The United States Association of Reptile Keepers (USARK) has issued a formal statement on the future of their organization and the recent resignation of its CEO and president (also available in PDF):

USARK announces that Andrew Wyatt has tendered his resignation as CEO and president of USARK, the organization that he co-founded in 2008, due to philosophical differences and in order to pursue other interests, effective December 31, 2012. USARK wishes Wyatt well on his future endeavors and Wyatt wishes nothing but the best for the reptile industry.

USARK is the largest, and most well-funded, pro reptile-keeping organization in the history of US herpetoculture. Going forward, USARK has an aggressive game plan for 2013 which includes:

1) Defending against federal legislative and requlatory restrictions: In 2011-2012, USARK successfully blocked HR 511 which would have prohibited the import and interstate transport of nine constrictor species. USARK remains committed to defeating any and all similar legislation in the new Congress which convenes this week in Washington and to keeping up the pressure on the USFWS to prevent the addition of additional species as injurious under the Lacey Act. To advance this goal, USARK is compiling an up to date inventory and analysis of all new studies and related publications rebutting the USGS findings that have been published since the public comment period on the rule ended. Additionally, USARK will work diligently to put USFWS on notice that no final rule should be made without the opportunity to submit new information for the record, and for consideration for any future rulemaking on this issue. New research that has come to light undermines the current justification for ruling in favor of banning constrictor species.

2) State legislation & USARK - Mobilizing the Grass Roots: USARK is committed to working at the grassroots level to ensure that our voices are heard By Reaching out to major herp stakeholders (reptile breeders) in each state and setting up USARK Stakeholder Ambassadors to help fight anti-herp legislation in locally, we can make a difference. USARK will offer expertise and support in fighting anti-herpetoculture legislation, in addition to offering the services of a lobbyist to help in the fight at the state level.

3) CITES and the United States Endangered Species Act: Currently, US taxpayers are paying to fund studies of non-native species that are listed on the US Endangered Species Act. There are just over 2000 total species listed under the US Endangered Species Act, of which over 600 species are foreign and are not native to the USA. These species are already protected through CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) of which the USA is a member. There is no need to further protect foreign species by listing them under the US Endangered Species Act, which restricts ownership, prevents establishment of assurance colonies, and prevents US breeders from moving these animals across state lines or exporting them out of the USA (including export back to their range country).

4) USARK & NRAAC: This past year, the NRAAC put on the first annual Reptile and Amphibian Law Symposium & Workshop which was cohosted by PIJAC, the ARAV (Association of Reptilian & Amphibian Veterinarians), and the East Texas Herp Society. This event brought together major stakeholders from industry with lawmakers and government officials that play a key role in herp-related legislation. The NRAAC has proven to be an important resource for news, education, and serves as a vehicle to bring together people and organizations to discuss important issues. USARK’s president of the Board, Gary Bagnall, attended the 2012 symposium. USARK fully supports the efforts of the NRAAC and is looking forward to working closely with the NRAAC in 2013.

5) USARK & PIJAC: USARK is committed to working closely with PIJAC (Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council) on the issue of the release/escape of non-native species in the US. This is an extremely important issue for the reptile industry and for USARK stakeholders. PIJAC has a 10 year head start on this issue and USARK needs to partner with them and report back to you, our esteemed membership.

6) EDUCATION: Produce a series of educational videos starting with the proper husbandry and handling of large constrictors. We need to be proactive in this area to show that we are a responsible industry.

USARK BUDGET: Last year USARK brought in $300,000 of which 35% went to our lobbyist in Washington DC, 30% went to the former president’s salary, and 30% funded operating expenses (travel, hotel, t-shirt printing, etc.). In order to operate effectively, we need to raise $500,000 annually which will allow USARK to hire a full-time office administrator, fund important scientific studies, and pay expensive legal fees in the fight against anti-herp legislation.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! If you have not renewed your membership, please visit the USARK website and do it now. You are a stakeholder and each member is very important to USARK. It is your membership that enables USARK to protect our rights to keep reptiles and amphibians in captivity! Your support of just $5 a month can make a BIG difference!

