Reptile & Amphibian News Blog
Keep up with news and features of interest to the reptile and amphibian community on the kingsnake.com blog. We cover breaking stories from the mainstream and scientific media, user-submitted photos and videos, and feature articles and photos by Jeff Barringer, Richard Bartlett, and other herpetologists and herpetoculturists.
Wednesday, December 14 2011
 To give our site members more flexibility and payment options, kingsnake.com has transitioned its online payment processing systems to support both Paypal and Google Wallet payment systems. Both systems give our users a number of credit and debit card payment options as well as the ability to use their Paypal accounts.
We hope to incorporate some of both platforms' mobile capabilities in later revs of the mobi version of kingsnake.com's classifeds, slated to be released as a BETA this week! Check back here for more info as it becomes available.
* please note - there may be some "funkiness" for the next week as we get the Google Wallet system implemented properly, so please bear with us.
Monday, December 12 2011
 The movie Herpers was a ground breaking documentary film released in 2009 that was one of the first to explore the people and animals that make up the reptile and amphibian culture. With interviews with many noted breeders and hobbyists and footage from a number of private reptile breeding facilities, filmmaker Dav Kaufman took the world up close and personal with a culture many never knew existed. With the success of the first film, Dav jumped right back to work to produce a sequel.
kingsnake.com got the chance to talk movies with Dav Kaufman, director of Herpers II, the follow-up to his first film about the reptile community. Herpers II even includes an interview with our own Jeff Barringer.
To hear the interview, click here. And check out the trailer under the jump!
Continue reading "Interview with 'Herpers II' director Dav Kaufman"
Saturday, December 10 2011
 We've heard it a thousand times: "You need to add a personals section to the classifieds!" We decided to take it a step further, and launch an entire dating site for the herp community, kingsnake After Dark.
That's right; if you're looking for love and tired of not finding that person who will appreciate crickets in the bedroom or mice in the freezer, there's finally a place for you to find a date or a mate.
A few notes: The site's in beta, so there may be bugs and glitches. Please let us know if you find any! You must be 18 to use the site. And you really should be single, don't you think?
If you've been looking for a dating site where the phrase "Must love snakes" is the norm instead of the exception, check out kingsnake After Dark.
 California concerns about Chytrid fungus is again bringing up the possible ban on importation of bullfrogs into the state.
They were imported from frog farms in Taiwan... environmental activist and former game warden [Miles Young] said.
The species is particularly susceptible to a skin fungus linked to vanishing amphibians around the world. And the conditions in which bullfrogs are raised, transported and sold are ideal breeding grounds for the fungus and its waterborne zoospores.
"It should be against the law to bring diseased nonnative animals into California," he grumbled. "But every time someone proposes a ban on bullfrogs, politics gets in the way and nothing gets done."
[....]
Opponents also said it unfairly targeted Asian American businesses because it did not affect the sale of turtles and frogs at pet stores.
In testimony before the panel, [Leland] Yee, an unsuccessful candidate in the Nov. 8 San Francisco mayoral election, said: "For over 5,000 years, it has been the practice of both the Chinese community and the Asian American community to consume these particular animals. They are part of our staple. They are part of our culture. They are part of our heritage."
For the full article, click here.
Friday, December 9 2011

The rumors are true!
kingsnake.com is preparing for spring 2012 in a big way by building out a monster off-road vehicle for observing reptiles in the field and then taking it cross country - and we plan to take the web site along!
The plans are to equip the truck with all sorts of cool mobile technology for both filming and broadcasting live from the field and then cross the country on a epic snake hunting trip to Americas legendary herp spots in Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and more! Along the way we'll be stopping and saying hello to some of North Americas' favorite herpers, hopefully talking a few of them into showing us around.
Time is short, we plan on making our first trip in March or April down to the Mexican Milk Snake haunts of South Texas, so we have a lot to do to get "The Beast" prepared and precious few days to do it. As seen in the photo the 1990 Chevrolet Suburban is currently being stripped to primer in preparation to being completely covered in bedliner, to give it a "hardened" exterior. We are as yet undecided whether to paint big yellow tiger stripes over the black bedliner, but don't be surprised if we do.
Once painted the electronics work begins, with the truck becoming a 4G Wifi "hotspot" with onboard computers and tablets and a monster audio/video system. The Suburban will also be equipped with cameras and lights on the front, rear, and sides. When we are done we plan on having the most high tech field herping rig on the planet.
Check back here for updates on our progress or send us an email if your interested in sponsoring kingsnake.com's 2012 cross country trek.
Thursday, December 8 2011
In our excitement over the possibility of the end of rattlesnake round-ups in Georgia, we mistook a press release as a valid news report. However here is some clarification from Georgia resident and venomous keeper, Chad Minter:
Cindy,
I noticed a couple of errors in your blog post.
First, Georgia has a different set of laws for wild animals (non-native) and wildlife (native.) Wild animal permits are not required for Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes. The authors of this letter have a gross misunderstanding of Georgia law.
The list of people permitted to keep Eastern Diamondbacks would be zero, because the permits are not required for native venomous species.
I am not an attorney, so I would urge anyone who is planning on keeping venomous in Georgia to contact their attorney AND Georgia DNR to make sure they are in compliance with all laws and regulations.
Second, I really don't think an out of state attorney and another out of state group would be considered "Georgia officials." I think the title may be misinterpreted to have a color of law.
Don't get me wrong, I do not support roundups at all, but the post does contain some misinformation.
Thanks,
Chad Minter
envenomated.com
I want to thank Chad for keeping us honest here. Below you will see the original posting I made.
