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.
Wednesday, July 20 2011
 In China, perhaps they should change it from year of the rabbit to year of the pit viper with the discovery of a third new species this year.
From National Geographic:
The new snake, Protobothrops maolanensis, was an unexpected "surprise gift for us," study leader Jian-Huan Yang said in an email. (See snake pictures.)
Yang and colleagues found the species during a recent survey of forests in Maolan National Nature Reserve in Guizhou, China (see map). At a maximum length of about 2.6 feet (0.7 meter), the new pit viper is the smallest known so far in the country.
Though the grayish brown species easily blends into its habitat, the ground-dwelling species ended up being the most common snake found during the research, noted Yang, of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou.
Scientists have found two other new pit vipers in China so far in 2011: Sinovipera sichuanensis and Protobothrops maolanensis, he added.
To read the full story, click here.
 The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC), with sponsors PetSmart and PETCO have announced James Carville and Mary Matalin as the keynote speakers for the 1st Annual Pet Industry’s Top to Top Conference . The nationally-known political commentators, will kick off the conference with their keynote address on Thursday, May 3, 2012. Avid pet owners, Mr. Carville and Ms. Matalin have two long-haired miniature daschunds, a Yorkie-Poo, three cats, four parakeets, and two rats.
“We are pleased to bring two savvy political personalities to this industry event. With their fingers on the pulse of what is happening in the country, as well as their love of pets, there are no better keynotes in the country than Mr. Carville and Ms. Matalin for this ground-breaking event,” says Mike Canning, President and CEO of PIJAC. Further, Canning predicts, “Given the timing of the event--during presidential primary season--their insight will be even more interesting.”
The Pet Industry’s Top to Top Conference will be held on May 3-4, 2012 at The Hilton Torrey Pines in La Jolla, CA. T and is open to all industry leaders, visionaries, and policymakers interested in the future of the pet industry. The symposium will offer sessions that address America’s changing demographics and resulting purchasing choices, rapidly changing retail channel strategies, the status of companion animal populations, legislative issues that impact the pet industry, and several networking events, the Pet Industry’s Top to Top Conference is a networking event for manufacturers, pet product distributors, companion animal suppliers, and retailers. A golf tournament at the world-famous Torrey Pines Golf Course is also planned. For more information please see PIJAC's web site.
Tuesday, July 19 2011
.....” My eyes wide, sitting in rapt attention, I digest his descriptions and find that his moments far exceed my own. I recall a time I had a moment with a 20 foot tiger retic on camera, and share this with Rom. Shaking his head and laughing, Rom quickly sits up and with bright eyes full of mischief describes one of his own on-camera incidents.
“We were following this gold poacher into a protected forest on Osa peninsula, me and the whole film crew, Brit cameraman, Chinese/Brit sound man, two guides, gold miner, looking for fer-de-lance and anything else we could find. The miner led to a cave which they had been re-excavating (very dangerously, no supports, nothing) to find gold and he said they often see snakes, maybe because of all the bats. So the cameraman says 'You go first Rom, in case there is really a snake, camera rolling'. I put my head torch on, duck my head and proceed into the darkness, thinking 'mmmm, fer-de-lance'. Suddenly there is a blur of movement from just beside me and the wide open white gape of a snake's jaws next to my elbow. 'F********K' I bleat, and recover my cool after seeing and saying 'It's a bloody tree boa!'. So Richard, the cameraman says, 'can we do that again? that f**k isn't going to wash with Nat Geo TV'. I argue with him, tell him to bleep it, people won't lip read anyway in that darkness, etc. and so on. But we did it again anyway, from several angles.”
Speaking of his film work, I am once again reminded of how Janaki describes Rom’s adventures:
“Dissatisfied with the reach of his books, papers, brochures and talks, Rom was caught by the magic of both television and the silver screen. He teamed up with old school friends, Louise and John Riber and film maker Shekar Dattatri to make a series of movies on snakes, snakebite, tree planting, rainforests and the Irula Cooperative he had helped set up. Eventually he produced a children's feature film in Tamil called 'Boy and the Crocodile' - India's most popular children's film to date and winner of the UNICEF’s Best Feature Film award in 1989. He travelled to the United States to sell more film ideas and in the corridors of National Geographic Television met Carol and Richard Foster who were keen on returning to India where Richard Foster was brought up. Together they produced 'Rat Wars' for NGT. Later Rom followed that with his highly ambitious 'King Cobra' - an Emmy award winner. It was the first film made featuring a single species of snake and most of the sequences were filmed for the first time ever. Twenty more films followed including 'Spunky Monkey', 'Thunder Dragons', 'Muggers of Sri Lanka', 'Snake Hunter' for National Geographic Explorer.
"Feeling a bit over-stretched, Rom quit the Croc Bank in 2001 as Director; he still remains its Managing Trustee. Recently he and his co-author, Ashok Captain, came out with India's first comprehensive color field guide to snakes, published by Draco Books, run by Rom’s partner, Janaki Lenin. He continues his interest in spreading conservation awareness through film making and recently developed and presented several films made for BBC, Animal Planet and National Geographic by Icon Films in Bristol, England. These include: 'The King Cobra and I', 'Supersize Crocodiles', 'Dragon Chronicles' and 'Crocodile Blues'. The latter film is about the plight of India's critically endangered gharial crocodile, the conservation of which is an ongoing preoccupation of this reptile man with a mission. His most recent film is ‘Million Snakebites’ documenting the problems of rural Indians, 50,000 of whom die from snakebite each year, and his efforts to mitigate these tragedies and facilitate the production of antivenom serum.”
Shaking my head in wonder, I inwardly appreciate the many experiences we all have, gratefully, off-camera. I am glad the newer generation has not witnessed many of the spectacular moments “The Family” has displayed! I decide to ask about the current world of herpetology and the massive shifts he has witnessed.
“It's been growing by leaps and bounds that’s for sure. Earlier there were more academics and now there are more hobbyists. Herp people were always a bit weird (thank gods), but the newer generation has some real live wires with incredible senses of humor along with their sharp minds.”
I agree with this assessment because I, too, have witnessed the same phenomena. In thinking of what I would have liked to hear when I started out, I ask Rom about advice for the newer generation, like Chris M. Law. Chris is a dedicated, intelligent and fun young member of “The Family” and soaks up any advice given to him by us ‘elders!’ (Chris is extremely well versed in crocodilian care and we are all proud of him.)
As eloquent as ever, Rom complies with a heartfelt answer. “I guess one bit of advice is to put into it just as much or more than you get out of it. I always think kharmically I guess, even though I don't believe in anything that even stinks slightly of religion. It's just natural to think that if you do bad s**t you will (eventually) receive bad s**t and the converse works too.”
I am in complete agreement. Stretching my back and putting the more logical side of my brain into gear, I begin thinking of some of the questions that people frequently ask ME. I perform a difficult sideways glance (I like to call it my IBS. Inconspicuous Blonde Spy glance) at Rom and decide that he is fair game and should also put some thought into answering these same questions.
"What is your favorite animal to work with?"
“Well, I usually expect myself to reply 'king cobra of course', and indeed it is a joy to behold and to be with. But as with questions about favorite anything I don't restrict myself to individual species. It's kind of generic. Along with loving my gal I have this collective love for the opposite sex. So it is with reptile species: I have really fond memories of working with a host of crocs, turtles, snakes and lizards, and even some frogs and salamanders!”
Ignoring the blush I know is now gracing my face and causing mirth in Rom, I grunt and continue on the subject of species other than humans. Knowing full well what it takes to work with king cobras and crocodilians, I can’t help but ask Rom: What is the most difficult species he’s worked with?
“The gharial, initially because we didn't know what made it tick, how to breed it and now because it's river specialization is giving it more grief than any other croc in the world and we really don't feel too good about its future since all our rivers are virtually f**ked.”