BREEDERS, PROFESSIONALS & MAJOR STAKEHOLDERS (you know who you are): USARK has a new membership category called “USARK Platinum Member”. If you pledge $1000 per month to USARK for 12 consecutive months, you will enjoy the following privileges:

• A seat on the USARK executive platinum committee.
• A USARK Platinum Member plaque to hang in your home or business.
• A USARK Platinum Member banner to put on your website.
• T-shirts for your entire staff (up to 20 shirts).
• An invitation to our annual USARK executive committee dinner for up to 4 people in your organization.

The organization can be contacted at this link.

If you've always suspected some people -- maybe even a lot of people -- went out of their way to run turtles over with their cars when they encounter them in the road, now there's data backing up your hunch. From ABC News:

Clemson University student Nathan Weaver set out to determine how to help turtles cross the road. He ended up getting a glimpse into the dark souls of some humans.

Weaver put a realistic rubber turtle in the middle of a lane on a busy road near campus. Then he got out of the way and watched over the next hour as seven drivers swerved and deliberately ran over the animal. Several more apparently tried to hit it but missed.

"I've heard of people and from friends who knew people that ran over turtles. But to see it out here like this was a bit shocking," said Weaver, a 22-year-old senior in Clemson's School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences.

To seasoned researchers, the practice wasn't surprising.

The number of box turtles is in slow decline, and one big reason is that many wind up as roadkill while crossing the asphalt, a slow-and-steady trip that can take several minutes.

Read the whole sickening story here.

All of us at kingsnake.com wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!



Photo: From our 2009 "Holiday Herp" photo contest... uploaded by bloodpython_MA. Let him know you liked it here!

In addition to his super-sticky paws that help him rival Spiderman for climbing sheer walls, the mighty gecko also has a tail optimized for predator-resistance. From MSNBC:

Like a pair of Velcro stripper pants, gecko tails come off easy. The lizards have pre-formed score lines in their tail that allow them to quickly rip off their tails when a predator has grabbed it, according to a new study.

The gecko tails, which were described Wednesday in the journal PLoS One, essentially stick to the body of the animals with adhesive forces.

"The tail contains 'score lines' at distinct horizontal fracture planes where the tail may be released as a response to predation," the authors wrote in the article. "These scores penetrate all the way through the tissue where the structural integrity is maintained by adhesion forces."

The article points out it's long been known that many species of reptile and amphibian shed their tails to evade predators, but this is the first time the exact mechanism by which that occurs has been identified.

Get the story , and, if you're a science wonk, the actual study here.

Something strange seems to be happening with snakes and toddlers down under!

After a story earlier this week about a three-year-old boy who tucked a nest of eggs into his bedroom closet only to have them turn out to be venomous snake babies, we've got this: A mama python who birthed her babies in a daycare center. From ABC News:

Australian officials shut down a day-care center in the Northern Territory Thursday because of an infestation of at least 23 baby pythons and their much larger mother.

It all started Wednesday, when a single hatchling Australian carpet python was spotted at the Mitchell Street Childcare Center in Darwin. The following day, seven more little snakes were seen slithering around the community center, which cares for children 6 weeks to five years old.

Director Louise DeBomford called the city of Darwin and two contractors were sent to investigate the issue. They peeked inside the center’s walls and discovered something shocking.

“They found the nest and mum,” DeBomford said.

Their 10-foot-long mom, to be specific. The wall contained a total of 41 broken eggshells, suggesting there were still nearly 20 foot-long serpents unaccounted for.

Amazing, really, that even though nothing happened and the children were not only not scared but responded positively to the snakes, the media still managed to work in a "python eats baby" angle. Read the full story here.

An Australian mom got the shock of her life when she found the eggs her three-year-old son had hidden in his bedroom closet had hatched.

From Yahoo News Australia:

Inside were seven baby eastern brown snakes, considered to be the world’s second most venomous species.

"I was pretty shocked, particularly because I don't like snakes," she said.

Fortunately the lid of the container was on tight and the snakes weren’t yet mature enough to push it off.

Kyle and his mum took the snakes to Billabong Sanctuary where wildlife careers released them back into the wild.

Read the story and watch the video here.

Is there a new discovery that might become a weapon in the battle against chytrid fungus?

