Daily Reptile News

Wildlife permits revoked for ‘Snakes on a Plane’ animal trafficker in Malaysia

Wildlife smuggler Anson Wong and his wife Cheah Bing Shee had their business licenses and wildlife permits revoked after the notorious trafficker was convicted of attempting to illegally take nearly 100 snakes out of Malaysia, reports The Star.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said the National Wildlife and Parks Department (Perhilitan) intends to confiscate all the animals still in the couple’s possession and that new applications from Cheah

for wildlife permits would be denied.

Wong was sentenced on September 6 to six months in prison and a RM 190,000 ($61,000) fine for his attempt to smuggle 95 boa constrictors, two rhinoceros vipers and one matamata turtle on his flight from Penang to Jakarta on August 26. W

Wong has been in trouble with the law before. In 2000 he plead guilty to wildlife trafficking in the US and was sentenced to 71 months in jail. Meanwhile last year authorities in the United States raided U.S. Global Exotics, a pet supplier that had been sourcing its animals from Wong’s company, CBS Wildlife and Sungai Rusa Wildlife. Nevertheless Malaysian authorities have generally been hesitant to interfere in his operations, according to The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World’s Greatest Reptile Smugglers
, a book which detailed his activities.

Snake Found on West Coast

A pregnant garter snake has been found in the Stephenville area. Snake enthusiast Dean Goudie says government called him in to identify the animal. Garter snakes are not native to Newfoundland and Labrador. Goudie says they are still unsure if the animal was brought into the province already pregnant, or if it had mated here in the province. Garter snakes have made it into the province before on farm shipments, like hay bales. Goudie says the animal has been brought to the Salmonier Nature Park for observation and study.

Increase in SC snake removals prompts training

In the last two years, Sun City firefighters have responded to more than 130 phone calls from residents to remove snakes from their homes and yards.

Later this month, they’ll learn proper methods to remove the reptiles.

The Phoenix Herpetological Society will teach firefighters Oct. 11-13 at the Sun City Fire Administration Building how to better prepare themselves for snake calls.

More than 75 firefighters are signed up to take the training session from the Herpetological Society and learn how to handle snake or other reptiles, some of which are venomous.

Debbie Gibson, vice president of the society, said people should understand that killing snakes or reptiles isn’t the best way to deal with the creatures. The organization will show firefighters how to safely remove them, so the animal can be returned to its habitat.

Gibson said there also will be training for removing gila monsters and desert tortoises.

“The bottom line is that it comes right down to conservation,” said Gibson. “With many homes being built out here, we’re actually encroaching into their areas.”

Homeowners put themselves at risk when trying to deal with a snake on their own property.

An estimated 80 to 90 percent of rattlesnake bites happen when homeowners take matters into their own hands, officials said.

“There is really no need to kill snakes, as long as you know what you’re doing,” Gibson said. “This is why these training sessions with the fire departments are so important.”

Sandy Young, an engineer for Sun City Fire, said phone calls for snake removals have varied throughout the years.

“It really comes and goes with the weather,” said Young, who’s received calls from residents in both Sun City and Youngtown.

Sun City Fire has removed everything from rattlesnakes and garter snakes to bull snakes and iguanas.

“We hope fire departments will practice conservation techniques and help teach the public that wildlife plays a major role in our world, and that we are encroaching on their homes,” Gibson said. “We can co-exist if we understand how… this is a win-win situation for everyone, especially the animals.”

Geckos Mark Historic Find for LA County

The first notable discovery for the Natural History Museum’s Lost Lizards of LA survey has been made near Chatsworth.

According to the Natural History Museum, an amateur father-son team of herpetologists Will and Reese Bernstein discovered a population of non-native Mediterranean House Geckos.

The Bernstein’s attended the museum’s lizard hunt this spring in Hancock and Exposition Park when the LLOLA project began.  After, they returned home to the Valley to continue their search.

After they submitted their results, their discoveries were initially believed to be a Western Branded Gecko. However on closer inspection, Cal State Northridge herpetologist and LLOLA consultant Dr. Robert Espinoza ruled that the species was actually the Mediterranean House Gecko, according to Natural History Museum statement:

Although the two species are superficially similar in color pattern, the local banded geckos (1) lack toe pads, (2) have eyelids, and (3) don’t have bumpy warts (tubercles). As their name implies, Mediterranean House Geckos are not native to the area. But they have been widely introduced throughout the U.S. (including Hawaii), particularly in the southeast.

After a search of local records, Espinoza determined that this was the first discovery of this particular species in Los Angeles County. There have been 23 records of the Gecko in California, but all have come out of either San Diego or Riverside County.

The Bernstein’s discovery, in addition to other LLOLA findings, will be on display during the second annual Reptile and Amphibian Appreciation Day on Sunday, Oct 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information on the Bernstein’s and other LLOLA discoveries, and to find out how to submit your own findings, please visit the Natural History Museums website.

