2005 HerPET-POURRI Columns by Ellin Beltz

January 2005

Before and After

Traditions pay off for indigenous peoples

Wildlife as threat

• The New Kerala reported that Tamil Nadu fishermen were now worried not only about the "wrath of the tsunami" in the form of more waves but of snakes and scorpions said to be floating on the surface of the sea. [December 27, 2004]
• A survivor on an isolated southern Indian island described swimming from high ground where they were safe but had nothing to eat through crocodile "filled water to reach safety. The man describes the swim as `hide-and-seek' with crocs that were busy feasting on corpses of humans and animals." [WSTM Syracuse, New York from Associated Press Port Blair, India December 31, 2004]

Wildlife threatened

• "Endangered sea turtles were also casualties of the tsunami, with the monster waves possibly hastening their extinction... At least 24 turtles swept up by the waves have been found on the shores of Phuket island [Thailand], some dead, others with cuts, scrapes and broken shells. But the titanic wave also swept away about two dozen endangered olive ridley turtles that were part of a breeding program which had been increasing their numbers... In the tsunami-affected region, the olive ridley breed only on the Andaman Sea coast and nearly became extinct in Thailand, because their eggs were smuggled for food. Their numbers fell from 5,000 nests 50 years ago to fewer than 200 today. The breeding program had allowed the olive ridley with its broad heart-shaped shell to start a comeback, but it has now been dealt a serious blow." The director said, "The environment has changed, with debris and garbage strewn on the seashore and sediment in the sea. These are not good conditions for turtles to lay eggs." [San Jose Mercury News, January 8, 2005]
• "A Sri Lankan conservationist... wipes a tear as he stands over a patch of sand and broken wire mesh, the only surviving incubation pit of his hatchery for endangered sea turtles. Twelve days after giant tsunami waves destroyed the hatchery, washing away 20,000 eggs, seven rare green turtles and $500,000 worth of research equipment, [he] is still trying to come to terms with the loss." An estimated 30,000 people died in Sri Lanka the same day. "Elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, concern has mounted over the future of the great leatherback turtles who used to nest on the sandy beaches of the Great Nicobar island in the southern stretch of the Nicobar archipelago. `The beaches are all gone, they won't be able to nest here,' said Harry Andrews, director of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Environmental Team." [Reuters, January 7, 2005]
• Beaches around the Indian Ocean were just removed and as noted by the Sri Lankan conservationist many eggs were just ready to hatch. What effect the apparent loss of this cohort will have versus the loss of fishing boats and fishermen will have over the long term remains to be seen.
• Even before the tsunami, turtle landings were down. The Malaysia New Straits Times, December 21, 2004 reports "Landings from the endangered leatherback turtles in the State fell by more than half this year, and the reptiles laid less than a quarter of the eggs compared with last year. According to the Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Center, the number of leatherbacks that came to nest dropped from 14 last year to six this year... Last year [2003], besides the 14 leatherbacks, 1,485 green turtles and six hawksbills were spotted... In 2002, there were three leatherback landings and none in 2001... Despite the drop in the leatherback turtle landings, the total number of turtle landings in Terengganu increased from 1,505 in 2003 to 3,096 this year, with most of them being green turtles... On turtle landings this year, besides the leatherbacks, 3,062 were green turtles, three Olive Ridley and one hawksbill... In 2002, the center recorded 2,885 green turtle landings, six hawksbill, three leatherbacks and two Olive Ridley... although this was an encouraging sign, the number of turtle landings was still below expectation. In the 1970s and 1980s, many turtles could be seen laying eggs, including the leatherbacks and hawskbills, but due to poaching, the number dwindled over the years."

Wildlife as savior

The world still turns

• Arab News from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia reports that a man will enter an enclosure with twenty-five snakes and twenty-five scorpions. This stunt is a warm-up to an effort to get into the Guinness Book of World Records with a stunt using nearly four times that many "Saudi cobras, Egyptian cobras, desert snakes and vipers." No one seems to have told him that the previous holder of most snakes lived with for longest time or whatever they call it, died of a snake bite. [December 29, 2004] A few days earlier on December 20, the same paper reported, "People in Al-Namas area are talking about a snake that has achieved notoriety because it is addicted to sniffing paint... The snake crawls for 500 meters from his hiding place to the paint shop and stays there for 30 minutes before unsteadily slithering back again to his hiding place. The owner of the paint shop said that he does not mind the snake sniffing the fumes every day because its appearance is publicizing his business."
• A Red River Parish, Louisiana man died after being bitten by one of his pet timber rattlesnakes in the back of his pawn shop while feeding it a rat by hand. He had trouble breathing, drove himself to a clinic, was transferred to a hospital, but died later in the evening. [KTBS3, Shreveport, Louisiana December 22, 2004]

Brilliant new acronym

Q. "I saw a feature on [TV] many years back on a python that ate a man! My boy loves snakes. Is he in danger of being eaten? Snakebite"

A. "I saw that feature too and was amazed that the python was able to ingest a human being! Snakey [my pet snake] and I have always stressed the reality of SFE's or Stupid Feeding Errors when taking care of reptiles. Almost blind, snakes rely on their forked tongue to sniff potential prey; basically anything warm, that moves and smells like a food item - chicken or rodent. You smell like rat and handle Snakey, you will get bitten. Men getting eaten by snakes are a very, very, very rare occurrence because they are too big for most pythons. Although snakes are able to unhinge their jaws to swallow prey much bigger, humans are just too large! The unfortunate [man] was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was out hunting and probably smelled like fowl or wild boar and was foolhardy enough to hunt a gigantic reticulated python. The snake thought he was prey and the poor man ended up Snakey's dinner!"

Alligator in boot brings book

I've reported this story for too many years

Busted but in a new way

Believe it or not - it seems a bit big

The people have spoken

February 2005

Rana-mator

Live snake found in Hawaiian store

Boa are you far from home!

For a very good cause

• Timber Rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus
• Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina
• Pacific Gophersnake, Pituophis catenifer
• Pigmy Short-horned Lizard, Phrynosopma douglasii
• Pacific Pond Turtle, Actinemys marmorata.

A reason to go east

Chance or?