Chytrid was identified in the 90s as a threat to the existence of frogs and other amphibians, and since then, scientists estimate that more than 300 species have been wiped out by it. A current National Geographic article quotes conservation biologist as saying, "This pathogen is bad news. It's worse news than any other pathogen in the history of life on Earth as far as we know it."

One of the greatest challenges in understanding the fungus has been why it seems to persist in ponds even after all the frogs have died. Now, scientists say they may have at least part of that mystery solved:

Researchers saw it happen many times and were perplexed: If all of a pond's amphibians were wiped out, and a few frogs or salamanders came back and recolonized the pond, they would also die—even though there were no amphibians in the pond to harbor the disease.

One possible reason is that chytrid infects other animals. For a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Taegan McMahon, a graduate student in ecology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, looked at some possible suspects and focused on crayfish, those lobsterlike crustaceans living in freshwater.

[...]

The fungus seems to be able to dine on crayfish then leap back to amphibians when it gets a chance. No one knows for sure where the fungus originally came from or why it's been such a problem in recent decades, but this research suggests one way that it could have been spread. Crayfish are sometimes moved from pond to pond as fish bait and are sold around the world as food and aquarium pets.

Read the complete article here.

Photo: National Geographic

Russian scientists followed a folk remedy's trail and may have stumbled on a substance as potent as modern antibiotics secreted by the skin of frogs. From UPI:

An old Russian way of keeping milk from going sour by putting a frog in the bucket of milk has led to the finding of new antibiotic substances, scientists say.

Organic chemist A.T. Lebedev of Moscow State University and colleagues have identified a number of potential new antibiotic compounds in the skin of the Russian Brown frog, a study published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Proteome Research reported.

[...]

In lab tests, they said, some of the substances performed as well against salmonella and staphylococcus bacteria as some prescription antibiotic medicines.

"These peptides could be potentially useful for the prevention of both pathogenic and antibiotic resistant bacterial strains while their action may also explain the traditional experience of rural populations," the researchers wrote.

Read the full story here.

Science geek? Amphibian lover? Check out "Culture of an amphibian killer" from Phys.org, an in-depth look at chytridiomycosis, a fungus devastating worldwide amphibian populations. Read more...

More bad news for amphibians: More than 300 amphibians, including some rare frogs, died from the effects of a massive fire at a Polish zoo. Read more...

Dozens of box turtles have fallen victim to ranavirus disease in West Virginia. From WVGazette.com:

Siegel and his Towson colleagues found that an alarming number of turtles -- which can live to be 50 or older and normally have a 98 percent survival rate from year to year -- were dying at the relocation area near the construction site. Thirty-one of the 123 turtles outfitted with the transmitters and released there were found dead within a three-year period. Cars or construction equipment killed three of the turtles, but the rest were felled by disease, which turned out to be ranavirus in 27 cases.

"Finding even one dead turtle is unusual," Siegel said in a Washington Post story about the die-off that appeared earlier this year. "Finding over 27 dead turtles in a two-to-three-year period was bizarre."

In addition to killing the Maryland box turtles, ranavirus is believed to have been the cause of death of nearly every tadpole and young salamander in the study area since spring of 2010.

Get the full story here.

Aquatic reptiles that pre-dated the dinosaurs gave birth to live young and may have been good parents.

In a study published in the current issue of Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology, scientists look at the fossil records of a species of aquatic reptile known as the mesosaur, which lived around 280 million years ago on the supercontinent Pangaea, which later split into the land masses that include South America and South Africa.

The fossils include retained embryos, suggesting the animals gave bith to live young rather than laying eggs as dinosaurs did. This is often associated with greater levels of parental care being given to the young, something the fossil record also supports, because mesosaurs of various ages were all found together.

From NBC News:

Mesosaurs, and even their earlier ancestors, possibly "were not able to produce hard-shelled eggs, at least for the first several million years of their evolution," lead author Graciela Piñeiro, a paleontologist at Uruguay's Facultad de Ciencias, told Discovery News. "After the recent discovery of mesosaur embryos, we can state with a high degree of confidence that embryo retention developed early in amniote evolution, given that mesosaurs are among the basal-most reptiles and that they date from the Early Permian around 280 million years ago."

Piñeiro and colleagues Jorge Ferigolo, Melitta Meneghel and Michel Laurin recently discovered the exceptionally well-preserved mesosaur embryos at sites in Uruguay and Brazil. The environmental conditions at the locations allowed for the preservation of soft tissues, nerves and blood vessels, she said.

