Aldabra giant tortoise foraging for food in a forest on North Island, which is part of Aldabra – the world's second-largest coral atoll. Credit: Rich Baxter/IOTA Seychelles

In 1997, North Island located in the Seychelles was purchased by private investors for ecotourism and rewilding. Today, that venture took 200 heavy steps forward as 50 Galapagos tortoises were released to the island to roam free again as they did once before. Many of the tortoises were actually pets surrendered for the joint project with Indian Ocean Tortoise Alliance (IOTA) and North Island Environment Department.

Before the tortoises left Mahé, they were microchipped for the national tortoise census and fed only native leaves to prevent the spread of invasive plant species via their droppings. They underwent two quarantines, one in Mahé and one on North Island, before taking their first steps into their new wild home.

Now, every day, they walk a little farther and explore a little more. “After months of planning, seeing them walk free was incredibly rewarding,” says IOTA assistant project officer Santosh Albert.

To read more about this amazing release, visit here.

Jean Beasley with the Karen Beasley Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Topsail Beach holds onto Southport a juvenile Kemp's Ridley sea turtle Wednesday Sept. 20, 2006. Southport along with Carolina held by Sandy Sly as Jeanie Marasco of North East, Maryland looks on were both released back into the ocean after being rehabilitated at the hospital. KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS

Jean Beasley, the founder of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, passed surrounded by loved ones at the age of 90, but she leaves a huge hole in Sea Turtle conservation. She was the director and driving force behind the rehabilition center, named after her daughter who passed from Leukemia at the age of 29/ She and her daughter originally created the Topsail Turtle Project, which protected nests and hatchlings, eventually she expanded that into work with the hospital as well as public outreach through the center. Topsail is the midway point between New York and Florida, so the facility helps many cold stunned turtles each year on their migration. To read more about this amazingly dedicated woman, click here.

Thank you Jean for your dedication to sea turtles.

The "Wrestle a Gator" educational show at Reptile Gardens from when Cindy visited. Herper Approved.

Reptile Gardens had a tragic overnight fire in one of their off display buildings that impacted all of their American Alligators from their educational program as well as their African Spur Thigh Tortoises and their Red Foot Tortoises, their other giant tortoises are houses in a different building for winter and are safe. Long time members of the site might remember that Reptile Gardens hosts me for a week several years back for an amazing behind the scenes experience that I was able to share with all of you, including sharing their tortoises and alligators and their show. You can see the photos here.

Our hearts at kingsnake are with the entire team at Reptile Gardens, most of all currator of animals Terry Phillip. You can feel the love he has for the animals he cares for in his statement. We have included it after the bump.

Each Sunday USARK is reaching out to a new state and this week it is Kansas! They are trying to spread awareness about the organization and what work they do. From their post!

If you have a pet store, veterinary office, or public exhibit that works with reptiles or amphibians in Kansas, USARK will send you a FREE business package that includes brochures, stickers, and possibly more. Please tag any businesses that might be interested! Email vanessa@usark.org with your company name and address if you are in this week’s state and want to assist.
We will randomly draw a new state every Sunday. Please feel free to comment and show your support as a member, advocate, fan, or herp owner.

Get ahold of Vanessa and represent! You can view the original post here.

Many people talk about how snakes live a primal existence driven by instinct, but those of us who work with them know they do have the ability to learn routines and people in some sense, but exactly how does that work?

A recent study using corn snakes sheds some light on that!

In this study, corn snakes (Elaphe guttata guttata) successfully learned to navigate mazes and consistently found the correct route to reach shelter or prey. They also avoided areas where they had previously encountered stress, demonstrating their ability to store and recall experiences. This memory is not emotional or social, as seen in mammals, but functional; it allows snakes to adapt their behaviour to avoid threats, locate resources, and navigate their environment efficiently. Such findings challenge outdated assumptions about reptile cognition and highlight their evolutionary intelligence.

Im telling ya, this was a cool article with a link to the study. Take a little time this weekend with your coffee and check it out here!

