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Gorgeous Geckos a plenty.

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B. E. A. u. tiful

Ibu Baron aka "The Baroness" and the crew In late 2025, in Sulawesi, there were reports of a giant snake roaming. It was reported to be the biggest ever seen! Licensed snake handler Diaz Nugraha and natural history photographer Radu Frentiu headed out on an expedition to confirm the rumors of the snake! There they found Ibu Baron or "The Baroness".

According to Guinness World Records, the snake measured 7.22 meters using a surveyor’s tape. She was also weighed inside a canvas sack on scales normally used for rice, coming in at 96.5 kilograms, or about 213 pounds. She hadn’t recently eaten, which is worth noting, since a large meal can dramatically inflate a python’s weight.

Erm, I'm supposed to be here.

Tiger Legged Monkey Frog posted to Kingsnake by Herpetologia

Updates?
We've been a little quieter about updates as we work feverishly in the background.

Thank you all for your patience and being on this journey with us.
We have some cool updates coming soon, this picture might even be a teaser.

Check it out - Kingsnake's new logo in the wild.

Thank you Hissed_Snakes for spreading the word, Kingsnake is back, and Kingsnake is for everyone.

By the time a human brain registers danger, a viper’s strike is already over. Here’s how these snakes can move faster than mammalian nervous systems can respond. getty For years people have been fascinated with the speed of a snake's strike, especially that of a venomous snake. The question of which is fastest is always the biggest, it's the viper btw. But what really are the mechanics behind the how and is there a way that we can avoid it?

In practical terms, this gap between perception and movement creates a hard physiological limit. No amount of training, vigilance or experience can meaningfully overcome it once a strike has begun. From a biological standpoint, this places vipers in a unique category. Their strikes are fast enough to outpace even the fastest mammalian sensorimotor loops, which means that evading the strike will depend fully on anticipating it, rather than reacting to it. This is why prey species that survive vipers often rely on distance, vigilance or erratic movement; speed alone is not enough.

1 / 1Do Western Ghats King Cobras, Ophiophagus kaalinga, take the train? (a) View of Chandor Station, Goa, India, from below the platform, showing the vegetation and the concrete pillars, where the snake was found. This location is atypical and unsuitable for king cobras. (b) Laborer accommodations lie just a dirt path away from the concrete pillars where the king cobra was recorded. (c) The snake emerged from beneath a pile of railway tracks stored at the site for ongoing railway maintenance and repair. (d) An Indian Cobra (Naja naja) on a windowsill in the moving Lokshakti Express train near Valsad, Gujarat State, India. Photos by Dikansh S. Parmar (a, b), Sourabh Yadav (c), and Sameer Lakhani (d). Credit: Biotropica (2026). DOI: 10.1111/btp.70157 We all have laughed at the movie "Snakes on a Plane" but now the reality of snakes on a train is all too true for the cobras in India! Many travelers started reporting, with photos, the Western Ghats King Cobra (Ophiophagus kaalinga) riding on the train. These vulnerable snakes started popping up in odd locations in the country, in ranges that are not hospitable to their needs.

In 2017, study author Dikansh Parmar was volunteering with a local animal rescue group that received a call about a snake onboard a train. The incident is now included as part of this study. Another train rescue occurred in 2019, which ended up in a newspaper report in Uttarakhand. An incident occurred in 2023, in which a snake catcher from Gujarat State snapped a picture of an Indian Cobra sitting in a train window. The study team writes, "With the increased global availability of low-cost smartphones and social media in recent years, the number of reports of snakes on and around trains in India has increased, with three incidents recorded in a 30-day period, and many more emerging on social media."

Bryna Daykin, crew leader, is on an airboat during an American crocodile capture survey. (Photo by UF/IFAS Croc Docs) Today is International Women in Science Day and what better way to celebrate than to highlight some of the "Croc Docs" who track and research the alligators and even burmese pythons in the Everglades. The "Croc Docs" is a program through University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) carry out overnight conservation research projects that checks data on alligator populations as well as tracking invasive species.

