Public Policy Polling interviewed 603 registered voters by telephone between June 11 and 13, asking them 36 questions relating to their views on pets, animal phobias, and other random creature preferences. The poll, which was not authorized or paid for by any campaign or political organization, had a margin of error of +/-4 percent.

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1. Twenty-one percent rated snakes as the most terrifying animal, followed by alligators at 19 percent and sharks and bears at 18 and 14 percent, respectively.

2. Nine percent of those polled are vegan or vegetarian, while 91 percent are not.

3. Eighteen percent believe the Loch Ness Monster is real.

4. On preferences for an exotic pet, 26 percent said they would choose a tiger, 20 percent a giraffe, 18 percent a dinosaur, and 16 percent an elephant. (Read about exotic animals as pets.)

5. Ninety percent said they would not want a hippopotamus for Christmas—perhaps to the collective relief of hippos worldwide.

Dieter Zorn, 53, was in the middle of a presentation about reptiles when he was bitten several times by an Aspic viper. Due to a rare allergy, he suffered a heart attack and died shortly thereafter.

Zorn had been travelling to different villages across the region, delivering presentations that focused on educating the public about snakes and reptiles and helping them overcome their fears of the creatures. After he got bitten, he managed to get the snake back into a cage, preventing it from attacking anyone else present, the Local notes.

Emergency responders arrived at the scene and attempted to administer a blood thinner, but they weren’t able to save him.

Watt, who is also an evolutionary biologist, and his team definitely did not showcase cute and furry pandas at recent UAPS events held at the Edinburgh Science Fest and Bristol's Big Green Week. Media attention instead was paid to animals such as the appropriately named blobfish.

"Our society needs a mascot, one to rival the cute and cuddly emblems of many charities and organizations," shares Watt.

At the end of each UAPS event, the audience votes on a mascot.

One contender is the Chinese giant salamander, with a head resembling an angry block of concrete.

When the sizes of penises were compared between lakes, alligators in Lake Apopka had on average 24% smaller penises than alligators in Lake Woodruff. When the time came for these juveniles to reproduce, this significant reduction in penis size made it difficult to mate and certainly didn’t impress the lady alligators.

This study showed that male alligators in Lake Apopka, which is contaminated with endocrine disruptors, were significantly different than alligators from a lake that had relatively little pollution. In order to help determine the physiological drivers, in other words the chemical pathways in the body that shape these physical differences, behind this reduction in penis size, Dr. Guillette also looked at plasma testosterone concentrations. Plasma testosterone is responsible for the formation and development of male external genitalia. He discovered that juvenile alligators in Lake Apopka had 70% lower concentrations of plasma testosterone than those at Lake Woodruff. Abnormal hormone levels like these are associated with decreased sperm counts and reduced fertility. This can be disastrous for maintaining healthy wildlife populations. The results of this study inspired Dr. Guillette to continue to look at the physiological effects of endocrine disruptors on reproductive systems.

Earlier this week, the good folks at the Wildlife Center of Virginia rescued an Eastern box turtle discovered at a nearby campground after it fell victim to an unscrupulous ‘artist’. According to staff, the reptile’s shell had been vandalized with several types of nail polish and glitter — threatening its survival by making it an easy target for predators.

“Box turtles have this great natural camouflage that just allows them to blend into their environment,” says staffer Amanda Nicholson. “And this is really sending a message to the world of, ‘hey, look at me.’”

The wildlife center isn’t certain whether the turtle is an abandoned pet, or if someone ran across it in the wild and decided to add this gaudy graffiti, but the tagged shell does offer some clues as to who might be responsible. Along with the word “Sheldon”, taken to be the female turtle’s name, are the initials “SKR” and “BDM” — perhaps belonging to the culprits.