Two surgeries later, Cyrus the amputated python is ready for adoption

SAN MATEO — Cyrus was suffering from an ugly, gaping wound on her back when she arrived at the Peninsula Humane Society on April 28.

The society believes the roughly 3-foot-long ball python was gnawed by a rat that was supposed to be dinner during the snake’s stay with a careless owner who later abandoned her in Daly City.

Staff veterinarian Dr. Elizabeth Roberts estimated that the wound, which exposed several vertebrae, covered about quarter of the surface of the snake’s body. Still, Roberts figured she could save it.

Two surgeries and several months of treatment later, Cyrus is completely healed and ready for adoption. The only reminders of the docile snake’s ordeal are some scarring on the back and a stubby tail, about two inches of which had to be amputated.

“It’s very satisfying,” Roberts said of Cyrus’ recovery. “I’m very, very happy for her. It was a very dramatic case.”

During the first surgery, performed shortly after the snake was found in a residential area near Susan B. Anthony Elementary School, Roberts removed dead tissue and portions of the vertebrae before sewing up the wound.

Humane Society exotics specialist Marisa Burman said the injury was likely caused by a rat that was placed in Cyrus’ cage for the snake to eat. But the python was probably too sick to eat it, so the rat turned on the snake and gnawed it half to death.

Despite the trauma, Cyrus is placid and easy to handle.

“She’s very used to being handled by us,” Burman said. “She’s friendly and tame.”

 

Burman said anyone who wants to adopt Cyrus should have a 40- to 50-gallon tank with proper heating and an enclosed area where the snake can hide. Cyrus is mostly full-grown. Ball pythons typically grow to a maximum of 3 to 5 feet.

The Humane Society has been feeding Cyrus dead rats that are stored in a freezer and then thawed. Cyrus should not be fed live prey, because the circumstances of her injury may have made her “gun shy,” Roberts said.

The society currently has a second ball python named Wilma who is also up for adoption. Wilma is a surrendered pet. She is about six months old and about 1.5-feet long. The adoption fee for each snake is $25.

Ball pythons are native to Africa. They take their name from a tendency to curl up into a ball when threatened.

To adopt Cyrus, Wilma or any other animal at the Peninsula Humane Society, call 650-340-7022 or visit the shelter in person at 12 Airport Blvd. in San Mateo.

from The Mercury news

 

This is a sunshinestory for the snake, isn´t it..?

I mean, the snake got well after being treated badly..

Still.. It makes me think. What person would do this to a snake, or any animal by the way. And the poor rat!

As you probably allready figured out, I am a reptilekeeper myself. And I really get mad when I hear / read this kind of stories. Sure, the animal got better. But my point is, that snake shouldn´t have gotten hurt at all. The ones of us reptilekeepers that breed and sell og give away out offspring, have a responsibility to the young animals we are offering. Don´t just sell it off, for the greens! Talk a bit with your customer.. Find out a bit how serious he / she is about the animal in question.. It may actually save some effect..

Think about it..

//Miqe

Rarley seen snake species found in Fiji.

A new snake species has been found in Fiji and according to a conservation organization, the species has not been found anywhere else in the world.

According to Fiji Times Online, the species was discovered in Vuna, Taveuni, and is a small, blind, burrowing snake that ‘is shiny black in colour, reaches about 25 cm in length, and is harmless’.

‘A preliminary reaction from Dr George Zug of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the world authority

The new snake species found in Fiji.

on Fiji’s reptiles, is that this is unlike any other described species of snake in the world’.

‘A survey undertaken by NatureFiji-MareqetiViti in conjunction with the Taveuni Paradise Resort has revealed that most farmers in south Taveuni are quite familiar with the Ngata ni qele, though they only see it rarely when digging their gardens or in the forests for wild yams’.

NatureFiji-MareqetiViti is a conservation organization in Fiji that, according to their website, is the only domestic NGO working solely for the conservation and sustainable management of Fiji’s unique natural heritage.

From Solomon Times

Snakes sink fangs into cane toads

REBEKAH CAVANAGH

TUCKING IN: A slatey grey snake eating a cane toad.

August 26th, 2008

Toadbusters have been spotting some species of reptiles feasting on toads in the Top End.

These photos show two common NT snake species – the keelback and slatey grey – gulping down the dreaded pests at Elizabeth Valley in Darwin’s rural area.

For many animals this would be a fatal feast. But FrogWatch NT co-ordinator and Darwin Lord Mayor Graeme Sawyer said some animals across the world do have immunity to the cane toads’ lethal toxins.

And while he said snakes alone would not be able to eradicate toad populations by eating them, they could still hold the key in their genetics to what could potentially wipe out the infamous Bufo marinus.

He said national studies of genetics should be conducted to determine what gives some animals resistance

A Keelback snake eating a cane toad.

to toad toxins.

“We need to ask the question why some species can eat cane toads and why some can’t,” he said.

“If we can figure this out and then look at ways of introducing this immunity to animals at threat, without having any other adverse affects, then it could help.”

From Northen Territory News

Special protection for frog with ‘northern accent’

A rare species of frog that croaks with a “northern accent” is to be given special protection.

The Government has agreed to give the rare frogs legal protection

The pool frog is known to have existed in England for at least 3,000 years and pool frog bones have turned up during digs at Saxon sites in East Anglia.