On Friday November 14 at 9 pm EST, our new owner, Jon Poff will be sitting down with David Levinson and Jeff Galewood of JMG Reptiles to talk about what is coming our way with the future of kingsnake.com on the Trap Talk Reptile Network!

This will be a live podcast with an open chat that you can ask questions in and steer the conversation. I will be joining along in chat and if possible I will help answer any questions too!

We hope you can join us live! Just click here to do it! Remember 9 pm EST Friday!

Matt Jeppson / Shutterstock

Typically I would share REAL news here, but when I was doing a news search, in between the stories of the most infestest lakes or river and the largest and most deadly and scary stories, there was a click bait article that stood out.

10 Cutest Snake Species That Have Us Squeeing

I know a good batch of you are cringing right now but you know what? These pages help our cause. They make our animals seem less scary to those who have fears. They make them more approachable. They bring down the mystery, the danger and the scary level. This is important. This is something we need. While the world outside of us is still going crazy USARK is still fighting laws every day that restricts our pets and it's the little things like that that help us.

It's clickbait, so if you don't want to go, to the site, the full list is after the bump, or you can go here to see it too!

WE BACK BABY!

This is the first photo for the day for the new ownership and a hint to the new owner! This will also be probably the last time I upload from my own gallery! This is our new owner with one of his Chiapan Black Beaded (Heloderma alvarezi). THe new owner is one of the few people permitted to import these in the country. He is a herper and one of us. He has been a member of Kingsnake and didn't want it to go away.

SO let's welcome the new owner and his cute lil bulldog. You all know how I love my bulldogs. The name and official announcement is coming soon, but this is your tease. And you know I love to give you teases!

This is literally me in the hotel at Tinley checking forums. Photo by former ks.com staffer Clint Gilders

There was going to be a final Herp photo of the day, but I couldn't decide. Anything I post will have memories and a farewell anyhow.

For 28 years, I have started most of my days with Kingsnake.com I say most because well, we used to only have 10 hours of internet a week. I only visited a few times a week back then. My original username was faustcorpus and I read a lot and hung out on the original Iguana forums. You need to look back at our first archives. I was also a member of the original NRAAC for WI. I climbed the ranks here from volunteer to part timer to site coordinator/goddess/mom that you know and love. Jeff was the maser but I like to think I was (that hurts to say) the face, heart and soul of the site for a little over 2 decades. Even the short time I left, I still checked the site daily first thing each morning. My browser has 4 kingsnake windows open daily. My processor will be pleased tomorrow.

As the weeks have passed since the announcement I have been working on going through my things on the site. Searching for old posts, saving threads here and there, saving my photos. As I am in crunch time, I am looking back and remembering everyone again. All the people who we have helped, known, and some sadly lost. The kids who are not adults. The breeders who are no longer in the community. 28 years is a long time.

I want to thank all the volunteers that worked with us and all the chatters who were there. My forum pains in the butts who made my life spicy some days. And even those who came up to me every show to complain that they were banned again. I want to thank every single person that came to our chats, forums and classifieds. I want to thank everyone who read everything I wrote and posted all the time. WHo interacted with me at shows, traveled with me on this crazy ass trip.

From the forums to the field trips at conventions to the amazing auctions. I have laughed so much this past few weeks looking through the site but I have also cried a few times too.

Most of all, I want to thank you all for accepting a girl who never bred a single animal in her life as you mom.

While Jeff may be riding off into the sunset, you are not quite rid of me! You know exactly where to find me come March! But for now, the tears are flowing, my heart is hurting.

But as The Family Says... Cheers Mother F'ers.

There was a lot of waffling to decide who today was, it was the NRBE2009 gallery when I saw my face at the first time I met a komodo that I realized that it had to be Krakatoa!



If you notice, there was always a field trip, be it a convention or expo. Florida often had several depending on how I planned it and who I was traveling with. St. Augustine Alligator Farm was ALWAYS a favorite. We ALWAYS had the VIP experience. I do not zoo like you zoo. For me all zoos ARE petting zoos. My friends are the keepers. I know their dedication and love.

