Daily Reptile News

Zoo Atlanta helps to save indigo snakes

Someday, 37 young eastern indigo snakes that arrived at Zoo Atlanta in January will grow up. Like others of their ebony ilk, they’ll be among the longest snakes in North America, non-venomous and able to chow on rattlesnakes but remain docile in human hands. Not that it will happen often — few zoo workers and no zoo visitors will ever see them.

They’re part of a larger movement to increase indigo snake populations in the Southeast and re-establish the threatened species in Conecuh National Forest, a suitably large longleaf pine habitat with gopher tortoise burrows the snakes use for shelter. Hatchlings from gravid female snakes captured in South Georgia will live in captivity till they’re large enough to carry tiny radio transmitters and avoid becoming prey themselves.

Beside the glamor on display at Zoo Atlanta, Georgia Aquarium and other animal attractions, this is just one ongoing behind-the-scenes research project. Among behavior and breeding studies, only a few deal with animals that can’t go on display and won’t live their lives in the care of humans. It’s delicate to balance a zoo’s level of care with the demands of wilderness.

“Animals that you never see — that’s somewhat atypical,” said Dwight Lawson, Zoo Atlanta’s senior vice president of collections, education and conservation. “You want to take extra precautions that they aren’t introduced to any exotic diseases and don’t want them to get habituated to humans.”

Some animals born or raised in Atlanta attractions have returned successfully to the wild. Golden lion tamarins from Zoo Atlanta moved to Brazil in 1994 and 1996. The Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell and the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga raised and released nearly 20 bog turtles in North Georgia.

Five sea turtles that usually live off the coast of North Carolina are currently in Georgia Aquarium’s warehouse. An abnormally frigid winter caused  “catastrophic wildlife mortality,” said Gregory Bossart, Georgia Aquarium’s chief veterinary officer and senior vice president of veterinary services. For now, the aquarium will add to research on the effects of climate change on ocean life. If the turtles’ health continues to improve, they’ll be released in May.

“We’re excited an aquarium in a landlocked city is able to help,” Bossart said.

In each case, places known as tourist destinations are serving as laboratories. Government and nonprofit agencies might have interest, administrators and funding to save threatened species, but zoos and nature centers have the animal expertise.

“You’re strapped for cash to fund these programs, but the silver lining is that people are coming together,” said Lawson, of Zoo Atlanta. “It’s sparking new solutions to old problems.”

Conservation agencies in Alabama had long wanted to reintroduce the threatened indigo snake population to the state’s southern forests, and looked to Auburn University for help. In 2008, Auburn zoologist Jim Godwin had three female indigo snakes that produced nearly 30 hatchlings. The next year, it was eight adults and 60 offspring.

“These snakes are essentially eating machines,” Godwin said. “We really weren’t prepared for that.”

Enter Zoo Atlanta, with its animal-friendly facilities and reptile-loving staff. Brad Lock, a Zoo Atlanta veterinarian and assistant curator of herpetology, knows snakes sometimes want heat, a place to hide, a moist spot to shed. He knows to mimic the wilderness diet of an eating machine, too, with small fish, tadpoles, quail and mice of different sizes – “pinkies, fuzzies, hoppers,” he said. Later, they’ll dine on frogs, eggs, turtles and other snakes.

With a little help from humans, some snakes may be released later this year, project organizers hope. The indigos from Zoo Atlanta will get their shot at wild survival next year.

“It’s millions of years of adaptation, evolution or God’s influence. Man’s really good at copying it, but not so good at coming up with it,” Lock said. “It would be a shame to lose that.”

Indigo snakes by the numbers

5: states where eastern indigo snakes lived historically

2: states where eastern indigo snakes live currently, Georgia and Florida

37: number of indigo snakes cared for at Zoo Atlanta

18: number of indigo snakes likely to be released in Alabama this summer

2: meters, the typical length of a female indigo snake

6-foot-long snake fished out of Meyers Lake

MEYERS LAKE —

Suzi Spotleson used to swim off her dock at Meyers Lake. After Monday night, she isn’t sure she will continue.

Not after looking out of the window above her kitchen sink and seeing something floating in the water.

It was about 6:15 p.m. Monday when Spotleson went outside to investigate. What she found was a 6-foot-long snake she believed was a python — turns out it was a boa constrictor.

“When I first saw it, I thought it was a turtle,” she said, surprised by the find. “Then, I went down to investigate.”

Fortunately, the snake was dead by the time it reached her home. Neighbor Kent Smith used a net to fish it out of the water.

State wildlife officials say it likely is an abandoned pet, since such large snakes aren’t indigenous to northeastern Ohio.

“Considering it is not native to Ohio, if it was a python, I would assume it was a pet,” said Jamey Graham, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. “Pythons just could not survive (on their own) our winters.”