If you are not familiar with the massive undertaking Rom has taken on regarding the gharial, I can’t describe it any better than the following description based on his bio on from Wikipedia:
His love of crocodilians has led Rom to currently coordinate an effort to save the gharial, a critically endangered species of crocodylia on the brink of extinction, with less than 250 individuals left in Indian waters. On December 27, 2010, the Minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, during a visit with Rom at the Madras Crocodile Bank, announced the formation of a National Tri-State Chambal Sanctuary Management and Coordination Committee for gharial conservation on 1,600 km2 of the National Chambal Sanctuary for Gharials along the Chambal River in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The Committee is comprised of representatives of the states Water Resources Ministries, State Departments of Irrigation and Power, Wildlife Institute of India, Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, the Gharial Conservation Alliance, Development Alternatives, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Worldwide Fund for Nature and the Divisional Forest officers of the three states. The Committee plans strategies for protection of gharials and their habitat. This involves further research on the species and its ecology and socio-economic evaluation of dependent riparian communities. Funding for this new initiative will be mobilized as a sub-scheme of the ‘Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats’ in the amount of Rs.50 million to Rs.80 million (USD 1 million to 1.7 million) each year for five years. This project has long been advocated by Rom.
In reading this description, Rom made the following correction: with less than 250 individuals left in Indian waters. SHOULD BE: less than 200 breeding adults.
The only BETTER description of Rom’s work, once again comes from Janaki: “Rom extended his interest to other beleaguered reptiles - crocodiles, sea turtles, and lesser known exotic reptilian creatures around the country. He wrote about creatures that nobody had even paid attention to before and started realizing that India’s rapid development was fragmenting their habitats. Conservation was still in its infancy in India, but when Rom and colleagues hit the headlines with their campaign to save Silent Valley, an iconic Kerala rainforest, the movement started snowballing. Then Rom set up Madras Crocodile Bank, a gene pool for all the world's crocodilians and now India's premier research centre for herpetology. Many endangered crocs were bred here and rehabilitated to the wilds, many young careers in herpetology were launched, many forests were saved by relentless campaigning.
It was at this point that Rom discovered the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. India guarded these islands jealously and no foreigner had been allowed to work in these islands for a few decades since the British left India. And that's where Rom wanted to go. The price was his US citizenship which he gave up for the privilege of visiting and working in the islands. The kind of "development" that the Indian government was exporting to the islands prompted Rom to put down an organization there, Andaman and Nicobar Island Environmental Team (ANET). ANET did everything - coral reef surveys, botanical surveys, mammalian surveys, island ecology studies, besides sea turtle and crocodile surveys. Today ANET remains the premier environmental NGO in the archipelago and is called the Centre for Island Ecology.
Rom was then contracted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to help set up a network of tribal crocodile rearing stations across Papua New Guinea. Rom surveyed the remote swamps of the country to assess the wild population, worked out the logistics and set up a Management Plan for the country over two hectic years. Then FAO sent him back to the island, to the Indonesian administered Irian Jaya, to do similar work. Subsequent years saw him travel to Bangladesh to see if a lizard leather industry was sustainable (he concluded that it wasn’t), to Mozambique to set up a village level croc farming operation, to East Malaysia to survey the wilds for crocs. He was canoeing up remote streams, jumping out of helicopters onto croc nests, trekking over mountain ranges in search of elusive reptiles. Rom was Asia's reptile man: straddling conservation, scientific study, education, sustainable utilization, tribal welfare and captive breeding of rare species.
"If you could do ONE thing… anything… what would it be?"
“Get someone good to pick up and run with all these bloody things I've started and the ideas that are making my brain explode on a daily basis!”
"What has been your biggest obstacle?"
“Only 24 hours in a day and getting the right people to help me accomplish my driving need to get the 'right' things done (not to mention the small item of finding the money to do them!).”
We can all appreciate the need for funding in the world of animals. I sometimes think that lack of money is the Mother-of-Invention in our field, however. Thinking on the lines of the various “creative tools” I have seen pop up in our field over the years brings up the thought of what we can do differently both with animals and with people.
There are many situations those of us who have been around herps would do differently. As we look back on our accomplishments and learning lessons (I refuse to call them failures), certain situations come to the forefront. For Rom however, there are things in life he would choose not to do again both in the profession and in life in general.
“Lotsa things: get married, get snakebit, go to a Rotary Club meeting and the list goes on…”
Provided with this description, I can’t help but laugh in sympathy. The fact that these three situations rate in unison in Rom’s mind is not lost on me. His mention of Rotary is somewhat deceiving because working with wildlife is not the sole path Rom has chosen to travel. His intensive work in wildlife has also given him the ability to provide important humanitarian contributions. He was the founder of the Irula Snake-Catchers Cooperative (1978) in Chennai. The Cooperative was conceived to rehabilitate the Irula tribe who are known for their expertise in catching snakes.The Irula were severely impacted economically when the ban of snakeskin collection and trade was instituted. Rom taught the Irula tribe to get involved in extracting snake venom for the production of antivenom serum and toxicological research. When discussing this major humanitarian achievement, Rom says: “I guess besides creating awareness for reptiles and facilitating conservation action for the critters, my most original and helpful act was to help create the Irula Snake-Catchers Cooperative Society; it helped a bunch of really savvy and cool snake hunting (but very, very poor) tribals find a livelihood after the snakeskin industry was banned here and it now produces most of the venom used to make antivenom serum in India today.”
This short answer shows how Rom took to heart Bill Haast’s legacy: “Work quietly and doggedly, don't react to other people and (though he wouldn't have put it that way) 'just keep on truckin'.”
Rom and I sit together in companionable silence for a few moments. Bringing the interview to a close, I ask Rom if he sees the proverbial glass as half empty or half full. The answer he provides brings tears to my eyes. “Well it's half full much of the time, but I can't help but think that my cup runneth over a fair bit of the time.”
I pull my legs up and rest my chin on my knees. I wrap my arms around my legs and look up high in the sky gazing ‘beyond’ and ask Rom my last and most serious question:
“Rom, what do you want to be remembered for?”
Without missing a beat, the answer, in Rom’s gentle voice, wafts around me and settles into my awaiting ears:
"That f**ker knew how to enjoy life, oh yeah!"
Rom has authored hundreds of scientific papers and pop articles plus several books on reptiles, especially on snakes, including the comprehensive field guide, titled: “Snakes of India - The Field Guide" in 2004. I am a beaming, proud owner of a copy with a personal note that I cherish. My advice to you is to add this amazing work to your collection. Even if you are not a herper by hobby or profession, you will love this book. Available on amazon.com.
In February 2011, BBC Natural World followed Rom during his ongoing research into the causes and prevention of snake bites in India. Many snakes were considered, but one in particular, Echis carinatus sochereki of the deserts of Rajasthan, (Americans see map), held the most attention. By collecting the venom of local vipers Rom and his team are facilitating research on geographic variation in venoms that will help to produce an effective antivenom that is desperately needed in this locale.
Rom in a nutshell:
In 2005 Rom established the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station in Karnataka for research, conservation and environmental education in the Biodiversity Hotspot of India’s Western Ghats, the magical chain of forest-clad hills where he spent his school years. There he is heading a long term study on the ecology and behavior of the king cobra and cataloging the biodiversity of the region for which he received the prestigious Whitley Fund for Nature Award (UK). Rom received two more awards in 2009, one indigenous: the Salim Ali Award from the Bombay Natural History Society and one from Switzerland: the Rolex Award for Enterprise for his project on facilitating the establishment of a network of rainforest research conservation and bases around India. All of this keeps Rom and his dynamic team very, very busy. Rom also wants me to add that he gets to wear a real flash watch on which he promptly scratched the hell out of the crystal! ** Source: Janaki Lenin
Romulus Whitaker is a Member of the Advisory Committee and the Editorial Board of the Bombay Natural History Society, as well as corresponding member, The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, USA; Advisor, Irula Tribal Women's’ Welfare Society, Afforestation Project; Member, Centre for Science and Education, New Delhi; Member, Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad and Founder-Member, Tamil Nadu Society for Social Forestry Research. He is also Chief Technical Advisor, Irula Snake Catchers’ Industrial Cooperative Society; Convenor, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Andaman and Nicobar Islands Chapter; and Founder – Member, Palni Hills Conservation Council. Rom is Honorary Consultant, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources/Species Survival Commission (IUCN/SSC), Vice Chairman (Western Asia), IUCN/SSC Crocodile Specialist Group, Member, IUCN/SSC Indian Subcontinent Reptile and Amphibian Group and Member, IUCN/SSC Sea Turtle Specialist Group. **Source: Wikipedia
Credits: My many thanks go to Rom and Janaki for all of their help and contributions to this article. Rom was very open and willing to share his humor and memories, and Janaki provided fabulous information in a very well written work of art. Rom even took working with “the blonde” in stride (I promise I will look at a map, but I am not promising to understand it. I have been known to get lost in an intersection, for God’s sake.). In an email, Rom said: “I sincerely want geography-challenged beings all over the world to see where things are happening that we're talking about. It's good to know that the huge saw-scaled vipers are from a magical desert the Thar Desert, of Rajasthan where all the women seem to wear brilliant reds and yellows (which are so wild even a colour-blind fellow can appreciate them). Or that the Croc Bank is situated on a southeastern Indian beach that was (somewhat gently, thank the gods) lashed by the '04 tsunami.” From the bottom of my heart, I am proud to have Rom and Janaki as my “ Family.”
