The Monitor

August, 2008

From the Editor's Desk

Newsletter Material

This is YOUR club. The more you give into it, the more you will get out of it. Your opinions, suggesions and submissions are welcome. You may submit articles by email before the 10th of the month to luvcatz5@aol.com

President: Logan Randolph
Vice-President: Michele Patton
Secretary: Carrie Gardner Treasurer: Doreen E. Saccardo
Chairman of the Board: John Soto
Editor: Carrie Gardner
Co-Editor: Doreen Saccardo
Field Trip Chair: Doreen Saccardo
Webmaster: Carrie Gardner
Administrative Assistant Alexander Peters

NEXT MEETING:
Wednesday, July 20, 2008
SCAVENGER HUNT.
7:00 p.m.
Moccasin Lake Nature Park
Clearwater, FL 727-462-6024
~~~~~~~~DON'T MISS IT~~~~~~~~

Alton of Smelt Feed and Pet Supply is donating a #15.00 gift certificate every month for our raffle. His store is located at 4116 East 7th Avenue, Tampa, FL 33605, 813-248-2359

Web Page info: Calendar page is updated all the time as is Adoptions and Advertisements.

If you would like to receive updates on the website via email, please scroll down to the bottom of the home page and join Yahoo! Groups. Choose to receive email or daily digest. I send out an email to the list every time a change is made.

If you have photos you would like added to the "Club Photos" page, please email Carrie to have them added. *The Club Photos page is still up, but I haven't put any recent photographs up because I'm trying to come up with a more conveinent way of displaying the photos*

Carrie's Notes

Hidey Ho fellow herpers!

RED-EARED SLIDERS: No more permits are being issued to own red-eared sliders. The state is encouraging euthanasia. HOWEVER, thanks to Pete Richardson, there is a place where they can be shipped. This is from The Turtle and Tortoise Club's July Issue: "Stacey Vajanyi and I (Marvin Bennett) have been collecting red-eared sliders from pet owners who could not or choose not to keep them anymore. These pet owners have paid us a small fee to ship these turtles to Oklahoma, ‘their home range,'. It is good to see the previous owners doing the right thing instead of dropping them in their local lakes. This is a program set up by myself and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission." If you have or know of someone who is wanting a new home for their red-eared slider, please contact Marvin Bennett at 407-851-0198 or Stacey Vajanyi 321-961-0050.

Senator Bill Nelson is coming down on the side of the people who would like to ban large pythons. He has taken the USGS map to heart and is in the process of contacting the other states where "Burmese pythons can live" together with the ban. Please feel free to write or e-mail Senator Nelson, as I have done!

Doreen's Column

Hi there~~~

*****Sunday, July 13, 2008 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM 14 of us showed up at the Armed Forces Family Day in Pinellas Park, FL. It did not surprise me that people who are not educated about reptiles are afraid of them. But OUR job is to educate and I think we did a good job in that department. We had some people walking on the other side of the room when they saw a snake, and by the end of the day, they were holding snakes and even taking pictures with them. It also amazes me that some people can train to go to war which frightens the daylights out of me, yet they shudder when they see me kissing an iguana. Go figure! Anyway , they were true to their word and fed us, we survived the downpour of rain and our sign looked great when it was upright. After the rain became a deluge, they finally let us indoors which was not really an option from the higher ups because they did not want "unsecured animals" in the building. But I can tell you not one of us would have let our animals loose or be unsecured in any way. I want to thank Carrie Gardner for setting up the gig, Michele Patton, John Soto, Melissa Coakley, Jason Richardson, AJ Morales, Trevor Sawyer, Rick Richardson, and his wife, Buzz Burchill, Claudia Gunther, Pat (I don't know your last name), and Marilyn Zappone for showing up with their babies. I always enjoy the sparkle and pride expressed when reptile lovers show off their loved ones. I think we turned a few hearts around that day.

*****August will be our election month and we have at least one person running for every office. I have a sample ballot below so you can start thinking about the election in August.

