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.
Tuesday, April 23 2013
This image of a Tarahumara Mountain Kingsnake, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mingdurga, is our herp photo of the day!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Monday, April 22 2013
By
Mon, April 22 2013 at 17:30
my pacman buries himself in the substrate completely and wont come out until i clean the cage then goes back to doing the same thing. this time he is in a volcano like hole of substrate and his eyes are closed and his skin looks plastic like. am i doing something wrong? i have had him since December. he is 7months old and he will only eat the small crickets not big ones. any suggestions?
 It's a plain fact that a lot of people don't like snakes, even if those of us here don't understand why not. And for some reason, a lot of snake-haters find their way to the kingsnake.com Facebook page, where they feel a need to inform us that they don't like our animals. So a story like this one is both welcome and a little surprising.
From WFLA.com in Tampa, Florida:
A five foot boa constrictor was found crawling around a Super Shuttle Airport van at Tampa International Airport on Sunday afternoon.
Lt. Natalie Brown with Tampa Fire Rescue volunteered to catch the snake after hearing the call go out over the Airport Police radio. Lt. Brown went to the cell phone lot at TIA and found the snake outside of the shuttle. She captured the snake with a pillow case borrowed from a co-worker's bed.
"I do not like snakes," said Brown, "I am just glad that the snake is safe. It was dangerous, the snake was in the parking lot and could have been run over."
"It is a beautiful snake," said Brown who believes it could be somebody's pet.
Thanks, Lt. Brown, for putting aside your own aversion to snakes and doing the right thing, and not just hacking the snake to death as so often happens in similar circumstances!
And herpers, why not head over to the Tampa Fire Rescue Facebook page and let them know we appreciate her compassion?
Read more here.
Check out this video "True Dwarf Paraguay Cherry Head Redfoots" submitted by kingsnake.com user stingray.
Submit your own reptile & amphibian videos at http://www.kingsnake.com/video/ and you could see them featured here or check out all the videos submitted by other users!
This image of a Leucistic Texas Rat Snake uploaded by kingsnake.com user jcherry, is our herp photo of the day!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Friday, April 19 2013
 Fishermen in Pakistan spotted an animal almost never seen anymore: A leatherback turtle.
From The International Herald Tribune:
On Tuesday, a group of fishermen operating a monofilament gillnet caught a large leatherback turtle at Gwadar near Surbandar village. Since the turtle was stuck inside their net, the fishermen brought the turtle to the beach, after which the World Wildlife Fund – Pakistan (WWF-P) helped them rescue it and release it back into the sea.
According to WWF-P technical adviser on marine fisheries Muhammad Moazzam Khan, leatherback turtles are very rarely found in the coastal areas of Pakistan. They have been spotted four or five times before but they were all dead.
“It is our luck that leatherback turtles exist in our sea as these are signs of the existence of life in natural position,” Khan said.
WWF-P has trained the fishermen, who venture out into the sea, to make sure they don’t harm the wildlife that is not of interest to them, such as turtles and whales. “We are happy that our fishermen now have a sense of the value of marine life.” The young fishermen had no recollection of leatherback turtles, but the older ones remember seeing them.
Read the rest of the story here.
Photo: WWF-Pakistan
This image of a tree frog uploaded by kingsnake.com user FrogPrincess1, is our herp photo of the day!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Thursday, April 18 2013
Dusk had long fallen, bats were erratically flitting low over the water, and a moonless night was already enveloping the little lake in Springfield, Massachusetts, where I had been harassing a population of eastern painted turtles for several hours. I had decided it was time to head home for a late supper. Docking and securing the old wooden rowboat I was using required the use of a flashlight, its batteries so used that the beam hardly showed.
As the boat nudged the dock and I grabbed the tie-rope I glanced down into the shallow water just in time to see a smoothly oval “stone” scuttling across the plant-free bottom. And then the flashlight dieWhat had I seen?
 d.
I grabbed my bike and quickly rode the half mile home, hoping as I rode that I had a couple of replacement batteries and that I wouldn’t have to delay my return to the pond for supper. I lucked out. Supper was waiting, a set of new batteries was found, and a few minutes later I was on my way back to the lake.
Almost sooner than it takes to tell this tale I was back on the dock, sweeping the sandy lake bottom with my flashlight beam. Within seconds I had locked onto one of the moving stones. Little and black, I could now see a pointed nose on one end and a stubby tail on the other.
Between these were the little black legs that propelled the creature in bursts of speed between which it foraged agilely and avidly on the bottom. A soggy piece of bread discarded by a fisherman, a broken half of worm, a portion of a dead shiner—as I watched, all proved grist for the mill of this little turtle—a common musk turtle, Sternotherus odoratus, aka the Stinkpot.
I was soon soaked to the skin but before returning home that night I had seen and inspected more than half dozen. It was an educational introduction to a species I had never even imagined dwelt in our area.
Continue reading "1955: Stinkpots in the Shallows "
 ExxonMobil is reporting that more than 200 animals, including 125 snakes, were found dead at the site of the Mayflower oil spill, died while being transported, or were euthanized at the clean-up facility.
From THV11.com:
David Eglinton, with ExxonMobil, said 238 animals were captured and 62 were declared dead on arrival, which means they were either found dead or died in transport. Of the 238 captured, 14 died and 64 were released, bringing the death total to 76. One duck, three turtles, and 125 snakes were euthanized, bringing the final total to 205 wildlife deaths.
Exxon said the Unified Command and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission provided for the euthanasia in circumstances where the animals were critically injured or posed a risk to the safety of clean-up personnel.
Read more here.
This image of a iguana uploaded by kingsnake.com user revolutionmellon, is our herp photo of the day!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
Wednesday, April 17 2013
This image of a rainbow boa uploaded by kingsnake.com user BoidMorphs, is our herp photo of the day!
Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here!
 There's a new lizard species in town, and you might already have one.
From the Somaliland Sun:
Czech amateur herpetologist Tomas Mazur has discovered a new agama species, Xenagama wilmsi, a small lizard with flat "beaver-like" tail, in Somalia, and found out that this is actually the species most reptile fans keep in their vivariums without knowing it, Mazuch has told CTK.
The species inhabits the Horn of Africa countries, Etiopia and Somalia. Its tail is flat at the beginning and it narrows towards its end.
Mazuch cooperated on uncovering and examining the new agama with Philipp Wagner, a professional expert from a Bonn museum.
Read all about it (and see if you have one in your own collection) here.
Tuesday, April 16 2013
 What do you do if you find an iguana bleeding and wounded by the side of the road? You move heaven and earth to save him, of course.
"Big Guy," an endangered Rock Iguana, was discovered on Brac Cayman with severe injuries, lying on the roadside. Thanks to the generosity of Cayman Airways, he was flown free to Grand Cayman for veterinary care then back to his rehab home in Cayman Brac with volunteer Bonnie Scott Edwards of the Cayman Species Management Team.
You can view extensive photos here, and see more details of his story here.
Oh, and there's a happy ending: Big Guy recovered well and was released to the wild today.
Photo: Big Guy waiting for his flight to Grand Cayman.
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