My sincere thanks to Paul Rowley for his invaluable contributions after having worked with Rom last summer on the collection of venom for the “Million Snakebites” BBC film. Paul also provided photos that are incredible. Without his support and contributions, my work would not have been nearly as thorough. Also, thank you for all your support, Paul.
Thank you to Chris M. Law for guessing the answer to the clues I posted on the identity of the Star of the first story. I affectionately call Chris “QB” and he has been a member of “The Family” for years. I am proud of him and look forward to watching him soar in the world of herpetology.
And finally, thank you to Dr. Robert Sprackland who gently pushed me into trying my writing. Not only did he get me going, he provided insight, editing and massive moral support to keep me on track. I would not have been able to do this without his help. Always willing to give of his time and energy, I could not ask for a better Mentor.
Other Sources: Wikipedia, Romulus Whitaker, Biography
www. agumberainforest.com
www.madrascrocodilebank.org
www. draco-india.com
www.gharials.org
www.anetindia.org
Copyright © 2011, Dawn Tipton.
This story is protected under copyright law. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
WHO WILL BE NEXT?
It could be YOU! Watch the Venom Angel page for clues!
 A recent discovery in Saxony of a perfectly petrified tree-dwelling lizard shows that lizards came well before the dinoosaurs. The animal resembles the modern day Green Iguana, but is currently being dated to the Permian period between 300 million and 250 million years ago.
“Most other reptiles lived on the ground,” (Jörg Schneider, professor of palaeontology at Freiberg University) told The Local. “For the first time we really know this animal was specialized for living in trees … They have unusually long and slim fingers and very long tails … It is a completely new form that is unknown.”
The Permian period was marked by the diversification of land vertebrates and appearance of modern trees such as conifers. All of the modern continents were clumped together in the single supercontinent, Pangea.
Mammal ancestors such as the famous fan-backed Dimetrodon flourished but the period ended with a massive extinction 250 million years ago that wiped out about 70 percent of land vertebrates, probably through a combination of climate change, volcanic activity and asteroid strikes.
The petrified forest on the outskirts Chemnitz is remarkably intact because it was buried in fine ash from a nearby volcano eruption. Normally such fossil remains of animals have been washed some distance from where they lived and died and then preserved in lakes and sediments, Schneider said.
The Chemnitz forest, by contrast, has been preserved virtually as it stood 290 million years ago, complete with trees, insects, spiders and snails as well as larger vertebrate animals. The reptiles were found at the foot of the trees from which they fell.
“You could call it the Pompeii of Saxony,” Schneider said. “They are exceptionally well-preserved skeletons because of this very fine ash. We could see every bone, we could see the outline of the skin and beautifully preserved scales. It looks like they just died days ago.”
To read the full article, click here.
Monday, July 18 2011
 Despite the lack of external ears, German physicists have found that snakes do in fact hear -- and they hear in stereo!
(T)hey do have complete inner ear systems, including functional cochlea, which are carefully connected to and stimulated by their lower jaw. Resting on the ground, a snake's jaw can detect vibrations as small as an angstrom in amplitude (a motion roughly as large the diameter of a single atom), which act like sound waves to the inner ear.
The physicists performed a geometric study of the anatomy of horned desert vipers as well as the ground waves created by the footfalls of their prey. They showed mathematically that the jaw-to-cochlea system is sensitive to the frequencies of the prey's ground vibrations.
From their analysis, the physicists also found that the snake's notorious ability to unhinge their jaws and swallow their prey whole means that the right and left side of their jaws can receive vibrations independently, and the snakes hear in stereo.
For the full article, click here.
Saturday, July 16 2011
 One hundred thirty years is a long time to live, even for a tortoise. This past week the reptile community lost of one their ancient giants: Methuselah, a 130-year-old Galapagos Tortoise, passed away quietly at Reptile Gardens in South Dakota.
Originally named Earl, he was born in 1881 on the Galapagos Islands and joined the Reptile Gardens family in the 1954. I had the pleasure to meet him and his yard mates, Quasi and Tank, last summer on our family trip to the Gardens. Both Tank and Methuselah were exceptionally friendly and they loved to have their long necks scratched. Both also loved dogs; who knew!
From the Reptile Gardens blog post on his passing:
Those of us who worked with the tortoises on a daily basis learned each one’s personality, their habits, preferences, and behaviors. Methuselah, honestly, always had the most personality. He was smart and knew how to get what he wanted. He could be cunning even. Sometimes you could tell he was thinking, as though he was formulating some plan.
Farewell, Methuselah! It was a pleasure to have known you. You were a great ambassador for reptiles everywhere.
Photo: Reptile Gardens Curator of Reptiles, Terry Phillip, and Methuselah share a quiet moment on our vacation in July 2010.
ROMULUS WHITAKER
Romulus Whitaker is a name synonymous with herpetology. You won’t get far into the hobby or the profession without hearing his name. Rom is best known the world over for his work with king cobras and crocodilians, most especially, gharials. You may have heard of a little place called the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust Centre that Rom founded, located on the southeast coast of India. http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/india_map.html
Not only is Rom at the top of my “Hero” list, he took the time to live in Wyoming and attend the University of Wyoming (we just won’t mention that he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in San Diego, eh um, or maybe we will). You all know that Wyoming is my home state, so this is a point that was easy for me to connect with Rom on. Obviously, a man of high culture!
His well-known film "King Cobra" produced for the National Geographic Channel, won many awards including an Emmy Award for Outstanding News and Documentary Program Achievement in 1998. Not to be overlooked, however, this film was also nominated for the Best Cinematography Award at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in 1997!
You can find a plethora of information surrounding Rom’s work. Many articles and shows have been produced about Romulus Whitaker and his contributions to the world of herpetology. If you have never had the extreme pleasure of speaking with Rom, reading his published work or visiting the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust Centre, let me introduce you to this amazing man. I want you to know not just his work, but the man behind the work.
It’s warm outside and very sunny. Cobalt blue (incidentally, Rom’s favorite color, though he admits he is color blind) skies are overhead without a hint of a cloud. The sounds of solemn geese honking and dogs barking in excitement fill the air. It’s very warm, but the whisper of a breeze gently tugs at our hair and flows over our skin to cool us off as we sit in the welcome shade of one of the thousands of trees in the jungle brush surrounding the farm Rom and his partner, Janaki Lenin, call home.
Pull up a pillow, sit down with us, get comfortable and let Romulus Whitaker tell you his story.
Rom is a (very) handsome, (ordinarily) gentle, (exceedingly) intelligent, (extremely) well-spoken member of “The Family” who always carries himself with (multi-faceted) grace. Rom has a fantastic sense of humor and a love of colorful wording (both in English and in Tamil, the local language in his adopted state, Tamil Nadu, India—look at a map, Americans). I think he likes the shock value. He is one of the few people who can make me blush and laugh at the same time. There is never a question too small for Rom and he provides answers in easy-to-understand ways. If you are lucky, you get a little sarcasm and irony thrown in for flavor. The love for his career, the profession, the animals and India come through in all that Rom does.
