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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.
Wednesday, November 11 2015Record Sea Turtle Nests in Florida Photo: (Photo: Andrea Stetson/Special to The News-Press) Two locations in Florida are reporting record sea turtle nests this year, despite the actual numbers of hatchlings being slightly lower than last year. Collier County and Sanibel Island in Lee County smashed the turtle nesting record for the second year in a row, with 1,510 nests laid on Collier beaches this season and 522 nests laid on Sanibel. "We had a really good year" "At the end of July we had storms that lasted over a period of 3-4 days with extremely high tides so we did have some inundations and some washouts," "Last year we didn't have any storm issues at all." - Maura Kraus. The 2015 numbers on Sanibel and Captiva include 26 green turtle nests, which is a record for green turtles as most of the turtles that lay eggs on the local beaches are loggerhead turtles. To read the full article, visit The News Press. Childrens Python Maternal Incubation Every year I try to do something in my snake rooms that I have never done before. One thing I tried this year that actually worked out was having one of my Children’s Python maternally incubate her clutch of eggs. I found her on her clutch on 27 April 2015, but I think she laid her clutch 2 days before while I was out gathering native snake data. I kept her in a 28 quart box inside a rack system with 11 inch heat tape mounted on the back wall of the rack and maintained by a Ranco thermometer. She placed her clutch right up against the tape in the back of the box, and stayed coiled on her clutch, not accepting any meals during the entire process. The clutch began to hatch on 22 June 2015. I found this interesting because I have had clutches hatch much more quickly when incubating with artificial incubation. Sure enough, the babies from this clutch proved to be strong feeders and continue to thrive. I also got a pretty even split of males and females in this clutch. It was fun, I had a good time doing it, and got some nice healthy babies when the process was completed. Herp Photo of the Day: Angolan Python
Such a lovely contrast against the blue, this Angolan Python takes the spotlight in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user EdCB ! 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! Tuesday, November 10 2015Herp Photo of the Day: Caiman
He may look relaxed here, but the Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user JeffP is forever alert and ready to pounce! 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! The Trans-Danubian Sand Viper A portrait of the Trans-Danubian Sand Viper Like the herpetofauna of the USA, the nomenclature of the Old World herpetofauna is in great disarray. However, it seems that at the moment, at least, the beautiful Trans-Danubian sand viper (all of the several subspecies are often referred to as “nose-horned vipers” by American herpetoculturists) continues to be known as Vipera ammodytes montandoni. The Trans-Danubian sand viper is adult at from 24 to 34 inches in total length and is restricted in distribution to Bulgaria and southern Romania. Often differentiated by the shape of the rostral projection which is deeper than broad this sturdy viper is sexually dichromatic. Females are usually of some shade of fawn with a deep brown dorsal pattern while the ground color of the males is from a rather light gray to a dark olive gray and the dorsal markings are black(ish). And the keyt word here is “usually,” for some individuals in populations may be quite brightly colored. This snake can vary as greatly in disposition as in coloration with some being placid and reluctant to strike while others will strike with very little provocation. The venom is complex and the toxicity has been found to vary populationally. This snake should be considered dangerous and if handling is necessary this should be accomplished with extreme care and a clear plastic restraining tube. Continue reading "The Trans-Danubian Sand Viper" Monday, November 9 2015Climate Change Impacting Sea Turtes Photo : Florida Atlantic University Loggerhead sea turtles have been around for 60 million years and have survived through many changing environments, however, a new study has revealed the turtles survival is being threatened by climate change. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) discovered that warming temperatures during incubation yield more females, while more males develop under cooler conditions. "If climatic changes continue to force the sex ratio bias of loggerheads to even greater extremes, we are going to lose the diversity of sea turtles as well as their overall ability to reproduce effectively. Sex ratios are already strongly female biased,""That's why it's critical to understand how environmental factors, specifically temperature and rainfall, influence hatchling sex ratios." - Dr. Jeanette Wyneken Florida Atlantic University To read the full article, visit natureworldnews.com. Herp Photo of the Day: Dart Frog
Hopefully the gorgeous blues of this Dendrobates auratus uploaded by kingsnake.com user amazonreptile will brighten your Monday. 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, November 6 2015Second Chance For Golden Frog While the IUCN lists The Panamanian golden frog Atelopus zeteki as critically endangered, it may in fact have been extinct in the wild since 2007, but thanks to efforts like the captive breeding project at the Maryland Zoo, they may have a better chance. For 15 years the program has been running with the tiny amphibians being bred and reared in the zoo, with hopes for eventual release into the wild. “We’re the first institution to breed the frogs and we’ve been instrumental with a lot of the husbandry and medical side of things,” said Kevin Barrett. This year the Zoo is being acknowledged for it's efforts with a conservation award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. To read the full article and watch the video, visit CBS Baltimore. Downturn in metal prices boon for snake hobbyists  The effects of a global economic slowdown are finally trickling down to all of us lowly snake hunters. The prices paid for commodities are in steep decline, and this includes all metals, including the scrap tin loved so much by reptile collectors. I have been getting anecdotal reports about local metal scrappers being offered less than the cost of a tank of gas for entire truckloads of metals that weigh several tons. Sadly, much of the damage has already been done as tens of thousands of metal pieces have already been stolen and scrapped. This snake hunter is taking great joy in hearing about how upset these metal thieves become when they find out they are not getting paid enough money after spending an entire day destroying prime snake collecting habitat and stealing from people like myself. Perhaps we will all have a chance to rebuild our old sites and it is my hope that the market in base metals does not recover for decades to come! If things go our way we will be finding downed barns with metal to lay out for years to come! Herp Photo of the Day: Rattlesnake Friday!