Pinheads of evolution

Life imitates someone else's life

Frogs continue to vanish

Toads immune to Chytrid

Degrees no substitute for common sense

Creature Shock

Off to a better place

• Three live alligators were found in a Missouri barn owned by a man shot to death by Des Moines, Iowa police at an apartment building he owned in town. The man was a suspect in the arson destruction of an 88-year-old church and several other structures in Missouri and Iowa. The alligators were shipped to Florida. [Des Moines Register, December 24, 2004 from Wes von Papineäu]
• Police officers responding to a call found a resident dead of an overdose. Looking around, they found a 3-foot-long baby alligator in the bathtub. Officers were unable to find a shipper to take the gator south, so one of them decided to drive the critter to Florida. He said, "He'll be happy at Reptiland. The people there are just great... "I've been waiting for something like [this gator to] turn up in [town] for years. I'm glad I got to be the one to take care of it." [Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Intelligencer Journal January 5, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]

Stupid fashion accessories

• An Irish comic with an albino python wrapped around his neck was featured in "Lemony Snicket," a recent movie. Billy Connolly said, "It would go into my hair and moan into my ear. I said it fancies me. He must have mistook me for a woman, with my hair and all. He thought I was a bearded lady." [ Irish Examiner, Cork, Ireland, January 3, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]
• A police officer got a huge surprise when he reached into a crashed car to check the driver's pulse and put his hand on a 3-foot long live boa constrictor that the deceased was wearing as a "fashion accessory." Officials later determined the snake played no part in the accident because the autopsy showed no signs of strangulation. [KPIX, San Francisco, California, January 3, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]
• A so-called "dramatic demonstration" of the need to carry cell phones in the wild happened "when a pair of girls on vacation climbed a hill in Livingston, Montana... a rattlesnake struck at one of their legs. Looking around, they realized they were surrounded by serpents. The hillside was covered in them... The two men who rescued them shot two snakes... later a rattlesnake trapper reported seeing 25 to 30 snakes in the area..." [Outdoor Life, October 2004 from Alan Rigerman] Reminds me of that On-Star commercial "We were surrounded by them!"
• "After a long day in Jaipur, India," wrote a tourist to Fromme's Budget Travel Magazine, September 2004, "we returned to our hotel... hot and tired, my wife quickly donned her bikini and headed for the pool, where she prepared to nap. Almost immediately, a roving entertainer arrived carrying two burlap bags. He sat down cross-legged... removed his musical instrument [from one bag] and dumped out... six cobras [from the other]. My wife dashed through the garden, the adjacent boutique, and back to our room in record time. The snake charmer and I were the only ones amused." [from Alan Rigerman] Until now, dear writer, until now.

Fangs a lot, dad

Waves generate attention

Great advice

On the road again

March 2005

A visit to San Diego

No good explanation

BC Leopard Frogs nearly gone

Many forms of action

• The Joongang Ilbo of Seoul, South Korea reported on February 2, 2005: "On the 99th day of a hunger strike to save salamanders from a railroad construction project, a Buddhist nun is gaining support from both governing and opposition lawmakers. Thirty-one lawmakers from the Uri and Grand National parties said yesterday they want Mount Cheonseong to undergo another examination to make sure that the construction of a tunnel through the mountain for Seoul-Busan express train service causes no environmental damage. "We urge another environmental check-up," said the lawmakers. "That is the only way to stop controversy, while stopping the Venerable Jiyul from continuing her protest." ... Other nuns at the society said she refuses to talk but sits up sometimes to fold salamanders out of colored paper." Her condition was reported as critical at last report.
• "Bali, Indonesia: Religious leaders and conservationists have taken an unprecedented step by coming together to secure a more positive future for Bali's sea turtles. Although green turtles have long played a significant, symbolic role in traditional Indonesian Hindu rituals and ceremonies, religious leaders have asked Balinese Hindus to stop using turtle meat in religious ceremonies until such time as the turtle population was deemed stable by the government... With the realization of the scale of the crisis facing sea turtles, the high priests issued a seven-point recommendation. One high priest... suggested the use of turtle shaped rice cakes or pictures of turtles as a substitute for turtle meat. Alternatively, a live turtle could be used for the purposes of the ritual and then released back into the wild." The recommendations of this committee are headed upward, if the full convention of Hindu leaders adopts the proposal it will become Bhisama (religious decree) and have great effects across the subcontinent. [WWF Newsroom, February 25, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]
• The January 31, 2005 editorial from The Alabama Decatur Daily: Rattlesnake rodeos causing too much harm to continue. Whigham, Ga., a town of about 320 people near the Florida line, staged a rattlesnake rodeo Saturday for the 45th year, an event that attracts thousands and raises money for charity. Despite the amusement it provides those who attend and the money it raises, it should be stopped. The people of Whigham should find another way to raise money. It's not because rattlesnakes are high on most people's list of desirable creatures. For the majority, the only good rattlesnake is a dead one. With that said, it should be pointed out that rattlesnakes do a lot of good, killing rats and other pests that make our lives miserable. But during these rodeos, the snakes aren't out slithering about. And that's where the concern comes. Rattlesnakes tend to winter with gopher turtles in South Georgia and Florida, much of their habitat. A gopher turtle is usually in that same hole with the snake. The turtle is protected in Georgia and Florida, and is Georgia's state reptile. Snake hunters often use a long hose to dribble gasoline down the hole. The snake crawls out and the turtle dies. Although event sponsors discourage the gasoline method, they admit they have no control over the hunters. Last year, 350 rattlers were caught, so it's probably not far off to estimate that a large number of these protected turtles died. Most of the larger rattlesnake rodeos have been canceled to help protect this turtle, but a few remain. Georgia once had three rodeos, but only this one remains. Gopher turtles, known during the Great Depression as `Hoover chickens,' a reference to President Hoover and to the fact that they were hunted for food then, are seeing much of their habitat destroyed by the ever-expanding use of land. Because these rodeo events increase the threat to both the diamondback rattlesnake and the gopher turtle, they should cease."