Rom is dear to me not just because he is a herp hero, or because he spent time in Wyoming, but on a highly personal level within “The Family” because we share a unique genetic make-up and a unique place among native “tribes.” Rom carries a strong Viking appearance, coming from his Swedish genetics, just as I carry the coloring of my maternal Scottish/Viking ancestry. In and of itself this is no fascinating point, but when you discover the similar position we each occupy among Native Peoples (Rom, among Indian tribals, myself among Native Americans), it gets a lot more personal. As a matter of fact, one of the first questions I ever read surrounding Rom was: “How is he a white Indian?” That question, for obvious reasons, stuck in my mind and it happens to be the very same question Rom first asked ME.
Rom’s mind works bullet-quick. Envision the sparkle in his warm eyes, the well-earned laugh lines creasing in the corners and the slow, easy smile spreading across his face as he softly describes himself:
“Single-minded, sex, (soft) drugs, rock 'n roll, irreverence for anything organized: crime, religion, sports, academics, violence (armies and wars), politics and the like.”
In asking Rom his “official” title, that familiar sparkle in his eyes becomes shockingly bright! A sneaky glance at my hair sends a warning shiver down my spine and I find myself grinning in anticipation of his answer.
“Director, Agumbe Rainforest Research Station. Personal title? Mister, maybe? Or Dufus? I was blonde too, before my hair turned white, and I'm half Scandihooligan ('squarehead' in USA racial profile parlance).”
Laughing, I boldly decide to ask Rom a direct question that I love to know about everyone: What do you want people to know about you? Rom looks directly in my eyes and says very seriously: “Well, if you are a rich philanthropist with a penchant for reptiles I want you to know that your support for our herp and people work here in India is money very well spent.” With the same serious expression, a sudden wink appears shifting into innocent doe eyes. “If you are a sexy lady you should know that my partner can be fairly dangerous, so use my undercover email i.d. to send me love letters.”
Letting that comment turn my face a lovely shade of purple and ignoring my bulging eyes and slight wheezing, Rom settles back and shift’s into a relaxed interview mode. His warm eyes miss nothing and his eagle-like focus takes in his surroundings continually. It is with this relaxed but alert image that he begins describing the first interaction he remembers with reptiles in New York state, where he was born. Though sad, it is similar to many of the memories we all have.
“I was catching bugs, spiders and creatures under rocks near streams in northern NY state at age 4 (1947) when I came upon my first snake, a Dekay's snake I think. Before I could do anything my little compatriots from the village of Hoosick pounded it to death with rocks. I collected it anyway in a mason jar and brought it back to show my ma,Doris Norden (she was a single ma) and older sis, Gail. They were pretty downcast and I guess I felt pretty bad as a result. They said it would be nice to see it alive and I guess that was a pivotal moment and I never looked back: garter snakes, ribbon snakes, ring-necked snakes, milk snakes and of course Dekay's snakes were found, brought home, kept for a while in a converted aquarium (thanks to my ma) and then let go.”
I ask Rom what the first “live” reptile he remembers catching was and the reply he provides shows his quintessential humor: “One of the above mentioned snakes, probably a garter. I remember being the only one who didn't mind getting crapped and musked all over, sort of like when I got older and married and had kids to look after; their s**t was ok but another baby's s**t?Urk!” I stare at Rom for a few moments, mouth agape. Not fazed in the least, he glances at me and wiggles his eyebrows. With a deep breath, I move forward a bit in his life… but not as far forward as dealing with his kids’ diapers.
When Rom moved to India at the age of 7, it didn’t take him long to become engrossed with the wealth of animals that India offers. As a curious and intelligent youth, Rom made it his daily mission to interact with local tribals and “play” with local wildlife.“It was Natesan, Chockalingam, Rajamani and other Irula tribals who taught me snake and jungle lore like no one else could hope to.”
I laugh outright at the image I have of Rom “chasing down” his first Russell’s viper. Never let it be said that creativity is lacking in our field and now I feel I should follow in Rom’s footsteps and try his particular method of catching a venomous snake! I do NOT advise YOU to do the same, however.
“My school was a Xtian missionary school in South India and there were no particular studies in herps, only basic biology in 10th grade. However, every spare moment I had (or garnered) I was away from that school out in the hills and jungles of the Western Ghats, camping, fishing, hunting and, of course, always an eye open for snakes and lizards. I was 13 (1956) on a camp with my school mates when I found my first hot snake, a gorgeous Russell's viper and scooped it out of a lake with a friend's butterfly net and put it in my lunch box. It lived in the bio lab for a few weeks before I took it out to let it go. I don't think any of us had a real inkling about how potentially dangerous that snake was… the gods protect idiots?!”
As a young man, Rom embarked on many travels before he returned to India to make his life and his legacy. As far as his College career, Rom made an unusual decision to attend the University of Wyoming. I ask him why he chose UW: “It started when I was in my last year of high school in south India (1960) and applying for colleges the way all good graduates do. Nothing was very interesting except a course in Wildlife Management at the U. of Wy in Laramie. Reading further, it transpired that the state had more deer than people. Hmmm, thinks I, the hunting sounds good and I already read about the North and South Platte rivers and the massive trout. Well, a plane ride from Bombay to NYC to meet my long lost father, and then a Greyhound bus ride from there all the way to Laramie (money was tight) and I was a registered student in rush week. Needless to say I wasn't interested in joining a frat or any of that s**t so I rented a small cheap house out on the edge of town amongst, yep, Indians and Mexicans. I was a s**t student, and the only course that was interesting was geology. Doc McGrew was also reconstructing a giant mosasaur skeleton and gave me a job at $1.25 an hour (minimum wage then, I guess) and it was good to be chipping away at the huge fossil and listen to him talk about digs he'd been on and how great Wyoming is for this kind of stuff. Since I had been a dinosaur freak when I was a kid and knew what a paleontologist was at age five—a bone-digger-upper-- I would explain to perplexed adults (thanks to my ma taking me to the NY natural history museum numbers of times) this was a real pleasurable part of my otherwise fairly useless college experience (I managed to scrape thru one year and that's it).
But my BIG Wyoming experience was with cross-country skiing, dealing with 50 degrees below zero, hunting mulies with a single-shot .22 out of season to keep the meat locker full, saving us from having to ever buy any protein at the super market. And, of course, the camping along the North Platte and learning from my local Rawlins pal Dean Addington about foul hooking a couple of suckers when the water is turbid from melting snow. You cut the sucker into chunks and drop one below a boulder riffle on the river to tempt one of those lunker brownies to gobble that sushi. And it worked a lot of the time, we never went hungry on a camp even though all we brought with us was coffee and sugar and some of those instant Betty Crocker biscuits that do fine wrapped in tinfoil on a campfire. There's lots more, good memories mostly, except for ROTC and some particularly obnoxious fellow students--but I had little to do with the academic crowd, I preferred the outsiders and locals.”
Bringing a thought completely out of left-field and referring to the “Official” Venom Angel photo, Rom shares another memory about Wyoming:
“I was very much into bikes, too. My first was at age 16 (no license, but what the hell this is India), a Brit military Triumph 350 single with mechanical forks, i.e., no shocks (wowie, zowie on the crotch and ass on long Indian road trips, but hell, man, at 16 I was king of the road). In Wyoming I came across an ad for an AJS 500 single for sale in Casper for $150 and so me and my friend hitched from Laramie to Casper in the dead of winter, picked up the bike (it started in two or three kicks, that's how well this guy cared for it) and actually drove the sombitch back to Laramie, staying on the verge of the road the whole way because the friggin road was so icy. Cops stopped us three times, sort of dazed and confused at these two boys in mukluks and huge overcoats chugging down the highway with whiteouts and whatnot the whole way. We'd get into their toasty warm squad cars and leak our caked snow and ice all over the back seat and floor. The fuzz didn't seem to mind though, one of them even knew someone we knew in school!”
I chew on his descriptions and can clearly envision the harsh winter weather he describes. I have been through more than enough of those freezing, winter days. I am absolutely stunned that Rom braved a day like that to ride a bike! Shivering, I notice a thoughtful look come into Rom’s eyes as memories of the path he has walked surface and he artfully describes the first steps he took into the profession. With a smile, he reminiscences about some of the people integral to his path in herpetology: “In the past it was my mother, Bill Haast and vicariously it would be Raymond Ditmars and authors like Robert Ruark, Ernest Hemingway and some others. Snake hunting buddies from the '60s like Heyward Clamp, Attila Beke, Schubert Lee (who tragically killed himself with a cobra at my house in Coconut Grove) and some others helped to shape my skills.