Neither could boa constrictors, said Stephon Echague, wildlife rehabilitation supervisor for the Stark County Park District Sanders Wildlife Rehabilitation Centers, who identified the snake from a photo.

“This is a boa constrictor. It had to be someone’s pet. Boa constrictors are native to tropical areas and our night temps are too cold for them,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Rep. “It is possible that (the snake) was not able to digest his meal properly (which could kill him).”

Spotleson also believes it was someone’s pet that either got away on its own, or was set free because it probably got too big.

Surviving the shock of finding the snake in her own back yard, so to speak, Spotleson said there will be one major change in her lifestyle now.

“We swim in the lake right off the dock but now, I am not so sure I will go back in,” she said, noting that she has lived there since 2005.

“I’ve seen turtles, but this is like having a Loch Ness Monster in the lake. It is disturbing. I won’t be swimming in there for a few months, at least.”

If finding the snake Monday night wasn’t enough, at

2:30 a.m. Tuesday, lightning struck a tree in her yard, causing some of the bark to fall off, and some of her sod to detach.

“I’ve had snakes and lightning,” she said. “If it starts raining frogs, I’m moving!”

‘Spectacular’ komodo cousin is big as a man and has two penises, biologists say

BIOLOGISTS have reported the discovery of a spectacular species of giant lizard, a reptile as long as a full-grown man is tall, and said it is endowed with a double penis.

The secretive but brightly-coloured beast, a monitor lizard, is a close cousin of the komodo dragon of Indonesia.

But unlike the fearsome dragon, it is not a carnivore, nor does it feast on rotting meat.

Instead, it is entirely peaceable and tucks into fruit.

Dubbed Varanus bitatawa, the lizard measures two metres in length, according to the account, published by Britain’s Royal Society.

It was found in a river valley on northern Luzon Island in the Philippines, surviving loss of habitat and hunting by local people who use it for food.

How many of the lizards have survived is unclear.

The species is almost certainly critically endangered, and might well have disappeared entirely without ever being catalogued had a large male specimen not been rescued alive from a hunter last June.

Finding such a distinctive species in a heavily populated, highly deforested location “comes as an unprecedented surprise”, note the authors, writing in the journal Biology Letters.

The only finds of comparable importance in recent decades are the Kipunji monkey, which inhabits a tiny range of forest in Tanzania, and the Saola, a forest-dwelling bovine found only in Vietnam and Laos.

V. bitatawa has unique markings and an unusual sexual anatomy, according to the study.

Its scaly body and legs are a blue-black mottled with pale yellow-green dots, while its tail is marked in alternating segments of black and green.

Males have a double penis, called hemipenes, also found in some snakes and other lizards.

The two penises are often used in alternation, and sometimes contain spines or hooks that serve to anchor the male within the female during intercourse.

V. bitatawa has a relative in southern Luzon, V. olivaceus, but the species are separated by three river valleys and a gap of 150km and may never have met up.

One reason that the new lizard has gone undetected, the researchers speculate, is that it never leaves the forests of its native Sierra Madre mountains to traverse open spaces.

The discovery “adds to the recognition of the Philippines as a global conservation hotspot and a regional superpower of biodiversity”, the authors conclude.

The giant lizard should become a “flagship species” for conservation efforts aimed at preserving the remaining forests of northern Luzon, which are rapidly disappearing under the pressure of expanding human population and deforestation.

Puff Adders on the Patio?

The Naples Daily News recently published a statistic that surprised (and scared) even me. In a five year period between 2000 and 2005 over 1,000 puff adder snakes were imported into the United States through ports in Florida. These are big, 4-5 foot long, venomous snakes. They get their name from their habit of sucking in air to expand their body size accompanied by a hiss that sounds like you punctured a car tire with a bowie knife. They bite, and kill, more people in Africa than any other reptile. They aren’t a particularly aggressive snake but they like to lay still and rely on their camouflage for concealment. Most victims simply step on them. I suppose we can consider ourselves lucky to have a python problem, not a puff adder problem, here in south Florida. Puff adders can produce anywhere from 20-50 young with a record of over 100. That’d be a real problem even when considering the typical survival rate for reptiles is only 10%. Our python issue is tame by comparison. Yes, pythons can produce as many baby snakes but pythons aren’t killing thousands annually overseas. Puff adders are. But our puff adder import issue begs the larger question: Should there be hundreds of these potentially deadly snakes in backrooms and basements across America? In a recent search of the record keeping system shared by all zoos in North America I found only nine puff adders in five institutions. Those snakes have a purpose. One of the many legitimate reasons for zoos is to be a window to the natural world, to show us what is out there. A zoo offers opportunities to discover and appreciate all species of life near and far. Do I expect the average zoo visitor to run home and cut a check to save puff adders? No, but remember when you protect habitat for one species, you protect all species. Save wild places for African lions and you save rhinos, giraffe, and yes, even puff adders. So why do we need hundreds, if not thousands, of puff adders and many other dangerous snakes in the private sector? The simple answer is we don’t. I am not advocating that the sale of corn snakes or geckos comes to a grinding halt. With good research there are many species of reptiles that the average and responsible person can learn to care for. And I do believe there is a place for qualified venomous snake keepers outside of the zoo system. Many have advanced knowledge of the husbandry and breeding of dangerous snakes. Some keep snakes to produce lifesaving antivenins. I have learned much from such individuals. However, there are still many outlets where inexperienced handlers can acquire venomous snakes to keep in their homes for all the wrong reasons. This is a practice that must stop. I am all about less government intervention in our lives but this whole issue of exotic pets is well past ripe for change. The international trade in live and dead animals is only exceeded by the illegal drug trade. Nearly all the live animal trade goes into the private sector. Only 1% of zoo animals come from native countries. At least here in Florida venomous snake owners must be licensed by the state. My personal license hangs by my desk. The license alone does not make me an expert; I learn new things about reptiles every day. But it does validate I have the time and experience to know the basic care and handling of dangerous reptiles. If more states would institute similar baseline programs and the Federal government would tighten up loose import restrictions, both people and animals would benefit.