Read the full story here.

Image: Graciela Piñeiro/NBC News

When it comes to super powers, the animal kingdom has comic book heroes beat cold.

The Smithsonian has put together a slideshow of animals whose punch packs the most power, including a sticky-pawed little gecko who could out-climb Spiderman with one paw tied behind his back -- as long as it wasn't raining.



Check out Supergecko and the rest of the Supercritters here.

News of the most ancient dinosaur ever discovered broke today, as researchers announced the identification of what they believe is a dinosaur 15 millions years older than any previously identified.

Dubbed Nyasasaurus parringtoni, he was around the size of a Labrador retriever, according to University of Washington palaeontologist Sterling Nesbitt. Read more...

Cold-stunned sea turtles were transported in a donated mercy flight by pilots Gary Davis and Neil McCann. Davis owns Charleston-based Davis Air, Inc. More than 100 cold-stunned sea turtles have been discovered in New England waters since Monday alone, creating a crisis situation for wildlife agencies attempting to care for them. Read more...

And from the California Academy of Sciences, a music video about the world's more than 7,000 kinds of amphibian, as sung by Conor Loughridge and the Wiggly Tendrils. Go watch!

The United States has been in the forefront of imposing sanctions on trade with Iran, but draws the line when it comes to a trade ban that might prevent them from treating soldiers bitten by snakes in Afghanistan.

From BusinessInsider.com:

Despite U.S.-led international sanctions imposed to cripple Iran's economy, the Defense Department has purchased about 115 vials of antivenom made by Iran's Razi Vaccine & Serum Research Institute from middlemen for about $310 apiece since January 2011.

Questions from the WSJ have prompted the Pentagon to investigate whether the purchases violate rules of the sanctions and require a waiver from the U.S. Treasury Department.

[...]

"We make this to save lives, and it doesn't matter if the person is Iranian or Afghan or American," Hadi Zareh, lead researcher in Razi's antivenin department, told the [Wall Street Journal]. "We are happy to hear we have saved a person's life, even an American soldier."

Read more...

After a seizure of illegal reptiles by Belgian authorities, a tiny Johnston's chameleon and his twin were born in the UK zoo that took them in:

From Metro UK:

Both unborn brothers, who are just over an inch in length, were on their way to the Czech Republic as part of a consignment of 59 chameleons before the Specialist Wildlife Services intervened.

The chameleons, which are native to the western branch of Tanzania's African Rift Valley, were rescued and placed in different zoos across the UK.

'They are probably the first of this species ever born in captivity within UK zoos,' said Danny Reynolds of Exmoor Zoo in Devon.

Read the full story here.

Photo: Caters/Metro UK

Rep. John Fleming, the chair of the House subcommittee on fisheries and wildlife, led a number of his colleagues in the House in dismissing the idea of adding the reticulated python, boa constrictor, Beni anaconda, DeSchauensee's anaconda, and the green anaconda to an existing rule banning the importation and interstate sale of four other species of snake. The committee held a hearing yesterday on the proposed ban, H.R. 511.

From the Tampa Bay Times:

Their staunch opposition greatly diminishes the chances that Congress will approve a bill to broaden the ban on invasive snakes that was proposed by U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and supported by proponents of Everglades restoration.

Opponents cited evidence that these snakes die in cold weather and cannot move farther north to threaten other parts of the country. They said a nationwide ban on importation and interstate sales would thwart pet owners and pinch the livelihoods of sellers and breeders.

"Florida is handling a Florida problem that only exists in Florida," U.S. Rep. John Fleming, R-La., chairman of the House subcommittee on fisheries and wildlife, told witnesses at a hearing on Thursday.

[...]

A Florida member, U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, dismissed the proposed ban as "a solution in search of a problem." He said the bill amounts to an egregious attempt by an overbearing government to rein in helpless small businesses, jeopardizing a $1.4 billion reptile industry.

"I'm dumbfounded," Southerland said. "We got bigger fish to fry here than to target businesses. It's open season on businesses. It's open season on enterprise, on freedom."