If you are reading this newsletter, you will notice a slight change in the ballot. Buzz Burchill has been relocated to Alabama because Jamie accepted a position up there. I guess in the long run, his wife is more important than the club. Go figure! President: Pete Richardson, Turasco Peters, bearded dragon and Sportie Saccardo, iguana extra ordinaire (On the human ticket) (On the cold-blooded reptile ticket)
Vice President: Michele Patton
Secretary: Carrie Gardner
Treasurer: Doreen E. Saccardo

If anyone has a desire to run for any position and you let me know before the meeting, I will make ballots up with your name on them. In the interest of saving trees, I decided not to have ballots at the meeting but we can vote on the board as it stands on the human ticket. If anyone opposes the setup, please have an alternate for the position you are opposing. As usual, John Soto will remain permanent Chairman of the Board and official tie-breaker, if the occasion should arise.

*****August is also when we hold our scavenger hunt where we walk the trails of Moccasin Lake to eyeball as many of God's creatures we can and we get points for each. Members who participate will be in for a special treat. So another reason why it would be wise to make sure your membership is paid up and you join us for a fun evening of environmental awareness. Bring the bug spray and maybe a flashlight.

*****I just want to add continuing thanks to Carrie for keeping up with the website, I know that takes a lot of work with many frustrations. But she does an excellent job and it shows. Thanks Carrie

June 17 ~~ Jason Richardson
July 9 ~~ Chris Abraham R.I.P. (I still think of him often)
July 12 ~~ Bill Murray
July 27 ~~ Melissa Coakley
August 2 ~~ John Plutchak
August 6 ~~ Laura Vandervoort
August 8 ~~ Logan Randolph
September 16 ~~ Claudia Gunther
(I added some people from June and July that were not written in the last newsletter, I found my birthday book)

Happy Birthday to you!

*****I know we have new people attending our meetings, but I have not received any new birthdays. You can drop me an email iguanadoreen@hotmail.com and let me know so I can add the list.

*****Thank you to all who do their part for this club. That is what makes our society the GREATEST in (what once was) the league.

Speaker Recap By Carrie

First off, I would like to explain that someone (namely ME) forgot to engage the microphone when John was speaking. So I did something very scary...I wrote from memory! So any mistakes made are by the writer and not the speaker! Now onto the article!

John impressed us with his reproductive skills (with snakes that is) last month. He explained how different snakes have different mating habits and incubation requirements. For example, corn snakes don't need as much humidity as python eggs do. There were wonderful pictures of corn snake porn...err, I mean breeding. Copulation can take several hours.

There were also some wonderful pictures (and video) that made every female in the room cringe. The female laying her clutch. It takes her many hours to lay her eggs, and if you saw the size of the eggs compared to her, you would understand WHY. The closest eggs to her are the ones most recently laid, obviously. To make it easier to come out, the eggs are soft and have a stickiness to them. Once the shell hardens up, the egg will have a leather-like texture. Color and texture can also determine if the egg is fertile or not. If you see veins in the egg, then you know that it is fertile. To see the veins, it is sometimes easier (this comes from stuff I read, and not John, by the way) to shine a flashlight at one end of the egg to see if there is any veins. This is called "candling". Infertile eggs should be removed from the clutch UNLESS they stick together with another egg or two. Often times, when the eggs dry, they will dry in a clump. Don't separate the eggs, as this could cause enough damage to kill the embryo. For the first 24-hours, the egg is resilient. They can roll, and even dropped. After that, the egg becomes very delicate. The embryo attaches itself and the yolk to the side of the egg. Any harsh movements can separate the embryo from the egg and kill it. If it has been more than 24-hours since the eggs were laid when you go to remove them, mark the top of the eggs (or the glob of eggs) and carefully transfer them to the incubation box.

Provide a box of vermiculite for the female to lay her eggs in. Once she is done, switch the eggs to an incubation box. John uses boxes with ventilated tops. He fills it with vermiculite and buries the eggs. Moisture and temperature of the eggs depends on the species. Python eggs require humidity and moisture. Corn snake eggs are easier to incubate. With the ventilation on the top of the container, John can spray the eggs and vermiculite without opening it up. Please research your particular species to find out what the incubation's parameters are. Make sure you write on the box the species, parents, date of laying, and estimated date of hatching. If all goes as expected, the day will come when you open the box to find precious, cute little babies of your own!

