Man arrested at LAX with 15 lizards strapped to his chest.

Sometimes you just have to wonder what people are thinking…

Forty-year old Michael Plank of Lomita, California was arrested last week while attempting to pass through U.S. Customs at Los Angeles International Airport with two geckos, two monitor lizards and 11 skinks in a money belt wrapped around his chest.

The lizards, valued at $8,500 and strictly regulated in Australia can cost Plank as much as a $250,000 fine and up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Plank didn’t have the required export permit from Australia and was obviously trying to sneak the lizards into the U.S. without being detected.

Being someone who gets squirmy just thinking about one lizard let alone 15, I can’t imagine taking a flight of 14 hours and 30 minutes with live (or dead) lizards in a money belt under my clothes. Then there was the additional time of getting prepared to take such a flight, the airport check-in, somehow getting through security and then taking the flight itself. Can you even imagine doing all of this and getting caught? I think Mr. Plank has taken stupidity to a new level.

Maybe he was envisioning a re-enactment of the movie “Snakes on a Plane”? Or perhaps Mr. Plank was going to propose a new mascot for Geico Insurance?

Written by: Marc Friedman

From examiner.com

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I think that the punishment of either $250,000 or 20 years of inprosonment is too low.. People smuggling animals of any kind should have hard punishments, no matter what the species is.

//Miqe

 

18:th Norrköping Symposium 2009, Sweden

Hi all!!

I would like to invite you to this event. Have a look on what you´ll get in one weekend!

This is the 18:th symposium in Norrköping, Sweden.

Bernard Devaux, France. Is working with tortoises and will hold two talks:

1.   The status of the French populations and conservation projects.
2.  Spurred Tortoise, Centrochelys sulcata, status in Senegal and conservation projects.

Presentation of Mr. Devaux:
Bernard Devaux, 65 years old, formerly film-maker on reptilians. In 1986, he created the SOPTOM (tortoises protection association) and the “Tortoise Village” with David Stubbs, english environmentalist.-Since 1988, he has developed the “Tortoise Village” in Gonfaron followed by 2 others villages, in Senegal and Madagascar-Organisation of many International Congress on tortoises and turtles (main topics; pathology, biology, conservation).-Author of many books and encyclopedies on tortoises and turtles. Editor of the international tortoise journal LA TORTUE.-International protection actions around the world, including struggle against traffics and animals busdiness; Seychelles (Aldabra), Galapagos, Australia, Costa-Rica, Senegal, Indian Ocean.

Link to website: villagetortues.com

Johan De Smedt, Germany. Johans intrest is vipers. He will hold three talks:

1.   The genus Vipera, and it´s systematics, history and present.
2.   The different subgenuses whithin the Vipera-genus.
3.   Keeping and breeding of European vipers.

Presentation of Mr. De Smedt:
Johan De Smedt was born and raised in Belgium, but has been living in the south of Germany since 1996. He is married and has a son. His interest in keeping amphibians and reptiles dates back more than 29 years. He kept his first venomous snake at the tender age of 14 in the form of a European nose-horned viper, after which followed a range of other venomous snakes, mainly bamboo pitvipers and bushvipers. His main field of interest were, however, the vipers of Europe, and it was these that he specialized in.
In the year 1985 he was one of the founders of the Belgium snake-society called at that time “Medusa”, a couple of years ago this society changed the name in B.O.A (Belgian Ophidian Association). This association is now well known and the biggest group for people interested in snake in Belgium. For this association he wrote many articles, mainly on Vipers.
Johan De Smedt’s profession has nothing whatsoever to do with snakes: he is employed as a technical engineering manager in a mechanical engineering company where he teaches clients from all over the world in matters of automated control technology. He is fluent in four languages. He speaks Dutch, German, French and English.
In November 2001, his first book, “Die europäischen Vipern, Artbestimmung, Systematik, Haltung und Zucht” was been published. This book was written in the German language. He has had many requests for an English edition. Even a second edition was not planed at that time. But within a few years after publishing the first edition numerous systematic changes have become effective. New species and subspecies have been defined, several subspecies have been elevated to species rank, and various taxa have been transferred to other genera. This made him revise, and expand where necessary, the original German edition. Finally 2006 he published a second edition of his book in the English language.
Only a few photographs of the first edition have been reused, but many are new ones that have never been published before. Most photographs were, taken in the natural habitats of the respective specimens. For this reason he has travelled many different countries of Europe. These herpetological excursions were always undertaken with the aim of taking snapshots of vipers in their natural environment.