To go into force, the bill would have to be approved by the committee, then pass the full House, a Senate committee, and the full Senate, all before Congress closes shop for the year in mid-December.

Read the full story here.

Photo: Tampa Bay Times

Scientific American reports a new species of snake, Imantodes chocoensis, has been identified in the tropical region of Chocó:

Discovered by a group of zoologists led by Omar Torres-Carvajal from the Museo de Zoología QCAZ in Ecuador on 24 April 2007, I. chocoensis was described based on several live individuals and preserved specimens that have been sitting in a number of Ecuadorian and American natural history museums, unidentified since 1994. Also known as the the Chocoan blunt-headed vine snake, it was distinguished from its relatives through an analysis of its DNA, morphological features, and colour patterns. Read more...

It's like an Onion story, but it's real life. Police raided an indoor pot growing facility in Washington State, only to find it being guarded by alligators. Also present: An exotic pole dancer and her pole. The cops put the gators in a tub, and fed them some raw chicken before removing them. No, really. This happened. Read more...

Charles Darwin predicted it, and modern GPS technology proves it: The Galapagos giant tortoise sure gets around:

[S]cientists with the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the Charles Darwin Foundation have used GPS technology and 3-D acceleration measurements to find out that the dominant male tortoise will wander up to 10 kilometers into the highlands of the island - but only the fully grown animals migrate, the young tortoises stay in the lowlands.

Why? And why don't they rest during the dry season? It's a Chelonoidis nigra mystery of science.

Charles Darwin anticipated that the giant tortoises wandered large distances. In the cool dry season, the highlands of Santa Cruz are engulfed in fog which allows the vegetation to grow despite the lack of rain. In the lowlands, however, there is no thick layer of clouds and the tortoises' vegetation is not available year round. Adults, which can weigh up to 250 kilograms, spend the dry season in the higher regions at an elevation of 400 meters above sea level. However, since the food is not as nutritious there, they trek back to the lower zones where there is succulent vegetation, as soon as the rainy season begins. Read more...

Ivan the Komodo dragon suffers from arthritis. So veterinarians and zookeepers at the Phoenix Zoo recruited the same company that made a prosthetic tail for a Florida dolphin, Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics, to rig up a prosthetic device to help him get around without pain.

They got to work, and created a custom splint for Ivan at no charge.

The splint has worked to improve Ivan's mobility, as you can see on this video from NBC News here.

When Lonesome George died last June, he was thought to be the last of his kind, the Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii). Now scientists are saying that, given the will, a little effort, and a hundred or 150 years, they can revive the lost subspecies. From ABC News:

Researchers say they may be able to resurrect the Pinta Island subspecies by launching a cross-breeding program with 17 other tortoises found to contain genetic material similar to that of Lonesome George, who died June 24 at the Pacific Ocean archipelago off Ecuador's coast after repeated failed efforts to reproduce.

Edwin Naula, director of the Galapagos National Park, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that the probability is high it can be accomplished.

"It would be the first time that a species was recovered after having been declared extinct," Naula said.

But it won't happen overnight.

"This is going to take about 100 to 150 years," Naula added.

Scientists took DNA samples from 1,600 tortoises on Wolf volcano, and found the Pinta variety in 17, though their overall genetic makeup varied.

Through cross-breeding, "100 percent pure species" can be achieved, said Naula, a biologist.

Read the whole story, and view video, here.

Photo of Lonesome George in 2006 by Mike Weston, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Thanksgiving stories just don't get much better than this. A pet Sulcata tortoise, who had been missing for months, was re-united with his family in time for the holiday, thanks to the power of social media and the mayor of a nearby Texas town.

From KVUE in Austin:

For the past several months Donna had posted fliers about her missing pet Tortoise, a 40 pound African Sulcata she named John Wayne who escaped from her backyard when he broke through a metal gate.

Little did she know, weeks later and miles away in San Marcos, someone had seen the wandering tortoise and turned him into an Animal Rescue.

San Marcos Mayor Daniel Guerrero who is also a pet lover adopted the tortoise and brought him home.

Through the power of social media, Guerrero had also posted pictures of the new addition to his family.

Different circles of Hays County residents who had seen the fliers and Facebook pictures began to put two and two together.

Three months after he disappeared, “Leonard” as he was named at the Animal Rescue was reunited with his rightful owner Donna.