I also remember the stories of Sharon Stone and her husband. I wasn't sure where these photos werem I knew I hadn't taken them and I was worried they all may have been lost. Thankfully, as I was clearing I found them. If you are on my Facebook, get ready to see a lot of photos hit. OH EM GEE!

But oh Krakatoa. I had to write his obituary several years later. He died due to West Nile Virus, when that was pretty rampant. He was truly a special lizard who also would seek out the human touch. I am so honored to have had him in my life.

BE SURE TO GET ALL YOUR PHOTOS OFF THE SITE BEFORE WE GO DARK ASAP at gallery.kingsnake.com!

Thanks to running this joint, I see zoos differently. I have loved every single one I have gone to and have many "boyfriends" around the country, but as I said, I started with Iguanas and I cannot forget the most Iconic Iguana I ever got to love on.



Gitmo was an awesome Cuban Iguana, but he wasn't always the nicest of guys before he moved to the US. He was originally a nuisance animal at GITMO aka Guantanamo Bay Military Base and would terrorize the servicemen. There was a conservation programs in effect at the time and through some fancy footwork, he got transferred to the San Diego Zoo's conservation Program which was later renamed to Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research. It was there I met him, along with my firsts of many iguana species. My very first pure Grand Cayman Blue iguana and I also met Marlon and Irwin, the Cyclura pinguis, which are an amazingly unique species to feel. But Gitmo, he stole my heart. He was used for a lot of outreach programs and was very people oriented. I broke the rules using a vertical photo (again, what's the worst that is going to happen?) because it shows how amazingly wonderful he was with people. Gitmo interacted with you and connected with you. He loved belly rubs and chin scritches. Gitmo passed a few years back of natural causes. He came to the zoo as an adult, so his age was not known if I remember correctly. I got to visit with him a few times over the years, but this is when I feel head over heals for this lizard. Long live GITMO!


BE SURE TO GET ALL YOUR PHOTOS OFF THE SITE BEFORE WE GO DARK ASAP at gallery.kingsnake.com!

Today's is a bit late but hey, what is Jeff gonna do? Fire me? I lose my job Saturday anyhow!

The Chiricahua Desert Museum hosted a BBQ as I mentioned in my post about herping with Mark O'Shea. When I arrived at the museum, I learned that a certain forum poster was there. For those who remember the days of say the Kingsnake forum or perhaps the monitor forum, you might know the name I am about to mention. If you are leaning to ole FR you are leaning in the right direction. I had someone point him out to me and I just walked up and waited for a break in his conversation when he was free and smiled that smile some of you know so well when something sassy is about to come out of my mouth and said

"DAMN IT FRANK! Do you know how much of a pain in my *** you are?"

A small sheepish grin "Cindy" to which I nodded, still smirking. "Please don't hit me"

And over my shoulder from the gift shop I hear "Oh are you yelling at Frank? I give you permission to hit him, he probably deserved it I'm his wife."

And that my friends is the story of how PHFaust and Ole Frank Retes met for the first and only time. We had a lovely time together, there was no bloodshed and we came away still friends. But Frank was always my biggest P.I.T.A.

Love you F.R.

Be sure to tell them you liked it here!


BE SURE TO GET ALL YOUR PHOTOS OFF THE SITE BEFORE WE GO DARK ASAP at gallery.kingsnake.com!

Behind the scenes zoo trips were the BEST. I got to see so many species up close and personal that most people dream of. I feel so honored to have had that chance and I adore all my friends who have given me the chance to do that. My first loves were iguanas and as I grew through the community, I also spread my wings into conservation work after joining the Chicago Herpetological Society. Through there I learned of the IRCF and other iguana specific programs. I also learned how many species of iguanas there were. I started as an adult in this world, so I was behind a lot of you all, and I want to thank you for not making me feel different.

This was from a trip to Reptile Gardens a while back in South Dakota. Every herper should make the pilgrimage because Terry Phillip does an amazing job. I was like a kid in a candy store and that was BEFORE I got behind the scenes. But this photo is the holy grail of Iguanas in the US. MY moment where I got to meet my first Fiji Island Iguana. I was so very excited. If you are on my Facebook page, you can see a few other photos I will share there as well.