Mr. Johan De Smedt

Link to website: viperidae.de

Mirko Barts, Germany. Mirko will hold two talks:.

1.   Jewels of Namibia. Fieldobservations, and keeping/breeding.
2.   Secret, only for attenders to the evening-arrangement.

Presentation of Mr. Barts:
Mirko Barts lives near Berlin and has been working with reptiles for more than 20 years. It was his grandfather who raised him nature-orientated. He also helped him to understand nature and the special relationship between plants, animals and mankind. Furthermore, he simply showed him the beauty of the flora and fauna. Born in the former GDR, Mirko mainly travelled to Bulgaria and Georgia, where his family has its roots in. Jouneys to Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Morocco and the USA followed after the German reunification. Mirko already dreamed of visiting Africa during childhood and now he was able to live this dream.Since 15 years, he works with reptiles and amphibians of southern Africa. During more than 10 journeys, he did research in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. His main focus always were the geckos of this regions, especially the genus Pachydactylus, the thick-toed geckos.
Mirko shared his observations in many publications. Most of his articles deal with husbandry and breeding of Pachydactylus species and include extraordinary observations. These and other species will be presented in his speech on the gecko fauna of Namibia, an African hotspot in terms of  diversity in gecko species. The speech will include some information on husbandry of selected gecko species, but its main focus will be on nature observation.

Mirko Barts

Links to websites: sauria.de and pachydactylus.com

Freek Nuyt, Netherlands. Mr. Freek will talk about various morphs in the boa and python species, as well as keeping and breeding of them. He will hold three talks:

1.   New morphs of boa´s.
2.   Breedingtechniques.
3    Royal/Ballpythons.

Link to website: fnreptiles.com

ALL talks are being held at:
Borgen, Folkborgsvägen 1, Norrköping, Sweden

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The fair/expo:

Saturday november 8, at 12,00-16,00 o´clock.
Adress: Pronova Center, S:t Persgatan 19, Norrköping, Sweden

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The eveningarrangement:

Talk by Mirko Barts:

A new geckospecies from southern Angola; keeping and breeding the feather-tailed gecko.

Saturday november 14
19,00-23,00 o´clock
Location: Strömvillan, S:t Persgatan 7 Norrköping, Sweden
Price: 200 SeK/person.

Food and coffee will be served after the talk.

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Prices:

Symposium:
Both days, including lunch and coffee:                   600 SeK
Specialprce at booking latest at the 12/11             450 SeK
One day:                                                                               350 SeK/day.

Eveningarrangement:
Eveningarrangement with talk, dinner and coffee.   200 SeK

Packages:
Talks both days, eveningarrangement, entrance to the fair/expo, symposium T-shirt and compendia (Latest bookingday, 12/11).                                                                       698:-

Fair/Expo:

Tableprices (1 table = 180×60cm)

1-2 tables                                                              250 SeK /table ( including 1 person )
3-5 tables                                                             200 SeK /table ( including 2 persons )
6-9 tables                                                             175 SeK /table ( including 3 persons )
10 tables or more                                             160 SeK /table ( including 3 persons )
Extra person                                                           40 SeK /each.
Electricity                                                               50 SeK

Misc.:
Symposium2009  T-shirt                                           89 SeK /each.
Compendia (ordinarie pris 49 SeK /each.)         39 SeK /each.

Floor Accommodation:
Friday and lördag, including mattress               100 SeK / night

Notification:

Notification is made via the form on the page “Kontakta oss” ( Translated: Contact us ).