Though my interest had always been there I only started working fulltime with reptiles when I started working for Bill Haast at the Miami Serpentarium in 1963. Besides working at the largest venom production center in the world (wow!), Bill had a small representative collection of other reptiles like the two giant tortoises, rhino iguanas, a bunch of medium sized gators and two nice big crocs, a Nile and an American, so I was getting my overall husbandry experience along with visitor PR training. I eventually did the 'tours' in a sort of trance unless there was a good looking woman I wanted to impress or someone actually asked intelligent questions. Plus, of course, there was the venom business--all which were to guide me into what was to come back home in India.
Haast was a very special influence—if he were here, his advice would be: “Work quietly and doggedly, don't react to other people and (though he wouldn't have put it that way) 'just keep on truckin'.”
I never had a herp hobby really, I've kept some snakes at home long ago, but mostly I've just worked with reptiles and my desire to keep and study them translated into setting up first a snake park and then a crocodile farm and a snake venom production center, so voila! I was able to keep THOUSANDS of reptiles not just one or two! Aside from working for Haast I made a living for a while, along with a bunch of others, catching snakes and lizards for the pet, circus, zoo and research trade. We'd go out around the U. of Miami campus with sacks over our shoulders like hippy Santa Clauses, snatching up cane toads to sell to the bio specimens trade for 50 cents each, or hit the Everglades during low water to come back with 40 or 50 moccasins to sell for venom production. Nowadays I frown on commercial trade in wild caught reptiles (probably my least favorite part of the hobby), but then there was just no negativity about it. Duh!”
Rom was drafted into the Vietnam war and served honorably for two years in the U.S. Army. In a fabulous bio that Janaki wrote for Rom, she describes Rom’s return to India after Vietnam: “After his mandatory two years, he sailed straight back to India aboard a Greek freighter. Soon after alighting at Bombay, Rom set up a snake venom extraction venture outside Bombay to supply medicine producers. On one of his field trips to Madras to buy snakes, he was introduced to the Irulas, the tribal snake catchers. Rom moved his operation to Madras city and formally started India's first reptile zoo, the Madras Snake Park. Its novelty value drew lots of tourists, celebrities and dedicated young volunteers. Rom became a familiar figure in this conservative city. With a sand boa coiled through his wild white hair, and his loudly colored hippie clothes, people gawked at Rom as he pulled up on his motorbike. And to everyone's amazement he swore in Tamil, the local language! That was enough for Rom to be "IN".”
Loving hearing his vibrant memories about the people that influenced him, I ask Rom to recall a memory he loves about herping and about “The Family.” “I guess it's hard to pick out one favorite memory. Was it when I did a football dive after a disappearing black tail in the rainforest only to have a king cobra rise over me (yes, I let the tail go quick-smart), or watching a male mugger chase the female crocs away and carefully excavate a nest and carry the hatchlings to the water, or stumble on a six foot long eastern diamondback rattlesnake in the Everglades? Shucks, which one?
“The Family, I guess my favorite social experience (since my partner and I are virtual hermits out here on our farm) was going to the Daytona Beach Reptile Expo and meeting many old and new friends in the reptile world. Or maybe it was one day when I was turning over a log in the high hills of South India and came up with a literal handful of shieldtailed snakes and lo and behold a car stops nearby and out steps herp legend emeritus Carl Gans, grinning like the Cheshire cat!”
His analogy of the Cheshire Cat leads my thoughts to several of my own memories. If you know me, you know I scare myself on a regular basis (most of the time it doesn’t even involve animals) and it always makes me feel better to know that Hero’s have moments of fear as well. I ask Rom, with great anticipation, to tell me about a moment he felt real fear. Rom nods and glances at the sky. After a few moments he recalls: “A few of them: going blind after the bite of a green rock rattler, getting grabbed on both hands by a mugger croc, getting nailed by a fast black snake outside of Darwin Australia, whilst stupidly helping it cross a busy highway-- chased it, caught it so I could make sure it wasn't something I was going to die of real fast--it was a black whipsnake, Demansia atra, no sweat (errr...). Or almost drowning swimming across a croc lake in south India? Or again almost drowning when caught in a storm on the Massingir Reservoir in Mozambique on a croc survey. Or.....” My eyes wide, sitting in rapt attention, I digest his descriptions and find that his moments far exceed my own. I recall a time I had a moment with a 20 foot tiger retic on camera, and share this with Rom. Shaking his head and laughing, Rom quickly sits up and with bright eyes full of mischief describes one of his own on-camera incidents.
(to be continued!)
Friday, July 15 2011
 What is the state of veterinary care of reptiles today -- and is the Internet helping or hurting?
Clinician's Brief is the official publication of the North American Veterinary Conference, and in today's newsletter they linked to a blog post by veterinarian JC Burcham, DVM, in which she talked about what she sees as the three biggest challenges in treating scaly pets.
Number one was the difficulty in establishing normal values for reptiles, particularly radiographs.
Number two was the lack of effective pain management, and the dearth of knowledge about it in reptile medicine.
Number three was the amount of bad information out there on the Internet, and the way that so many herp owners try to do almost anything to avoid going to (and presumably, paying for) the veterinarian:
The internet is not my friend. The amount of mis-information purported on all manner of websites and online discussion forums is beyond ridiculous. The few, rational people who insist that any sick reptile should be seen by a vet are hopelessly outnumbered by clueless individuals who think they have all the answers. This means I get phone calls from people who have no intention of bringing their reptile in to see me, to see if I can tell them what’s wrong over the phone and what they should do (besides bring it in for an exam).
I sympathize. I really do. Veterinarians who treat all kinds of pets, not just exotics, report the same problem. Partly it's budget, but it's also because a lot of pet-owners have lost faith in veterinarians. That was the subject of my most recent column for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com, in fact.
But as I read this blog post, it strikes me that reptile owners and veterinarians are in even more of a bind than fluffy pet owners and their vets. Because by her own words it seems fairly obvious that veterinarians who treat herps don't have all the answers when it comes to even simple things like, "What does a normal tegu radiograph look like?", a problem not often besetting dog and cat practitioners.
Could that be a big part of the reason so many reptile owners turn to their fellow keepers on the Internet for advice and input, rather than to their vets who may not have any more answers than someone on the kingsnake.com forums?
Yes, perhaps "Can you recommend a really good herp vet?" should be asked earlier and more often. But even setting aside budget constraints, how many reptile keepers have access to a really good herp vet anywhere near where they live in the first place?
So while I have some sympathy for Dr. Burcham's frustration with the vast amounts of admittedly bad information spewed all over the Internet every day (a phenomenon neither limited to reptiles nor pets in general), I think that herp owners are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to getting answers for health questions about their pets.
You can read Dr. Burcham's blog post here; what do you think about what she has to say?
Thursday, July 14 2011
 The US Fish and Wildlife said this week that the Gila Monster population in Utah is not large enough to warrant endangered status.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday that a petition seeking to protect the Utah population of the Gila monster under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) does not contain substantial scientific information to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted, because the population does not constitute a distinct population segment (DPS) as defined by the ESA. The finding will be published in the Federal Register Tuesday.
Despite the announcement by the USFWS that the species will not receive further consideration for listing under the ESA at this time, the agency will continue to work with its partners to conserve and protect the Gila monster throughout the species’ range, according to the announcement.
[....]
In Utah, it is found only in the southern portion of Washington County, which comprises less than one (.01) percent of the species’ total range.
To read the full article, click here.
Wednesday, July 13 2011
 After dying off in Chambal, Gharials are making a comeback thanks to conservation efforts and reintroductions. And the natives, they couldn't be happier!
Over four years ago, more than 20 gharials were found dead on the Chambal. They seemed to have been poisoned – dying from kidney failure and gout from eating contaminated fish from polluted rivers. "What a horrible death! Poor gharials," sympathises David, as we imagine the sick reptiles suffering.
