Trinidad Snakebite Death

A Trinidad man was killed by snakebite, undetermined species. (News source, and here.)

Alabama Retailer Charged

An Alabama man was charged with selling false water cobra to an undercover officer. (News source.)

Komodo Attack

A Rinca island park ranger was attacked in his hut by a Komodo dragon, and mauled on the hand and foot. He was able to escape. (News source.)

Magnetizing Crocs

Florida wildlife officials are taping magnets to the heads of crocodiles to see if that will disrupt their homing ability, in an effort to keep them from returning to residential neighborhoods. (News source.)

Herp Farming

A Belarus scientist suggests the country should start breeding edible frogs to help out economically. (News source.)

Gypsies in Karachi, India, breed leopard geckos -- but claim the species is venomous (they've been "trained" for generations to handle them safely) and that they sell them to venom extraction companies. Obviously, that is bunk -- not sure if they're selling them to pet exporters, though. Technically, that would be illegal under India's wildlife laws, from what I've seen... (News source.)

Minnesota Rattler Conservation

MN DNR is cutting back cedar growth on bluffs to give rattlesnakes more sunning areas closer to their dens. (News source.)

Invasive Lizards in Florida

Another generic news article on introduced populations of lizards in Florida, here.

Racers in Canada

A Canadian researcher is studying eastern yellow-bellied racers in Saskatchewan. (News source.)

Herp Crimes

A man tried to smuggle 44 lizards and snakes (including an albino carpet python) out of Australia. (News source.)

An Indian man was caught with over 100 smuggled tortoise skins. (News source.)

Big Croc

A 16 1/2 foot crocodile was captured in Sri Lanka and will be relocated to a sanctuary. (News source.)

SC Gator Hunt Numbers

The hunt numbers for the 2008 alligator hunting season in South Carolina show "362 alligators from 13 different counties, in the state's first public alligator hunt in more than 40 years." (News source.)

Cobra Bite

Details on an Indian man's snakebite by a cobra. (News source.)

Frog Hunting

A British Columbia man is trying (apparently successfully) to eradicate the invasive bullfrog from that region, despite claims by others that it is too expensive to work. (News source.)

Turtle News

Tourists to Bald Head Island, NC, have the option of a "turtle walk," to view nesting sea turtles. (News source.)

A cold front in the Florida Keys is causing sea turtles to get sick. (News source.)

Turtle skulls are being studied for their resilience, for possible technological modeling. (News source.)

PIJAC Python Ban Alert

Here's the PDF with PIJAC's alert notice on the attempt to ban pythons as injurious species.

Crocodile Attack

A man in Swaziland was attacked and killed by a pair of crocodiles. (News source.)

New Species from Zootaxa

Some new or redescribed herps from Zootaxa:

A new colubrid from the genus Pareas from China.

An earth-snake (Atractus wagleri) from Colombia is redescribed.

From Guyana comes a new genus and species of lizard (Pantepuisaurus rodriguesi).

A new gecko, Gymnodactylus vanzolinii, is described from Brazil.

Two new agamids (Acanthosaura) are described from Malaysia.

A new microteiid was found in Brazil.

Rattlesnake Behavior

Interesting "cannibalism" behavior in post-birthing Crotalus polystictus. (News source.)

PIJAC Battle for Pythons

The pet industry council is urging a calm and professional response to the idiotic bill introduced to ban importation and interstate commerce of the genus Python. (News source.)

Flatbacks

Flatback sea turtles are the focus at the 29th Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation being held in Brisbane, Australia. (News source.)

Anaconda Death

A 17-foot anaconda at Miami's Metrozoo has died; it has been replaced with two smaller anacondas until a larger snake can be obtained. (News source.)

Crocodilians

A female gator at Jungle Gardens (FL) may be mistaking the rumble of a garbage truck for the bellow male alligator's mating call... (News source.)

A Malawi teenager was killed by a crocodile. (News source.)

A Swaziland woman was saved from a crocodile attack by her dog. (News source.)

A crocodile that killed a young Australian boy has been captured and will live out its life in captivity. (News source.)

Sea Turtle Prosthetics

A Japanese conservation group is planning to have prosthetic limbs made for a sea turtle injured in a probable shark attack. (News source.)

Myanmar Bans Croc Exports

Details here.

Brown Snake Bite

An Australian man was bitten by a brown snake while on the Gold Coast. (News source.)

Giant Snake Story

Farmers in north Colombia are reporting a "giant snake," 12 meters long. Local authorities are on the alert. (News source.)

New Skink, New Caledonia

Kanakysaurus zebratus is a new species of skink discovered on the northwest coast of Grande Terre, New Caledonia. (Abstract)

Rattler Bite Lawsuit

A man bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake at a Florida Wal-Mart garden center last summer is suing the company for negligence. (News source.)

Snake Charmers United

The Bedia community in Bengal, India, is prohibited from their heritage as snake charmers, but have formed a union to try and convince the government to let them work with snakes in some way (snake farms, etc.). (News source.)