Read the whole "awwww"-inspiring story here! And Happy Thanksgiving!

Tired of cute and cuddly animals getting all the attention -- and the conservation efforts, too? So is the Zoological Society of London, which is "trying to bring attention to distinct and endangered animals like the olm, a translucent cave amphibian that can live 100 years, and western long-beaked echidnas, which are mammals that lay eggs.... The society ranks endangered mammals, amphibians and birds based on their evolutionary distinct characteristics in order to raise awareness and to begin conservation programs." Read more...

Can the world's business community turn around devastating habitat destruction and save threatened species? "A quarter of the world's mammals, 13% of birds, 41% of amphibians and 33% of reef-building corals are now at risk of extinction," reports the Guardian in a lengthy, in-depth examination of the concept of "natural capital," and the financial benefits of preserving species and habitats. Read more...

It's the largest release of threatened sea turtles in the Caymans in years... but is it a good thing, or bad? CayCompass.com digs into the roots of the controversy:

Last weekend’s event featured the largest number of turtles released in years, as the breeding farm facility and major tourist attraction in West Bay reported a record number of eggs laid and an increased hatching rate. One by one, and in steady succession, captive-bred farm-raised turtles were off-loaded from a truck that delivered them from the Turtle Farm to the beach adjacent to North Sound Golf Club and then carried to water’s edge by eager participants and placed in the sand to be taken into the warm Western Caribbean Sea by the surf.

“Standing here at the seaside, releasing a fresh group, is the ultimate expression of the Cayman Turtle Farm’s conservation mission,” said Tim Adam, managing director of the Cayman Turtle Farm: Island Wildlife Encounter. “As these baby turtles cross the sand, enter the water and start new lives in the sea – it is an awesome moment that gives us hope for the future. Hope that the wild population will continue to grow and flourish with our help."

[...]

The Turtle Farm hasn’t been without its critics though – especially of late.

The Florida-based Sea Turtle Conservancy and the London-headquartered World Society for the Protection of Animals have urged the Cayman Turtle Farm in recent months to stop farming a species designated as endangered. Critics also say there is limited evidence that the release programme has helped grow turtle populations over the years and suggest releasing farmed turtles could pass on diseases to the species in the wild.

Earlier this year, WSPA released a scathing investigation claiming the Turtle Farm had failed to meet baseline welfare criteria by citing video and photographs purporting to show turtles in overcrowded and dirty tanks, as well as turtles missing fins, sporting various injuries, and even one left blind by congenital defects. The advocacy group maintains that some of the sea turtles have resorted to cannibalism in their enclosures and may pose threats to humans by potentially passing on E coli, salmonella and enterococci to visitors who handle and interact with the creatures at the tourist facility.

Read more...

Photo: Darwin's Frog from WTOP/San Francisco State University.

The most popular kids' show on PBS is going to feature Australian animals and the late Steve Irwin's 14-year-old daughter, Bindi.

From Gather.com:

Curious George is going to Australia for his seventh season premiere, and while he's there, he's going to learn about Australian animals from none other than Bindi Irwin, the daughter of the late Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin.

When the monkey and The Man in the Yellow Hat go to Australia, George finds giant footprints in the sand. What can they be? Bindi Irwin helps him find out about that, and about kangaroos, koalas, emus, and more, according to an article at TV By the Numbers.

The episode, titled "Monkey Down Under," starts a whole season of animal-themed shows in which the monkey will learn about all sorts of mammals, birds, insects, and reptiles.

"I was so excited to be a part of Curious George," says Irwin in the article. "He's my favorite monkey, I've loved him my whole life. It's wonderful he could help me teach kids about the beaut bonza animals that live around my home at Australia Zoo."

Read the whole story here.

Photo of Bindi Irwin at the TV Week Logies 2011 by Eva Rinaldi, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

A heartwarming story about the endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle -- with an international twist.

From ABC News:

They named her Flip — a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle found last December, stranded on the coast of Holland. She was injured and stunned by the cold.

But the scientists and animal lovers who rescued her took advantage of a key fact about Kemps’ Ridleys — that while they’re endangered, they are also among the world’s great long-distance travelers. Specialists nursed her back to health, and released her into the water today — off the coast of south Texas.