But a few weeks later we hear some welcome news. The new breeding centre further up river, in the Sheopur district, is proving a success. More than 1,000 baby gharials from more than 40 mothers have hatched in the last month. On the drive back on the bus we talk to a few locals who are very excited about the gharial babies. One young boy tells me thousands have been born; a young woman tells me that there are tens of thousands.
"You have to see the babies diving in the water," urged one boy. The small crocodilians have become local celebrities. Families are now taking picnics on the river at weekends to see the gharials play and feed.
To read the full article, click here.
Tuesday, July 12 2011
By
Tue, July 12 2011 at 18:09
There is little doubt that books, as well as many other publications, have long served as widely and perhaps the most easily accessible sources of information on all aspects of reptiles and amphibians, from their taxonomy, natural history, and evolution, to field identification, to captive care, husbandry, and propagation to and for all members of the public interested in these animals. The same can easily be said of just about every other subject and genre we humans enjoy studying, reading, and learning about to pique our curiosities.
There are undoubetedly many great books available that I enjoy and highly recommend reading, and my purpose here is certainly not to dismiss all books. However, there are also some that are equally as disappointing in the information they contain (and likewise do not contain) that I suggest avoiding or using only for select information. And then there are some that are as bad as Rodda and Reed's USGS Giant Constrictor Report, which, surprinsgly and disturbingly, was a source actualy cited by at least one of the books I am about to mention!!!!!!!!
I encourage everyone to judge the books they read in both author and content in determining how reliable and credible of a source they may be. What are the author(s) credentials, experience, and/or background? How long ago was the book published? Do they convey any of their first hand knowledge and experiences in working with a species, or do they seem to rely on secondhand information?
This leads into me wanting to bring to light a few flaws and shortfalls I have noticed with many (but certainly not all) herp husbandry books I have seen and read, particularly those books written by authors, who although may be well meaning, are of "generalized" and "condensed" subjects that still portray inaccurate and outdated information, and contain, how do I say it, an overall "lack of objectivity" displayed by the authors of said books. Two such books that I wish to bring up as examples for the purposes of this posting are "Pythons: Barrons Complete Pet Owner's Manual" by Patricia Barlett" and even worse, "Reptiles, Amphibians, and Invertebrates: An Identification and Care Guide-2nd Edition" by R.D. Bartlett (does this name ring a bell?) et all.
I have two criticisms of these, and other similar such books that I feel have been poorly addressed by the herpetological community they are supposedly written for and by.
Although the authors' condensation, or generalization of the given subject matter may be well meaning in an effort to provide the readers and the public with convenient, easily accessible, and easier to read publications, they often fall short (sometimes painfully) in the quantity and/or quality of information provided, particularly regarding specific or particular species. In several such books, specific information on each species may only contain as little as two to four paragraphs in total, if they are not mere bullet points. Now, I do not wish or intend to completely tarnish the merits and usefulness of these books, as I still believe they are good sources for "general* information. But, they should not be heavily, or even moderately relied upon for species specific information.
This brings us to my next criticism of such books, and one in which I find to be the more deserving of the two. Given that these are all non fiction publications that I am sure most will agree are supposed to be objective sources of information, I find it quite disappointing just how much there seems to be a lack thereof in such books. For example, in the "Reptile, Amphibian, and Invertebrate care and identification guide", there are short, one page profiles of a wide variety of herp and invertebrate species the authors purport to be commonly seen and available in the industry that may serve useful in quick identification of the commonly kept species. However, with the second edition of this book, came the author's puzzling exclusion of several of the large constrictor species (such as Reticulated, African rock, and amesthyne pythons but with the exception of Burmese pythons), with their stated "justifications" (being paraphrased here to the best of my memory) being that these species simply "attain too large of sizes, and reach too much of aggressive and dangerous tendencies to be kept or managed safely by a sizable enough portion of the herp industry to warrant inclusion in the book." I, and perhaps many others would strongly disagree, and here is why.
When an author of such books uses subjective statements and criteria describing the different specific species, such as "the best", "the worst", "the meanest", "too unpredictable", or "too dangerous" and bases their inclusion or exclusion in the book largely on either what is outdated information and/or these statements, which may simply be the author's own opinions (of which they are entitled to), they are simply displaying a complete bias and lack of objectivity in which I alluded to earlier. The simple fact of the matter is that species such as Burmese, African rocks, and Reticulated pythons are all species that have already long been kept and propagated in great numbers in our industry. By these authors deliberately excluding these species due to their own biases, they are not only failing to live up to the titles of their own books, such as "Complete Pet Owner's Manuels" for at the very least the sake of completion (if anything else), they are also performing a disservice to the hobby by hindering the furthering of available knowledge and information that, in actuality would serve to deepen the pool of available information and resources for the "pet owners" and "hobbyists" they claim to write for. Information simply cannot and does not benefit the animals, keepers, nor the hobby as a whole when it is withheld and excluded due simply to author preference and opinion.
In conclusion, I encourage anyone and everyone who may be interested in keeping or acquiring any herp species to independently research the species they truly like and may be interested in by finding books and other publications in which are as species/taxa specific as possible. Attend local and regional reptile expos, and talk with experienced and reputable keepers and breeders of the species as a means of gaining knowledge and insight as to what the species is like to keep in captivity. Ultimatly, I encourage everyone to think and decide for oneself as to whether an animal is truly a suitable species to maintain, and to forgoe the biased opinions and predetermined conclusions of some authors who apparently believe some species should not be maintained by hobbyists at all.
Monday, July 11 2011
 I don't normally like seeing conservation issues played for politics, but I couldn't help but wonder about the implications for our hobby of a deal struck with Republian Senator John Conryn to get new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Daniel Ashe out of nomination limbo.
From MyWestTexas.com:
"With over-regulation growing like weeds in Washington, I will continue to use every opportunity to engage the Obama administration to keep this unprecedented overreach from killing jobs and stifling growth in Texas," Cornyn said in a statement.
"The proposed listing of the sand dune lizard as an endangered species is just the latest federal regulation that threatens not only thousands of jobs in Texas but also our domestic energy resources. I am pleased that the concerns of those most impacted by this premature proposal will be heard, and that Mr. Ashe will ensure that the Fish & Wildlife Service is making this important decision with the relevant data it warrants and on a time frame that ensures proper consideration of the matter."
It remains to be seen if that concern about jobs and growth extends to legislation and regulatory listing that threaten our reptiles.
 Called the Tortoise Mafia because of the destruction they leave in their path, Madagascar's tortoise smugglers are becoming more violent as they pull animals from the wild.
"Everybody is eating them and everybody is trafficking them and as soon as people are brought to trial, there are mafia organisations who help to get them out," says the head of Madagascar's Alliance of Conservation Groups, Ndranto Razakamanarina.
Another conservationist, Tsilavo Rafeliarisoa, says two poachers were caught last year in southern Madagascar with 50 tortoises.
This was a small breakthrough in efforts to protect the island's endangered tortoises, which include the Ploughshare, Spider, Radiated and Flat-tailed species.
Often, poachers roam villages in groups of up to 100, picking up thousands of tortoises over several weeks.
They are heavily armed, fending off attempts to stop them.
"When a gang of poachers with guns and machetes come and take tortoises, the villagers are defenceless," Mr Rafeliarisoa says.
He says with food prices rising, more people are eating tortoise meat.
[....]
Madagascar is known for its rich biodiversity but this has attracted smugglers interested in everything from its precious rosewood to minerals and tortoises - and the famous lemurs.
An alliance of 27 national conservation groups recently accused the government of being complicit in the illegal trade, as it had not cracked down on the "looting and plunder" of natural resources.
A WWF report on Madagascar's biodiversity earlier this month said more than 600 new species had been discovered in the "Treasure Island" over the last 10 years, but many were already endangered.
With only a few hundred of the world's most endangered Ploughshare Tortoises left, hundreds of species are crawling towards extinction behind them.
To read the full article, click here.
 The Leatherback Sea Turtle gained protection recently off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California offering them a better chance at survival in nesting habitat.