To have the special Symposium2009 price 450 SeK, or the packageprice 698 SeK, the notification has to be made at the latest at 2/11 2009.

Notification IS binding!

Link to the webpage of the arranging society “Tropikföreningen ALBA”

Link to the “Contact”-page.

This is for all of you, interested in European herps!

Here´s a tip..

Join my forum!

It´s a forum for people interested and dedicated to the keeping and breeding of European reptiles and amphibians, outdoors and indoors. Some very competent people are members, and an easy going atmosphere makes it easy to get answers.

It also have a photoarea, fieldherping, classifieds, show / expodates and a lot of more..

There is a couple of hidden areas too, that you can not see unless you are logged on.

Some stats:  Started in April 2005. Total posts 3859 • Total topics 832 • Total members 153, and growing by the day!!

Here is the link to the Terrarium Morbidum Forum – THE forum for European reptiles and amphibians.

“Spider-Man lizard” (Mwanza Flat Headed Agama)

Demand for a striking blue and red lizard has surged among comic fans thanks to its uncanny resemblance to Spiderman. Pet shops specialising in exotic animals have reported a surge in popularity for the Mwanza Flat Headed Agama lizard, which is native to Africa. Karen Baker, of amphibian and reptile specialist store Exotic-pets.co.uk, said that the lizards, which live for up to 15 years, had currently sold out.

"Spider-Man lizard" (Mwanza Flat Headed Agama)

 

She said: ‘People are drawn to them because of their unusual colourings.
‘These lizards usually live in groups with one dominant male who is usually the most colourful.
‘We should have another batch of these lizards available in October, the demand just keeps going up and up.

Demand for the unusual pet soared after photographer Roy Daines captured an image of the lizard while on holiday in Kenya.
He said: ‘I was relaxing around the lodge pool, when the lizard appeared out from behind a wall surrounding the terrace I was bathing on.

‘I was absolutely fascinated by him, I have never seen anything like it before.

Uncanny resemblance: The African lizard resembles Spider-Man with its distinctive red and blue markings

‘His colourings were very bright making him look like he was dressed in a suit – crawling around on the rock made him look exactly like Spider-Man.’

Rich Nunn, of Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham said that the resemblance to the Marvel superhero was amazing.
He said: ‘The colouring is unbelievably similar, especially in the chest arms and legs.

‘I am sure there would be lots of comic fans who would want a lizard like this, because it looks so much like Spider-Man.’

From Daily Mail

Hundreds of sand lizards released

Hundreds of rare sand lizards are being released into the wild at locations in England and Wales from where they had previously disappeared.

They will be reintroduced at five sites in Surrey, Dorset and mid-Wales.

The sand lizards were bred in captivity so they could be released into the wild

The sand lizard was once a common sight across heathland, but the gradual destruction of its habitats has led to its extinction in many places.

Some 400 of the creatures would be set free within a fortnight, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation group said.

The first release of about 80 two-inch-long baby lizards, reared in special hatcheries, will take place at a National Trust nature reserve in Surrey on Thursday.

According to the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation group (Arc), the lizard was lost altogether from a number of counties including Kent, Sussex, Cornwall, Cheshire and north and west Wales.

More than 90% of suitable habitat has also vanished from Surrey, Merseyside and Dorset.

Reptiles and amphibians are coming under pressure from an increasing number of factors including habitat loss, disease and a future of climate change Dr Tom Tew, Natural England

Frogs, toads, newts, lizards and snakes have all been affected by the loss of their habitats, often because of changes to agricultural practice, the planting of forests and building developments.

But Arc, formed by the merger of Froglife and the Herpetological Conservation Trust charities, said the animals and their habitats were now protected by law.

Nick Moulton, of Arc, said: “It’s great to see them going back, now safely protected, where they belong.”

The reintroductions were part of efforts to “turn back the clock on amphibian and reptile declines” in Britain, a statement from Arc added.

