Herper.com: Reptiles and Amphibians

Reptiles and Amphibians in the News

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Escapes Crocodile

A paddler in the Umgeni River escaped a crocodile that attacked his canoe. (News source.)

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Goats for Turtles

MD F&W are using goats to help keep bog turtle habitat free from overgrowth. (News source.)

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Gator Mounting

The preservation work on Oscar the alligator's skeleton continues at Okefenokee Swamp Park. (News source.)

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OOP Gator Might Have Been Stolen

The Australian Reptile Park might be the source for that OOP alligator found by scouts; apparently, at least five gators have been stolen from there since 1999. (News source.)

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Copperbelly Watersnakes

The USFWS has put together a recovery plan for the northern copperbelly watersnake. (News source.)

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Australian Alligator News

A 1.5 meter long alligator has turned up on Australia's South Coast, puzzling officials. (News source.)

Australia Reptile Park has done their annual egg-snatching in the alligator exhibit, so that hatchling alligators don't get loose into Australia's waterways. (Too late...) (News source.)

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

"Oldest" Tortoise Might Be Mistake

A historian on St. Helena suggests that a recently named "oldest tortoise" might be a case of mistaken identity. (News source.)

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Croc Attack Survivor

Profile (and photo) of an Australian man who escaped a crocodile in December.

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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Not an Albino

A white alligator seen in Indian River County, FL, is not an albino -- its coloration is due to mineral deposits on the skin. (News source.)

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Thursday, December 25, 2008

Crocs Fishing With Toes

Some Australian saltwater crocodiles have learned to fish with their webbed toes, luring fish close enough to grab. (News source.)

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Fox Snake Study

A grad student in Michigan is continuing his research into fox snakes. (News source.)

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Invasion News

Goannas in Kakadu have been decimated by the cane toad. (News source.)

Some people (very few people) in Hawaii want to protect the invasive coqui. (News source.)

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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Brown Snake Bite

An Australian woman was bitten on the foot by a small brown snake. (News source.)

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Free Poster

Details on getting the Rattlesnakes of Arizona poster here.

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Herp Legality Issues

Squabbling and lawsuits here between a couple of snake breeders in Iowa.

Snakes seized from a PA petshop will probably be sold.

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Sunday, December 21, 2008

Snake Bite News

An Australian teenager was saved after being bitten by a coastal taipan, as his friends had recently taken a first aid course. (News source.)

The Florida mail carrier bitten by a rattlesnake while on the job has mounting bills -- and the USPS refuses to help, as he is a "contract employee." This is what a good lawyer is for... (News source.)

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Snake Hunter

A profile here on a professional snake hunter in Florida (for live sales to the reptile industry).

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Turtle Arrest

An Indiana man arrested for selling native turtles claims it was a misunderstanding. (News source.)

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Feasting on Snakes

A village in the Philippines is turning to water pythons for food. (News source.)

A profile here on a woman in Hong Kong who runs a snake soup restaurant. (News source.)

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Grow-a-Frog Problems

Montana is asking the 65 state customers of a mail-order Xenopus company to euthanize or return the frogs, as they are illegal there. (News source.)

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Poached Monitors Seized

Malaysian authorities confiscated 600 clouded monitor lizards being smuggled out of the country. (News source.)

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Gharial Introduction

Plans to reintroduce captive-bred gharials into India's waterways continue... (News source.)

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Saturday, December 20, 2008

New (Strange) Frog

A newly described Cambodian bush frog has green blood and turquoise bones. Biliverdin (metabolic waste usually processed in the liver) passes into the bloodstream, which may help with camouflage (the skin being translucent) and also might make the frog unpalatable to predators. (News source.)

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Friday, December 19, 2008

Croc Relocated

An 11-foot American crocodile (believed to have snatched neighborhood dogs as prey) has been relocated form the same canal for the second time. (News source.)

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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Turtle Tricks

Florida the three-toed box turtle helps kids face their fears... (News source.)

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Python vs Possum

Another "snake eating large prey" photo, published in an Australian paper.