Your tax dollars continue to work

• "The former manager of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge said he did the right thing, even though he was fined and put on administrative leave for moving federally protected tadpoles without a permit. `To me, $3,500 was a small investment to save a species from extinction,' said Wayne Shifflett, who was placed on leave more than a year ago for moving 400 Chiricahua leopard frog tadpoles without a permit. `Too bad it came out of my pocket because Arizona Game & Fish and (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife wouldn't stand up for them,' he said. `There surely would have been destruction of the whole population (had I not acted.)' The discovery of the rare amphibians at the refuge south of Tucson was made in the mid-1980s, he said. `I took a picture of a leopard (frog) in 1986.' But the drought that southern Arizona has endured for nearly a decade was threatening the frog, which was was added to the list of endangered species in June 2002, he said. In 2003, staff members at the refuge hauled water daily to provide an environment for the animals to survive, but the schedule was too arduous to maintain, he said. After about a week Arizona Game & Fish issued a permit to move seven adults to a Tucson backyard with the hope that another permit would be issued to move them back to the refuge when conditions improved. A good crop of tadpoles developed, but there was fear that the adults, who don't distinguish between their own young and other food, would eat them, he said. But Arizona Game & Fish, which declined to comment for this story, would not issue a permit for the move... Shifflett said that because he had an endangered species permit, he decided to move the tadpoles to breeding tanks built on the refuge. `I moved about 400 and put them in there. That was in May 2003,' he said. `We didn't tell Arizona Game & Fish. Then on Dec. 18, (2003) I got a visit from two federal agents who said they were here is investigate me for moving the frogs onto the refuge,' Shifflett said. 'They proceeded to tell me about all the laws I had broken. I told them the only thing I did was try to save the Chiricahua leopard frog from becoming extirpated from the valley,' Shifflett said. `But I gave them a statement about what I had done.' In January 2004, Shifflett received a letter saying he had been put on administrative leave pending an investigation of the illegal movement of the frogs, he said. [He retired instead.] ... Shifflett left his $94,320-a-year job in May 2004, he said. Late last month he received a certified letter from U.S. Fish and Wild Service saying he was fined $3,500 for illegally moving wildlife onto the refuge." [Tucson Citizen, February 24, 2005]
• Some things he forgot to point out were included in a press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility which states: "This is the only prosecution on record of a wildlife refuge manager for a conservation-related offense. `Refuge managers who act boldly to protect wildlife should not be prosecuted; they should be commended,' stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, who noted that the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona twice declined to prosecute Shifflett and that charges were ultimately filed out of Justice Department Headquarters in Washington, D.C. `While it is a mystery why Justice would use scarce prosecutorial resources to pursue this case, it is a certainty that this action reeks of slimy politics.' Shifflett's decision to move the tadpoles has saved the species from complete elimination on the refuge. The frogs are now thriving in ponds, tanks and a breeding facility for which taxpayers had already spent $100,000 to facilitate the threatened leopard frogs' reintroduction. Shifflett acted after Arizona Game & Fish had refused to issue a permit to a university researcher to move the frogs onto the refuge. `I have been asked many times by peers and friends if I had to make that decision again, would I have made the same decision and my answer is always the same: Without a doubt, it was the right decision for me and the resource,' said Shifflett, who retired this May after a 38-year career in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. `A former Director of the Service would always remind us "Refuge Managers are all about saving dirt and protecting critters." Politics change but saving dirt and critters has always remained the only constant which has directed my decisions.` Rather than spend months in his retirement fighting the criminal charges, Wayne Shifflett has decided to pay the fine. The criminal charges come more than a year and a half after his actions to save the frogs. The delay reflects months of back room pressure and meetings about whether Shifflett should be prosecuted even after he retired. `This case is the perfect illustration of how federal wildlife policy is now being set by pencil pushers and political schemers rather than by experienced, dedicated professionals,' Ruch added. 'Regardless of the costs, Wayne Shifflett's decisiveness will pay dividends to the restoration of the Sonoran Desert ecosystem for generations to come.'' [from Michael Dloogatch]

Too much $$ and no ¢

Thanks to Wes and Mike and the folks at the San Diego Herp Society,

April 2005

Sensationalism abounds

Asclepius' staff

What's the common theme?

• "State workers have set out traps after a Kona resident spotted a snake slithering up a tree... a brown, 2 1/2- to 3-foot snake climbing... 10 snake traps baited with live mice were set up... snake sightings on the Big Island are unusual. The last time a snake was caught there was in May 1999 when a 22-inch gopher snake was found at a nursery in Hilo." [Honolulu Advertiser (Hawaii) 05 March 05] Six days later, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that the snake which was seen was probably not a brown tree snake. [March 11, 2005]
• "The Big Island's shrieking coqui frogs seem to reach their maximum numbers when they live in non-native albizia forests," reports the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and adds that researchers will "also study the effect on forest ecology of thousands of coquis per acre gobbling up every insect, spider and other small, edible creature... Eradicating coquis is not the direct intent of the study... but the researcher opposes their presence in Hawaii because they appear bad for the environment. They might eat spiders that control mosquitoes, and they might eat bugs that birds need, he said. But the big worry is the enormous amount of food that the frogs would represent to snakes, if snakes ever got established on the island." [March 11, 2005]
• Ever inventive, the Australians held a competition to see who could design the best cane toad trap. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has had several stories about it. The first here says "While every state and territory but Tasmania put in an entry before last Monday's deadline, almost half of the 90 designs came from the state where cane toads are already so widespread they have been adopted as the mascot for the State of Origin rugby league team. Forty-three Queensland inventors put in a bid to be one of the six short-listed entries that will get a $1,000 grant to develop their trap before the final winner is announced in late April. Northern Territory residents had 25 entries, and the sole international competitor sent in an idea from Germany." [March 4, 2005] Meanwhile the same "Northern Territory Government is recruiting residents around Darwin and Palmerston to take up arms in the fight against the cane toad. A household guide on identifying, deterring and disposing of cane toads will be delivered to letterboxes in the city and rural areas over the next week." [March 7, 2005]

Busy month for fossils down under

• The Australian (Sydney) reported that " Researchers have discovered a new species of prehistoric crocodile after unearthing 40-million-year-old remains in south-east Queensland... consisting of two nearly complete skulls, a lower jaw and bits of legs, ribs and claws... has excited researchers who hope to study them to shed light on the evolution of one of the world's most dangerous killers... earliest known genus of what's called Mekosuchinae' a big group of extinct crocodiles that dominated Australia and developed a large degree of diversity." [February 23, 2005]
• "The 110 million year old fossils of several turtles are the earliest remains of their kind found in Australia.... [and] are some of the earliest ancestors of modern sea turtles. Paleontologists from the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide made the discovery, from the Early Cretaceous period, at a dig near Boulia in western Queensland. [A] research scientist ... said the fossils suggest the Cheloniidae family of modern turtles had some of their earliest origins in Australia." [Australian Broadcasting Company, February 21. 2005]

Change the textbooks

No more baby food, Steve!

Adding reality to injury

Anything for a buck?

Nice historical research

Hello my honey!

