attack caused by a cobra bite.

Every spring for as long as I can remember, my phone rings off the hook with turtle removal requests. My rescue isn't permitted for native wildlife, but people see reptiles and call.

From The Morning Sun:

Typically, the turtles — in Crawford County, most are the common snapping turtle, red-eared slider, map turtle and box turtle — winter in the mud near the bottom of a pond, according to Fort Hays State University's Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas. Their low oxygen requirement allows their skin to absorb enough oxygen through the water. But their habitat may have changed, so it's off to greener pastures, and mates.

It's also egg-laying season, and the turtles are looking for safe habitats in which to construct their nests. With the exception of snapping turtles, they also could be on the prowl for the juicy droppings of a mulberry tree, Glick said.

"They love those," he said

But roads are a problem, and while a large snapping turtle could throw off a vehicle's alignment, the consequences are, of course, much more dire for the hapless turtles.

Glick said it's OK to move turtles off the road as long as it's safe to stop, but he recommends determining their direction of travel first.

"They may just turn around and go back to the other side," he said.

"It's also possible to move snapping turtles. Glick doesn't recommend moving them, but said that if someone were so inclined as to try, he or she should pick the turtle up by its tale, leaving its underside facing toward the person's body and at a safe distance.

To read the ful article, click here. And remember to watch for turtles crossing the road. They are just trying to get to the other side.

A possible treatment for cancer has been found in the proteins in the skin of the Waxy Monkey Frog.

From Science Daily:

The award-winning research, led by Professor Chris Shaw at Queen's School of Pharmacy, has identified two proteins, or 'peptides', which can be used in a controlled and targeted way to regulate 'angiogenesis' -- the process by which blood vessels grow in the body. The discovery holds the potential to develop new treatments for more than seventy major diseases and conditions that affect more than one billion people worldwide.

The proteins are found in secretions on the skins of the Waxy Monkey Frog and the Giant Firebellied Toad. Scientists capture the frogs and gently extract the secretions, before releasing them back in to the wild. The frogs are not harmed in any way during this process.
Professor Shaw said: "The proteins that we have discovered have the ability to either stimulate or inhibit the growth of blood vessels. By 'switching off' angiogenesis and inhibiting blood vessel growth, a protein from the Waxy Monkey Frog has the potential to kill cancer tumours. Most cancer tumours can only grow to a certain size before they need blood vessels to grow into the tumour to supply it with vital oxygen and nutrients. Stopping the blood vessels from growing will make the tumour less likely to spread and may eventually kill it. This has the potential to transform cancer from a terminal illness into a chronic condition.

[....]

"It would be a great shame to have something in nature that is potentially the wonder drug to treat cancer and not aim to do everything in our power to make it work."

To read the full article, click here.