Be sure to tell them you liked it here!


BE SURE TO GET ALL YOUR PHOTOS OFF THE SITE BEFORE WE GO DARK ASAP at gallery.kingsnake.com!

There is no more photo of the day. It is now my memories. I used to love when we handed out free shirts. PEople were always confused when I said FREE! We would time it and race because once the shirts were gone, Clint and I could party. Jeff wasn't a social person so he was happy to pass shows off to Clint and I decades ago. This was back when we sponsored the NARBC shows. NARBC have always been my favorite of all the shows. I have attended every single Tinley, all 25 years. The first 2 I was not part of kingsnake.com and then one where I worked for someone else. All others I have been kingsnake. We don't look too rough, so I am going with this is Saturday AM. Clint Gilders was our programmer for many years and is still a great friend. He was also my first show husband. Funny, at Tinley, you can find me basically in the same spot. I only moved maybe 10 feet from where our booth used to be.


Be sure to tell them you liked it here!


BE SURE TO GET ALL YOUR PHOTOS OFF THE SITE BEFORE WE GO DARK ASAP at gallery.kingsnake.com!

Burmese Pythons have still a strong hold on the Everglades. It is a perfect environment for them and with few predators to take on an adult, they have latched on down there since they were released during the hurricanes decades ago. Now scientists are turning to robots to try to track them, more specifically, robot rabbits.

“Our partners have allowed us to trial these things that may sound a little crazy,” says Robert McCleery, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida who’s leading the rabbit project, to the Palm Beach Post. “Working in the Everglades for ten years, you get tired of documenting the problem. You want to address it.”
...
In the past, researchers have experimented with placing live rabbits in pens in a bid to attract the invasive serpents in Everglades National Park. The live rabbits were indeed effective at luring the snakes, drawing in about one per week, but caring for and managing the small mammals was labor-intensive. Researchers wondered if robotic rabbits might do the job just as well.

There are a variety of techniques planned to see if this can be more effective. To read more, pop over to Smithsonian Magazine here.

Last week a small batch of Tetra ReptoMin had a recall issued for potential salmonella issues. Below you will find the information on it.

The DOH advised consumers to check if they purchased the recalled products based on the UPC marking on the label and lot code printed on the bottom at the plastic container. The product is packaged in a plastic 1.56-ounce container with a green label and a Universal Product Code number 0 46798 78626 9 and a lot code of 951790. No other lots or product lines via Spectrum Brands are affected and may continue to be used.
...
Hawaii residents may have purchased the recalled products at Walmart stores in the state or online via Chewy and Amazon. The DOH is notifying local stores to ensure that the recalled products are no longer available for sale, according to a news release.

As of right now, it appears that the recall is restricted solely to Hawaii, but we will keep watching to see if it spreads. For more information on the recall and what to do if you are impacted click here.

Recently a local outdoors expert spent a little time with biologists and conservation officers in Pennsylvania for a training session on timber rattlesnakes and he came back with a little different perspective on the animals. Spurred by memories of a childhood show on native rattlesnakes from "Pennsylvania Outdoor Life" on his local TV station that he watched with his father, he hooked up with the host after retirement to relive one of the episodes visiting a local forest to count, tag and also train conservation officers in handling and identification skills.

The truth about rattlesnakes, I learned, is that these are normally docile animals that just want to be left alone. But they get feisty when disturbed and manhandled.

It's a nice light read where you see someone understand why we love these animals. You feel fear turn to respect. There are some wonderful photos of the training sessions as well.

One of the hardest parts of saving our venomous snakes is overcoming the stimgas and fears that people have with them. Stories like this go far to helping that! Check the full article out here!

This month the Milwaukee Public Museum is offering a reptile themed "Science On Tap" lecture and it is available online as well as in person! Being Milwaukee everything has drinks, so why not a museum lecture! For those joining in person, there is a pre-lecture social hour with apps and taps, and knowing herpers, this might be their last time they let us drink.