News of the wierd

• "The right vibrations transform a meek salamander larva into a killing machine. The `predator' morph, with its larger head and aggressive attitude, is better adapted to grabbing larger prey. Visual, chemical or sound signals can trigger striking morphological changes in a range of aquatic animals and amphibians. [New Scientist (London, UK) March 5, 2005]
• "A snake has eaten its own tail... [An American] king snake... on display at the National Taidong Aquarium in Taiwan... had not eaten in 24 hours, mistook his reflection for another snake, and swallowed it. After an hour's emergency treatment, the reptile recovered. [Ananova (London, UK) March 2, 2005]
• "Research into the origins of venom production has revealed that there are 2,200 species of poisonous snake in the world - 2,000 more than previously believed," reports The Independent. Most just don't have any way to deliver the tiny drops of specialized proteins they produce and are therefore considered harmless. The others, well, "It is estimated that about five million people each year are bitten by snakes, resulting in about 125,000 deaths... Several treatments, including the widely used anticoagulant Arvin, have already been derived from components of snake venom. According to these findings, therefore, there are thousands more types of snake venom that can be used in medical research than previously thought." The researcher remarked "This makes perfect evolutionary sense. There could not have been a strong selection pressure for the development of advanced pieces of architecture like fangs unless there was already a potent venom worth delivering. Therefore, venom preceded the fang just as the ability to make noise in the primates preceded the voicebox." [March 9, 2005]

Letters

Well I hope so...

May 2005

Letters...

Bad pun... wish I'd said it first!

Save a few, kill the rest

• A creative deal between a rancher, Orange County and developers may net the county more than $12 million dollars, just for saving a 1,280 acre pristine piece of land from development. The process is called "mitigation banking" and permits developers to help pay for the land set aside. In return, the developers can rip the heck out of their own land and save nothing. Voters are paying for the initial purchases, but development fees can return hundreds of millions of dollars in builders' fees. [Orlando, Florida Sun-Sentinel, January 17, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• "Gopher tortoises decline as builders pay to kill them," cried a Sun-Sentinel headline. The story is, as it has been for years, that developers move some and can't find others, so pay the state fees which are used to set aside habitat with tortoises in the hopes of saving the species. However, this article has bias. Read the following carefully, "Few dispute, though, that tens of thousands of tortoises have perished... `They die slowly of starvation and suffocation,' said... a Winter Park environmental activist and devotee of tortoises. To ecologists, the horror goes beyond individual tortoises..." it includes all the other species trapped in the burrows with the tortoises including burrowing owls and indigo snakes. No where is the source of the activist's data provided. The whole piece is full of setups, little pieces out of context strung together for an emotional whole. Unfortunately, it wasn't on the op-ed page, it was presented as news. [February 6, 2005 from Bill Burnett] The problem, of course is that people are insatiable for flat, dry land on which to build - a habitat choice tortoises made millions of years ago before any pesky little primates rose to self-appointed supremacy.
• The decline in the number of loggerhead turtle nests on Florida beaches continues rapidly. In 1998, there were 18,000 nests, in 2004 only 8,000. Experts discount the folk wisdom that last year's hurricanes are to blame, citing instead the increase in long-line fisheries in the Azores Islands, owned by Portugal. Long-lines have thousands of baited hooks set to catch fish. Young turtles reportedly get hooked straight through their throats and are unable to escape. The fishermen in the Azores collect data; most of their turtle by-catch is 7 to 12 year old animals. [January 22, 2005: Miami Herald, from Alan Rigerman; Orlando, Florida Sun-Sentinel, from Bill Burnett]

Don't believe everything you've read

I'd lose my appetite, too

Busted!

Exploded!

Reinacted!

Revealed!

The yin and the yang in news

• Another story of which I received many copies was of a turtle with shell markings reputed to look like Satan. Apparently the turtle was the only survivor of a fire in their pet shop. When they got him out of the ruins, his shell was marked with the apparent face. They are selling DVDs of the turtle's markings on eBay and offering it for sale privately. [The Times, Frankfort, Indiana, March 18, 2005 from MaryBeth Trilling; The South Bend Indiana Tribune, March, 19, 2005 from Garrett Kazmierski; CNN.com, March 21, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• To prove there are two sides to every story and that nature has exceptions to everything, I offer this from the Chicago Daily Herald [April 23, 2005]: "You've seen Our Lady of the Underpass. Now meet Our Lady of the Underbelly. A miracle of reptilian proportions may be occurring in Glendale Heights, where a pet turtle's markings look eerily similar to the Virgin Mary... [The owner] didn't think much about the spot until a few weeks ago when people swore they saw a Marian apparition on the Kennedy Expressway. The faithful and the curious have flocked to the image, a salt stain located on a concrete wall near Fullerton Avenue in Chicago. Dubbed Our Lady of the Underpass, the spot's resemblance to Mary is, at best, debatable. The suburban turtle, named Red Belly, bears a much stronger likeness to the Blessed Virgin, even if his owners don't believe Mother Mary has come to comfort them. "I'm Catholic," [the owner] said, laughing. "But not that Catholic." Convinced Red Belly looked holier than the salt stain, the ... family began showing his tummy to neighbors. Their shell-shocked reactions convinced them they weren't the only ones who saw deux ex tortoise."

Thanks to everyone who contributed for this column.

June 2005

Wrong way, Cornie!

Just nature red in tooth and claw

How tortoises get around

Is there a correlation?

• "The number of households with pet reptiles and amphibians, and the number of herps they have is still growing. According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association 2005-2006 National Pet Owners Survey... 11 million herps are kept as pets in 4.4 million homes in the U.S. Or on average 2.5 pets per household [keeping herps]. The number of households with herps as pets represent a 7 percent increase from 2002. The amount of herps being kept as pets increases by 22 percent from 2002. [HerpDigest Lite, May 6, 2005 from Allen Salzberg]
• "Arizona Game and Fish law enforcement agents and other officials say they have seen an influx of alligators, cobras, imported diamondbacks, vipers and other illegal creatures in recent years. The number of exotic pets seized by the agency or sparking complaints isn't huge - about 115 cases statewide since 2000, including about a half-dozen alligators a year. But investigators say complaints are rising as the state's population grows, causing concern about threats both to public safety - what's living next door to you? - and to the natural environment. 'The crux of the problem is that people are importing all sorts of critters, from all over the globe, with no regard to the regulations, and animals are being released either accidentally or intentionally,' said ... a Tucson-based field supervisor for Game and Fish. [Tucson, Arizona Daily Star, June 5, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]

