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.
Monday, August 13 2012
 Despite being dubbed the "rarest snake in the world," the recently re-discovered St. Lucia Racer doesn'thave extinction currently in its plans.
In antiquity snakes were revered for their ability to rejuvenate themselves by shedding their skin. One serpent seems to have done just that and returned from extinction on a tiny island near Saint Lucia in the Caribbean.
The Saint Lucia racer was declared extinct in 1936 but was sighted again in 1973. Non-native mongoose, introduced to the Santa Lucia islands by humans, were believed to have driven the snake back into oblivion after that.
The harmless snake recently slithered back from the abyss of extinction when a team of conservationists identified 11 individuals on a small mongoose-free island near the main island of Saint Lucia, reported Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Miami Herald.
To read the full article, click here.
Saturday, August 11 2012
So, my new goal in snakekeeping is to keep a Mud Snake (farancia abacura). Either subspecies, Eastern (Farancia abacura abacura) or Western (farancia abacura reinwardtii), would be just amazingly acceptable =]. I've been doing some reading and research on their care, behavior, husbandry in captivity, feeding, and anything needed to help one flourish (hopefully). Where as realistically, I'd need to get a tank set up first, and talk to some more people about some general info needed to have one flourish (hopefully). I'd really love to keep one.
I'm still going to keep doing my research while I wait anxiously for someone to respond on this amazing species. If you have kept them, what was the setup you personally used successfully to house them? What did/do you have the best luck feeding them (sirens obviously, but otherwise)?
---If you have one for sale, or know someone who does, or even if you can aquire a ferral one, for which I'd gladly compensate you, please respond/contact me soon. And what are the price of these beauties? Also, if you happen to know where I could aquire, affordable preferably, sirens and amphiumia online to buy, do tell! If even just a few for scenting. Please don't link googled mud snake info, because trust me, I think I've read it all now =p. Thanks!
Friday, August 10 2012
 Humans who feed wild alligators are courting disaster. That's something airboat tour guide Wallace Weatherholt has learned the hard way:
In June Captain Wallace Weatherholt, 63, who works at Captain Doug's Small Airport Tours, was out with six tourists when the attack occurred.
The Indiana family onboard said that Weatherholt held a fish out above the water's surface just before a gator leapt up and bit off his hand.
Weatherholt was able to drive himself back to the docks. Meanwhile wildlife officers tracked down the gator and killed it before retrieving the captain's hand from its stomach.
However doctors were unable to reattach Weatherholt's lost limb.
Feeding gators is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida. Weatherholt was held in Collier County Jail on $1,000 bond but has since posted out.
Israel DuPont of http://www.crocodopolis.net offers some safety tips for folks encountering alligators in the wild, but the reality of the matter is, leave the wild animals alone!
Wednesday, August 8 2012
 Smuggle an iguana, go to jail? That's a lesson being learned behind bars by Dirk Bender, who attempted to steal four protected Galapagos iguanas. From Fox news Latino:
Ecuadoran authorities arrested a German man on Sunday for allegedly attempting to pilfer four land-dwelling iguanas from the Galapagos Islands, according to the director of park services.
A judge sent Dirk Bender to jail to prevent him from leaving the country while he awaits trial, EFE reports. If convicted of “environmental crime,” Bender could face a prison sentence of up to three years.
Bender was arrested in the airport on the island of Baltra when guards detected something unusual in his luggage after passing it through an X-ray machine. When they opened it, they found two iguanas wrapped in cloth.
Last year, Bender attempted to steal the very protected Fiji Crested iguanas.
In other news, 150 animals originally smuggled from the Philippines have now been returned from Hong Kong after confiscation in June. From 7thspace:
The reptiles were illegally imported to Hong Kong and intercepted at the arrival hall at the Hong Kong International Airport on June 14, 2012. They were found in a passenger's luggage. A 22-year-old man was prosecuted by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) and sentenced to imprisonment for six weeks.
All the seized species are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which protects endangered species from over-exploitation through international trade restrictions.
At present, 175 countries are parties to CITES.
The Philippine pond turtles and the Mindanao water monitor lizards are endemic species that can only be found in the Philippines.