This month features Joshua M. Kapfer, PhD and his topic is "Amphibian and Reptile Conservation in Wisconsin". From the MPM"

Joshua M. Kapfer has lived most of his life in Wisconsin. He earned his BS and MS degrees from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse in Biology and Aquatic Science. His Master’s research focused on the survival of amphibian larvae in agricultural ponds. Josh went on to earn a PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in Ecology and Evolution. His doctoral research investigated numerous aspects of gophersnake ecology and conservation in Sauk County. After earning his doctoral degree, Josh worked for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, NRC Environmental Consulting (now Stantec), and Elon University in North Carolina. Since 2011, Josh has been with the biology department at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater as a professor and wildlife biologist, where he teaches various lecture- and field-based ecology courses and conducts research with undergraduate students. He is broadly interested in vertebrate ecology and conservation, with more than 35 peer-reviewed publications. He is also a co-editor and author on the book Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin. He currently lives in Walworth County with his family.

To sign up, click here. Ill be in the virtual crowd! See ya there!

Author at St. Augustine Alligator Farm getting the Ultimate Experience photo shoot, the closest to acting irresponsibly she had in her photos. - credit Cindy Steinle

In what the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) calls "groundbreaking research study" it has been determined that alligators are not the aggressors in the attacks that occur on humans but rather risky human behavior that cause the attacks.

Color us herpers SHOCKED! Absolutely STUNNED! Yes, that is sarcasm. Anywho, from the study:

Our ranking system indicated that 96% (26% low risk, 48% moderate risk, 22% high risk) of the recorded human–alligator incidents reviewed were caused by some level of human inattention in the form of risky behaviors, often while participating in recreational water activities. These results highlight the need for increased and targeted public education concerning safe and responsible human activities in areas inhabited by alligators. By making a conscious effort to implement proactive and preventative safety measures, human injury and death as well as the needless destruction of alligators can be reduced.

You can read the full study here and their blog post about it here.

Despite my sarcasm, this can lead to better efforts in helping protect our wild populations putting the blame rather than on the animal, directly on the person. This can also lead to better public education efforts on how to approach waterways and share our world with our cold blooded friends, not only our alligators but also other reptiles. If we can educate respect at one level, we can work out way down through the food chain! Hopefully this study helps with that for future generations.

Late last session, Rep Betty McCollum (MN) introcuded a bill to " “To amend the Animal Welfare Act to include cold-blooded species as animals, and for other purposes.” That bill died with the close of the last session, but this week she reintroduced as HR2976 and we can only guess that it will have the same wording.

The nitty gritty from the USARK Web Alert is:

This bill, which should be identical to last session’s introduction, adds reptiles, amphibians, fish, and cephalopods as “animals” under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), meaning the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must develop new regulations. Basically, the USDA would now be required to license and inspect facilities and breeders with these animals. Businesses would need to comply with the new USDA regulations. The USDA began inspecting and licensing aviculturists (bird breeders) in 2024 (for new licensees). The bill has been assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. We will post more information when available.

You can find the wording of the original bill here. While we are unsure of the wording exactly of the new bill, this gives a good guess as to what will come. As always, you know there is strength in numbers, so be sure to join and keep up with our friends at USARK.

As humans expand into natural areas that snakes inhabit, relocation of many species often occurs. Great care is taken to find what is felt to be suitable habitat, but is that the answer? Do snakes actually adjust? Do the snakes reestablish and thrive?

That is a question lead ANU Associate Professor Gavin Smith in Australia to embark on a long term study with the venomous Eastern Brown. In 2021 Canberra Snake Tracking Project was hatched to look at the impact of translocation on snakes in urban areas.

The project has tracked snakes that have been caught in homes and backyards in Canberra and then relocated into reserves, as well as snakes which already call those reserves home.

This approach allows the team to compare differences in movement activity and survivorship, and changes in body condition over time between individuals in the two groups.

The initial findings show the translocated snakes move in more erratic and unpredictable ways, and are exposed to a much higher burden of risk as a result of being moved out of their home ranges where they possess an acute awareness of the location of key resources.

To read more about this very interesting study click here.