Range extensions

• "A rare Mediterranean toad which was once thought to be extinct is causing a bit of a stir at night in the heart of leafy Bedfordshire [U.K.]. The rare and tiny Mallorcan midwife toads have mysteriously found their way into the village of Sharnbrook. After a lucky find on Mallorca in 1980 and a successful breeding program, there were thought to be about 500 left in the world. One theory is they may have arrived in Sharnbrook on imported plants... the piping calls of the male toads sound like a hammer on an anvil. Villagers said they first became aware of the toads about a year ago, but thought their metallic nocturnal noise was coming from the nearby railway line. They later tracked the noise down to the amphibian invaders to local ponds." [British Broadcasting Company, June 1, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]
• A Thai academician warned that alien species, including North American red-eared sliders, locally called "Tao Kaemdaeng" are increasing rapidly in Bangkok canals. They were originally sold as pets, but were abandoned after they "lost their cuteness" and have begun feasting on native fauna. [The Nation, Bangkok, Thailand, June 4, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]
• "The wilderness between Western Australia's Lake Argyle and the Victoria River in the Northern Territory is soon to become a battleground against the cane toad. And among those breathing a sigh of relief will be the east Kimberley's local frogs. Widespread trapping, fencing and a five-person border patrol will form the basis of an all-out assault by the West Australian Government to keep the cane toad from entering the state. [The Sydney Australian, June 2, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]

Hip, hop, hooray!

Salamanders, salamanders and more salamanders

• "... After years of checking genetics and morphology, scientists have determined the critters dubbed the Scott Bar salamander, Plethodon asupak, represent a newly discovered species. The findings are published in the June edition of Herpetologica, the scientific journal focusing on the crawly creatures. Until now, the population of salamanders in that area were believed to be Siskiyou Mountain salamanders, Plethodon stormi, found in a small area of both the Klamath and Applegate river drainages.... scientists continue to look for more information, he said, citing the region's rich history of biological diversity... For more information on the Scott Bar salamander, check out www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/HL/HL.html." [May 31, 2005: Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune and the Seattle Times, both from Wes von Papineäu and materials forwarded from The Center for North American Herpetology by Joe Collins]
• "A Canadian scientist said that it may be possible to find new salamander species in amphibian fossils formed during the time dinosaurs roamed the earth... a Montreal-based paleontologist, is currently in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to study 50 amphibian fossils at the regional museum. All the fossils date back to the Mesozoic, the third era of geologic time... Chinese scientists named about eight species of salamanders through fossil analysis and new ones may be found. [Beijing, China - People's Daily, June 5, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]
• A new species of plethodontid salamander was found under a rock in South Korea by a biology teacher who sent it to his old advisor at Southern Illinois University who forwarded it to David Wake who discovered that it's a totally new and quite unexpected species. Up until now, all Asian salamanders were aquatic. Finding this one on land was unpredicted and unexpected according to all sorts of amphibian experts. "The nocturnal creature was named Karsenia koreana but will be commonly known as the Korean crevice salamander and is significantly different from other lungless salamanders. So far they have been found in 16 locations in three South Korean provinces." [Reuters, May 4, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]

Lifestyles of the rich and ?

I feel old

• "The Kemp's ridley that laid 103 eggs in a nest on the beach at Galveston Island State Park was taken to a NOAA laboratory for fitting with a satellite tracking device and was expected to be released into the gulf on Sunday night... Another 87 eggs were recovered around 10:30 a.m. from another nest on the beach ... [and would] be taken to the Padre Island National Seashore for incubation, and the young turtles should be released about two months after hatching. The first Kemp's ridley nesting on the upper coast occurred in 2002 on Galveston Island. The last Kemp's ridley turtle nesting recorded on Galveston Island was on May 16 [before these two in late May]." [Houston Chronicle, May 29, 2005, from Wes von Papineäu]
• "Last year, there were 42 known Kemp's ridley nestings on the Texas coast, including two on Galveston Island, two on the Bolivar Peninsula and one at Surfside in Brazoria County, Shaver said. As of 2003, the estimated worldwide female population of Kemp's ridleys was 3,200, Shaver said. That estimate is based mainly on the number of nests located at a beach near Rancho Nuevo, Mexico - until recent years, the only known Kemp's nesting place in the world." [Houston Chronicle, May 17, 2005 from Wes von Papineäu]
• Carole Allen and her tireless volunteers raised funds for and headstarted more than 23,000 Kemp's hatchlings between 1978 and 1992. It was one of my first stories when I began writing my column in 1987. Back then we wondered how long it would take for them to return, if they did. Now, we know it takes Kemp's sixteen to eighteen years to mature and return to breed!

Great writing

Human or turtle "Survivor" clones?

Let's hear it for bird flu!

Like Losing the Golden Gate?

July 2005

Only the good die young

Snake Season Starts

• "Nothing thrills and chills quite like the sight of a snake. For most people, crossing paths with a snake is more chilling than thrilling, but for [a] local snake hunter... it's all thrills." [Little Rock, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 29, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• The Chicago Tribune [May 20, 2005 from Ray Boldt] reports: "After accidentally squishing a Mohave rattlesnake under the tires of his dirt bike, [a] contractor... whacked off its head for a souvenir. The decapitated serpent was not amused. When [the man] reached down to pluck up the head - with 3 inches of body attached - it wheeled around and chomped his left index finger." For doctors it was just another indication of the arrival of "Snake Season" in California. A snakebite specialist at Stanford University Medical Center estimated that from 7,000 to 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes each year in the U.S. Amazingly, less than a dozen usually die. Even the decapitator at the beginning of the article lived to drive his dirt bike again.

Your tax dollars at work

Poisons and traps, or tolerance?

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the use of hydrated lime for coqui frog eradication efforts in Hawai'i. Lime is cheaper than citric acid which should help in large scale applications. [Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April 28, 2005 from Ms. G.E. Chow]
• Meanwhile inventive researchers in Puerto Rico developed a plastic pipe trap to catch coquis. Approximately 10-inch sections of 3/4 or 1/2 inch diameter white plastic pipe are open on the bottom and topped with a tee fitting. The frogs crawl in, lay eggs and wait inside for the eggs to hatch. The frogs don't move when people pick up the tubes which lets them be counted or killed, your choice. The pipes have to be weathered to removed the plastic smell which apparently keeps the frogs from wanting to use them. As soon as the first crop of frogs are taken from the traps it takes about two weeks for them to be re-colonized. [Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April 28, 2005 from Ms. G.E. Chow]
• USA Today reported that some neighbors in a community on Maui get together at night to "fog frogs" with citric acid spray. One "regularly heads out wearing a gas mask, headlamp and plastic backpack fogging machine... 'This is just a part of my life now,'" [he said]. [April 13, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• A recent letter to the editor in the Honolulu Advertiser [May 14, 2005 from Ms. G.E. Chow] reads: "Paranoia and misinformation about the coqui has spread much faster and further her in Hawai'i than the frog itself has... Since it isn't trendy right now... to show appreciation for non-native species... [the writer claims the whole story is not being told]..."