“We couldn’t have asked for it to go any better,” said Iain Scouller, the general manager of Sea Life Aquarium Grapevine, based near Dallas-Fort Worth. “We set her loose at high tide, and off she went.”

Read the story -- and watch video of the release -- here!

Where on your post-rattlesnake bite to-do list is "update Facebook status"? For a California teen who nearly died from six rattlesnake bites, it was right after "get in car to go to hospital."

From ABC News:

(Sixteen-year-old Vera Oliphant) said she was in a fog, her eyesight and her consciousness fading. How she got to the house, she cannot fully recall. “I was feeling numb and paralyzed. I had black vision and I saw bubbles. It felt like needles were stabbing me… it burned so hard and it felt like a bomb just exploded in me. It’s really hard to describe,” she said.

“I struggled to get my key out, and I was too weak to ring the bell. I desperately tapped at the window and cried, ‘Help me,’ and that’s when my uncle took me to a hospital 15 miles away,” said Oliphant.

On the way to Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, Oliphant was somehow able to put a post on her Facebook page: “i got bit by a rattle snake & now i,m about to go to l.C.U .. it hurts like a ___ & my leg is paralyzed ._.”

Soon after, she went into anaphylactic shock twice and lost consciousness four times. She arrived at the hospital in the nick of time.

What's next, a Tweet saying, "Am being mauled by lions. Hurts. #shouldneverhaveclimbedintothebigcatenclosureatthezoo"?

"Sensitive" is probably not the word that springs to mind when you think of a crocodile's jaws, but it turns out they're more sensitive to vibration and touch than a human fingertip.

From a Discovery report on a study in the Journal of Experimental Biology:

"We didn't expect these spots to be so sensitive because the animals are so heavily armored," co-author Duncan Leitch said in a press release. Leitch, a graduate student, performed the studies under the supervision of Ken Catania, a professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University.

The technical name for the spots is "integumentary sensor organs" or ISOs. Scientists over the years have speculated that they held all kinds of functions, from secreting oil to detecting electrical fields. A study in 2002, however, suggested that they detected ripples made by water, so that led to the latest research.

"This intriguing finding inspired us to look further," Catania said. "For a variety of reasons, including the way that the spots are distributed around their body, we thought that the ISOs might be more than water ripple sensors."

Read the full story here.

New kingsnake.com classifieds launch Dec. 1

There's a whole new kingsnake in testing now! The new version of the kingsnake website will focus on reptiles and amphibians and the community from a local perspective, with news and events, local breeders and businesses, and, of course, local classified ads broken down by state. The all-new classifieds will be quicker and easier to use, as well as mobile- and tablet-friendly, and will feature a new layout, new search engine friendly URLs for things like individual ads, and a mobile version supporting IOS, Android, BlackBerry, Bada, Windows Phone, palm webOS, symbian, and more. The new classifieds ended beta testing this month, and will launch Dec. 1. Watch for updates!

Year-end housecleaning

We're doing some year-end housecleaning on kingsnake.com , removing or archiving older projects and content, combining some forum and classified ad categories, discontinuing some advertising platforms, and changing the general look and feel of the site while retaining its functionality. Expect to see some changes over the winter break, but plan on kingsnake.com being a leaner, cleaner, faster-loading site come spring!

kingsnake.com advertising sale

kingsnake.com will have a one-week holiday advertising sale starting Friday morning on leaderboard, full, and medium rectangle banners, as well as on storefront/business directory listings and reptile event listings. The sale starts at noon Central Time on Friday, November 9, and will run until noon Central Time on November 16. Banners will be half price, directory listings $100 per year ($50 off), and event listings will be $50 each ($50 off). Watch for the link in kingnsnake.com's header starting Friday, and give your holiday advertising a Christmas goose!

kingsnake.com site coordinator moves on

Longtime staffer and volunteer Cindy Steinle has moved on to other opportunities, and all of us at kingsnake.com would like to wish her success. For many years she has been an important part of our community and our family, and we will miss her. If you have an outstanding kingsnake.com related issue requiring attention please contact us at communityreview@pethobbyist.com.