Attempted Suicide by Snake

A story (from 12 years ago) of a man who attempted to kill himself by letting a king brown snake bite him nine times, here.

Tuatara Conservation

An article here on release of c.b. tuatara on Cuvier Island.

Gopher Tortoise Move

The Polk County, FL, school board has OK'd @$77K to move gopher tortoises off a proposed school construction site.

"'It's not so much the cost of removing them, but finding a place to relocate them,' Murphy noted. At the cost of around $900 per turtle, certified specialists must come to the land and relocate them to privately-owned sites that have been approved by the state." (News source.)

Mapping Toad Paths

A UK conservation group is mapping road crossings by migrating toads with a Google Earth application. (News source.)

Fossil Tusked Croc

A "boar-croc" has been discovered in the Sahara, as yet undescribed officially.

"Boar-croc doesn't fit in any known order. It has a crocodile-like snout, but adds horns and three sets of canine teeth like those of a wild pig adapted for eating meat." (News source.)

More on NV Python Attack Arrest

Apparently, the couple was just babysitting the snake. (News source.)

The couple is now on house arrest. (News source.)

Another pic of the snake stretched out by deputies, here.

Leaping Lizards

Losing a tail to a predator means anoles are at a distinct disadvantage when dropping from a tree. (Eurekalert)

Puff Adder Bites

Two separate puff adder bites were reported from South Africa recently: the first was a British tourist who was bitten while hiking, the second was a handler at the Pretoria Zoo, bitten while cleaning a cage. (News source.)

Crocs for Pets

An interesting piece on the legal trade of baby saltwater crocodiles as pets in certain parts of Australia, here.

Parents Arrested

The parents of a young boy attacked by their pet 18-foot python have been arrested for child endangerment. (News source.)

Salamander Decline

Central American researchers say that salamander populations in the Cloud Forests have almost disappeared. (Eurekalert.)

Snakes in a Hostel

A man renting a room in a hostel about 10 years was found dead, and 8 caged snakes (5 venomous) were found in the room. Cause of death was unknown. (News source.)

Snake Theft

A Kenyan snake exhibitor was robbed of 16 valuable (mostly venomous) snakes. (News source.)

Boomslang Bite

A South African ornithologist is recovering from a boomslang bite. He had accidentally stepped on the snake, and it bit him (rare circumstances for a bite from this species). (News source.)

Crocodile Takes Boy

A 5-year old Australian boy was taken by a crocodile after recent flooding. (News source.)

Gila Research Reprieve

NV Dept. of Wildlife officials nearly ruined ongoing research into Nevada's gila monster population, but DoW Commissioners overturned the decision, and the research can continue. (News source.)

Famous Gator Moves

A 12-foot, 800-lb, 43-year old alligator was moved to the G. W. Exotic Animal Park after its Oklahoma owner accidentally killed himself with a chainsaw. The alligator had been used in several commercials and movies over the years. (News source, and here.)

Turtle Issues

South Carolina is looking into legislation to protect the native turtle population from being shipped by the thousands overseas. (News source.)

A Pacific sea turtle database is being brought online. (News source.)

3000 tortoises were confiscated by Indian officials, when they were discovered being smuggled out of Uttar Pradesh. (News source.)

Customs officers at Atlanta's airport seized illegal (CITES) turtle meat and eggs from a passenger. Species not mentioned, but perhaps sea turtle? (News source.)

Research Woes

Varanid specialist Daniel Bennett returned from field research to find his samples of lizard excrement (2 years into his PhD program) had been accidentally thrown out by lab techs. He went ahead and finished his PhD thesis, but apparently is now suing the university. (News source.)

Bites

An Australian man was bitten by a red-bellied black snake. (News source.)

A young girl in Florida was taken to the hospital for a possible snake bite, but turns out to probably have been an iguana bite. (News source.)

India: New Frogs

12 new frogs will be described soon from India. (News source.)

Crocs and Floods

Flooding in North Queensland means more encounters with snakes and crocodiles. One man accidentally drove over a croc. (News source.)

Herp Crimes

A couple of pet store thieves (took a ball python) have been caught. (News source.)

Ten rare tortoises were stolen from the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum in Singapore. (News source.) Three men have been charged. (News source.)

And, a Louisiana man was arrested for stealing funds meant for a boy who lost an arm in an alligator attack. (News source.)

Croc Threat

A crocodile in Swaziland has been killing livestock along the Nkomanzi River. (News source.)

Big, Big Snake

Details on Titanoboa, a huge fossil snake from South America, here.

Columbia: New Herps

Ten new amphibians have been discovered in Columbia. Nat Geo has pics of several.

Python Legislation

Ignoring science for sensationalism, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is trying to ban the import and interstate transport of pythons. (News source.)

Caymans Croc (Again)

Another small crocodilian has been caught in the Cayman Islands. (News source.)

Fossil Arctic Turtle

A freshwater turtle fossil has been found in the Arctic. (News source.)

And, there's a debate over the origin of the turtle shell in Nature.