  "Unlike what you've heard, the coqui does have natural predators here in Hawai'i: Rats hunt them here just as they do in the frogs' native habitat." [Ellin's note: rats are native neither to Puerto Rico nor Hawai'i having been introduced to both in the 1600s to 1800s from European sailing vessels.]
  
  "The coqui does not sing at 90 decibels... [but] at about 75 decibels - the same volume as your average songbird." [Ellin's note: This would be fine if coquis sang in the daytime. A whole pond of them outside your window at night can be much more annoying than songbirds at any volume.]
  
  "Just because the coqui eats Hawaiian insects and spiders doesn't mean it's a threat to the native ecology. Many non-native bugs compete with and eat native ones, and coquis eat them too, so the overall net effect of the coqui is unknown." [Ellin's note: He's got a point here.]
  
  "Whether you like them or not it isn't right for anyone to make false claims and present them to the public as facts." [Ellin's note: unfortunately your speculations aren't fact either, but it was an interesting letter anyway.]

Well guys have a "third leg," so...

Sea Turtle Nesting in an Odd-Numbered Year

• Biologists are very concerned about the state of Florida's beaches after last year's record hurricane season and the unexplained decline in loggerhead sea turtle nests over the last decade. Despite some fluctuation, the overall trend has been down from a peak nesting of 85,988 in 1998 to an alarming 47,173 in 2004. [Orlando Sentinel, May 1, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• Additionally, the peak of sea turtle nesting is ten days earlier on average than fifteen years ago as temperatures continue to warm earlier every year. Sea temperature is up 1.44 degrees F for the entire Florida coast of the Atlantic Ocean. [Orlando Sentinel, May 2, 2005 from Bill Burnett] For comparison, the Earth's overall temperature warmed only one degree in the entire 20th Century.

The English Impatient

Determining sex of petrified rex

Stupid Human Tricks

Just another love bite

Case closed

Good neighbors

Newt challenges, snake responds

Python Pete in training

Hello Marin? We have a problem.

Welcome back!

Back from the brink?

September 2005

I'm Looking Through You

Brilliant writing (puns intended)

Deadlier than a serpent's tooth

Found down Unda!

Invading a Town Near You!

Toadally absent

A reasonably sympathetic trait!

More clothes, same story

Anything for a buck

Turtles, turtles and more turtles

Mercury Retrograde

October 2005

Foreword

Contribute to a herpetological icon

Hungry lizards invade Sanibel

Weird enough?

More Coqui-tales

• "Hydrated lime improperly administered to fight coqui frogs poses a serious potential human health risk and the state is hearing... several reports about residents not following the directions on the labels of hydrated lime when using it as a pesticide. Instead, some people are applying just the dust." [West Hawaii Today, May 28, 2005, from Paul Breese]
• "Costly coqui frogs affecting state economy. Frogs disrupt real estate deals, nurseries..." scream the headlines. Eradicating coqui frogs costs an arm and a leg because the "Oahu Invasive Species Committee sprays at least four nights a week amid fears the rapidly multiplying coqui could easily spread if they aren't completely eradicated." [West Hawaii Today, July 11, 2005, from Paul Breese]
• "A tiny, 2-inch frog is causing a big stir in Hawaii. Beloved in its native Puerto Rico, the coqui frog has become a menace... where it suddenly appeared in the 1990s. With no natural predators... the frogs and their loud "ko-KEE" mating calls have multiplied exponentially - causing headaches for homeowners." [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 16, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• Recent studies show that coqui frogs (Eleutherodactylus coqui) "don't inhabit the same high-elevation areas as endangered Hawaiian birds, meaning there is little fear the invasive amphibians will compete with the birds for food and push them into extinction." [West Hawaii Today, August 29, 2005, from Paul Breese; USA Today, August 30, 2005 from Bill Burnett]

Count Frog-ula?

Toxic frog legs

Frogs may save us yet

Can it be done?

It's real, not a legend

Check your deodorant around him!

Rare frogs found again in their natural habitat

ESA Endangered

Routine news days

• "Two people were arrested... on suspicion of releasing an alligator in a small city lake, [in Los Angeles, CA] where the reptile has evaded capture while drawing many spectators... Officers also seized other alligators, turtles and snakes [in the suspects' home]." A crew from a central Florida attraction offered to "take the gator back with them if the city doesn't want to keep it." [Orlando Florida Sentinel, August 25, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• "State agriculture officials say a Honolulu family captured an illegal lizard after a son spied the two-foot long reptile on a wall in the driveway of the family's... home. The green-colored lizard was identified as a Solomon Island Prehensile-tailed Skink." The family caught the lizard before calling authorities who assume it's an escaped pet. [West Hawaii Today, July 6, 2005, from Paul Breese]

Massasaugas online

Science is applied laziness

A dose of reality

New books this month include

• Texas Snakes. A Field Guide by James R. Dixon and the late John E. Werler with drawings by Regina Levoy. The press release from The Center for North American Herpetology, Lawrence, Kansas, reads: "From the legendary Western Diamondback Rattlesnake to the brightly-colored Texas Coral Snake to the harmless New Mexico Blind Snake, Texas has a greater diversity of snake species than any other state in the country. Recognizing the need for a complete field guide to identifying and understanding the snakes of Texas, two of the state's most respected herpetologists wrote this definitive reference to all species of Texas snakes." [September 22, 2005 from Jim Harding]
• Venomous Snakes of the World by Mark O'Shea will be out by the time you get this issue. It's a 160 page hardcover from Princeton University Press, companion piece to Mark's Lizards of two years ago.
• Frogs: Inside Their Remarkable World by Ellin Beltz, 175 pages of glorious color photographs of frogs sitting, eating, sleeping, mating (lots of those), estivating, burrowing, calling, and just hanging out accompanying scientifically accurate text accessible to readers of all ages (according to Science News, September 20, 2005). As the publisher says it's available at better book-dealers everywhere - if your store doesn't have one - ask for it by ISBN 1552978699. The CHS is listed in the author's biography for all the obvious reasons. Humboldt Beacon writer Emma Breacain read the whole book and did a great story on it, and me, in their October 6, 2005 issue. She wrote, "Exhaustively researched, thoughtfully organized and exploding with exquisite color photos, `Frogs' may be candy for the eye and food for the brain. And when you're done reading it, you may find it too pretty to put on a shelf... Beltz starts off with frogs' place in human culture and history, then launches into the astounding array of different families and species of frogs, then breaks out chapters on anatomy and physiology and frog's precarious place in our quickly changing (i.e. polluted) Earth environment. It's all here." I told her about my earliest introduction to frogs and added "It was one of the most important days of my life... It was a day when the plastic, artificial world I lived in fell away. I looked into this frog's eyes. This was something that wasn't made in a machine. This wasn't under human control. This was my first inkling of something beyond the concrete and skyscrapers. At that point, who cares how much trouble I got into [for getting dirty that day]?" She also captured my artist's statement for Frogs, "I'm so tired of boring reference books. It think they turn our kids off. Why not write everything we know in language we can understand? Some of my colleagues might accuse me of dummying down, but I'd rather have a book that everyone can read." I hoping you all want to read it!

