Feature Blogger

Researcher Corinna Hazelrig studies a snake. Credit: Taylor Miller

Tini, an olive ridley sea turtle, recently laid her eggs on Junitper Beach, Florida marking the first time ever for that species. While loggerheads, leatherbacks and greens do typically nest on the beach, this was the first ever record nest for the species recorded by Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

Olive ridleys are among the smallest sea turtle species and are known for their olive-green, heart-shaped shells. They are also famous for two nesting strategies: solitary nesting and the "arribada," a mass nesting event in which thousands of females come ashore at once.

We aren't talking about the German Heavy Metal but here, but the actual arachnid! Scientists have recently discovered that 18 species of scorpions reinforce their stingers and pinchers with a variety of "heavy metals".

image from Iowa County Sheriff facebook page of Burmese found in WI

Last friday in rural Wisconsin, a large Burmese python was discovered by the side of a road by a resident and police were notified. An investigation was launched and every rescue in Wisconsin was contacted by press. Seriously, the minute I saw the story, I had a text come through my phone asking if I was available and if I could bring reptiles with for the news piece.

Build in the Public Update You now know our mission statement. Ready to see what we've been working on?? We heard you loud and clear. You want a better mobile experience from Kingsnake. This is our first and top priority. Our development team beautifully stated,

“We are rebuilding Kingsnake with a new, responsive look that displays properly on a desktop, tablet or mobile device”

Kingsnake has been under new ownership for just shy of 4 weeks and what a ride it’s been.

The "Wrestle a Gator" educational show at Reptile Gardens from when Cindy visited. Herper Approved.

Reptile Gardens had a tragic overnight fire in one of their off display buildings that impacted all of their American Alligators from their educational program as well as their African Spur Thigh Tortoises and their Red Foot Tortoises, their other giant tortoises are houses in a different building for winter and are safe. Long time members of the site might remember that Reptile Gardens hosts me for a week several years back for an amazing behind the scenes experience that I was able to share with all of you, including sharing their tortoises and alligators and their show. You can see the photos here.

Each Sunday USARK is reaching out to a new state and this week it is Kansas! They are trying to spread awareness about the organization and what work they do. From their post!

If you have a pet store, veterinary office, or public exhibit that works with reptiles or amphibians in Kansas, USARK will send you a FREE business package that includes brochures, stickers, and possibly more. Please tag any businesses that might be interested! Email vanessa@usark.org with your company name and address if you are in this week’s state and want to assist. We will randomly draw a new state every Sunday. Please feel free to comment and show your support as a member, advocate, fan, or herp owner.

Many people talk about how snakes live a primal existence driven by instinct, but those of us who work with them know they do have the ability to learn routines and people in some sense, but exactly how does that work? A recent study using corn snakes sheds some light on that!

In this study, corn snakes (Elaphe guttata guttata) successfully learned to navigate mazes and consistently found the correct route to reach shelter or prey. They also avoided areas where they had previously encountered stress, demonstrating their ability to store and recall experiences. This memory is not emotional or social, as seen in mammals, but functional; it allows snakes to adapt their behaviour to avoid threats, locate resources, and navigate their environment efficiently. Such findings challenge outdated assumptions about reptile cognition and highlight their evolutionary intelligence.

Matt Jeppson / Shutterstock Typically I would share REAL news here, but when I was doing a news search, in between the stories of the most infestest lakes or river and the largest and most deadly and scary stories, there was a click bait article that stood out.

10 Cutest Snake Species That Have Us Squeeing

I have had a lot of people reaching out who have forgotten their passwords or even usernames! I know it has been a while for some of you and with the changes, you aren't sure who to reach out to!

If you need help recovering your account right now, please feel free to reach out to me at cindyatkingsnake @ gmail.com (remove spaces obvs) and I will be happy to get all things squared away for you! Remember, we are still working through the transition and rebuild so everything is still "classic" Kingsnake at the moment. As time goes on you will start to see changes, but for now enjoy the classic.

In 1995 I, along with some other reptile enthusiasts (Joe Forks,Gerry Salmon, Troy Hibbitts, and others) created a web page for gray-banded kingsnake hobbyists called The Alterna Page. By 1997 one thing led to another and it had morphed into what today is kingsnake.com. That marks 30 years building and maintaining web communities for reptile hobbyists around the world. That is almost half my life. But all good things eventually must come to an end and after discussing it with our sponsors and staff I have concluded it is time for me to retire to pursue other things in my life, and for kingsnake.com to retire as well. I want to thank kingsnake.com's primary sponsors, LLLReptile.com and RodentPro.com, along with the staff, Cindy Steinle, Melody Golubski, Mark Kennedy, Gerry Freymann, Dick Bartlett, and Ted Hatfield who volunteered his time looking after our servers. Special thanks go to Christie Keith. It is because of their dedication that kingsnake.com has lasted so long. As well there are literally thousands of other advertisers and community members that made kingsnake.com the place to be for herpetologists and herpetoculturists during its great years, from 1999-2016, when some would say the reptile culture was at it's peak. I met many of these thousands of people at countless reptile expos and consider many of them my friends. Along the way kingsnake.com pioneered many new things for the reptile community and industry, such as topic/species based message boards (forums), live chat symposiums, reptile blogs, podcasts, and video interviews. Many of the fights in the forums were epic. Most remembered will be kingsnake.com's classifieds, for many years the Internets most popular reptile and amphibian sales tool. It helped turn a random group of like minded hobbyists into a real industry. At it's peak there were over 2200 active classified accounts. Officially kingsnake.com will close down on October 31,2025. If you have your pictures on the site, or forum posts or other content that you want to save, please do so now, they will not be available on our systems after October 31. If you have a paid classified or other advertising account your account services will still be functional until October 31, or when your contract runs out if sooner. If you would like to continue to post classified ads until the close date of October 31,2025 please feel free to register for a free classified account and post away. We will be disconnecting our advertising purchase system this week. Though we are closing we are not filing bankruptcy. We go out clean, all our debts settled and all our bills paid. And if someone is interested in continuing kingsnake.com's legacy I will entertain offers until October 31 This has been a very hard decision, but it is the right one, and it is the right time. I will miss being an integral part of the reptile hobby and culture. - Jeff Barringer

Photo of Lil Crusher and I in August at an educational event. He is well on his way to being healthy here.

When I got the text about the alligator that was found by Lake Michigan in November I never realized how attached to him I would become, but ya know, I should have. When the grizzled shelter manager tells me I need to come in because he is worried about the alligator, I should have figured that I would fall head over heels for an animal that I never would live with. He is named Lil Crusher, after Reginald "The Crusher" Lisowski a famous wrestler from our area and if you know me it makes even more sense that this guy is one of my special ones.

Over the weekend Vans dropped their new ad featuring their new Cult X Diamonback BMX shoes with a very emaciated ball python. The Reptile Community was outraged and rightfully so. The animal was in poor condition. By Tuesday however, I had a very hard time locating the advertisement anywhere other than social media sites. Rather than adding to the millions of shares, I instead reached out to Vans to inquire if they pulled it and if so to thank them. I also offered to arrange for them to get a photo shoot with an actual diamondback. Today when I clicked the link via email and anywhere else I could find that would directly link it to Vans and the original ad, this is what I saw.

This is me, in all my Tinley Glory. If you need me, just grab me. I will always be there for you.

The best part about reptile shows is we can be ourselves. We are with our tribe. People who love the same things we do and it should be a fun and safe environment for all of us. The hard reality is that there are bad people everywhere in this world, no matter where you look.