Daily Reptile News

Anoles not always easy to spot at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Anoles are easy to overlook but once you spot one they are fun to observe. The bright green lizard that you come across on the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is a native Florida anole or Anolis carolinensis.

This diurnal lizard’s habit of sunning themselves will make them obvious to visitors but camouflage can be their best defense. Their bright green color is a challenge to see against the green vegetation, but catch one on the trunk of a tree and it will change its color to brown. Winning a territorial fight can also cause them to green up as well as warmer temperatures of 70 degrees and above. Losing a fight and colder temperatures will cause them to turn brown. The female is recognized by a white stripe down her back. Both the male and female green anoles have a dewlap that is cream colored, although the male’s is larger.

They compete for food with the exotic Cuban brown anole, Anolis sagrei sagrei, but occupy different zones in the swamp habitat. The brown anole prefers drier areas and is mostly a ground dweller. The male can sometimes be seen displaying his red dewlap, a territorial gesture.

The green anole typically occupies the upper trunk and canopy region, although I have seen them in the wetter areas on the alligator flag and on the boardwalk railings sunning. Habitat destruction has altered the tree canopy for green anoles in most of our neighborhoods and when this happens, they have to come down to the ground to go up another tree, falling prey to the brown anole. Thankfully, the sanctuary’s canopy is intact allowing for the lizards to share the invertebrates found in the bushes and trees. They will also eat each other’s young. Both species shed their skins in patches as they grow and sometimes eat it.

Humans are also invited to eat at the swamp but please use the picnic tables.

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Audubon of Florida’s Corkscrew Swamp’s 2.25-mile boardwalk trail is open every day of the year. The Sanctuary is at the end of Sanctuary Road, located 15 miles east of Interstate 75 (exit 111) off of Immokalee Road. For admission fees and hours, call 239-348-9151 or visit www.corkscrew.audubon.org

Woman Sues American Airlines Over Alleged Lizard in Meal

Seven years ago Monserrate Luna, 49, says she was eating her in-flight meal of chicken and vegetables on an American Airlines flight out of JFK when she unintentionally consumed “a chunk of lizard” that was mixed in with her food. Some people would call that a “bonus,” but in January of this year Luna filed a lawsuit against the airline and its food supplier, LSG Sky Chefs. So why are we hearing about this now? It’s unclear why it took so long for Luna’s story to make the tabloids, but today the Post reports that she suffered a rash, bloating and diarrhea after eating the in-flight meal. Of course, that seems like a pretty standard reaction to airline food, so she better have some better evidence than that if she wants to win her $15 million lawsuit, hey-o. The Post’s article is a scant 59 words long, and at press time that’s about all we know.

Snakes alive! No fun living with reptiles

THE dream of owning a snake- free home could soon come true for a Bloemendal woman who has been living in a reptile-infested wooden house for more than 20 years.

The house of Katie Fairley, 53, near an open dumping site, is in a state of disrepair and has been attracting various species of house snakes. She hopes to occupy her dream house before Christmas this year.

Her present home was one of four houses built as prototypes by various developers to introduce their products to the community in the late 1970s.

It was decided that the houses should be occupied to prevent vandalism, but they are now in a state of disrepair.

The slithery creatures find their way inside and surprise Fairley in her bed, on couches and in any other warm place.

“It is not easy to live in a house of snakes. You are constantly on the lookout because you don’t know when or where you will find them.

“I’m also very scared of these creatures and often wonder when they will strike,” Fairley said. Fortunately for her and her family, in the 20 years she has been living with the problem, none of snakes has had a chance to bite her as she always saw them first.

With the help of neighbour Godfrey de Wet she catches three or four snakes a week.

“I’ve caught all sorts of house snakes,” De Wet said.

Fairley said: “One of the scariest incidents was when my daughter was sleeping on the couch and a snake slithered onto her pillow.

“Just as it was about to lift its head to bite her, Godfrey managed to grab it and throw it outside before killing it.”

De Wet said: “We realised later that the snake was looking for a place to produce her young. That day we counted more than 10 baby snakes.”

Fairley said: “The government has been promising to build us houses for a long time.

“Last year Housing MEC Nombulelo Mabandla visited the area. She saw the condition of the houses and listened to our snake problems.”

ANC MPL Christian Martin said he had brought the matter before the legislature.

“My office is trying all means possible to make sure that Fairley gets a house before Christmas. It will be built in the same area. The delay is with the provincial Housing Department.

“We are waiting for them to start the process,” Martin said.

Departmental spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said houses to replace those occupied by Fairley and her three neighbours would be built under the department’s emergency programme.

“The house should be completed before December. The department and the municipality are working on layout plans for the house.

“Fairley will be living in her dream house by Christmas,” Sicwetsha said.

PCSOs in a panic over plastic snake

The pair of police community support officers raised the alarm after spotting the cobra curled around the handlebars of a bicycle.

They cleared the area around Thorpe Bay Yacht Club, in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, while they called in expert help.

Staff at the Essex Police control room even rang up specialist Iain Newby, owner of the Dangerous and Wild Animal Rescue Facility in nearby Great Wakering.

