Northern New England's annual amphibian migration is always perilous, but critters that cross roads to breed are facing an additional challenge this year: a delayed start after the long winter. Every spring, several species of salamanders and frogs travel to vernal pools —temporary bodies of water created by melted snow—to mate and lay eggs, and the resulting offspring need several months to develop and grow legs before the pools dry up in summer. Wildlife officials say the migration is running a week or two behind this year, cutting into that critical development time. That could affect millions of animals across Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire, says Eric Orff, a wildlife biologist with the National Wildlife Federation.

"Sandesh was well informed about the dangers of a snakebite. He very well knew sleeping causes venom to spread rapidly all over the body and hence he did not sleep," Nayak said. Sumalatha said the snake was not poisonous, but had caused a deep wound around the boy's knees. "On giving necessary treatment, we found out the boy was not bitten by poisonous snake, but it had caused deep wound around his knee.

As he responded to the treatment quickly, Sandesh was discharged from the hospital after he recovered fully, the doctor said. The boy, on his arrival to the hospital, refused to set the snake free from his bag, but after the treatment it was released into a nearby forest, the boy's father said.

Moving quickly, the top half of the snake ascends the trunk, while the bottom half of it stays coiled lower down.

Wrapping its top half around the tree, the snake then brings the rest of its body up to where its head is and begins tightly coiling itself around the trunk once more.

Once entirely wrapped around the middle section of the tree, the snake again lifts its head and ascends vertically a metre or so.

The recovery plan focuses on alleviating the threat of habitat loss and fragmentation by permanently protecting breeding ponds and their adjacent uplands through acquisition and conservation easements. Because the majority of the remaining habitat for the Santa Barbara County California tiger salamander is on privately owned lands, habitat-based conservation efforts will require the cooperative efforts of both local agencies and private partners.

"Because we’ve already destroyed so much of their natural habitat, recovering and protecting the places these unique tiger salamanders need to survive won’t be easy," said Loda. "But we can’t afford to lose this special amphibian, so I hope federal, state and local agencies as well as developers will all step up to support the hard work of recovery."

Although Santa Barbara California tiger salamanders have been protected under the Endangered Species Act for more than a decade, the Fish and Wildlife Service had not developed a required recovery plan to guide management of the species. In April 2012 the Center sued the Interior Department for its failure to develop such a plan for the endangered salamanders; the plan released today is the result of the December 2012 settlement agreement that resulted from this lawsuit.

Bitis Gabonica, commonly known as the Gabon viper, is a venomous viper species found in the rainforests and savannas of sub-Saharan Africa. It is not only the largest member of the genus bitis, but also the world’s heaviest viperid, and it has the longest fangs and the highest venom yield of any venomous snake.

Angolan scientist Paula Regina de Oliveira said the species of Bitis Gabonica are the ones with teeth that could reach five centimeters long and larger glands, which allow them to accumulate large amounts of venom.

"This horse has been beat so many times," said Eugene Bessette, commercial snake breeder and owner of Ophiological Services, a snake farm on Archer Road.

Even though Burmese pythons are not indigenous to South Florida, Bessette said he feels they are ultimately not an ecological problem.

"Ignorance is the biggest problem," Bessette said. “People form opinions before they get the facts."

Bessette lost a substantial part of his business when new regulations put in place in 2012 banned the importation and interstate transportation of Burmese pythons and three other constrictor snakes.

The aquarium was overseeing the rehabilitation of baby Loggerhead turtles found washed up along the Cape Coast predominantly in Struisbaai.

The family drove the turtle to the aquarium, where staff were on hand to meet them.

“Rosie was put into the rehabilitation tank along with the 178 other Loggerhead turtles currently in their care and by Sunday morning Two Oceans Aquarium staff confirmed that Rosie was doing well and appearing to be strong and healthy much to the delight of the Campbells,” Lambinon said.

He said of all the 179 Loggerheads found along the Cape coast to date, Rosie was the found the furthest south.

Rykaczewski, an assistant professor of engineering at Arizona State University, was inspired by the bad-ass dart frog to devise a new type of artificial anti-ice "skin" for airplane wings. His research, which was conducted with several colleagues, was included in the latest issue of Advanced Materials Interfaces, published this week.

In the same way that dart frogs hold their venom beneath their outer skin and release it when they're in trouble, Rykaczewski's skin has two layers. The bottom layer contains an antifreeze liquid, and the outer layer is made from a superhydrophobic material, which means it is crazy good at repelling water. The outer layer also has a series of pores in it through which the antifreeze can be released.

On a nighttime walk in 2009, scientist Katherine Krynak spotted a well-camouflaged, marble-size amphibian that was covered in spines. But when she brought it inside, suspecting it was a new species, Krynak found a rather smooth and slimy critter.

"I was so mad at myself! I thought I had brought back the wrong frog," said Krynak, who was surveying amphibian species in the Reserva Las Gralarias.

She hadn't. When she tucked a small piece of moss in the frog's container to make it more comfortable before releasing it back into the forest, the spines slowly reappeared.

"It was shocking. Vertebrates don't do that," she said. Inspired by its spiky physique, she dubbed it the "punk rocker" frog.

Their venom could be effective in fighting cancer, researchers have discovered, and the potency of Australian cane toad's venom is stronger than those in China.

This means that potentially millions of toads could be shipped to China, so they could have their venom extracted and turned into medicine, to be sold on the multi-billion dollar traditional medicine market.

Harendra Parekh, from the University of Queensland's pharmacy department where the research took place, said this discovery could lead to a 'potentially a very lucrative export market'.

The state Department of Natural Resources is inviting people who see turtles, frogs, toads, snakes, salamanders and lizards to report the sightings.

Project coordinator Lori Sargent says information is needed on all species, no matter how common or rare.

The Herp Atlas Project is intended to document the distribution of Michigan reptiles and amphibians, collectively known as herpetofauna or "herps."

Interview Highlights: Bradley Lawrence

... on the Dallas Zoo's stockpile of antivenom: "The reptile department goes back quite a while especially in the '80s. We were pretty groundbreaking in research and learning how to take of all these exotic reptiles from around the world. Dallas was definitely groundbreaking at the time and we've continued it since then."

The Smooth Newt is the species most commonly encountered in garden ponds and we can all do our bit to help them, as Dr Wilkinson explains.

"Everyone can help by having a small, or large garden pond populated by native aquatic plants and kept free of fish which will eat young newts," he said.

Amorous amphibians are a key part of UK springtime, so this year why not forgo the frogs and instead nurture a newt by digging a wildlife pond.