There is an update to the proposed South Carolina Venomous Ban. The meeting is being held next week. This is a proposed STATEWIDE ban. From the USARK update:

This bill is scheduled to be heard by the Wildlife Subcommittee on Wednesday, March 19th at 12:30 PM. The location is: Blatt Building Room 409, 1105 Pendleton St, Columbia, SC 29201. Written testimony should be emailed to EllieHayes@schouse.gov. You can also email to register to speak. Send another comment even if you have already done so, and any stakeholders should attend the hearing to oppose in person. Read the agenda at https://www.scstatehouse.gov/agendas/126h15107.pdf

Just a reminder that they are including a grandfather clause for current owners who can register their animals and receive permits within 90 days of the law going into effect. There are exemptions included for research facilities and zoos as well.

The proposed banned list is:

Venomous reptiles banned, including hybrids: families Elapidae, Crotalidae, Viperidae, and Hydrophiidae; all reptiles in the genus Heloderma; all reptiles in the family Colubridae belonging to the genera: Rhabdophis, Balanophis, Macropisthodon, Boiga, Dispholidus, Thelotornis, and Thrasops, and all reptiles in the family Atractaspididae.

USARK has supplied sample letters as well as all the contact information in their action alert which can be found here.

Ball pythons in a huddle, with white arrows to indicate their heads.Credit...Noam Miller and Morgan Skinner/Wilfrid Laurier University
We have learned that a variety of snakes from rattlesnakes to some colubrid species have social lives in the wild and now a recent study is showing that pythons are social creatures too! Morgan Skinner, a quantitative ecologist who studied at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario created an environment with 4 hides and set to work with several different ball pythons to see exactly what happened. He published his results in Behavior Ecology and Sociobiology in November.

Because ball pythons lay eggs and don’t have live births and have no need to hibernate, they seemed like the perfect study candidate. In 2020, Dr. Skinner and his colleague Tamara Kumpan placed a mixed-sex group of six pythons for 10 days in a large enclosure — one with enough plastic shelters for each snake — and left a camera running.

To Dr. Skinner’s shock, all six snakes quickly squeezed together in the same shelter and spent over 60 percent of their time together. Assuming that all of the snakes had simply liked something about that specific shelter, the team removed it. But after some initial confusion, the snakes eventually chose another home base in which to curl up together.

To read the full article and see the video, be sure to visit the New York Times here. There is a link to the study in the article.

In 2016 the US Fish and Wildlife Service published a temporary rule on 201 Salamander species and as of this January that rule is finalized. The 201 species covering 16 genre are now listed as injurious under the Lacey Act meaning they no longer can be imported into the country or transport or sold across state lines in the US. From the USARK Alert:

The interim rule applies to all species in these 16 genera: Ambystoma, Andrias, Aneides, Aquiloeurycea, Calotriton, Chiropterotriton, Cryptobranchus, Desmognathus, Ensatina, Eurycea, Laotriton, Ommatotriton, Pachytriton, Proteus, Pseudobranchus, and Pseudotriton.
...
Comments on the interim rule regarding newly added species can be made after January 10, 2025, for 60 days (deadline March 11) at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2024-31203/injurious-wildlife-species-listing-salamanders-due-to-risk-of-salamander-chytrid-fungus.

Find the original Salamander Rule species list (201 species in 20 genera) at https://www.fws.gov/page/list-of-salamanders-designated-as-injurious.

You can read the full action alert here on USARKs page.

A cat death in Oregon being linked back to the raw cat food made by Northwest Naturals, they are issuing a voluntary recall of their 2 lb raw turkey meals. I know many people often will use these premade diets in a rotation for some of their lizard species, so I did want to make sure reptile owners are aware. From Newsweek:

Oregon Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said in a press release on Tuesday that his organization is "confident" the pet cat contracted the bird flu by eating Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food.
"This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment, and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other," Scholz said.

The full press release can be seen after the jump or you can visit Northwest Naturals website here.

Inset photo by Jeff Barringer of my first Western Diamondback ever seen in the wild. Animal was seen at an event hosted in Sanderson Texas called Snake Days which was a conservation and educational event that brought reptile people from all over the world. I used this photo to respect the nat geo copywrites. They have amazing shots in the article!