The endangered leatherback sea turtle enjoyed a huge conservation victory this week. The hulking, jellyfish-eating reptile will be protected in ocean waters off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington due to a settlement filed by the National Marine Fisheries Service and conservation groups. The current settlement proposes protecting 70,600 square miles of critical habitat, but the government has until November 15, 2011 to make a final rule.
The settlement marks a major turning point in a many-year effort by conservation groups to protect the embattled turtle, which travels some 6,000 miles from the western Pacific to the cool waters along the Western United States each summer and fall to feed on scores of jellyfish. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, “as few as 2,300 adult female western Pacific leatherbacks remain.”
To read the full article, click here.
Sunday, July 10 2011
By Varanid
Sun, July 10 2011 at 17:10
I have 1.1 checkered garter snakes, soon to be 1.2. They're an interesting, active species that remains small and does very well in captivity. They seemed to be the perfect fit for a naturalistic viv. Naturalistic tanks have been an interest of mine since I was a kid. They allow you to see a great range of behaviors, and can look simply stunning. I have some experience with them but primarily desert or near desert vivariums, not a temperate vivarium, so this is somewhat experimental. I've been kindly advised by several people that are more experienced with this than I am and I wish to say thanks ya'll!
Naturalistic tanks are certainly not easy to create. They take more time and more money than regular cages. They have to be larger than a usual tank, and a lot of work goes into putting them together. Most often they'll need special lighting even when your animal doesn't. So why do it?
Naturalistic tanks will help you observe behaviors you'd never seen in a standard cage. That same extra size and effort equates into a beautiful living work of art. It allows your animal to explore, to move, to have a more fulfilled life. It can act as a centerpiece for a living room or as a lesson for a class room in a way a normal tank could never do. This doesn't happen easily; you have to think, research and plan. What plants are compatible with your animals needs? Can you find them in your area? What sort of invertebrates are safe to have in with your animal (more on inverts later). How big do these get? Which of these plants play well together? Which ones will provide ground cover? Which ones are climbers? Are they sturdy enough to handle a snake crawling over/under them day in and out? Are they annuals or perennials? What sort of light do they need? Water? Soil type? You get to have fun researching all that. But it's worth it a month and a half later when you're looking at your nascent mini biodome--and more than worth it 6 months to a year later when the plants have grown, the animals are thriving and you're deriving more pleasure from that tank than you thought possible.
You know that thrill you get when you see a wild snake glide through the grass or emerge from it's hiding spot under a rock? You'll get nearly the same thrill observing it in a captive. You'll know you're providing excellent care. Your snake will be healthy, more active, and more alive seeming than it would in a tub. So take the plunge. You don't have to redo every cage in your collection (and some snakes aren't feasible for naturalistic setups--try doing it with a boa!). But choose one or two animals and do it. You won't regret it.
I'm going to post my step by step building of a naturalistic vivarium up here. I was going to try it in one post but it was far too long, even before putting photos in. So I'm going to try to do one a week. The tank is setting up, nearly done (I need to find some earthworms to add in), and the plants are getting established. You'll love the finished shots in a month or so!
 The final 30 sea turtles being treated for complications related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill were recently released back into the wild.
From the Associated Press:
"It took a little time but they actually all healed up very nicely," said aquarium veterinarian Cara Field.
A federal contractor released the turtles Friday off of Venice, Audubon Nature Institute spokeswoman Sarah Burnette said Wednesday.
Burnette said most were healthy enough for release last year, but the remaining 30 wintered at the institute. Earlier this spring, it was either too cold or seas were too choppy for the release, she said.
The worst injured and sickest was the Kemp's ridley sea turtle with one line of puncture wounds in his shell and another in the flat plastron over his abdomen, indicating that he probably escaped being eaten by a shark, Field said.
....
Field said some were anemic because of the exposure to oil. Others had low calcium, broken flippers and a couple had infected toe-bones.
For the full article, click here.
Saturday, July 9 2011
By
Sat, July 9 2011 at 18:57
LA: Snake breeder to return to Oakdale to face charges
OBERLIN — A snake breeder from Oakdale who was on the lam for seven months is expected to be returned to Allen Parish next week to face animal cruelty charges.
http://www.americanpress.com/lc/blogs/wpnewssum/?p=23387
Grand Prairie TX: Councillor Wants City To Explore Exotic Pet Controls
http://hqgrandeprairie.com/news/local/news/Local/11/07/6/Councillor-Wants-City-To-Explore-Exotic-Pet-Controls/
San Francisco CA: San Francisco considers banning the sale of all pets
The proposal started with dogs and cats, expanded to birds and hamsters, and now includes any animal that walks, flies, swims, crawls or slithers — unless you plan to eat it.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-goldfish-20110627,0,6881137.story
CA: Lizard Smuggler Gets 15 Months Behind Bars After Being Caught At LAX
A Lomita man was sentenced today to 15 months behind bars for attempting to smuggle 15 live lizards from Australia through customs at Los Angeles International Airport by strapping the reptiles to his chest.
http://www.bhcourier.com/article/Local/Local/Lizard_Smuggler_Gets_15_Months_Behind_Bars_After_Being_Caught_At_LAX/77632
OH: Dangerous Wild Animals
A work group consisting of 10 diverse stakeholder organizations has begun meeting on a monthly basis to consider how to regulate species deemed to be dangerous wild animals in Ohio. The next work group meeting is scheduled for July 22.
http://ohiodnr.com/tabid/23387/WildAnimals.aspx
FL: Trial to begin in case of python that killed toddler
Gypsy, a pet python that strangled a 2-year-old girl in her crib, won't appear in court in Sumter County this week when her owner and her owner's boyfriend stand trial for manslaughter and child neglect.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-snake-trial-begins-20110710,0,1261315.story
Nova Scotia Canada: Halifax family loses turtle in court
A Halifax family who went to court over a turtle they found in a ditch has lost their battle to keep the reptile as a pet.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/06/30/ns-florida-red-bellied-cooter-court.html
I hear people say, flippantly and often: "You can't choose your family."
On one hand, this is true. You can not choose to whom you are related by genetics. However...if you go back far enough, how many of us carry the same genetics without knowing it? And, what are genetics...really? A code for biological construction. Do they serve to construct our Soul...our Spirit? No, I don't believe that. They serve to provide the housing our Spirit inhabits while we walk....for a short time....on Earth. What is the purpose in Life? If you are a Scientist, you will have a vastly different view of this question than someone who is religious. A person who is religious will have a different view of this than someone who is spiritual. And all of these people will have a different view opposing someone who is an Atheist. Who is right? My answer to that is: "Does it matter?"
What DOES matter? To me, what matters is that we find who we are while we are here. This may seem a simple answer, but you know me (or you're learning to know me!). Nothing is ever simple with me! Part of finding who WE are, is reaching out and touching other lives. I really like the concept of people being in our lives "For a reason. For a season. For a lifetime." Chaos Theory provides a bounty of ideas around the main concept that there is no such thing as coincidence. That's the bottom line. Choosing to believe this concept requires you to stretch your thought processes and view your life in a constructive and analytical manner. Choosing to believe this also provides you with the unique opportunity to view the people in your life in the facets and concept of " A reason... A season... A lifetime."
Being in Herpetology all of my life has been an amazing experience. I have been afforded many, many opportunities that most people will never have. I have studied, played with and interacted with animals ranging from commonplace to highly exotic. I have met people who have changed my life. Both the animals and the people have helped me to stretch my knowledge in Herpetology, Biology, and then into areas more subtle...Sociology, Anthropology, Theology, and more. There is never a boring moment when you combine animals and people. There are quiet moments, exciting moments, moments of epiphany! There are moments of hilarity and moments you could gleefully strangle someone. But never boring. And through all of this...you find family.
Being a woman in a field that has historically been managed by men has been a lifelong balancing act for me. I do not "look" like the stereotypical person who keeps snakes, lizards and other "strange" animals. This statement is becoming, thankfully outdated. When I was first starting out doing lectures and seminars for law enforcement surrounding exotic animals, the one comment I never failed to receive was: "What is someone who looks like you doing playing with these kinds of animals?" That question, I learned, was multi-fold. I was a woman who looked like she should be doing something more mainstream. And - GASP - a BLONDE woman at that! Men were quick to close their minds to me and women actually became somewhat angry with me. Good thing I was young and liked a challenge! Over the years, I was able to learn how to present myself in a way that drew people to view my lectures with a wary fascination.