‘Reverse the decline’

The young lizards were bred in captivity at locations that include the zoos at Chester and Marwell, and also specially modified back gardens.

The breeders minimised contact with the reptiles to prevent them becoming too tame, which would leave them at risk of being eaten in the wild by their main predator, the smooth snake.

The reintroduction of the sand lizards is part of a 133-point action plan, intended to reverse the decline of the UK’s frogs, toads, lizards and snakes.

The plan includes research, monitoring species and encouraging land-owners to create habitats such as ponds to help wildlife flourish.

Dr Tom Tew, chief scientist at Natural England, the government’s conservation agency, said: “Reptiles and amphibians are coming under pressure from an increasing number of factors including habitat loss, disease and a future of climate change.

“This important reintroduction programme is an example of the action that must be taken to reverse the decline in England’s biodiversity and to conserve the habitats that our unique wildlife relies upon.”

From BBC NEWS.

Rattlers, Peepers & Snappers.

Rattlers, Peepers & Snappers is for anyone interested in the biology, natural history, or the 52 fascinating amphibians & reptiles in New England.

Vince Franke teamed up with Jim Andrews, of the VT Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, to create individual segments on all the species that breed in New England as well as reptile and amphibian field adventures hosted by a variety of New England experts. The DVD was designed and laid out for a variety of audiences and ages. We’ve received great feedback from professionals, teachers, naturalists and their kids!

PLAY excerpt from field adventure

• 3 hours of programs
• Frog calls of every species
• Quizzes, facts sheets, resource pages and much more

The two educational programs incorporate a series of field trips with local experts from across New England as well as highlighting current research projects with University graduate students from the University of Maine, the University of Massachusetts, Berkshire Community College, and the University of Connecticut. Topics include the identification, natural history, and conservation of all the snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, and salamanders of New England.

From Peregrine Productions

Pictures on how snakeskin is collected for the trade. WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURES!

 WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURES!

The following message is made of an well known herpetologist, I am in this post just quoting it. / Miqe

“I was sent the images by a concerned Sri Lankan herpetologist but I would imagine the images originate from Indonesia (Sumatra and/or Kalimantan, Borneo), possibly Malaysia, (Peninsula or Sarawak, Borneo, but less likely)
I have not examined them closely, and have no wish to do so, but an IUCN report for 1989 shows that Indonesia exported 556,000 retic python skins, and 71,000 blood and short-tail python skins.
Most of these snakes pass through specialised snake slaughter houses in Sumatra and Borneo. See O’Shea 2007 Pythons and Boas of the World New Holland pp.30-31.

The snakes are killed primarily for skins but also harvested for meat and gall bladders to supply the ethnic Chinese populations.
Despite possible claims, these are not captive bred for the market, who could economically raise a python to adult size and then slaughter it for its skin, meat and bile, and expect to improve on their investment.

Pythons are often skinned alive, the same for crocodiles, apparently the skin is easier to remove.

Also of interest would be:
Erdelen, W. 1998 Conservation, Trade and Sustainable Use of Lizards and Snakes in Indonesia. Mertensiella (supplement 9) : xxiii+144pp.
Groombridge, B. & R.Luxmoore 1991 Pythons in South-East Asia: A review of distribution, status and trade in three selected species. CITES, Cambridge, UK. 127pp.”

This slaughter is just for us humans to get this:

STOP THIS NOW!!

Lizard she-males survive longer

Augrabies Flat Lizard ’she-males’ can

The Augrabies Flat Lizard (Platysaurus broadleyi), a star of Sir David Attenborough’s recent series Life in Cold Blood, adds another twist to its tale. A team of South African and Australian researchers have discovered that some males of this dramatically coloured lizard mimic females during early maturity and thereby avoid the costs of broadcasting their masculinity.

As juveniles, all males look like females before gradually developing extravagant adult male coloration at the onset of sexual maturity. These young males are most vulnerable to aggressive adult male rivals when these first tell-tale signs of masculinity begin to develop and adults are quick to capitalise on a soft target by chasing and sometimes biting these young males.

