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Reptile & Amphibian
News Blog Keep up with news and features of interest to the reptile and amphibian community on the kingsnake.com blog. We cover breaking stories from the mainstream and scientific media, user-submitted photos and videos, and feature articles and photos by Jeff Barringer, Richard Bartlett, and other herpetologists and herpetoculturists.
Monday, September 14 2015Smooth Operator: The Indian Smooth Snake The Indian Smooth Snake Coronella brachyura is a rare and endemic snake species found in India. I am not sure if there are any species of smooth snakes around the world, but you can find them in India. I was very eager to touch this snake and wanted to feel it in my hands, not because it is rare or looks beautiful but because I wanted to know why it is known as the Smooth Snake. There are many other Indian snakes with smooth scales but the day I handled it I realized that this snake is something different. The Indian smooth snake can be identified by its elongated head, greyish-brown dorsal body sometimes bearing darker stripes on side dorsal and shorter tail. The body is slender with shiny smooth scales of same size with brown color. The average length of this snake is 50cm and maximum length is 77cm and it feeds geckos, skinks and small rodents. This snake is very simple and doesn’t have a beautiful color pattern, but once you touch this snake or handle it you will realize where the beauty of this snake lies. Photo by: Saleel Gharpure Herp Photo of the Day: Skink
The protective instinct for a nest is visible here in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user CDB_reptiles ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
 Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! Friday, September 11 2015Herp Photo of the Day: Rattlesnake Friday!
Happy Rattlesnake Friday from this beautiful neotropical Guarico Rattlesnake in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user robnimmo ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
 Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! Thursday, September 10 2015Herp Photo of the Day: Gray Treefrog
Well, it will be a Gray Treefrog when it grows up! A very cool view of a metamorph Hyla versicolor gets its shot in the spotlight in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user anuraanman ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
 Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! Lyre Snakes - An Exercise in Frustration So, what else is new? After 50 years of unsuccessfully looking for this little opisthoglyph in Texas' Big Bend region if I had found one I would probably have keeled over from shock. Other searchers though -- mostly the participants of the "Sanderson Snake Days" event, were successful in finding a Chihuahuan lyre snake, Trimorphodon vilkinsonii, and at least one person found 2! In other words these little snakes were found on all sides of Jake and me, but we were never in quite the right position at the right time. For example: Jake and I had slowly and repeatedly driven an area at which dozens of lyres had been found over the years. Then tiring of that routine we added an extra few miles to one cruise. When we returned, about 20 minutes later, we learned that not one but two of the snakes had been found in the 20 minutes we were gone. A day or two later, on that same trip we were again cruising and hoping. A friend from California was also cruising the road, he in search of gray-banded kingsnakes. He found no kings but watched a Chihuahuan lyre snake cross the road and disappear into the rocky abyss on the south side. We were about 10 minutes behind him and we found neither king nor lyre. You get the idea. We were totally ineffectual. Well, at least Sky (who had a research permit for the taxon) let me photograph her find, and next year (2016), all things being equal, I'll give it another try. What the heck--even an old herper needs a goal. More photos under the jump. > Continue reading "Lyre Snakes - An Exercise in Frustration" Wednesday, September 9 2015Anti-venin costs highlight broken U.S. pharmaceutical pricing structure In the United States getting bit by a rattlesnake is a very expensive business. With anti-venin prices at the hospital running $2300.00 a vial, and with severe envenomations often requiring 10 or more vials, its not uncommon for a course of treatment to run close to, or more than $100,000.00. Meanwhile, in Mexico, that same treatment, using the exact same anti-venins, usually costs a tenth, or less, and achieves the same results. Why the cost disparity? That's exactly the question researcher Dr. Leslie Boyer at the University of Arizona wanted to find out. The founding director of the VIPER Institute, a research group studying ways to improve the medical treatment of venom injuries, used the numbers to build a pricing model for a typical arachnid anti-venin sold in the U.S. and the disparity is breathtaking. According to the model, a single vial of anti-venin that would cost over $14,000 in the United States would cost one or two hundred dollars in Mexico. "The U.S. needs to re-think how we manage these things, because we have reached the point where the developing world is getting more timely access to better drugs (at least in this field) than we are." - Dr. Leslie Boyer According to Boyer, in Mexico authorities determined some time ago that treating venomous snake and spider bites was a public health issue, but to try to implement something similar here would require an act of Congress. To read more check out the article at the Washington Post. Gallery photo by JeffB. Herp Photo of the Day: Peach Throat Monitor
ADORABLE! There is no other way to describe the squee of cuteness that this hatchling Peach Throat Monitor has in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user MikesMonitors ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
 Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! A Green Pit-viper with Large Scales: The Large Scaled pit viper  "Sachin! Checkout this bamboo pit viper, doesn’t look somewhat different?" After observing the pit viper carefully "nooooo brother, it’s a Large-scaled pit viper". One of the best mornings of my life, just imagine being a hardcore snake lover and you wake up with a beautiful and new snake in front of you in your friends hand; do I really need to describe that feeling? In July, I had visited a place known as Kodaikanal in the southern part of India and finding the Large-scaled pit viper Trimeresurus macrolepis was the best memory given to me by this place. Large scaled pit vipers look somewhat similar to bamboo pit vipers and few other green tree pit vipers but the scales of these pit vipers are much larger than others and this is the reason these snakes are named as large scaled pit vipers. There hasn’t been much research done on this beautiful reptile and that is the reason there is less information available about this snake including distribution and habitat.  I had visited this place with my very close herp friend Prithvi Shetty, with whom i have been working together since 3-4 years and he is always a perfect companion on herp outings. It was because of his hard work and dedicated herping that I was able to see this beauty. It was early morning and Prithvi came to me and tried to wake me up saying that we had to go herping, but I would say that I missed a chance of encountering this serpentine beauty in the wild because I didn’t wake up as I wanted to sleep and told him to go alone. After 2 hours he returned with this beautiful gift, so happy I was. And that day I learnt “the one who sleeps a lot, later on weeps a lot”.Photo by: Prithvi Shetty Tuesday, September 8 2015Galapagos Iguana smuggler busted A Mexican national is being held in prison in Guayaquil Ecuador after trying to smuggle out specimens of both species of endangered iguana only found in the Galapagos Islands. The smuggler was trying to transport nine marine iguanas and two land iguanas, all endemic to the islands' fragile ecosystem, intending to send the reptiles to Uganda 9 Marine neonate (Amblyrhymchus cristatus), and 2 juvenile ground iguanas (Conolophus suscristatus) were found in a suitcase where they had been packed so they could not move. The iguanas are being evaluated and fed before they will be reintegrated into their habitat in the Galapagos National Park. Authorities said the man had previously committed similar crimes in New Zealand, and are investigating his possible involvement in a global network of traffickers in protected species. To read more, check out the original press release by the Ecuadoran Environment Ministry. Gallery photo by Ivory Tortoise Herp Photo of the Day: Ball Python
This hatching Albino Pied Ball Python in our herp photo of the day should help kick your work week off right, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Bigfoots ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
 Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! Japanese Coin Turtles Hatchling Reeve's turtles Chinemys reevesi usually have a yellow facial pattern When I was a kid there used to be 5 and 10 cent stores--real ones where you could but things for 5 or 10 cents or more. Some of the stores were small, some were huge, and all were places of wonderment to a youngster. And among the wonders offered were the little "Japanese coin turtles" in the pet departments. These little dark-colored turtles would show up only periodically, usually after the supplies of "green turtles" (red eared sliders) and "gray turtles" (Mississippi map turtles) had been exhausted. I'm not sure how long it was before , or even how, I learned that the proper name for the coin turtle was Reeve's turtle, or that its scientific name was then Chinemys reevesi (today it is known as the Chinese pond turtle or the Chinese three-keeled pond turtle and has been reclassified as Mauremys reevesi) but learn it I did. But I do know that it didn't take me long to learn that these little 49c turtles seemed even easier to keep than the American species that they seasonally replaced. I hadn't thought of a Reeve's turtle for several decades but for reasons unknown I began thinking of them a few weeks ago. It took a while to find a breeder of this species but thanks to the aquatic turtle classifieds on Kingsnake.com I succeeded and, yes, they had a few hatchlings (but sadly they were more than 49c each Now all I need is a tiny plastic turtle tank bedecked with a proportionately tiny plastic palm tree. Reliving childhood-- but just kidding about that old-timey turtle tank! More pictures under the jump! Continue reading "Japanese Coin Turtles" Monday, September 7 2015Shortage of Anti-venins risks lives From June of next year, Sanofi Pasteur's stock of anti-venin Fav-Afrique will be exhausted and no more will be produced by the company. The technology used to create the anti-venin will be used in rabies treatments, according to manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur. “Fav-Afrique is no longer being manufactured so vulnerable farmers will lose their lives or limbs.” - Abdulrazaq Habib Bayero University Treating bites from snakes like mambas, vipers and cobras just does not add up any more, Sanofi Pasteur said. But tens of thousands may die, unnecessarily, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as it demanded action over the withdrawal of Fav-Afrique. MSF says there will be no alternatives to replace the Sanofi Pasteur treatment for at least two years and that five million people are bitten by snakes each year, 100,000 die and 400,000 are disabled or disfigured. Read more at The Independant Gallery photo by Drjones Dog-Faced Water Snake: A Dog that Slithers The Dog-Faced Water Snake Cereberus rynchops is one of a number of snakes named after a mammal, like others such as cat snake, wolf snakes, rat snake etc. but totally different in appearance and habitat. This mildly- venomous reptilian dog is that it is found on paddy fields of both marine and fresh water, so you can encounter this snake in mangroves as well as in coastal areas. In India this species is found in all coasts on the mainland, and also found in both the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Coasts of Gujarat are its western most limits. These snakes can be identified by their brownish dorsal surface marked with darker bands or blotches and the scales of these snakes are very rough and keeled. The maximum length of these snakes is 100cm and it is viviparous by nature, the female giving live birth to 6-30 young ones. The dog-faced water snake usually feeds on fish and frogs but interestingly eels are one of its favorite meals. I have been lucky to find this snake a couple of times, but I am eagerly waiting to witness this snake hunting and feeding on an eel in its natural habitat. Photo: Saleel Gharpure Herp Photo of the Day: Nile Crocodile
From his toothy grin, even this Nile Crocodile knows today is a holiday in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user CDieter ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
 Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! Friday, September 4 2015Herp Photo of the Day: Rattlesnake Friday!