Numerous reptiles were also recently stolen from the Moorten Botanical Garden.
The thieves struck sometime between 6 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday, taking 14 tortoises and one turtle, Moorten Botanical Garden owner Clark Moorten told the Desert Sun.
"I came out and looked at the little water pond and wow, there were no turtles in there," Moorten told the newspaper. "It's sad, maddening and disappointing."
The list of missing reptiles includes four babies and a 10-year-old, 35-pound African sulcata, Moorten said. The oldest tortoise taken is 40 years old; the largest measures about 16 inches in diameter.
Two baby tortoises were likely in burrows when the thieves struck and were overlooked, Moorten said.
To read the full article, click here.
Monday, August 6 2012
 Australian scientiests aren't sure what the animal it was from, but a recently discovered fossilized claw may be from a large goanna species.
The claw is about seven centimetres long and was found at the Alcoota Scientific Reserve, about 160 kilometres north east of Alice Springs.
The reserve is home to the largest and most concentrated fossil deposit of its kind in Australia and scientists say bones at the site could be millions of years old.
Dr Adam Yates from the Museum of Central Australia has told the ABC's Country Hour the claw may belong to a reptile.
"We don't know what animal this comes from," he said.
"Similar claws have been found in the past and they've been suggested to have come from a large goanna.
"That's a pretty big goanna.
"We're looking at something much bigger than a modern komodo dragon, so a really giant goanna.
"But we haven't found any other bones that we can attribute to a goanna of that size, so really we're scratching our heads."
To see the slideshow and read the full article, click here.
In Thailand a huge reticulated python ate something very big. They found it in a neighborhood where children were playing. Unfortunately they killed the poor snake because they feared it may have eaten a kid. They cut the snake open and find...not sure what that is.. but it's not a kid... it's a big animal of some sort.
Python eats something Huge - YouTube Video
Pythons are killed all the time in Southeast Asia as locals fear they will attack children.
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Saturday, August 4 2012
 Commercial feeder supplier Rodent Pro suffered an outbreak of the zoonotic disease Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), a rodent-borne infectious disease, in May of 2012, according to a release by the company posted to kingsnake.com.
According to the release, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined 14 customers received mice that might have been exposed to the disease, and that those customers have been contacted by the CDC.
Though rarely fatal, LCMV and its flu-like symptoms can cause complications in people with weakened or compromised immune systems.
According to the CDC website, "Individuals become infected with LCMV after exposure to fresh urine, droppings, saliva, or nesting materials. Transmission can also occur when these materials are directly introduced into broken skin, the nose, the eyes, or the mouth, or presumably, via the bite of an infected rodent. "
Commercial facilities such as Rodent Pro and their suppliers are routinely tested for LCMV as well as other zoonotic diseases and pathogens by the USDA. If found to host an infective agent, those facilities are barred from selling and are put through an extensive sanitation process before they allowed to resume operation.
Based on data from the CDC, LCMV is a relatively common disease in its vector, the common house mouse, and you are more likely to become infected from wild mice at home than pet mice, rats, or other rodents. Still, proper animal husbandry and sanitation techniques can limit pet owners' exposure to LCMV and many other zoonotic pathogens:
The primary host is the common house mouse, Mus musculus. Infection in house mouse populations may vary by geographic location; about 5% of mice throughout the United States carry LCMV. The virus is found in the saliva, urine, and feces of infected mice. Infected mice carry LCMV and shed it for the duration of their lives without showing any sign of illness. Other types of rodents, such as hamsters, are not the natural reservoirs but can become infected with LCMV from wild mice at the breeder, in the pet store or home environment. Humans are more likely to contract LCMV from house mice, but infections from pet rodents have also been reported.
Zoonotic diseases are diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans. Anyone and everyone, whether they have pets or not, is vulnerable to a zoonotic disease. LCMV, Salmonella, Tularemia, West Nile, Malaria, Bubonic Plague, Rabies and even Ebola are all considered zoonotic diseases.
One of the top experts on zoonotic diseases, Dr. Jennifer Wright of the CDC, who specializes in salmonella, will be a panelist at the Reptile Law Conference in Houston in September. For more information and to register for this free event, see http://nraac.org.
