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, January 16 2023
This curious little wild Rat snake is checking out the camera in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user cmac107 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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 This is an albino Florida Snapper. The greenish tint is algae
Almost everybody knows or thinks they know what a Common Snapping Turtle looks like. Sadly, many folks not familiar with both the Common and the Alligator Snapper mistake the former for the latter and steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the many external differences.
But this blog is not about the identification of either. What I am wondering is what has become of the many color variations of the Common Snapper that were advertised a decade or so ago?
Remember those? There were tan, orange, yellow, and more rarely albino common snappers being offered. But that was back then and this is now—the now that should have allowed plenty of time for those odd colored snappers to have matured and to be producing odd colored offspring if ever they were going to. The albinos should have bred true, but I’ve always wondered about those oranges and other colors that were offered. I guess that if the color was genetically produced and they were line bred there might be some strangely colored snappers around. But was there?
Actually, I was pleasantly surprised. After inquiring on my Facebook page, hobbyists showed me pix of their odd colored snappers, yellows and albinos among them, and mentioned that many other colors and even some pattern variances were available in Asia.
This, and the fact that when well cared for, often handled, captives Common Snappers can become VERY tame are good facts to know.
Continue reading "Whatever Happened to the Fancy-colored Snapping Turtles?"
Friday, January 13 2023
Awesome field shot of a Mojave ( Crotalus scutulatus salvini) taken in Mexico in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user OXYUMAURUS! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Thursday, January 12 2023
Good things come in small packages, like the Rough Earth Snake in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user gdy! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Wednesday, January 11 2023
This Herald snake ( Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia) is just cruising around in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user MVH4! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Tuesday, January 10 2023
The Emerald Tree Boa in the most classic of poses graces us in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user snakedawg81! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Monday, January 9 2023
This little tegu is peeking around the corner to the new week in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user musicloverhoney! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Scientist Mario Yanez holds a specimen of the new dwarf boa species.(AFP: Rodrigo Buendia)
A new species of dwarf boa has been discovered in the Amazon in Ecuador. This brings the number of known Tropidophis to 6 located in South America!
Two specimens were found in the Colonso Chalupas national reserve and in the private Sumak Kawsay park, the discoverers reported.
The snakes are "a relic of time", Ecuadorian researcher Mario Yanez — of the National Biodiversity Institute (INABIO) — said.
"They are animals so old, that finding or bumping into one of them is a privilege."
The boa, Tropidophis cacuangoae, was named after early-20th-century Indigenous rights activist Dolores Cacuango. To read move, click here.
 This is the charcoal phase of the Variable Bush Viper
Seems like just yesterday but I guess it was about 4 decades ago, a small, pretty, nocturnal, African viper took American herpetoculture by storm. This was the Variable Bush Viper, Atheris squamiger. And variable it was, clad in scales of green, burnt orange, butter yellow, charcoal, or other, it was not only of easily handleable size (15 to 26”, males being the smaller), but was relatively affordable as well. As indicated by its name, this is an arboreal species, but it is said to prefer shrubs rather than the taller trees. It has a wide but spotty distribution over much of forested humid West and Central Africa.
In nature the diet is varied, including lizards, anurans, small rodents, birds, and probably other snakes. Captives have proven to survive well on a diet consisting entirely of suitably sized lab mice. Healthy captives readily breed. They bear living young and litters usually number from 4 to 8 neonates..
But with all of these positives there is a negative. The venom of this bush viper is quite potent and has no specific antivenin. Human deaths have been attributed to envenomation by this pretty snake.
Oh well. Seems there is often some degree of danger associated with serpentine beauty.
Continue reading "The Variable Bush Viper"
Friday, January 6 2023
All coiled up, this Crotalus lepidus klauberi in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user lepidus-klauberi looks ready for something! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Thursday, January 5 2023
This male Lacerta has his eye on you in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user danielk! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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