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! Here's lookin' at you kid! Check out this gorgeous albino Southern Pacific Rattlesnake in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user lichanura . 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, November 5 2015Prehistoric Amphibians Able to Regenerate Limbs Photo: AUREAPTERUS/ISTOCKPHOTO A new study shows that the prehistoric amphibians were not all that different from their modern day relatives. Limb regeneration was found in animals estimated to be 290 million years old. The findings suggest that some salamander ancestors had the ability to regenerate body parts nearly 80 million years before the first salamander existed. To read the full article, visit Science News. Herp Photo of the Day: Wood Frog
This Wood Frog in our herp photo of the day brings back memories of summertime herping. Uploaded by kingsnake.com user casichelydia . 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! Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake This is a normally colored and patterned dusky pygmy rattler. Dusky pygmy rattlers, Sistrurus miliarius barbouri, are among the most abundant snakes, including both nonvenomous and venomous—in Florida. I can remember finding these in such numbers beneath the Australian pines that lined the old Tamiami Canal west of Dade County that it was far easier to ignore them than to count them. They were nearly as plentiful in Broward, Lee, Collier, Charlotte, and Brevard counties. And they remain one of the snakes that we can be almost assured of seeing when weather conditions are reasonable in Union, Baker, and Liberty counties. Simply stated, although they can be absent from some locales dusky pygmy rattlesnakes are almost everywhere in Florida. In keeping with the common name dusky pygs are usually just that, dusky in color and “dusty” in appearance. The dusty appearance is created by a varying overlay of melanin that may obscure the precise outlines of the dark dorsal and lateral spots. This nervous (even twitchy) little rattlesnake usually has a prominent but broken orange vertebral stripe between the dark blotches and often brightest anteriorly. Some examples, these often termed “anerythristic” by hobbyists, may lack the orange. Rarely—very rarely—the pattern of the dusky pyg may be lineate rather than blotched. On these examples the lateral blotches are usually entirely lacking and the orange vertebral stripe may be unbroken, bisecting both the gray ground color and the dark dorsal blotches. And now to the photos of this interesting little crotaline, click below… Continue reading "Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake" Wednesday, November 4 2015Meet Cuba's Newest Amphibian Photo: Cuba HeadlinesFirst found in 2014, scientists have now officially named the newly discovered amphibian Eleutherodactylus beguei. "This vertebrate has close to brown coloration. Its natural habitat is the soil moist, hence its survival in this area of eastern Cuba where rainfall is abundant throughout the year" - Gerardo Begue-Quiala To read the full article, visit Cuba Headlines. Herp Photo of the Day: Leachianus
This Nuu Ana Leachianus seems so very curious in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user MikeRusso . 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! Tuesday, November 3 2015Snake ambassador helps thousands overcome their fear Photo by Dan England @greeleytribune.com He doesn't even have a name, but over the years a Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in a Greeley Colorado nature center has helped thousands of kids and adults overcome their apprehension and fear of snakes. The snake was given a permanent home at the center four years ago after repeatedly becoming ensnared in live traps the nature center puts out to monitor wildlife along it's trails. Since then he has become a reptilian ambassador, seemingly as curious about these humans as they are of it. And to staff it seems the snake enjoys the interaction with both the staff and the public. “If you interact with it,” “you realize you don’t have to kill it.” - Ray Tschillard - Poudre Learning Center The snake did escape once, a couple of years ago, when a volunteer left his cage open after feeding him and was gone most of the winter, until he poked his head out from under a bookshelf. He had many chances to leave and simply didn’t take them. Read the whole article at the Greeley Tribune. Herp Photo of the Day: Carpet Python