Assoc. Prof. Whiting pointed out that “by delaying the onset of colour to a more convenient period, these males (termed she-males) are making the best of a bad situation”. An immediate advantage is freedom of movement in the normally treacherous zones which make up the territories of highly aggressive males that already have extensive fighting experience. At the same time, these female mimics are able to court the myriad of females that share the territorial male’s residence.

The authors of this study (Assoc. Prof. Martin Whiting of the University of the Witwatersrand; Dr. Jonathan Webb of the University of Sydney; and Assoc. Prof. Scott Keogh of the Australian National University) also tested whether she-males are able to mimic the chemical ‘signature’ of females.

In a clever experiment performed in the wild, they removed all pheromones and skin lipids that might signal gender and relabelled a group of females and she-males with either male or female scent, before presenting them to typical adult males. Males use their tongues to sample chemical scent and responded by courting she-males labeled as females, but not she-males labeled as males. “Males are fooled by looks, but not by scent” said Dr. Webb.

She-males are able to maintain this deception by staying one step ahead of a prying male, and thereby avoiding a nosey tongue that might give the game away.  Assoc. Prof. Keogh said that “young transvestite males appear to have a dual advantage: the avoidance of potentially dangerous bouts with dominant males and access to normally inaccessible females”.

From Science Alert

Researcher Finds Tailless Lizards Lose Agility

When in a predator’s grips, many lizards drop their tails to escape. But what price do they pay for freedom? A team led by biology professor Gary Gillis of Mount Holyoke College found the lizards were compromised: They could no longer jump without tumbling backwards, making it difficult to land safely when jumping between branches.

Among nature’s more interesting wonders is the ability of many lizard species to escape their predators. When caught in a vulnerable position, they simply drop their tails, leaving the twitching body part to distract the predator as they scamper to safety.

But, says Gary Gillis, a biology professor at Mount Holyoke College, the lizards lose significant mobility and agility in return for this life-saving natural escape mechanism.

Up to 50 percent of some lizard populations seem to have traded part of their tails in exchange for escape, according to Gillis. While the tails typically grow back in three to six months, Gillis wondered how the loss might impact a branch-hopping, tree-dwelling lizard’s mobility and ability to survive in the interim. Teaming up with undergraduate student Lauren Bonvini, he began recording lizard leaps to observe how well the reptiles coped without their tails. The results are being published February 13 in The Journal of Experimental Biology (http://jeb.biologists.org/). Constructing a jumping arena from boxes and fine sandpaper, Gillis and Bonvini gently encouraged arboreal Anolis carolinensis (anole) lizards to launch themselves from an 11-centimeter-high platform while filming the animals’ jumps. The lizards performed well, launching themselves by pushing off with their back feet and landing gracefully, covering distances ranging from 14.9 to 29.9 centimeters. But how well would the animals perform without their tails? After holding the lizards’ tails to encourage them to drop them, just as they would with a predator, Bonvini then persuaded the tailless reptiles to jump while Gillis filmed them. As soon as the first animal took to the air, Gillis knew something was different. “It looked weird,” he said. “The animals became blurred as they jumped.” Replaying the animal’s jump in slow motion, the team could see that it was tumbling backwards, out of control, as its tail stump flailed. Filming other tailless anoles, four backflipped out of control, although two others seemed to manage their trajectories better. Teaming up with Duncan Irschick of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, to analyze the reptiles’ leaps, Gillis could see that everything about the tailless lizards’ take-off was exactly the same as it had been before they lost the appendage – until they left the jump stage. The lizards then began flipping backwards by more than 30 degrees; some tumbled so far that they landed on their backs. The team also realized that when the lizards with whole tails took off, they raised the base of their tails as the rest of the appendage trailed along the ground, as if it was somehow stabilizing the take-off. “If jumping and landing are important for lizards, they are clearly compromised after losing their tails. Coordinated landing on a branch is out of the question when spinning backwards,” said Gillis. Escaping lizards pay a significant ecological cost for their life-saving quick-release system, he concluded. So how do the lizards use their tails to ensure a safe touchdown? Gillis isn’t sure whether they push down with their tails at take-off to prevent themselves from spinning, or whether the trailing tail passively stabilizes the animal’s departure. He is continuing his research to determine how lizards adjust to life without their tails, with differential degrees of tail loss, and after the tails have grown back.