But when he arrived at the scene on Sunday lunchtime, the red-faced officers revealed it was a rubber toy.

Mr Newby said: “I grabbed all the kit I would need to protect myself from a venomous snake, including a snake hook and my snake stick, which I need to grab snakes to stop them biting.

“I spotted the officers beside the yacht club boat yard when they said it was a rubber model.

“I must admit I laughed and asked if I could keep the snake.”

Despite the blunder, Mr Newby praised the PCSOs for their quick-thinking.

He said: “More and more people are keeping things like this as pets and it’s not impossible for them to get loose.

“So they did exactly the right thing while they were not sure what they are dealing with, as even rubber snakes are getting more and more accurate.”

Real-life cobras, or ‘hood-snakes’ can have deadly venom and grow to 2 metres long.

PCSO Tristan Adams, of Essex Police, said the toy was “very realistic”.

He said: “We will always err on the side of caution when dealing with incidents such as this, which could potentially pose a significant threat to members of the public.

“It was only a very realistic replica snake, but I’d rather we’d over-reacted to a false alarm than ignored a real emergency.”

Scientists discover amphibian species thought to be extinct

The Omaniundu reed frog hadn’t been observed since 1979

Three species of amphibians thought to be extinct for decades have been rediscovered, scientists announced Wednesday.

The three are the cave splayfoot salamander from Mexico, the Mount Nimba reed frog from the Ivory Coast and the Omaniundu reed frog from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The three were found as part of an effort by Conservation International and the Amphibious Specialty Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature to determine if 100 “lost” amphibian species are really extinct.

“These are fantastic finds and could have important implications for people as well as for amphibians,” said Robin Moore, who organized the Search for the Lost Frogs, the official name of the campaign. The creatures could help in medical research or just in protecting water resources, Moore said.

Several specimens of the salamander, of which only a lone individual was identified in 1941, were found in a system of caves accessible only by a pothole in Mexico’s Hidalgo province, Conservation International said.

The Mount Nimba reed frog, found by a local scientist in a swampy field near Ivory Coast’s border with Liberia, hadn’t been seen since 1967.

The Omaniundu reed frog hadn’t been observed since 1979. It was spotted in a flooded forest next to a Congo River tributary.

The first phase of the lost frogs project continues until next month when the Convention on Biological Diversity opens in Japan. Scientists hope they’ll have more successes to announce then, but Moore said it’s a tall task.

“These rediscovered animals are the lucky ones – many other species we have been looking for have probably gone for good,” he said.

Baby crocodile brutally attacked by group in the Northern Territory

Up to 15 people attacked the crocodile as it swam in the Sanctuary Lakes at Gunn, Palmerston.

Darwin crocodile lover Craig West said he rushed to the croc’s aid after hearing reports of the attack, the Northern Territory News reports.

“When I arrived at the lake there was a group of 10 to 15 people standing at the water’s edge, throwing rocks at the crocodile,” he said.

“It was quite close to the bank and didn’t seem to be really scared at first – or maybe it was just really stressed out.”

The reptile – believed to be a baby freshie – was yesterday waiting to be rescued by rangers after the attack.

Mr West said he believed the crocodile was either a released pet or had been washed into the lake during the latest rain.

“Freshies breed in the dry season and, judging by the size, this one is only a few months old,” he said.

“It was only tiny.”

The crocodile lover said that he was “really p—– off” with the people’s behaviour.

“They weren’t even kids who didn’t know better. They were adults, trying to injure or kill the little thing.

“I don’t know what they thought. The croc wasn’t a threat. And it’s not only illegal to interfere with wildlife, it’s just plain cruel to try to injure the crocodile.”

Parks and Wildlife rangers yesterday morning placed a crocodile trap in the lake to rescue the reptile from its human predators.

According to the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, people interfering with protected wildlife face penalties of up to $55,000 in fines or five years in prison.

Precautions needed for alligators in southeast Oklahoma, even in winter

As colder temperatures move into Oklahoma, alligators and other reptiles begin to slow down.

Alligators are found in the far southeast corner of Oklahoma, said Micah Holmes, spokesman for the state Department of Wildlife Conservation. They are sometimes spotted in McCurtain County and occasionally seen in Choctaw, Pushmataha and Le Flore counties.

Oklahoma alligators represent the farthest northwest habitat where American alligators can survive, Holmes said.

“They just don’t make it during the winter because they can’t survive the cold,” he said.

During the winter, alligators go into a type of dormancy called torpor, said Jorge Chavez, supervisor of the herpetarium at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

At the zoo, alligators are offered food all winter, but eventually they stop eating in the coldest part of winter, he said. They eat again when temperatures rise.

Although they have access to a heated pool indoors, most alligators at the zoo prefer to stay outside all year, he said.

In the wild, alligators move less but still are potentially dangerous, Holmes said. Approaching or taunting an alligator is a bad idea, even in cold weather.

“You should treat it the same way you would in July,” he said. “Observe it from a distance. It’s nothing to be scared of, but just use common sense.”

Holmes said any alligator spotted beyond its natural habitat should be reported immediately to wildlife officials.

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