So-called "Rattlesnake Round-ups" are disgusting public displays of animal abuse, made worse because the events are often attended and endorsed by local officials. The state of Georgia is bucking that trend.
Georgia state law requires that anyone who possesses a wild rattlesnake obtain a “wild animal license” from the Department of Natural Resources. For the sake of both animal welfare and public safety, the law requires those who keep wild rattlesnakes to buy liability insurance and treat the snakes humanely. The groups’ letter, sent by the Center, Coastal Plains Institute and Land Conservancy, and One More Generation, asks that appropriate law-enforcement measures be taken before and during the roundups to make sure sponsors and participants carry insurance and give the snakes humane treatment.
“Possession of wild rattlesnakes without a license is against the law in Georgia for good, common-sense reasons, and the state needs to make the law real by enforcing it,” said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity who works to protect rare and vanishing reptiles and amphibians. “But the best way to stop the abuse of animals, make sure no one gets hurt, and save the eastern diamondback from extinction is to just cancel these roundups. The bottom line is, they’re cruel.”
Rattlesnake roundups are depleting populations of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes: Analysis of data from four roundups in the southeastern United States shows a steady decline in the weights of prize-winning eastern diamondbacks and the number collected. This once-common species is being pushed toward extinction not only by hunting pressure but also by habitat loss and road mortality. In August, the Center and allies filed a petition to protect the snake under the Endangered Species Act.
To read the press release, click here.
Photo from user SalS in our photo gallery
Monday, December 5 2011
 The near-complete skeleton of a plesiosaur, a type of marine reptile, has been unearthed in Alberta. While partial skeletons have been found in the past, this is the most complete finding so far.
"This thing would be many tens of metres (from) the surface" of the earth, said Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology curator Donald Henderson, who was at the site Thursday. "If it wasn't for the digging, we would never see this."
Heavy equipment operator Maggy Horvath was shovelling ore at the oilsands company's Mildred Lake mine site on Nov. 14 when her shovel exposed the neck and upper vertebrae of a plesiosaur.
A team from the Drumheller-based Royal Tyrrell was called in. But removing the fossil from its resting place, where it is now pushing through the face of a cliff about five metres above the mine pit's base, is a tricky job that hasn't even started.
"The rock is really crumbling and there's lots of fractures," said Henderson, noting there are safety and equipment issues. At this point, researchers have only begun to comb through the rubble removed from the cliff face in search of the plesiosaur's head and more of its neck.
To read the full article, click here.
Saturday, December 3 2011
 The second most-commonly used pesticide is now showing that it causes reproduction problems in a number of species, including reptiles and amphibians.
Atrazine is the second-most widely used herbicide in the U.S. More than 75 million pounds of it are applied to corn and other crops, and it is the most commonly detected pesticide contaminant of groundwater, surface water and rain in the U.S.
The new review, compiled by 22 scientists studying atrazine in North and South America, Europe and Japan, appears in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
The researchers looked at studies linking atrazine exposure to abnormal androgen (male hormone) levels in fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals and studies that found a common association between exposure to the herbicide and the "feminization" of male gonads in many animals.
The most robust findings are in amphibians, said University of Illinois comparative biosciences professor Val Beasley, a co-author of the review. At least 10 studies found that exposure to atrazine feminizes male frogs, sometimes to the point of sex reversal, he said.
For the full article, click here.
Friday, December 2 2011
 Sea turtles are a common sight along some North American coastal areas, but for the first time, an Olive Ridley sea turtle was spotted in British Columbia.
"This is really exciting. It’s the first confirmed sighting in B.C. waters," said Jennifer Yakimishyn, species at risk recovery planner at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
Olive ridleys, which are listed in the United States as threatened, are warm water turtles, but there have been sightings in Washington and Alaska, so it was suspected there could be some in B.C. waters, Yakimishyn said.
"So this is a pretty significant find. It is the third (species of) turtle found in B.C. waters," she said. "My email box is full of messages from excited biologists. It’s causing a real stir in the science world."
The other two species found in B.C. are green and leatherback turtles, but neither is common.
Lisa Spaven, a Fisheries and Oceans Marine Mammal Response biologist, said the closest nesting beaches for olive ridley turtles are Mexico and California. Like all sea turtles, populations are endangered because of years of hunting.
To read the full article, click here.
Thursday, December 1 2011
 Thought to be extinct for 50 years, the Hula Painted From (Discoglossus nigriventer) has reappeared!
The JNF removed the water from the swamp and redirected the flow of water to the river Jordan with artificial estuaries. But the operation led to numerous knock-on effects — the reclaimed land was useless for agriculture, toxins invaded the river and dumped peat routinely caught fire.
The disastrous operation also led to huge destruction of ecosystems, wiping out water plants, tropical aquatic ferns, the ray-finned fish Acanthobrama hulensis and the cichlid fish Tristramella intermedia. Until this week, it was thought that the hula painted frog was among the lost species.
But a routine patrol at the Ha’Hula lake by Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority turned up a mysterious, unknown female frog and took it back to the lab for testing. It was soon confirmed that it was a Hula painted frog, and the rare species had hung on amongst the devastation of its habitat.
For the full story, click here.
With news like this, the need to work harder on the conservation efforts of amphibians becomes all that more important.
“Our study shows that more than two thirds of the global amphibian diversity hotspots will likely be strongly affected by at least one of the three threats considered”, says Miguel Araújo from the Spanish Research Council.
“With more than 30 per cent of all amphibian species already listed as threatened by IUCN and many rare species still being discovered every year, our results highlight the need for greater conservation research and action for this highly threatened group,” said Yale University’s Walter Jetz.
For more on that article, click here.
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