I spent hours upon hours researching, doing labs and actually providing husbandry for the animals I lectured on. I contacted the top people in the field to engage them in conversation and thereby soak up their knowledge and advice. I had to work twice as hard to prove myself and that was a good thing. Back when I was starting in the field, the top people knew each other on a personal basis because the field was smaller. And if you didn't know them personally, you knew OF them, at the very least. Herpetology was not the "HOT" hobby it now is (get it... hot?!). I watched these contemporary peers grow in their respective fields and contribute knowledge and new findings that will immortalize their names in our history. I watched these people contribute to saving lives. Some by studying the molecular biology of venoms like Bryan G. Fry. Bryan has changed the way we all view venom. Some, like Paul Rowley, by collecting venoms to be used in research and medicine. Some, like Wolfgang Wuster, by studying, researching and then teaching their findings. Dick Bartlett has provided an amazing wealth of information and photography, popularizing reptiles for a broad audience. John Binns has labored tirelessly to saving species of Iguana that our children can see in the flesh because he literally helped ensure those species' survival. Al Hyde has provided articulate and unique information on highly exotic species that even scientists have failed to observe. Robert Sprackland has provided ubiquetous knowledge that is presented in an entertaining way. It's always easier to soak up knowledge when you are being entertained. Terry Phillip provides entertainment and education in the form of a zoological experience on a level that is more intimate than what you find in sprawling zoos. Sean Bush has saved lives and provided comfort and second chances to people who are very lucky to have him share his knowledge as an MD. There are many, MANY more people out there who have provided an immense wealth of information from their own experiences. I will respect their privacy here by not naming them, but I bet you have at least heard their names.
Then there are the women who have been in the field, right beside the men. The women have always been there... but you might not be able to name them as easily. Not from years past. Luckily, their hard work is now showing because I see young women who are growing, stretching and improving their standing in Herpetology. Women who are outspoken and demand their voices be heard. Cindy Steinle and Desiree Wong are two of my personal idols. These two women have helped change the hobby enough that you now accept women in herpetology without question. They are intelligent, versed women in the field. They know the animals and they know the people. They have worked hard and are respected because they earned it. There are, of course, many more women who have and continue to contribute. Alice Grandison made her name known through Herpetology at the British Museum of Natural History. Doris Cochran made her name known at the Smithsonian Institute as the Curator of Herpetology. Grace Whitney and Martha Campbell are two more amazing woman who pursued their dreams and saw them grow into reality.
What most of these people and many others have learned over the years, is that they have become more than acquintances. They have become family. This is a family that grows and expands across years and encompasses the entire globe. This family works hard and plays hard. I have watched these people share knowledge and expand the field...but I have also watched them provide comfort, laughter, support and a life force to each other. These are some of the most loyal and caring people on the planet and I can say that because I am proud to call them MY family.
Over the coming months, I will share stories with you surrounding The Family. If you want to learn about the people, the hobby and herpetology in general, you will enjoy the short glimpses into my life. I share with only love, honor and respect. You will not find juicy gossip in my stories so please just skip past them if that's your objective. I will ask permission from anyone I write about well ahead of time so don't think you are going to be thrown into a public arena without warning!
Yes, I live in interesting times... and I am very thankful that I share this brief walk with the people I do. Take a walk with me and meet the people who change the world. You never know; YOUR name could be here next! I think Raymond Ditmars would be proud of us.
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Continue reading "Insights into "The First Family of Herpetology""
Wednesday, July 6 2011
 The Cantor's Softshell Turtle has not been spotted in the wild since 2003, but an American based conservation group is working to change that.
From the Associated Press:
U.S.-based Conservation International said it opened the Mekong Turtle Conservation Center on Wednesday in Kratie province, 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Phnom Penh.
A 40-pound (18-kilogram) female turtle and six babies were released into the conservation pond at a Buddhist pagoda on the Mekong River at the center's launch. The ceremony was attended by six Buddhist monks — who blessed the female turtle by painting scared markings on her body — and more than 100 villagers.
"Our goal is to conserve Cantor's turtle populations in their natural habitat, the Mekong River, through the Mekong Turtle Conservation Center and the community-led nest protection scheme," Conservation International said in a statement.
To read the full article, click here.
Tuesday, July 5 2011
 Days before researcher Luke Yeoman was to open his King Cobra Sanctuary, he lost his life working with the very animals he loved the most.
A protege of Rom Whitaker, Luke was highly respected in the venomous community for his work with King Cobras and his study of their behavior. In a recent article celebrating the opening of his sanctuary, he compared keeping King Cobras to some people keeping fast cars:
"People do say that I am mad but I say it's better than people saying you're bad. I think everything I am doing is good," he said.
Luke loved the species he chose to dedicate his life conserving. Describing his work with them in another article, he said:
My life is about the conservation of the king cobra. Our breeding colony here is a safety net in case the king cobra becomes extinct.
[....]
Writing on his sanctuary's website previously, Mr Yeomans said: 'The King Cobra Sanctuary was born from my lifelong love for this amazing snake species and my concerns that it could eventually disappear from the wild.
'Until mankind changes the way he treats the natural world, a living 'Ark' is required for the survival of many animal species.
It is thought he died of a heart attack caused by a cobra bite.
Saturday, July 2 2011
 Every spring for as long as I can remember, my phone rings off the hook with turtle removal requests. My rescue isn't permitted for native wildlife, but people see reptiles and call.
From The Morning Sun:
Typically, the turtles — in Crawford County, most are the common snapping turtle, red-eared slider, map turtle and box turtle — winter in the mud near the bottom of a pond, according to Fort Hays State University's Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas. Their low oxygen requirement allows their skin to absorb enough oxygen through the water. But their habitat may have changed, so it's off to greener pastures, and mates.
It's also egg-laying season, and the turtles are looking for safe habitats in which to construct their nests. With the exception of snapping turtles, they also could be on the prowl for the juicy droppings of a mulberry tree, Glick said.
"They love those," he said
But roads are a problem, and while a large snapping turtle could throw off a vehicle's alignment, the consequences are, of course, much more dire for the hapless turtles.
Glick said it's OK to move turtles off the road as long as it's safe to stop, but he recommends determining their direction of travel first.
"They may just turn around and go back to the other side," he said.
"It's also possible to move snapping turtles. Glick doesn't recommend moving them, but said that if someone were so inclined as to try, he or she should pick the turtle up by its tale, leaving its underside facing toward the person's body and at a safe distance.
To read the ful article, click here. And remember to watch for turtles crossing the road. They are just trying to get to the other side.
Friday, July 1 2011
A possible treatment for cancer has been found in the proteins in the skin of the Waxy Monkey Frog.
From Science Daily:
The award-winning research, led by Professor Chris Shaw at Queen's School of Pharmacy, has identified two proteins, or 'peptides', which can be used in a controlled and targeted way to regulate 'angiogenesis' -- the process by which blood vessels grow in the body. The discovery holds the potential to develop new treatments for more than seventy major diseases and conditions that affect more than one billion people worldwide.
The proteins are found in secretions on the skins of the Waxy Monkey Frog and the Giant Firebellied Toad. Scientists capture the frogs and gently extract the secretions, before releasing them back in to the wild. The frogs are not harmed in any way during this process.
Professor Shaw said: "The proteins that we have discovered have the ability to either stimulate or inhibit the growth of blood vessels. By 'switching off' angiogenesis and inhibiting blood vessel growth, a protein from the Waxy Monkey Frog has the potential to kill cancer tumours. Most cancer tumours can only grow to a certain size before they need blood vessels to grow into the tumour to supply it with vital oxygen and nutrients. Stopping the blood vessels from growing will make the tumour less likely to spread and may eventually kill it. This has the potential to transform cancer from a terminal illness into a chronic condition.
[....]
"It would be a great shame to have something in nature that is potentially the wonder drug to treat cancer and not aim to do everything in our power to make it work."
To read the full article, click here.
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