How gorgeous is this Coastal Carpet Python in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user AJ01 ? 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! Meet the Seldom Seen Brazos Water Snake It took a few tries but Lady Luck was finally with us: Brazos water snake. It has been many years now since Kenny and I decided to look for, and actually did find, the two Texas water snakes that were then considered subspecies of the Harter’s water snake. These, then, were the Brazos water snake, N. harteri harteri, and the Concho water snake, N. harteri paucimaculata. Although of questionable validity studies have since elevated the 2 one time subspecies to full species. At the time we sought these snakes we both lived in Florida so the initial distance between home and Palo Pinto County, TX was, shall we say, significant. Kenny is great at ferreting out valid locales for the taxa that we hope to photograph, but on the first attempt the water snakes did not cooperate. We searched upstream and downstream from a number of the riffles where they had formerly been seen. No water snakes—not even the rather common diamond-backed water snakes. We did find dozens of taxa to photograph on that trip but the target species was not among them. But some months later, on the second trip, Kenny’s diligence paid off. On that occasion one of the rock-edged riffles disclosed its serpentine treasure and photos of the Brazos water snake were added to our library. Next try would be for the Concho water snake. More photos under the jump. Continue reading "Meet the Seldom Seen Brazos Water Snake" Monday, November 2 2015Snakes attack great works of art! Hide your Picasso! "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like." Bill Flowers, an Australian artist based in Tasmania, knows what we like too. Thankfully he has taken it upon himself to edit some of the worlds greatest masterpieces and add the snakes that really should have been a part of the original work. "I love snakes, and a few other humans on this planet also love snakes. Sadly there are so many humans that do not. I painted this series to make people smile. To see more of Bill's amazing work, check out his post on BoredPanda Herp Photo of the Day: Sulawesi Forest Turtle
This Sulawesi Forest Turtle looks as thrilled as we all are with a Monday morning in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user andystorts reminds us of the variety in the most basic of "morphs", the normal! 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, October 30 2015Herp Photo of the Day: Rattlesnake Friday!
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! We caught a tiger by it's tail with this (Crotalus tigris) in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user kevinjudd ! 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, October 29 2015Venomous snakes seized after ad for snake shows In the end it was probably the sign. There is a right way to run a reptile education program, and then there are other ways. The first thing any reptile educator needs to do is check to make sure they are not violating either state and local laws, unless they want to get a rather unpleasant education of their own. Erstwhile reptile educator Jeremy Phillips in Louisville, KY learned this lesson the hard way, when on Tuesday, Louisville Metro Animal Services came and took his four venomous snakes away. Animal Services says that while Kentucky law allows those snakes, a Metro Louisville ordinance does not and the local ordinance supersedes the state law. Phillips says someone snaked him out and reported it to authorities, but he now wants a change in the Metro Louisville ordinance. Phillips will face a judge for his arraignment next month and his case is the first of its kind in Louisville. He had been putting on free snake shows, but recently was asking for five dollars to cover costs of snake food and electricity to keep them warm. No one has paid for the shows. Phillips said he just put up a sign advertising his $5 snake shows, which he thinks may have gotten him in trouble. Read more and watch the video at WDRB.com Herp Photo of the Day: Ratsnake
A gorgeous field shot of a very dark Black Rat Snake brings memories of summer back in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user cochran ! 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! Great Basin Spadefoot Vertically elliptical during the daylight hours, the pupils of the Great Basin spadefoot are almost round on dark nights. It has always amazed me how some relatively common—or even abundant—species can evade all efforts to find them. Or at least they evade almost all efforts. I encountered such difficulty when I was trying to photo the Great Basin spadefoot, Spea intermontana. Of course the fact that I lived in Florida, a couple of thousand miles east of the range of this taxon added significantly to the difficulty I had in encountering it. Without going into a lot of the painful details, I’ll just say that on my first 3 attempts (about 13,000 miles of travel), I failed. Then on another trip, after Gary and I returned to the mainland from the Channel Islands (CA), I decided I REALLY wanted to succeed in finding this anuran. Gary knew a couple of locals only a couple of hundred miles away, so we got in the car, drove to the areas—and failed--again! Then Gary mentioned that he knew of a place in Washington, very near the Canadian border, where these critters would be