But because of habitat loss and other pressures the species dwindled to one site in Norfolk. It was presumed extinct at the site in 1995 and the last remaining frog died in captivity in 1999.

Conservationists set about planning its return. Research confirmed that it was a northern European type of pool frog also found in Sweden and Norway. It has been found to have a distinctive croak, similar to a regional accent.

After an ideal wetland habitat was created at a secret location in Norfolk several organisations, including Natural England and the Herpetological Conservation Trust, collected 50 adults and juveniles and 100 tadpoles. These were released into ponds in 2005 and have quickly adapted to their new homes. They have bred sufficiently to create a viable population. The Government has agreed to give them legal protection.

From October they will be covered by the 1994 EU Habitats Regulations, which make it illegal for them to be killed, owned or sold and protects their breeding sites.

From Telegraph UK

Endangered turtle born at zoo

Bristol Zoo has been celebrating the birth of an endangered turtle.

The Chinese box turtle, also known as a yellow-margined box turtle, weighed 15g (0.53oz) and measured 4cm (1.6in) long, when it hatched. 

The turtle is smaller than a matchbox

The turtle, which is smaller than a matchbox, will live in the reptile house with 14 adult box turtles.

Tim Skelton, Bristol Zoo Gardens’ spokesman, said the new arrival was doing well, “eating plenty and growing stronger every day”.

Mr Skelton said the hatch would develop an “understanding of breeding and incubation” of the endangered turtles.

Nine species of box turtle are listed by the International Union for Endangered Species (IUCN), with Chinese box turtles listed on the IUCN red list, which means its population levels have been described as “critical”.

The Chinese box turtles are hunted for their meat, used in medicine or kept as pets.

An adult box turtle can live up to 50 years of age, weigh 800g (28.2oz) and measure 16cm (6.5in) long.

From BBC

New species of lizard and pit viper discovered

Two species of lizard and one species of pit viper were recently discovered on mountains in the provinces of Binh Thuan, Dong Nai and Kien Giang.

A Ta Kou lizard.

 

 

 

 

The two new species of lizard belong to gekkonidae family. The first species, called Ta Kou lizard (Cyrtodactylus takouensis sp. nov. Ngô & Bauer, 2008), is 171.4mm long. Its back has 5 lines in light chocolate and five lines in yellow. Its tail has 3 lines. This lizard was found in a cave in the Ta Kou Nature Reserve in Binh Thuan province.

The other species of lizard, named Huynh lizard (Cyrtodactylus huynhi sp. nov Ngô & Bauer, 2008 ) was discovered in a cave on Chua Chan mountain in Dong Nai province. It is 147.5mm long, with 5-6 lines in dark brown on its back and 10 lines in light and dark brown on its tail.

This lizard species is named after Professor Dang Huy Huynh, the first Rector of the Ecological and Fauna Resources Institute.

The Hon Son pit viper (Cryptelytrops honsonensis sp. nov. Grismer, Ngô & Grismer, 2008 ) belongs to Viperidae family and it was discovered on Hon Son Island, Kien Giang province. It is around 626-648mm long.

These discoveries are the result of cooperation between researcher Ngo Van Tri from the HCM City Tropical Biology Institute and Professor Aaron M. Bauer, Jesse .L. Grismer from Villanova University (US) and Professor L. Lee Grismer from La Sierra University (US).

From vietnamnet.vn

 

Scientist: World’s smallest snake in Barbados

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A U.S. scientist said Sunday he has discovered the globe’s tiniest species of snake in the easternmost Caribbean island of Barbados, with full-grown adults typically stretching less than 4 inches (10 centimeters) long.

S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State University whose research teams also have discovered the world’s tiniest lizard in the Dominican Republic and the smallest frog in Cuba, said the snake was found slithering beneath a rock near a patch of Barbadian forest.

Hedges said the tiny-title-holding snake, which is so diminutive it can curl up on a U.S. quarter, is the smallest of the roughly 3,100 known snake species. It will be introduced to the scientific world in the journal “Zootaxa” on Monday.

“New and interesting species are still being discovered on Caribbean islands, despite the very small amount of natural forests remaining,” said Hedges, who christened the miniature brown snake “Leptotyphlops carlae” after his herpetologist wife, Carla Ann Hass.

The Barbadian snake apparently eats termites and insect larvae, but nothing is yet known of its ecology and behavior. Genetic tests identified the snake as a new species, according to Hedges. It is not venomous.

Zoologist Roy McDiarmid, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, said he has seen a specimen of the diminutive creature. He saw no reason to argue with the assertion that it is the world’s smallest snake.

McDiarmid said the Barbados creature is a type of thread snake, also called worm snake, which are mostly found in the tropics. “We really know very little about these things,” he said in a Sunday telephone interview from his Virginia home.

Finding the globe’s tiniest snake demonstrates the remarkable diversity of the ecologically delicate Caribbean. It also illustrates a fundamental ecological principle: Since Darwin’s days, scientists have noticed that islands often are home to both oversized and miniaturized beasts.

Hedges said the world’s smallest bird species, the bee hummingbird, can be found in Cuba. The globe’s second-smallest snake lives in Martinique. At the other end of the scale, one of the largest swallowtail butterflies lives in Jamaica.

Scientists say islands often host odd-sized creatures because they’re usually inhabited by a less diverse set of species than continents. So island beasts and insects often grow or shrink to fill ecological roles that otherwise would be filled by entirely different species.

From Associated Press