November 2005

New Ozzie Word

Still stupid after all these years

Dodging another bullet

Envenomations this month

• A Florida fire marshal shot a five-foot-long rattlesnake "multiple times... thought it was close to death... reached out to grab the snake... and... was bitten on his right hand." The man was taken to intensive care where he died despite the administration of 18 vials of antivenin. [Orlando Sentinel, October 11, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• A life-long Florida City snake keeper said that "he'd been bitten so many times, by so many snakes, he thought he was immune," according to the Miami Herald [September, 17, 2005 from Alan Rigerman]. He kept cleaning cages at Everglades Outpost until the owner insisted on taking him to the hospital where he remained in the intensive care unit after receiving 20 vials of antivenin. Albert Killian received his first snake bite at 11-years old, and had collected more than 1,200 snakes by the time he could vote. Since then his life has been catching, caring for, and giving presentations about snakes. Incidentally, the last time anyone was bitten at the Outpost, which houses animals taken and turned in as well as collected, it was Mr. Killian.

Florida - the Exotic Battleground State

• A Miami-Dade homeowner and his friend captured a 10-foot Burmese python in the homeowners yard. They discovered the snake because they'd staked out his fish pond after his prize exotic fish kept vanishing. The capture was filmed by a local television station and hence the story gained legs even though the snake, of course, has none. [Miami Herald, October 19, 2005 from Alan Rigerman]
• Meanwhile a family in Miami lost their pet cat to a 12-foot python recently. They know for sure because the dead python was x-rayed and a cat clearly showed on the film. It was, of course, the lead story that night on the news. [Miami Herald, October 23, 2005 from Alan Rigerman]
• Newspaper readers wrote in about the sudden attention being paid to pythons after the cat got eaten. One wrote: "The question is, who owned this snake and let it go? That irresponsible person should pay for a new cat and the time spent by the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue people trying to catch the reptile." Another added: "My condolences to the owners whose pet was eaten by a snake that has no business in Florida." [ Miami Herald, October 11, 2005 from Alan Rigerman also the Honolulu Advertiser, October 16, 2005 from Ms. G.E. Chow]
• One writer suggested putting microchips in every single imported exotic animal which could lead to a registration system to attribute responsibility for releases, [Miami Herald, October 17, 2005 from Alan Rigerman]. The problem is now with native-bred non-native animals; there's no way to tag their offspring.
• Another suggested "why not initiate a python roundup event? Prizes could be given for catching the most, and a special prize for the largest." The writer goes on to cite the western rattlesnake roundups as a model for his proposed event. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel, October 16, 2005 from Alan Rigerman] I can just see it now, thousands of tourists wrestling giant pythons all over Florida. The liability risk alone is mind-boggling.
• "Experts estimate that nearly 400 non-native species of mammals, reptiles and fish have invaded [Florida], many in the past 20 years... At least 125 of those have established themselves as permanent residents... from giant Burmese pythons to 9-pound African rats, Florida is teeming with exotic critters that have no business being here... And once they make themselves at home, they often can cause havoc," according to the Orlando Sentinel [October 17, 2005 from Bill Burnett]. Burmese pythons are reportedly breeding in the wild and eating native animals as well as challenging the panther and alligator for the real title "king of the Everglades." The list of species illegally released includes dozens of non-native fish species, 48 species of reptiles, 33 species of mammals and four species of amphibians. An "amnesty day" is planned in Orlando next spring in the hopes that people who no longer wish their scaly pets will turn them in, no questions asked.
• In a front page story, lots of facts and figures about the Burmese python invasion were presented including "between 1979 and 2000, only a dozen [pythons] were documented in the wild of south Florida. In the five years since, 236 have been found... and an established reptile invader has never been wiped out... the U.S. government spent several years and $50 million to remove the brown tree snake from... Guam, where it was accidentally introduced decades ago with devastating effects..." [Miami Herald, October 17, 2005 from Alan Rigerman]

Still more Florida exotics

• And when they run out of snakes, gators step in to fill the news. The Orlando Sentinel (October 7, 2005 from Bill Burnett) reports: "A Palm Bay woman who fed an alligator bread learned why that's both unwise and illegal." She was bitten on the hand and written up by wildlife officers. The woman insisted the alligator didn't attack her, it was just trying to take bread out of her hand because she'd tossed it a couple of pieces already. The woman also expressed remorse that the alligator would have to be put down.
• Cape Coral, Florida has a population of nearly 1,000 Nile monitor lizards even though officials have been officially eradicating the lizards for two years. Each female can lay 80 or so eggs at a time. Once grown to their full 7-foot size, they climb, swim and run as fast as 18 miles per hour. People have reported monitors on their roofs; the pests apparently don't see "house," rather "cliff" with a nice basking spot on top. Officials now worry the monitors will find the offshore bird rookeries within the 6,000 acre federal wildlife refuge. [Orlando Sentinel, October 10, 2005 from Ray Boldt]

Offshore ecosystem trashed too

"Frogs" on Stamps!

Toxic snappers

Hopping to help

Coming soon to a pond near you

Sewer Man and the Flush

Just buy a screen top!

It was a very bad year

December 2005

One half-life=20 years

Frog sweat stops HIV

Attention Australia

World Roundup 2006: Drowned, cooked or fried?

