From theColumbus Dispatch:

Koppenhofer, who with his wife, Susan, owns Special K Reptiles, has had to rely on his hobby to make ends meet for the past six months after losing his job at an insurance company.

Reptile business owners wouldn’t be the only ones hurt, he said.

Companies selling heat lamps, aquariums and rodents used for food also would face an immediate drop in revenue.

“If this forces me out of business, I’ll move out of the state,” said Koppenhofer, 57, of Madison. “I would stay close because I have family here.”

Particularly disturbing to herpers are the comments posted on the article. As a community, we really need to start working harder on education and outreach to the general public. Perceptions of our community must be overcome.

You see people that can’t even feed their kids buying snakes etc. But they also buy beer and cigarettes and haven’t got a decent place to live in. The guy in Pike County that had teh two lions taht got out lives in a single wide falling down trailer and gets welfare and ssi.
There is not reason to own these “exotics” go to the zoo once or twice a year to see them.

Image is everything, whether we want it to be or not. Reach out in a calm, educated fashion to folks who would never consider a snake a pet. Do so in a polite manner. Outreach and public education can be hard, but are critical at this time.

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In Texas, reports are climbing of Coral Snakes, which is bad with a shortage of anti-venom:

The coral snake is one of four types of venomous snakes common in Texas, though it is the least dangerous in the group.

“They have extremely small fangs and so if someone is wearing any protective garment like gloves, pants or shoes – the snake will not be able to bite you,” said Wildlife Biologist John Davis with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department .

Davis said the best thing to do when someone crosses paths with a snake is to respect the reptile and walk away.

For the full article from Austin News, click here.

As reptile people, we are ALWAYS asked how to get rid of snakes. This article out of North Texas has the suggestion:

Snakes only eat live prey, so getting rid of mouse problem, may be the start to keeping away snakes.

Continue reading “Herp Report: Rain makes it "hot"”

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“There was no cobra in Cleopatra’s death,” Schäfer told Discovery News.

The author of a best-selling book in Germany, “Cleopatra,” Schäfer searched historic writings for evidence to disprove the 2,000-year-old asp legend. His findings are to be featured on the German channel ZDF as part of a program on Cleopatra.

“The Roman historian Cassius Dio, writing about 200 years after Cleopatra’s demise, stated that she died a quiet and pain-free death, which is not compatible with a cobra bite. Indeed, the snake’s venom would have caused a painful and disfiguring death,” Schäfer said.

According to German toxicologist Dietrich Mebs, a poison specialist taking part in the study, the symptoms occurring after an asp bite are very unpleasant, and include vomiting, diarrhea and respiratory failure.

“Death may occur within 45 minutes, but it may also be longer with painful edema at the bite site. At the end, the dead body does not look very nice with vomit, diarrhea, a swollen bite site,” Mebs told Discovery News.

A short video on Cleopatra from National Geographic follows after the bump.
Continue reading “Herp Report: The asp was innocent”

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I’m sitting in a hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota, nursing a sunburn I picked up at Reptile Gardens, where Terry Phillip, head reptile curator, had promised me a trip worth the 14 hour drive. He delivered and then some.

-Feeding Perentie Monitors – Check
-Holding Perentie Monitors – Check
-Holding a Fiji Island Iguana – Check
-Learning some basic hot handling – Check
-Holding a King Cobra – Um yeah CHECK
-Playing with more morelia than I can recall – Check
-Getting splashed by a ginormous alligator – Check

While we hit a national monument or two, these will be my highlight of my trip.

Photos under the jump, with much more to come!

Continue reading “Kingsnake on the road”

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That’s exactly what happened in Australia’s Victorian Desert. From Perth Now:

Taipans are among the most venomous land snakes in the world. The inland taipan has the most toxic venom in the world, and the coastal taipan is the third most toxic. The venom toxicity of the Central Ranges taipan is, as yet, unknown.

Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) regional ecologist Karl Brennan said the taipan find was a highlight of the Ilkurlka survey.

“As well as discovering the snake, the survey also revealed 10 native mammal species and 26 reptile species that had not previously been known to inhabit the area, as well as recording 59 bird species,” Dr Brennan said.

And a quick update on the shortage of Coral Snake antivenin from My Fox Houston:

[T]he Houston Zoo has run out of FDA-approved coral snake antivenin. So the zoo is working to import a similar pharmaceutical from Costa Rica, says reptile and amphibian curator Stan Mays.

“What we are in the process of doing right now is replenishing our stocks with the non-FDA antivenin. We have an investigational drug permit which allows us to bring this into the country.”

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Held in different locations each year, the IHS is one of the reptile cultures oldest and longest running herpetolgical events, and offers three days of presentations on herpetology, herpetoculture, and reptile veterinary medicine, as well as a behind-the-scenes field trip to the Chiricahua Desert Museum.