When snakes hatch, it is called "pipping". Right before they hatch, you will notice a slight depression in the egg. Hatchlings possess a small calcified protrusion on their snouts called an egg tooth. With the egg tooth, they will slit open the eggs 2 or more times. The egg will collapse, and the little one will stick out his or her head, take in the first breath and check out his or her environment for the first time with the first tongue flick. Don't be surprised if the little hatchling then decides to go back in his or her egg for some rest, to absorb the rest of the yolk and for protection for a day or two. Once the hatchling decides to go out on his or her own, they will congregate at the bottom of the box. That is when you get to dig them up and place them in separate containers (a small container with newspaper as a substrate, a shallow water bowl and a hide is perfect) so you can keep track of the health and habits of the baby. A day or two after hatching, the baby will do a complete shed and is then ready for food! John feeds his hatchlings twice a week, offering 2 or more pre-killed pinkies. It is best to start them off on pre-killed pinkies, than to worry about switching them over later on, when they are used to receiving live food.

Keep them around for a couple of months. Fatten them up, make sure they are eating, defecating, drinking and shedding correctly, and that they are lively. When you do sell them, provide the new owner with as much information as you can. Even offer a guarantee on their health for a certain amount of period (two-weeks is good).

And finally, John brought in an example of his incubating boxes...with incubating eggs, or so he thought. Turns out that there was a bunch of pipping going on! We got to see the eggs...with the several slash marks, and the little hatchlings. John found one and showed him or her around. The others detected movement and decided to see what was going on. By the time John tried to close up the box, he had little babies shooting out of the container everywhere. One even fell to the floor...unharmed. But before he could take advantage of his escape, he was caught by John again and put in the box.

It was a very informative talk, with lots of very good pictures and videos. And it was made even better by the presence of John's beautiful wife Sandi, who made an EXCELLENT assistant!

Michele's Musings

More Interesting Reptile Facts

The first reptiles evolved in the Upper Carboniferous period, at least 300 million years ago. The Class Reptilia consists of three orders:

Order Crocodilia, consisting of roughly 30 species and subspecies of crocodile, alligator and caiman.

Order Chelonia (tortoises and turtles), at least 244 species

Order Squamata, includes lizards (over 3,750 species), snakes (about 3,000 species) and the lesser known Amphisbaenia or "worm lizard."

There are about 160 species of Amphisbaenia, and they are found in Africa, Europe, Asia, North and South America. They are burrowing animals, up to 2 feet long, whose ring like scales gives them an earthworm like appearance.

The fourth Order, Rhynchocephalia, flourished in pre-historic times but is now almost extinct. The number of species making up the single living genus, represented by the Tuatara, is still being argued.

The Tuatara is extremely rare, found on just a few islands near New Zealand. Superficially lizard like, the Tuatara has unique eye and jaw anatomy, which among other factors separate it taxonomically (that is, the factors which determine its place in our classification of order, family, genus and species). Unusually for reptiles, Tuataras are adapted to life at temperatures as low as 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit).

Reptiles, like birds, have voluntary control over the muscles in their eyes, which determine their pupil size. This means that they are able to constrict or dilate their pupils at will, not just in response to light.

The brain of a reptile is not more than 1 percent of his body mass. This means that the brain of a 70-pound python is no larger than a lima bean. Unlike amphibians, however, the reptilian brain has two hemispheres. Since man appears to use very little of his brain mass, the reptilian brain appears to be highly and efficiently adapted. The nervous systems of reptiles are sufficiently complex and similar to those of mammals that we can conclude that their senses and pain perception are highly refined. We are only beginning to understand just how highly specialized these animals are.

Reptiles were the first vertebrates to evolve with 12 cranial nerves. "Lower" vertebrates have 10 pairs of these important nerves, which govern activities of the senses, such as sight, hearing and taste.

The jaw structure of a reptile does not permit chewing; they can only tear their food.