calling—guaranteed. Lets see now. We were south of Los Angeles and the toads were east of Seattle—that was only about 1500 miles. So off we went. The good part for Gary was that he lived in Seattle. The bad part for me was that from Seattle I would have to drive another 3,000 miles diagonally across the USA. Awwww, what the heck. It was only gasoline, time---and as Patti later reminded me, money. But as it turned out the spadefoots were out and calling in a vast sandy area that was still holding many pools of rainwater. And I finally—after 14,500 miles of trying—actually photographed them. But now I can’t remember why it was so very important to me(LOL). Continue reading "Great Basin Spadefoot" Wednesday, October 28 2015Iguana Training for Dummies How smart are reptiles? Can they be trained like other animals? You might be surprised at just how smart some of our reptilian friends are! The San Diego Zoo recently released a video of one of their Anegada Iguanas(Cyclura pinguis) named Gus being trained using the target method. The Anegada Iguana is a endangered iguana species that was once distributed over the entire Puerto Rico Bank but its natural range is now restricted to the island of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. Gus is part of the breeding program at the San Diego Zoo for this critically endangered species. To watch the video, visit Reuters. Herp Photo of the Day: Alligator Lizard
How cute is this baby Abronia graminia in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user uggleedog ! 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! Tuesday, October 27 2015Herp Photo of the Day: Bullsnake
This pile of noodles in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user hermanbronsgeest reminds us of the variety in the most basic of "morphs", the normal! 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! The South American Bird Snakes This Peruvian example, an adult Phrynonax polylepis, has assumed a defensive posture. Phrynonax polylepis? What in the world is that? Actually it is a snake that you might know well. Think the Peruvian and Brazilian lineage of Pseustes poecilonotus, the common bird snake, aka the common puffing snake. As mentioned in an earlier blog this month, there has been a “shake up”—a reclassification of the genus once called Pseustes. The big yellow-bellied bird snake, once Pseustes sulphureus, is now Spilotes sulphureus. With this change the remaining 2 (now elevated to 3) taxa are in the genus Phrynonax. P. poecilonotus, once ranging from Central America to South America, has now been restricted to Central America. P. shropshirei, a yellow flecked black species, ranges from Panama to Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela and the species P. polylepis has been resurrected for the southernmost of the 2 South American forms. Based on current knowledge it is likely that at least 2 additional species will be erected. Continue reading "The South American Bird Snakes" Monday, October 26 2015Country Star Kevin Fowler Declares War on Rattlesnakes Photo: Allmusic, Facebook/Kevin Fowler Country Musician Kevin Fowler recently took to facebook to criticize people he feels are "rattlesnake sympathizers". “All of you people who cry about folks killing rattlesnakes have probably never seen what it looks like when you get bit by one,” wrote Fowler. “All of you rattlesnake sympathizers will change your tune when your kid gets bit playing in your backyard.” The article does point out the obvious, that rattlesnakes prefer to be left alone and are often hiding for their safety thankfully. To read the full article, visit Wide Open Country. Snake venom helps hydrogels stop bleeding in 6 seconds Brazilian Lancehead - Gallery Photo by Neverscared The hydrogel incorporates batroxobin, a venom produced by two species of South American pit viper. It can be injected as a liquid and quickly turns into a gel that conforms to the site of a wound, keeping it closed, and promotes clotting within seconds. The hydrogel may be most useful for surgeries, particularly for patients who take anti-coagulant drugs to thin their blood. “It’s interesting that you can take something so deadly and turn it into something that has the potential to save lives,” Jeffrey Hartgerink Rice University Batroxobin, also known as reptilase, is a snake venom produced by the Fer De Lance Bothrops atrox and Brazilian Lancehead Bothrops moojeni, venomous species of pit viper found in South America. Batroxobin was recognized for its properties as a coagulant in 1936 and has been used in various therapies as a way to remove excess fibrin proteins from the blood to treat thrombosis and as a topical hemostat. It has also been used as a diagnostic tool to determine blood-clotting time in the presence of heparin, an anti-coagulant drug. See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/10/26/snake-venom-helps-hydrogels-stop-the-bleeding/ |
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