Daily Reptile News

Crocodile farm entertains chance of first conjoined croc twins as double egg found

Wildlife keepers from Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures have been busy collecting eggs since their saltwater crocodiles started nesting three weeks ago, The Cairns Post said.

In one of the nests was an extremely rare conjoined egg, which has been placed in an incubator, where it will stay until it hatches in February.

When it hatches, wildlife keeper Clay Mitchell said there was a possibility it could hold conjoined twins.

“I suppose you could call them twins, but not identical, which would be the case if they came from one egg,” Mr Mitchell said.

“However, looking at the egg, it could technically be classed as one egg but with two separate yolks.”

The croc farm, about 40km north of Cairns, has only had a couple of double eggs in the 76 years it has been in operation, but this is the first time a fertile double egg has been found.

“We’ll hopefully get two healthy crocodiles coming out,” Mr Mitchell said.

Tip-off nabs poachers

TAKING protected snakes, lizards and frogs from the Queensland bush for his animal collection cost Darren John Eskey more than $11,000 when he appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court yesterday.

Eskey, 35, pleaded guilty to taking and keeping 56 animals — including 19 different species of snakes, lizards, frogs and eggs — from their natural environment during a driving holiday with his sister Leanne Janet Eskey, 32, through Queensland and the Northern Territory in January.

Acting on a tip-off from New South Wales police, the pair was nabbed by Queensland police outside Longreach on January 8.

Department of Environment and Resource Management prosecutor Anne-Maree Ireland told the court a search of Eskey’s hired van found the animals in sacks and containers.

Among the native wildlife found were particularly valuable species such as a frill-necked lizard, black headed python and yellow spotted monitor and the commercial value of the 56 animals was estimated at more than $14,000, she said.

Although all 56 animals were alive when seized, many were in poor health and 41 had since died while the remaining species could not be released back into the wild due to infection concerns, the court heard.

Darren Eskey pleaded guilty to taking and keeping protected animals and his sister, who the prosecution accepted played a minor role and was merely travelling with her brother, pleaded guilty to taking a protected animal.

The court heard neither defendant had any criminal history at all and Darren Eskey had held an animal keeper’s licence in his native New South Wales for 15 years and had a particular interest in reptiles.

His motivation had been to supplement his animal collection in Sydney with breeding stock, the court heard.

Without recording convictions against either defendant and accepting Darren Eskey was the primary offender, Magistrate Bruce Schemioneck fined him $10,000 and ordered he pay a further $1365 conservation penalty while Leanne Eskey was fined $2000.

Croc At Nanakramguda Finally Caught

16th Nov, 2010: The crocodile that had kept the Forest Department, police and zoo officials on tenterhooks after making its way into a trench at Nanakramguda in Narsinghi on the outskirts of the city all through the past week, was finally netted and shifted to Nehru Zoological Park on Tuesday morning.

The reptile, which has been playing a game of hide-and-seek with the police and forest officials, peeking out of the water and then evading their attempts to catch it, was finally snared after the exasperated officials deployed 8 water pumps and drained the trench.

Officials said that about 80% of the trench was drained before the 6-foot long male crocodile was finally caught. The crocodile emerged out of the trench and ventured into the nearby bushes, where it was tranquilised.

According to forest officials, the crocodile is around 8 to 9 years old. Officials plan to leave it in its natural habitat at Manjira reservoir in Sangareddy, after giving it first aid at the zoo.

The crocodile, meanwhile, has reportedly become sluggish due to its prolonged submergence in the water. Crocodiles need to sunbathe in order to maintain their body temperature, and prolonged periods of being submerged tend to slow the reptiles down. In this case, the vast number of curious onlookers and the attempts by officials to net it led to the animal seeking refuge inside the water.

Alligator Dumped On KCK Street

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — An alligator, measuring 3 feet in length, was dumped on a Kansas City, Kan., street over the weekend.JaBond Warrior told KMBC’s Michele Rooney that he did not believe it when his neighbor told him to come and see what he had found on the side of the road.”He had a shocked look on his face and when he said, ‘It’s an alligator,” I said, ‘Come on, man.’ And he said, ‘For real.’ I was eating and I had to put my plate down. ‘I’m coming down here right now because I’ve got to see this,” Warrior said.Warrior took pictures of the alligator, which was found in a bag near 18th Street and Parkview Avenue.”It was shocking to me, though, because we have had burned-up cars, trash, the occasional bodies sometimes around in here, but an alligator? That took the cake. I was like, ‘Oh no, we’ve had everything dumped on our street now,'” Warrior said.Warrior said he called Animal Control. The reptile is being kept in a kennel, right next to Dottie the dog. The alligator has a light in the kennel to keep warm and raw meat to stay fed. Animal Control officers hope the reptile’s next stop will be a zoo somewhere. But Animal Control officers said it’s not the first alligator they’ve seen.”In my experience, people either move and leave the animals behind, or they get too big and they dump them,” said Capt. Rodney Smith, of Animal Control.The find may not be shocking to the experts, but it was to those who first saw it.”I was talking to myself and I’m like, ‘God is this for real, you know? And it was alive still,” Warrior said.Animal Control said alligators are not allowed as pets in Kansas City, Kan.

Woman attacked by crocodile, dies

SANGLI: A 30-year-old woman died after a crocodile pulled her into the Verala river at Bramnal village in Sangli district. Varsha Vinod Kamble had reportedly gone to the river for washing clothes when the incident took place on Saturday afternoon. Her body was recovered on Sunday afternoon. Marks of the crocodile’s teeth were found on her right hand. According to the forest department, local villagers had warned Varsha against washing clothes at the Verala river where the movement of crocodiles is frequent.

Banana King Snake Stolen From Pet World

WAUKESHA, Wis. — A 2-foot-long, yellow snake is missing from the Pet World in Waukesha.Waukesha police said the banana king snake was stolen Saturday morning from the store at 2410 E. Moreland Blvd.The snake is worth $150, police said.According to a the police report, a person was seen sticking their hand in the tank and putting the snake into their pants pocket.Waukesha police said they are still reviewing the report and investigating.

Crocodile can be rescued only by tomorrow

HYDERABAD: After a week-long rescue operation, the crocodile has managed to survive in the pond, without any feed from the rescue team in the last few days.With a warning board ‘Beware of Crocodiles’ hung up at the site in Nanakramguda, the crowd refuses to die even after eight days. With no rescue plan in sight, the 10 to 12 feet long reptile is surviving by altering its natural tendencies. It is usually known to become sluggish, if it does not sunbathe for long.However, the 10-year old crocodile has been affected by human disturbances.While a monitoring team is on constant vigil, locals come to catch a glimpse right in the morning and as the day progresses, there is a pack of onlookers.Reptiles are said to be extremely sensitive to vibrations and disturbances of any nature. It has also stopped sunbathing which is a must to maintain its body temperature.“It is mandatory for crocodiles to come out for sunbathing. However, with so much human disturbance around, the reptile must have been coming out of water at night. During the day, it might be remaining near the surface, which has higher temperature as compared to deeper levels,” pointed out veterinary assistant surgeon, Nehru Zoological Park, Dr P Srinivas.About 15-17 feet of water could be pumped out by 8 pumps at work. However, with fresh rainfall on Sunday, the water draining process is likely to suffer even further. “We hope to have a clear picture regarding rescue mission by Monday evening. Most likely it will be on Tuesday, as 60 percent of the work is done,” said divisional forest officer, A Shankaran.

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