Editor's note: Rodent Pro is an advertiser on kingsnake.com and ConnectedByPets.com.
Friday, August 3 2012
 It looks like troubles at the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana project at Queen Elizabeth Botanical Gardens aren't over.
Several years ago, the organization suffered a major loss of their founder stock after an attack that appeared to be the result of both humans and dogs, leaving six adult breeding animals dead.
Samantha Hicks, one of the distraught volunteers at the Blue Iguana Recovery Program (BIRP), spoke with Cayman Net News about the incident. “We’ve never seen anything like this before, it was a sustained and brutal attack,” she said, adding: “We are heartbroken and devastated; just absolutely furious.”
The six killed ranged from 18 to 23 years old and were among the friendliest iguanas at the facility, making them easy targets, Mrs Hicks said, but added that they would not have gone down without a fight.
“The big ones would have fought back with every ounce invested in them; the people who did this are more than likely covered with very deep scratches,” she said.
Mrs Hicks, who assists BIRP Director Fred Burton on a volunteer basis, said that police have launched a forensic investigation into the slaughter, recovering evidence that might lead them to the perpetrators.
Now, despite increased security measures, they are looking at another small setback as what appears to be dogs have destroyed a release nesting box on the facility grounds.
A group of recently released Blue Iguanas are missing and presumed dead after an attack by a pack of stray dogs.
The reptiles were placed in special wooded boxes and left out in the eastern side of the reserve to integrate into the wild. However when workers at the recovery program returned they discovered the boxes shattered and covered with bite marks.
To see the full video story from Cayman 27, click here.
Inset photo by John Binns, take from www.blueiguana.ky
Thursday, August 2 2012
By
Thu, August 2 2012 at 14:40
I'm sure anyone reading this already knows what happened, but to reiterate for the purpose of this blog:
"Does anyone know if the Eastern Box turtle is protected in Oklahoma? If so I didn’t just swerve to the shoulder of the road to smash one…"
I emailed Oklahoma's Department of Wildlife asking what was being done in regards to this incident and if they were going to make a public statement about this. I don't usually use names in my email but I feel this one needs to be said- Kelly Adams in the Information and Education department responded:
"Thank you for your concern. Blake went later on to say he was joking, his statement wasn’t true, and he wasn’t even in Oklahoma."
Anyone with 1/100th of a brain would of course say they are joking after doing something like this with all the public backlash. His tweet was a public written statement saying that he did in fact smash an endangered species on purpose and that he was in Oklahoma. The email makes the Department look very bad and it's sad they don't take things like this seriously. If he had said this about a dog or cat, it probably would have hurt more of his fans than just a little insignificant turtle. The really sick part is that his fans are supporting him and cracking equally as bad, if not worse jokes. One fan posted a picture of him holding a gun pointed at a turtle in the grass. I guess since the know-nothings at the Department of Wildlife didn't care, I'll be going higher up than them for an answer.
Sheldon also claims to be an animal activist.
 A new virus, dubbed "the sunshine virus," has emerged as the probable cause of a disease outbreak in Australian snakes. From Phys.org:
The quest to identify the new virus started as an investigation of the cause of a 2008 disease outbreak in a privately owned Australian collection of 70 pythons. As more and more animals became sick, showing signs of pneumonia, depression, lethargy and abnormal behavior such as “star gazing” — staring up at things — they were all eventually euthanized. The researchers had great difficulty detecting the elusive virus and struggled to identify the category in which it belonged. “We screened more than 450 samples, including swabs, tissues and blood for snake viruses,” said lead author Timothy Hyndman, a lecturer and graduate student at Murdoch University in Australia. “It was very frustrating. After two and a half years, we finally isolated something. A year later, we figured out what it was.”
[...]
“This virus was invisible to prior technologies,” said Eric Delwart, director of molecular virology at the Blood Systems Research Institute and an adjunct professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. “Besides providing assays to help track and control outbreaks of this new snake virus, the study highlights the enhanced ability of scientists to rapidly identify novel pathogens.”
While it is not totally conclusive that this was the outbreak in the private collection, all signs point towards that direction. To read the full article, click here.
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