Related Links:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/misc/profile/ggillis.shtml
http://jeb.biologists.org

Research video is available.

IF REPORTING ON THIS STORY, PLEASE MENTION THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AS THE SOURCE AND, IF REPORTING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A LINK TO: http://jeb.biologists.org

Full text of the article is available ON REQUEST. To obtain a copy contact Kathryn Knight, The Journal Of Experimental Biology, Cambridge, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1223 425525, or email kathryn@biologists.com

From innovations report

What Is The World’s Rarest Animal? Herp?

By Whit Gibbons,(Eco-Views) Aiken Standard, SC, 1/09/09

This question needs to be qualified if you expect to get anything like consensus from scientists. For example, you might restrict the question to types of animals (such as bird, fish or frog) or to a location (such as within the United States, within Alabama or in the desert). Even then, you are unlikely to get a single answer on which all scientists would agree.
   
Part of the difficulty lies in establishing what is meant by “rare.” Marble salamanders, which 99.44 percent of the people in the Southeastern United States have never heard of and even fewer have seen, are not rare in the sense of being scarce. Amphibian biologists know that marble salamanders spend most of their lives in the woods under logs, leaves, rocks or even underground. They come onto the surface when they breed in the fall, almost always at night when it is raining. To anyone other than an amphibian biologist, they would be perceived as rare because the average person has never observed them in their natural habitat. By that definition, most animals, as well as plants, are rare.

The more common perception of what makes something rare is that not many of them are known to exist. The Grand Cayman blue iguana indisputably qualifies as one of, if not the, rarest lizard in the world. These turquoise or pale blue lizards, which are restricted to Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands south of Cuba, can get more than five feet long and live more than half a century. The record longevity in captivity is 67 years. Blue iguanas qualify for the rarity category because so few are left on the island. And their odds of survival look grim. Some lizard biologists have predicted that the species will be extinct by the year 2020, except for a few animals in captivity.

Like the blue iguana, one of the rarest turtles in the world also reaches an enormous size and probably lives for decades. The Yangtze (also called Shanghai) softshell turtle is considered to be the rarest turtle in the world by most turtle biologists. Two of these turtles, a male and a female, that are in zoos in China are purported to be more than 80 years old each. One giant softshell turtle is known to inhabit a large lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, and one was found in another Vietnamese lake, but sightings in the wild over recent decades have been few. Females, which get larger than the males, can reach lengths of more than four feet and are estimated to weigh more than 400 pounds. Attempts have been made to breed the remaining pair in captivity, but so far no fertile eggs have survived.

Many ornithologists consider the rarest bird in the world to be a small honeycreeper known as the po’ouli, which is native to rainforests on Maui. According to recent reports, only three surviving individuals are known to exist. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers the species endangered (if it didn’t, we should certainly wonder why not) and is attempting to protect the habitat. Efforts are also being made to get a pair to mate (assuming that both sexes are represented among the remaining individuals).

Rarity among animals, as well as plants, is not a new development. Of the millions of species that have gone extinct through the ages, a point was reached when only two or three were left. Then there were none. To that extent, rarity, even extinction, is a natural biological phenomenon. What is not natural is when we human beings are responsible for the rarity of a species, including the three mentioned above, because we have destroyed their habitat.

Perhaps we have reached a turning point in our stewardship of Earth. If, as I believe, most people value Earth’s biodiversity, then maybe we are ready to recognize the right of other species to inhabit this planet and to set ourselves a goal for the second decade of this millennium: Let us strive to ensure that being a victim of habitat destruction is itself a rarity.

From HerpDigest newsletter.