Kick off your weekend with this gorgeous Prairie Rattlesnake in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user akcoldbliss ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
-med.JPG) Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! Thursday, September 3 2015Herp Photo of the Day: Blue Tree Monitor
This gorgeous pair of Blue Tree Monitors can see the weekend coming in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user roadspawn ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
-med.jpg) Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! Texas Banded Geckos Galore Hatchling Texas banded gecko Coleonyx brevis But on the June 2015 trip, on each of the several days allocated for nighttime road-cruising, we saw from 2 to 10 of the little geckos, more on the damp nights than on dry ones. It seemed that the sightings were back to normal in frequency. The Texas banded gecko is actually a common little nocturnal lizard. When moving they tend to stand rather high on their legs and to wag their tail. They could conceivably be mistaken for a scorpion or a mouse when in the glow of headlights the lizards are seen darting across a desert roadway. Juveniles of both sexes and adult females tend to be the more prominently banded while the bands of adult males often have irregular edges and the overall pattern may be more reticulate. In the time span we were in Texas we saw 20 or 30 of these delightful lizards. Seeing these helped transform the trip from merely mediocre to a resounding success. For more pictures, click below. Continue reading " Texas Banded Geckos Galore" Wednesday, September 2 2015King Cobra on the loose in Orlando The green and yellow venomous snake was reported missing by its owner Wednesday from a home on North Apopka Vineland Road used as an exotic animal rescue, TV station WFTV reports, citing Florida Fish and Wildlife. The snake’s owner is licensed to own exotic animals and followed proper reporting procedures when it was discovered the reptile was missing. FWC officials are canvassing the area and ask that anyone who comes across the snake to call FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922 and urge residents not to approach the animal. To read more check out the news article at WFTV Herp Photo of the Day: Softshell Turtle
Time to have a little fun in the sun with this Florida Softshell in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Amazoa ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
 Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! Sochurek’s Saw-scaled viper- The Elder Saw-scaled Viper Today I want to bring to your notice the Sochurek’s Saw-scaled viper Echis carinatus sochureki, some would say the elder son of saw-scaled viper family. This tiny creature. which is a member of the big four, and responsible for many injuries, rightfully has a bad, feared reputation in India. This sub-species has similar features to that of other saw scaled vipers, it's primary difference is that it is a much larger size compared to the actual saw scaled viper Echis carinatus It also appears to be darker in color. The maximum length of this snake is 1.7ft and viviparous by nature. This snake is usually common in desert areas and can also be seen under rocks which is probably its main shelter. But there have been a few occasions that these snakes have been sighted on height of 20 to 25ft on trees. Even my friend Saleel Gharpure had been fortunate to have a meeting with this admiring creature on an unusual habitat. For me it is yet an unsolved mystery as to what is the requirement of these snakes to climb on trees when they can live a happy life on earth. This is what makes me so passionate towards snakes. Whenever I try to reach out to them they always surprise with something or the other which is an enjoyable addition to my encyclopedia of snakes. Photo: Saleel Gharpure Tuesday, September 1 2015Trogon and Black-tail Recollections There was that rather cloudy long ago morning in Portal, AZ when I was hoping to photo black-tailed rattlers, Crotalus molossus. I had looked and looked but had found none. Then, as I was about to give up an elegant trogon (then known as the coppery-tailed trogon) flew right over my head and alit on a nearby oak limb. I immediately decided a trogon in the viewfinder was a whole lot better than a non-existent rattlesnake. So off I went, my interest now focused on the rather uncommon bird. Luckily I had managed to get just about near enough to take the bird's pic. There. Click. Got at least one pic. Deciding to try and get just one step closer, I stepped between two boulders, and BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! Not good. Being wedged between two huge boulders was not an enviable position and when I looked down and saw the snake--a big angrily defensive black-tail, I realized how close I was to getting bitten. Have you ever heard of levitation. I levitated backwards over one of the boulders and somehow managed to avoid both a broken shoulder and what had seemed to be an inevitable envenomation. But, a few minutes later (I never did get that closer trogon photo), still shaking, I did go back and photograph the snake. No sense in wasting a perfectly good photo-op! Continue reading "Trogon and Black-tail Recollections" Herp Photo of the Day: Dart Frog
Tiny but stunning, this Oophaga ventrimaculatus shines in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user obeligz ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
 Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! |
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