Biologists get grip on state’s largest snake

WELLS – On a cool, rainy Monday, most of the black racer snakes that live in the Wells Barren were coiled up tight under a blueberry bush.

click image to enlarge

Herpetologist Trevor Persons of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife holds a black racer that was caught in a trap in the Nature Conservancy’s Wells Barren Preserve this week. State officials are trying to better understand the snake species.

John Ewing/Staff Photographer

click image to enlarge

But not the four specimens that Trevor Persons carried in bags for release.

Those black racers had been collected the previous weekend, when the weather was warm and the snakes were moving. They were weighed, measured and marked.

Persons, a herpetologist with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and Parker Schuerman, the Wells Barren’s preserve manager, went back to the barren Monday to return the snakes and close the traps where they had been captured.

The black racer snake is common in the South but it’s an endangered species in Maine, the northern end of its range. Biologists have been studying the snakes to better understand where they are living and why they are so rare.

They knew little about black racers in Maine until plans were introduced in late 2004 for a Walmart Supercenter and a Lowe’s hardware store in Sanford. The snakes were found to be living on the building site.

The developer was required, in the permitting process, to take steps to mitigate the impact of the new buildings, roads and parking lots on the snakes, said Jonathan Mays, a wildlife biologist with the fisheries and wildlife agency.

Fences were erected to keep the snakes out of the construction area. For every acre of black racer habitat that was taken, the developer had to buy 8 acres of nearby land for preservation.Mays said it became clear that much was unknown about black racers and their habitat. Since then, researchers have learned much about the snake, which grows to as long as 5 to 6 feet in Maine, making it the largest snake to inhabit the state.

Inland Fisheries and Wildlife teamed up with the Nature Conservancy, a private conservation group, to study the black racer population in the Wells Barren. The 560-acre preserve, and the adjacent Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, is where a retreating continental glacier dropped its load of sand thousands of years ago.

The barren may be home to the largest black racer population in Maine. It is one of the few spots in Maine where the snakes have been documented. So far, none has been found outside York County, except for some specimens collected in the 1800s in the Lewiston area. But the provenance of those specimens, now held by Harvard University, is shaky, Mays said.

The snake is black on top with a dark gray underbelly. It is not poisonous, but it does bite.

“Their bite feels like being scratched by a blackberry bramble,” Schuerman said.

During the first two years of the study, biologists implanted radio transmitters in 14 black racers to follow their movements. They learned that the snakes hibernate in underground burrows in one small area of the barren, and emerge to mate and lay eggs in the spring.

Then they fan out across the land. They can travel as far as two miles a day. But most don’t move more than 500 feet a day as they hunt for food, which includes shrews, insects, smaller snakes and even chipmunks.

About this time in the fall, the snakes return to their hibernation area amid red-leafed wild blueberry bushes and periwinkle aster.

Mays, the head researcher for the project, said it appears there are several hundred black racers living in the barren, but researchers are still collecting data for their count.

The researchers hope to raise grant money to look at black racers in areas of York County that are less hospitable than the undisturbed barren.

“It depends on whether we can find another population to study,” Mays said.

Six foot snake found at Grand Rapids business

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. () — Thursday one Grand Rapids business got an unexpected visitor that literally, dropped right in. The large snake caused quite a stir at Grand Rapids Carvers on Roger B. Chaffee Dr. SE.

The reptile fell from the garage as one of the workers opened the door to the shed. To their surprise the reptile was more than six feet long.

Grand Rapids’ Carvers contacted Kent County Animal Control– they picked up the snake and will find it a home.

Snakes found breeding in western Nfld.

Snakes are not native to Newfoundland, but a provincial wildlife official confirms that the reptiles have been found breeding on the island.

A pregnant garter snake was recently found in St. David’s, southwestern Newfoundland, according to Bruce Rodriguez, of the provincial department of environment and conservation in Corner Brook.

He said introduced species, such as garter snakes, can cause problems.

“One species that snakes are known to eat, that can be important in a snake’s diet is the meadow vole,” Rodriguez said Thursday. “On the island of Newfoundland, the meadow vole is a unique sub-species to the island and, of course, there’s always concerns about introduced animals bringing in disease to the province.”

Wildlife officials believe snakes may be arriving in the province on farm shipments, such as hay bales.

Rodriguez said wildlife officials have been receiving reports of snakes on the island for more than a year.

“There was a young snake picked up last year, probably one that was just born, and turned over to a pet store in western Newfoundland,” he said. “With the amount of evidence we have, we can say that there is a population [in western Newfoundland] that has survived at least one winter.”

Rodriguez said it’s unclear if the snakes will thrive on the island or make it to eastern communities.

“It all depends of food availability. How well they can survive the winter, and how dense their population is at this point. If factors are right, we might get sightings outside of this small little area,” he said.

A number of introduced species — moose in particular — have thrived in Newfoundland but the island is still free of skunks, porcupines and raccoons.

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