Some reptile species are known to store sperm and produce young 3 and perhaps 6 or more years after a single, successful mating. In some cases, it is possible to have an infertile clutch followed by a fertile clutch without further matings.

The sex of a turtle is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated, with warmer temperatures producing females, cooler temperatures producing males and temperatures in the middle resulting in a mixed clutch. The situation is reversed for crocodiles, with males predominating at higher temperatures. The gender of a snake is determined by chromosomes, as it is in the case of mammals and birds.

Reptiles do not have sweat or sebaceous glands; therefore, they are not slimy. They are, however, waterproof, and this, in addition to lacking a metamorphic stage is one of the distinctions between amphibians and reptiles (tadpoles metamorphose, or change, into frogs). The reptilian egg, with calcium in its shell is not dependant on development in water, as is the amphibian egg.

Reptiles are not "cold blooded"; rather they are ectothermic animals, which rely on heat to be provided by the environment, as they produce little of their own. Behavior, such as seeking shade, gaping and shunting blood toward or away from the body surface allows impressively fine control of body temperature several degrees above or below the ambient temperature. When housed in suitable environments, most reptiles when active, maintain a body temperature similar to that of mammals.

From Pete Richardson

Pete Richardson shared a recent reptile experience with us. On the 4th of July, they had a "little" gathering of 16 people for a cook out. Whenever anyone comes to their house, they all want to see "The Zoo", with Jason being the tour guide. Out of the 16 people there, four of them were scared to death of snakes. But they were curious about seeing them at a distance. One of the women, Karen, couldn't even stand the sight of a snake. By the end of her introduction to snakes, she had touched or held most of the snakes there. Two out of three of the other ladies had their picture taken holding a snake.

They said it was easy to understand about them more because Jason had taken the time and had the patience to talk and teach them about each species.

Karen now catches snakes in her yard and takes them across the street to the empty lot and lets them go.

GREAT JOB JASON!

This is EXACTLY what this club is about. These animals are probably one of the most misunderstood creatures on the planet. Any help we can give them through education saves these snakes lives. It is always great to hear of stories where people who were afraid of snakes finds out they aren't so bad after all, and starts to save them!

Thanks for sharing Pete!

Woman Finds 8-Foot Snake in Washer

GORHAM, Maine (July 17) - A woman got the shock of her life when she found an 8-foot snake mixed in with clothes in her washing machine. The snake, identified as a reticulated python, somehow got into the water pipes of Mara Ranger's 1800s-era farmhouse and slithered into the machine.

After Ranger took her blue jeans out of the machine Wednesday, she reached back into the load and felt something move.

"I jumped back and all of sudden its head starts coming out of the washing machine and it looked huge," Ranger told WMTW-TV.

Ranger quickly closed the lid and called police and an animal control officer, but they didn't want anything to do with the serpent.

When Richard Burton, who operates Maine Animal Damage Control in Lewiston, arrived at Ranger's house, he could barely believe his eyes.

Burton reached into the machine wearing a pair of welding gloves, expecting to come out with a 4-foot snake. But when he pulled the animal out, it kept coming and coming — all 8 feet of it.

Once out of the machine, the angry snake wrapped itself around Burton's hand, cutting off the blood flow. Burton then wrestled the scaly reptile into a plastic bag, tied it shut and brought it to Lewiston.

That's where Jen Lewis, a wildlife rehabilitator who works at the Kennel Shop, identified it as a python. The snakes kill prey with their teeth but are not poisonous, she said.

Lewis and Lewiston's animal control officer planned to find the snake a home at a wildlife refuge.

But how the snake ended up in the washing machine remains a mystery. Burton guessed it was somebody's pet and that the owner ended up tossing it out into the wild when it got too big. It then made its way through the water pipes and into the washing machine, probably after the load was done, he said.

In the meantime, Ranger said she's a little paranoid.

"Now that it's gone, I'm going to be checking crevasses and corners," Ranger said. "I'm going to be looking in the tub first — before and after, maybe even during, the rinse cycle."

Ciao!

Carrie

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