An 8-foot alligator that a woman struck Sunday night as she drove along a rural road near Inez attracted some sightseers after it turned up headless.
The Victoria Advocate the alligator was still lying by the side of the road Tuesday afternoon and that by Wednesday its head was gone.
Nearby resident Joyce Warzecha said she saw “more sightseers than actual people that travel this road” because word of mouth got out about the alligator kill.
DIEHLSTADT, Mo. (AP) — Conservation agents deal with snakes all the time, but not the kind seen recently under a southeast Missouri home.
An exterminator working at a home in the small town of Diehlstadt on Monday went beneath it to spray and found what he described as a large python.
Missouri Department of Conservation agents were called in, but the python was gone and hasn’t been seen since. Agent Ben Stratton told the homeowners to place ammonia or moth balls beneath the house because the smell would drive out the python and keep it away.
The snake is not a pet of the current residents. Conservation officials suspect someone must have moved away and released the python.
HEFEI, April 2 (Bernama) — Six captive-bred Chinese alligators will be released into the wild in east China’s Anhui Province in June, according to Anhui Yangtze Alligator National Nature Reserve Administration.
The six Chinese alligators will be released in Gaojingmiao State Forest Farm of Langxi County in Anhui, Xinhua cited Wang Chaolin, director of the Nature Reserve Administration, as saying.
So far, 33 Chinese alligators have been released.
Yangtze Alligator National Nature Reserve was established in 1979 to increase the number of wild alligators through a breeding and release programme.
So far, the nature reserve had propagated more than 10,000 Chinese alligators and released 27 of them on five different occasions since 2003, Wang said.
The Chinese alligators, also known as Yangtze alligators, have lived in the Yangtze River areas for more than 230 million years.
An adult Chinese alligator measures about 2 meters in length. The reptile is nicknamed “living fossil” and is as rare as the giant panda.
The number of the Yangtze alligators living in the wild is estimated at 150. The Chinese government has put the reptile on the top of its protection list.
The Yangtze alligator is now safe from the threat of extinction, but is still listed as one of the most endangered creatures in the world.
China aims to raise the number in the wild from 350 to 400 by 2015.
(Healdton, OK) — An unidentified man from Healdton claims he was attacked by an alligator. KOCO-TV News reports the man was working in a pasture on Highway-76 when the four-foot reptile came out of a pond and charged at him. Wildlife personnel say the worker was not injured, and they captured the gator. A smaller version may still be in the pond.
MONKTON, Vt. — Future generations of salamanders in one Vermont town are going to be getting some help crossing the road.
The Monkton Conservation Commission says it has won a $150,000 state grant to install one or two culverts under a stretch of road to protect salamanders, other amphibians, reptiles and small mammals crossing between a swampy area and the uplands.
The Burlington Free Press says the project will be the first wildlife-crossing retrofit of a Vermont highway.
Reptile expert Jim Andrews says the crossing is “one of the most important of the known amphibian crossings in the state.”
For the last nine years a group of Monkton residents has monitored the swamp-side road crossing, in some cases helping the creatures cross the road.
The population of a seldom-seen snake native to the Tucson area is thin enough to make it an endangered species, but it won’t be protected as one – at least for now.
The Tucson shovel-nosed snake – whose population has dwindled because of agriculture and urban sprawl – has been designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a species that “warrants” protection under the Endangered Species Act, but it will not be protected because there are other species of higher priority, an agency release said.
The petition to designate the snake as endangered – submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity – will be deferred while the service works on proposals for other species that are at greater risk. It will then be reviewed annually until it is given protection or officials find that it is not warranted based on new information, the release said.
“Its a typical thing they do for something that isn’t high profile. The threats facing this subspecies are so immediate that they need to get on the stick and get this done,” said Phil Rosen, a research scientist at the UA School of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Shovel-nosed snakes have adapted to “swim” through sandy soils and in part because of this adaptation, they are dependent on specific habitats found on the level terrain of valley floors.
Urbanization in places like Tucson, Phoenix and Casa Grande, along with agriculture growth, has made the snake increasingly rare, Rosen said. The nearest population is around Picacho Peak.
“In Avra Valley the population distribution has contracted in the last 20 years,” Rosen said. “It was once abundant, but as far as we can tell now they’re completely gone from there.”
The center argues that the Fish and Wildlife Service has the resources to protect the more than 250 animals listed in the “warranted, but precluded” category and is in violation of the Endangered Species Act by not making quick progress on designating other species not on the list, Tierra Curry, a biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said this week.
The lack of protection gives the snake a bleak chance at survival, Curry said.
“Its like a purgatory where species go extinct while waiting for protection,” Curry said. “All the science is there, but the services aren’t going in to protect the habitat.”
DIEHLSTADT, MO (KFVS) – Neighbors are worried today about a large, exotic reptile that’s apparently slithering about in their town.
“We don’t know for sure if the snake’s under there or he’s gotten away,” said Barbara Sadler.
A few days ago, Barbara Sadler says her son called a bug exterminator to come check for termites under his home on Swank Street in Diehlstadt.
“When the bug man crawled under the house he came right back out,” said Sadler.
That’s because he allegedly saw something you just don’t normally see in southeast Missouri.
“It was anywhere from a seven to ten foot long albino python wrapped up underneath there coiled up. It had just eaten. It had a full belly,” said Sadler.
The homeowners called the sheriff’s office who then contacted the conservation department.
“You see them all the time on T.V., but it’s definitely a first time for me,” said Mississippi County Conservation Agent Ben Stratton.
Ben Stratton is new on the job, and guess what? He doesn’t like snakes.
“Not a big fan if I don’t know where they are. If I see them I’m okay with them.
People are worried about their kids, and their animals.
“We’ve not seen cats, no cats. That’s got us worried”, said Sadler.
It’s definitely the talk of the town.
One teen in town told Heartland News, “If I see it I’m going to run like a little girl, and scream.”
Right now it’s a mystery, the homeowner has reportedly used ammonia and moth balls to try and force the snake out. No word, if that worked.
Neighbors have their own theories as to where the snake originated from, saying it perhaps belonged to a man who used to live in the area.
He was known for having exotic pets. Many believe he might have released the python before he left town.
People just want it found.
“We do want it resolved quickly,” said Sadler.
“May be put a search out for it. Get it somehow”, said Keno Campbell.
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