NRAAC 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Planning has started for the 2013 National Reptile & Amphibian Law Symposium & Workshop, to be held in the Washington, D.C., area. PIJAC and the ARAV have signed on to co-host the event with the National Reptile & Amphibian Advisory Council (NRAAC). Discussions have been opened regarding co-hosting with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC), and the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), and so far are looking favorable. Once stakeholder input has been received, it is hoped that a location and date will be determined and announced for the event, probably sometime in early December.

Another entry in the "too stupid to live" reptile story stakes... this one courtesy of GMA:

A Brazilian man was arrested for trying to board a flight at Orlando International Airport while carrying 27 snakes that he'd wrapped in pantyhose and stashed away in inside stereo speakers, authorities said.

Mateus Del Maso, Jr. checked the speakers as luggage, but they were inspected and the snakes hidden inside were discovered. The creatures never made it onto the aircraft.

Dal Maso purchased the serpents at the National Reptile Breeders Expo in Daytona Beach, Fla. He admitted he was going to carry the snakes - which he valued at about $10,000 - into Brazil and breed them for commercial purposes, a release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

Read the whole thing here.

Jeff Barringer and Cindy Steinle from kingsnake.com are headed into Sanderson for the First Annual West Texas Snake Days event. Will you be there?

A proposed law to strictly regulate ownership and keeping of many animals deemed "wild" or "exotic" is under consideration by the West Virginia Legislature. The bill, SB 477, was proposed on Feb. 1, passed the state senate on Feb. 14, and was placed on a special calendar earlier today after a series of committee hearings. The legislative session ends tomorrow, and the bill's lead sponsor, Senate President Jeff Kessler, believes SB 477 will pass before the session ends.

The Charleston Daily Mail reported Kessler as saying he "introduced the legislation in reaction to the bizarre story of Terry Thompson, a Zanesville, Ohio, man who last year released over 50 tigers, lions, monkeys, leopards, bears and other exotic animals into his community before killing himself."

The bill has been criticized by some West Viriginians for not including a list of animals affected by the legislation, which contains very broad language defining "wild" and "exotic" animals, including birds and reptiles, and could potentially apply to unsocial pet or feral cats. Additionally, the bill calls for lists of "wild" and "exotic" animals, as well as "domestic animals" to be created after the bill is passed, making it difficult for citizens to judge whether the bill will apply to their pets.

In the article in the Daily Mail, Kessler told Rhonda Kelly, a woman concerned about her pet marmosets (a primate weighing around half a pound), not to worry:

"This is for big huge animals, mostly. Lions, tigers and bears. If they're big enough to rip your face off, those are the kind of things that probably ought not to be running around."

Kessler said Kelly should not be concerned: Marmosets likely won't make the list of restricted animals.

"I'm not even sure it would be considered a dangerous animal," Kessler said.

However, the language in the currently proposed bill reads far more broadly than that:

"Domestic animal", or the plural, means an animal which, through extremely long association with humans, has been bred to a degree which has resulted in genetic changes affecting the temperament, color, conformation or other attributes of the species to an extent that makes them unique and distinguishable from wild individuals of their species, and includes animals that have been bred as companion animals and pets. A comprehensive list of "domestic animals" shall be set forth by the division, in consultation with the department and the bureau, pursuant to the rulemaking authority of this article(.)

[....]

"Wild and exotic animals", "animals", or the singular mean mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fresh-water fish, including hybrids thereof, that are dangerous to humans, other animals and the environment due to their inherent nature. "Wildlife", as defined by section two, article one of this chapter, "agricultural animals", as defined in section two, article ten-b and section two, article twenty-nine, chapter nineteen of this code, and "domestic animals", as defined herein, are excluded. A comprehensive list of "wild and exotic animals" shall be set forth by the division, in consultation with the department and the bureau, pursuant to the rule-making authority of this article(.)

The bill's progress can be tracked on the West Virginia State Legislature website.

Photo: Rhonda Kelly with marmoset, from Daily Mail article.

To continue to provide you with the best level of quality, service, and performance possible, kingsnake.com will be down for scheduled maintenance for approximately 20 minutes, starting on Saturday, June 25, at around 11 PM Central Time.

In the event of unforeseen problems, service could be down for a longer duration within the maintenance window timeline.

We expect service to be restored promptly, however, and don't anticipate any problems. Thanks!