Known as the progenitor of today’s reptile expos, the IHS was one of the first herpetological events in North America open to both professionals and hobbyists and continues to draw people from around the world. Topics and speakers are as geographically diverse as Paul Hamilton’s “Herpetofauna of Western Ecuador” to Hiva Faizi’s presentation on Iran’s secretive Sand Swimmer Skink, with plenty for the backyard herper, too, like Phil Ralidis and Ed Acuna’s presentation on Texas Alligator Lizards in Travis County, Texas.

While animals will not be for sale at the event, there will be vendors of dry goods, field and handling equipment, and books as well as a variety of other herp-themed products.

The Symposium will be July 21 – 24, 2010 at the Radisson Suites Hotel Tucson Airport in Tucson, Arizona. For more information about this year’s event, see the IHS website at http://kingsnake.com/ihs.

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A truly sad story from OneIndia today:

Out of both curiosity and panic, several people came to see the snakes and killed them with sticks. The dead snakes were then placed in a bowl and burnt in a field.

“Naza Naza (cobra) is a rear species of snake. According to tradition, snakes should not be killed, but the villagers did so out of fear. We will look into the matter and we will ensure that it is not repeated. We are trying to make some plans to catch the snakes in future,” said Apurba Sen, a divisional forest officer.

From Inventorspot, a pill now helps overcome the fear:

ow, Dr. Yadin Dudai, head of the recent Weizman study, has pinpointed the area of the brain that is vital in overcoming fear. By scanning the brains of volunteers with and without fear of snakes – ophidiophobia, Dr. Dudai observed the exact area in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex responsible for bravery.

The subjects controlled their own exposure to a live snake placed on a conveyor belt running in front of them, through a button that would bring the snake closer or further away. A subject demonstrated bravery by moving the snake physically closer to him. The closer the the subject moved the snake towards him, the more the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex was involved, lighting up when those with fear of snakes showed bravery.

Continue reading “Herp Report: Fear rules”

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“Betty is truly one of the greatest fans of the L.A. Zoo,” Zoo director John Lewis said in a statement. “She knows our animals and staff on a first name basis. She’s … an integral force behind many of our new exhibits which nurture our animal residents. When she’s not on television or in a movie, you can usually find her here at the Zoo.”

Too see the full story click here.

No Golden Girls were harmed in the making of this photo!

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A fire destroyed on Saturday 82,000 snake specimens, considered the largest collection of tropical serpents in the world, as well as thousands of other reptiles, spiders and scorpions at Brazil’s prestigious Butantan Institute laboratory in Sao Paulo.

“There were 77,000 classified serpents and another 5,000 in the process. All knowledge of Brazil was there – 100 years of history,” Brazilian scientist Francisco Franco, curator of the collection, said in a statement to reporters.

The fire broke out Saturday morning and was doused by firefighters just 1½ hours later without any human casualties.

A second story here from TopNews.In:

This was probably the largest collection of snakes in the world. But, the whole collection was fully damaged by fire. As per the firemen, there was a type of liquid to preserve the dead spices, which was inflammable and that helped the fire to spread up. The cause of the fire has not been revealed yet and it is under investigation now.

Some of the species there were hundred years old and were very rare. There is a house where the animals are kept to produce vaccines and serums, which was safe. The chief of the Institute Mr. Francisco Franco has said this is actually a huge loss because the institute could be made again but it will take hundreds of years to recollect the spices.

Continue reading “Herp Report: Sad day in Brazil”

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A fire destroyed on Saturday 82,000 snake specimens, considered the largest collection of tropical serpents in the world, as well as thousands of other reptiles, spiders and scorpions at Brazil’s prestigious Butantan Institute laboratory in Sao Paulo.

“There were 77,000 classified serpents and another 5,000 in the process. All knowledge of Brazil was there – 100 years of history,” Brazilian scientist Francisco Franco, curator of the collection, said in a statement to reporters.

The fire broke out Saturday morning and was doused by firefighters just 1½ hours later without any human casualties.

A second story here from TopNews.In:

This was probably the largest collection of snakes in the world. But, the whole collection was fully damaged by fire. As per the firemen, there was a type of liquid to preserve the dead spices, which was inflammable and that helped the fire to spread up. The cause of the fire has not been revealed yet and it is under investigation now.

Some of the species there were hundred years old and were very rare. There is a house where the animals are kept to produce vaccines and serums, which was safe. The chief of the Institute Mr. Francisco Franco has said this is actually a huge loss because the institute could be made again but it will take hundreds of years to recollect the spices.

Continue reading “Herp Report: Sad day in Brazil”

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