• Scientists studying ice cores from east Antarctica have discovered that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere now are at their highest concentration for the last 650,000 years. "The analysis showed that today's atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, at 380 parts per million, is already 27 per cent greater than previous highs... The levels of primary greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are up dramatically since the Industrial Revolution, at a speed and magnitude that the Earth has not seen in hundreds of thousands of years. There is now no question this is due to human influence... [consequently] ocean levels are rising by two millimeters per year compared with one millimeter annually for the last several thousand years," according to the U.K. News Telegraph, November 25, 2005]
• Officials in several Asian countries are beginning to be very worried about bird flu. Doctors in Jakarta, Indonesia report the numbers of people infected is jumping rapidly. They and Thai researchers believe the virus has made the jump to human-to-human transmission. Meanwhile the Chinese are admitting that the situation in the countryside is beyond their control. Three villages in Romania were quarantined; the virus was also detected on the Crimean peninsula in neighboring Ukraine. All of Europe is on alert. [WHO reports, several sources] Meanwhile, "Dr. Nguyen Tuong Van runs the intensive care unit at the Center for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi and has treated 41 victims of H5N1. Van followed World Health Organization guidelines and gave her patients Tamiflu, but concluded it had no effect." [The Qatar Sunday Times, December 5, 2005 from Ed Greenwood] Pet birds and poultry are being destroyed as the H5 form of the virus spreads around the world.

Fossil Wranglers

• A fossil of what researchers believe is an early aquatic turtle was found in 120-million year old rocks in Brazil. Some soft tissue was preserved, allowing scientists to state for sure that the creature had webbing on its feet. Some of the specimens are juvenile turtles visually indistinguishable from some alive today. Older turtle-like creatures are known, but they are more tortoise-like. [BBC News, November 16, 2005 from Ed Greenwood and Ms. G.E. Chow]
• A complete skull of Dakosaurus andiniensis, an early crocodile previously known only from fragments, was found in Argentina. According to Science Magazine, the creature grew to about 13-feet and cruised Jurassic seas, eating just about anything it desired. Pictures are available in the December National Geographic. [Little Rock, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 11, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• Another Argentinean find, Buitreraptor gonalezorum, "proves that a family of small, swift dinosaurs called dromaeosaurs evolved tens of millions of years earlier than previously believed." And even more interesting, the central area of their evolution is not North America as previously believed, but South! The specimen was prepared at the Field Museum and returned to Argentina. [Chicago Tribune, October 13, 2005 from Ray Boldt]

Pentacular trauma

Let's do the time-warp again

• In 1994, in the October journal of the New England Herpetological Society, Bob Campbell reported a call record for Eleutherodactylus coqui, the Puerto Rican tree frog from the grounds of the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the island of Maui. He also reported that Cuban green anoles and house geckos were "conspicuous" on the property as well. If the coquis naturalize on Hawaii, they will be the first calling frog in the islands as the native poison arrow frog does not vocalize, according to the journal. [March 1997 this column - online archive]
• "Even with the door and windows in my [sixth floor hotel] room at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel closed and the curtains pulled, even with the AC cranked up to full throttle (on a night that was already plenty chilly), the ceaseless coqui calls penetrated... the call reaches 90 to 100 decibels... How the heck can something the size of a quarter make so much noise? ... [I propose] not Nuke The Coqui with real nuke-you-ler warheads, but certainly an all-out campaign to eradicate this alien invader... Think of it as a Hawaii version of a Texas rattlesnake hunt, but less dangerous... Make no mistake, the coquis are coming your way, if they're not there already. The first coqui is believed to have arrived in 1988, probably on the Big Island. [Not what we recorded, but perhaps the Maui hotel was a second point of infestation?] Today there are more than 200 infestation colonies on the Big Island; Maui has 40 or more... Oahu five, Kauai one... in Puerto Rico [where they're native] an average 40 adult frogs per 20-by-20 meter plot, compared to 200 [on the same size]... on the Big Island... in Puerto Rico female coqui frogs usually lay a clutch of 34-75 eggs, four to six times a year (450 eggs max.). In Hawaii, however, mating pairs can produce a clutch every two and a half weeks without a loss of fertility... 26 clutches per year... more than 1,400 eggs per female annually!... without needing to dodge hungry predators, coquis are fee to do nothing but eat, screech and fornicate. Forge rabbits when seeking an active sex life simile. [Don Chapman, MidWeek Hawaii, November 16, 2005 from Ms. G.E. Chow]

Life in the Slow Lane

• Several papers reported on the recent 175th birthday of Harriet, the oldest creature on earth. She's a Galapagos tortoise which may or may not have been collected by Darwin himself. In either case, she ended up in the drafty old zoos of Mother England; then was shipped to Australia when they realized the cold was killing her. She celebrated her 175th at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo outside Brisbane where she's lived for the past 17 years. The event was widely covered by tabloids and real press. [Daily Mail, England, November 14, 2005 from Bill Burnett's Aunt Peggy and CNN News from Ms. G.E. Chow]
• One of the famed white alligators of New Orleans Audubon Zoo is on loan to the Florida Aquarium. Jose Blanco was one of the original 19 white hatchlings found in a Louisiana swamp by fishermen in 1987. He's now 10-feet long and 260 pounds of pure white chicken chomping indolence. [Leesburg, Florida Daily Commercial, November 14, 2005 from Bill Burnett]
• Swedish fishermen caught a turtle under solid ice - an event so unusual in that cold northern country that it made the news. Turns out the turtle is a 10-inch long, non-native, North American red-eared slider. Welcome to the new millennium. [HerpDigest, November 27, 2005 from Allen Salzberg]
• Someone has finally discovered what cave dwelling salamanders, Eurycea spelaeus, eat. It was formerly believed they ate stuff that ate bat guano, now a researcher has found they consume the guano directly. Grey bats, Myotis grisescens, "don't digest their food properly, weight for weight their droppings contain more protein and nutrients than a Big Mac. This makes them a perfect snack in a pitch-black environment where food can be scarce," according to Nature [November 16, 2005] which added that the guano is piled up to two meters deep along the banks of an underground river.

Life in the rich lane

Sarcasm or ?

Unusual pas de deux

Gator-aides

• Piscataway, New Jersey police took a 3-foot alligator from the back yard of a local house. "It's not normal to find an alligator around here," said the Lieutenant, who added "I know we've had a lot of rain." Others speculated someone had released a no longer desired pet animal. [Chicago Tribune, October 16, 2005 from Ray Boldt]
• "A Schaumburg man found out the hard way that pet alligators aren't welcome in the northwest suburb. [He] was ticketed for keeping an exotic animal after he hauled a 4-foot-long alligator to the police station... [He] told authorities that a friend asked him to care for the alligator for two days but didn't come back to claim the reptile." It was turned over to a member of the CHS for return to Florida after quarantine. [Chicago Tribune, October 20, 2005 from Ray Boldt]

She must really hate snakes!

Kosher pups?

My Frog Book Reviewed

Thanks to everyone who contributed,