Rattlesnakes are one of the most demonized animals on the planet. Deeply beloved by their fans and often hated by others. National Geographic author Elizabeth Royte spent a great deal of time traveling the country and looking into how to change the perceptions of rattlesnakes. She learned a bit about them in nature along the way and a bit about our battle as those who love rattlesnakes on changing perceptions.

At a time when populations of animal species globally have declined by an average of nearly 70 percent, wanton disregard for life—in the absence of imminent threat to humans—bothers Texas A&M University herpetologist Lee Fitzgerald. “The roundups do send a twisted message,” he says. “They’re not helping the way we think about biodiversity. We care about polar bears, but these snakes are worthless?”
...
“I’m blue in the face from teaching people that snakes aren’t out to get you,” Matt Goode said as we hummed through Stone Canyon. “But I don’t know how much progress we’ve made.” Throughout much of the South and Southwest, it’s legal to kill many rattlesnake species. And some people kill a whole lot.

From working with field researchers to a visit to the hell that is the Sweetwater round-up, this is an amazing read. The hardest part to saving these species is changing perceptions on the animal itself. For the full article, visit Nat Geo here.

In a move that will shock no one, the first what we can assume will be many laws relating to the Leibowitz/Taipan bite case has happened. Florence, S.C. has released new proposed exotics laws that impact more than reptile owners. From the USARK Action alert the proposed banned reptile portion is:

Crocodilians twelve (12) inches or larger;
Large, dangerous, or potentially invasive constricting snakes including reticulated pythons, python reticulatus;
urmese/Indian rock pythons, python molurus; rock pythons, python sebae, and anacondas, eunectes murinus (green anacondas);
Venomous/poisonous reptiles, amphibians, or serpents;

You can read the full action alert on USARK's page here.
Now one thing of note is the snake law is somewhat vague and can be easily adjusted to include any larger snake unfortunately. Simply using the wording large, dangerous OR rather than AND is hugely problematic from someone who has worked in animal control and seen how people will twist those words, but that is just my opinion and experience. I would expect to see far more of these laws popup in South Carolina over the next year. The damage one person can do to our hobby is immense.

Tadpoles and adults of the extinct frog species Notobatrachus degiustoi (illustrated) lived in temporary ponds in what is the Patagonia region of Argentina today.
Illustration by Gabriel Lío

While searching for dinosaurs in the sediment and soft ash, Palentoligist Federico Agnolín and his colleagues kept stumbling across frogs at their site at Estancia La Matilde in the Santa Cruz province of Argentina. They were finding all adult Notobatrachus degiustoi, which is an extinct species. They believed that the frogs at the time did not have a tadpole stage, but they were about to learn otherwise in a very exciting discovery!

The researchers who described the fossil in Nature today estimate it to be between 161 to 168 million years old, beating the previous record holder by around 30 million years. The find provides solid evidence frogs have had a tadpole stage for at least that long. “It’s a beautiful confirmation of what many experts had suspected,” says herpetologist Alexander Haas of the Leibniz Institute in Bonn, Germany. Reconstructing tadpole evolution based on their diversity today, Haas and others previously predicted that tadpoles would have existed this early on.

The tadpole was surprisingly similar to modern tadpoles! To read the full story, visit National Geographic here!

Photo of Lil Crusher and I in August at an educational event. He is well on his way to being healthy here.

When I got the text about the alligator that was found by Lake Michigan in November I never realized how attached to him I would become, but ya know, I should have. When the grizzled shelter manager tells me I need to come in because he is worried about the alligator, I should have figured that I would fall head over heels for an animal that I never would live with. He is named Lil Crusher, after Reginald "The Crusher" Lisowski a famous wrestler from our area and if you know me it makes even more sense that this guy is one of my special ones.

On that cold November day, 3 South Milwaukee police officers made waves in our local media when they found an American Alligator in a park in Milwaukee WI on the shores of Lake Michigan, the local media went RAMPANT with stories. We had just had the flamingos blown off course by a hurricane, did the alligator come that way too! Did it maybe swim up here? The stories were simply ridiculous.