For Pupo, a South Florida native, a career in science once felt unrealistic. Like many women in her family, she briefly considered medicine before rediscovering biology during her undergraduate years, inspired by female wildlife professors and peers who shared her passion. “I can’t imagine a more fulfilling way to spend my time than helping to conserve the environment and the fauna that taught me so much growing up,” she said in the news release.

Jamie McNellis, a Conservation Specialist at the San Francisco Zoo, holds four-month-old garter snakes kept in enclosures at the San Francisco Zoo in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) The San Francisco Garter Snake is amazingly beautiful and also very endangered, but now with the help of the conservation program at the San Francisco Zoo, they may get a chance at re-establishing their population! The largest current population of the snake lives on the property of the San Francisco airport and is quite protected but there is another area in Pacifica that conservationist from the Zoo have been preparing to help headstart a population of 115 babies for a spring release with more planned for the future!

Those destined for Pacifica will be released into a habitat that has been upgraded for their arrival. The project included creating a new pond for snakes and red-legged frogs to thrive, and removing invasive Monterey Cypress and Monterey Pine trees. “If we didn’t do any type of tree removal, those scrub and grassland areas would be converted into forested habitats,” said Fong. “For sun-loving reptiles like snakes, converting open grasslands and scrub to forested habitats is not great.” In December, a vegetation crew from NPS scattered seeds to help populate the upgraded habitat with native plant species. One remaining concern is the continuing threat posed by people and their pets. The striking colors that make the San Francisco garter snake a California icon have also made it a target for illegal poaching for the pet trade, said McNellis. SFO can secure its habitat with a security fence, but other habitats cannot provide protection.

There is a Testament song that I adore called "Practice What You Preach" and I do. Going back in our blogs as far as 2011 (check it out here and take the pepsi challenge), you can see me talking about the importance of public outreach and having positive public outreach. With rescue, I have been doing that for 32 years because honestly, that is how you find animals homes. This weekend however marks the 21st year of Pet Expo MKE, a huge pet event with a focus on rescue where no animals are sold or adopted out. It is dry goods only. I have run the reptile exhibit for 20 of the 21 years and we bring it bay bay! Our event usually averages around 10,000 people through the door in one day.

A devastating fungal pathogen has reshaped amphibian populations worldwide, but its true origins have long remained uncertain. By combining historical museum specimens, genetic evidence, and global trade records, researchers traced one major strain of the fungus back to Brazil, well before international frog farming began. Credit: Stock The devastation of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, otherwise known as chytrid fungus, to frog populations worldwide has been absolutely devastating, even wiping out entire species. How did it exactly start? Researchers think they finally have the clue.

Researchers believe the worldwide movement of Bd is closely tied to the commercial trade in bullfrogs (Aquarana catesbeiana), a species native to North America that is raised for food in many countries. Bullfrogs were first brought to Brazil in 1935, followed by another introduction several decades later during the 1970s. One particular variant, known as Bd-Brazil, was first identified in the country in 2012 and named accordingly. Its origins were later questioned after a 2018 study published in the journal Science proposed that the strain may have emerged on the Korean Peninsula. As a result, the genotype was subsequently referred to as Bd-Asia-2/Bd-Brazil.

Actual photo of author working on forums, circa 2010 in either Tinley Park or Daytona

I don't know about you but the world has been extra heavy lately. I find myself coming home and just locking down with my boyfriend, the animals and my music. Let's be honest, that is not healthy. I am having entire conversations with the bathroom frog y'all! Everywhere you turn it is gloom, doom and people want to fight.

Clint and Zac of Colubrid and Colubroid Radio will chat with Jon to discuss Kingsnake's past, present and future.

4:30pm Pacific Time

The International Herpetology Society celebrates 50 years this year.

This is a HUGE milestone for a foundational pilar of the hobby.
Half a century. 5 decades.