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Sunday, December 14, 2008

OOP Tortoise on Maui Beach

A small African spur-thigh tortoise was found released on a Maui beach. Apparently, it's not illegal to keep nonnative tortoises in Hawaii, (unlike snakes/lizards), but police still want to know where it came from. (News source.)

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Other Croc News

There are some fears that a missing Australian man might have been taken by a crocodile. He went fishing in the Northern Territories and didn't return. (News source.)

The crocodile skin market is growing business for farms in Zimbabwe. (News source.)

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Turkey Point Crocs

The Turkey Point Nuclear Plant played an inadvertent role in the conservation of the American crocodile, as the cooling canals built around the plant created a favored breeding grounds for the species. (News source.)

And, a profile here on a croc researcher who has studied the American crocs at Turkey Point for two decades.

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Saturday, December 13, 2008

India: New Serpentarium

The Mahender Chaudhary Zoological Park in Chhatbir will open up a new serpentarium soon. (News source.)

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Friday, December 12, 2008

Strange Fossil Amphibian

An armored amphibian was able to gape by lifting the top of its head, unlike most vertebrates today. (News source.)

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Florida Rules Updated

Amnesty rules have been relaxed a bit, allowing people to turn in non-native reptiles that require a permit at specified events. Also, adopters with permits can now accept reptiles from those without permits. (News source.)

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Tortoise News

Here's a story of 12 tortoises that were caught in a fire, and the vets at UC Davis who worked on them.

Two Galapagos tortoises in Tahiti were given an 80-year anniversary celebration. (News source.)

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Splitting the Dwarf Croc

Researchers now believe that the two separate subspecies of African dwarf crocodiles are distinct species, and that there is another, as yet unnamed, species. (Eurekalert)

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Yellow-Legged Frog Study

The impact of climate on Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs is the subject of a recent research paper.

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8-Foot Croc in Massachusetts?

Sounds fishy. Police responded to a sighting of an 8-foot crocodilian swimming in Fiske Pond near Natick, MA. (News source.)

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Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Python Eats Chicken

Not sure how this made the news, but story, with link to pics gallery, here.

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Herp Smuggler Sentenced

A 29-year old South African man was sentenced to a year in jail in Madagascar for trying to smuggle out hundreds of small reptiles and amphibians in his coat and luggage. (News source.)

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Monday, December 8, 2008

Fiji Frogs Rediscovered

An endangered species of ground frog from Fiji has been rediscovered, after it was thought there were no surviving populations on Viti Levu. (News source.)

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Sea Turtle Deaths in India

Over 3300 olive Ridley sea turtles have been found dead on the coastline of Gahirmatha, suggesting that fishing trawlers are fishing illegally without turtle-exclusion devices. (News source.)

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Sunday, December 7, 2008

Croc Deaths

An article here on the rising deaths of South African crocodiles, and cultural ramifications.

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Herp Crimes

Someone attempted to steal a juvenile alligator from a Pennsylvania pet shop. (News source.)

An Alabama breeder of Amazon tree boas was robbed of 22 snakes, with containers. (News source.) [Update: the snakes weren't stolen after all.]

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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Adder Bite

A UK television personality was bitten by a 2-foot adder. (News source.)

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Invasive Profile

A profile here on the black spinytail iguanas of Boca Grande.

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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Turtles/Tortoises

A new study on territorialism in the loggerhead sea turtles of the Mediterranean, here.

The oldest living tortoise appears to be living on St. Helena, brought there from the Seychelles. (News source.)

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Frogs vs Tourism

A couple of conservation groups have forced the DFG not to stock trout in a number of California waterways due to not having filed environmental impact reports on the red-legged frog. Fishing tourism has a high likelihood of being impacted. (News source.)

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Monday, December 1, 2008

Snakes in a Bedroom

An Australian woman found her bedroom littered with small carpet pythons. 14 have been caught so far. (News source.)

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Cane Toad Changes

The rapid morphological changes discovered along the leading edge of the cane toad's invasive population in Australia has also brought on detrimental effects (spinal arthritis) not seen before in amphibians. (News source.)

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