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Scientists find new species of monitor lizard in Sierra Madre

MANILA, Philippines–A fruit-eating monitor lizard in the Sierra Madre range has led a team of Filipino and foreign scientists to call it a significant discovery and a potent symbol of the need to protect the country’s dwindling forests.

Scientists from the National Museum of the Philippines, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the University of Kansas over the last few years conducted expeditions to study the animal.

Last year, a scientist managed to collect a specimen and DNA for analysis. Recently, it was confirmed that it was a new species.

Dr. Arvin Diesmos, curator of herpetology at the Zoology Division of the National Museum, called the discovery of the Northern Sierra Madre Monitor Lizard a “spectacular find.”

“Discoveries of large animals

are rare in the world since it has been known that all large animals have been discovered and inventoried,” said Diesmos, who took part in expeditions that studied the animal and first saw it in 2006.

He added that monitor lizards around the world were usually flesh-eaters. “It’s a significant find because it’s a unique animal. It only feeds on

fruit and sometimes snails while most monitor lizards in the country and in the world are meat-eaters and scavengers.”

Since it feeds on fruits, it is well-adapted to climbing trees with its sharp and curved talons.

The Northern Sierra Madre Forest Monitor Lizards can grow up to two meters long.

“It is able to grow as large as it is because of a steady diet of fruits which are readily available,’’ Diesmos said. “Meat-eating monitor are usually hunters. They have to be agile, fast and smaller. The new species doesn’t have to move much.”

Through the analysis of its physical features and DNA, scientists have determined that the new species is distinct but closely related to two other fruit-eating monitor lizards in the Philippines.

It is also different from the more common meat-eating water monitor lizard, locally known as “bayawak.”

“The new species is more secretive and spends most of its time up on trees in the forests of the Northern Sierra Madre mountain range of Luzon,” a description of the animal said.

Another unique characteristic of the new species is its bright yellow and black stripes and spots across its back. “Its one of the most brightly colored monitors. It has specks of bright yellow and ivory white. It’s not like the other monitors which are blackish and grey.”

Diesmos explained that bright colors might make the monitor easy to spot by larger predators. “We think that since it’s always up in trees, it’s safe from predators.”

It is the third fruit-eating lizard discovered in the country. “But this one is bigger than the two others,” Diesmos said.

He said the new species was first spotted by field workers in 2004 and 2005 as it was part of the diet of indigenous groups in the region.

“Nobody knew it was an undiscovered and uncatalogued species then,” Diesmos said.

In June 2009, scientists were able to obtain a specimen for DNA analysis in the United States. In December, they were able to confirm that it was a distinct species.

Diesmos said they submitted their report and paper on the new animal to the publication Biology Letters, an international journal published by the Royal Society of London, in December of last year. It had since gone through verification before it was confirmed recently that it was indeed a new species.

Diesmos said they have yet to verify if the species is in danger of extinction. “We are concerned about the fact that it is found in low-level forest areas that are prone to encroachment by humans.”

“It is an important species for the Philippines, especially since it is a forest species. It highlights the need for us to preserve its habitat. Otherwise we might lose it as well as other species. It highlights the fact that the Philippines has a very unique and very complex biodiversity,” Diesmos said.

The scientific description of this reptile and its scientific name will be published this week in Biology Letters.

Giant fruit-eating monitor lizards are found only in the Philippines. The Northern Sierra Madre Monitor Lizard is known among local Aurora Province residents as “butikaw.” In Isabela province, members of the Agta group refer to it as “bitatawa.”

Another fruit-eating species, the Gray’s monitor lizard, is known as the “butaan” by people in southern Luzon, Bicol, Catanduañes, and the Polillo island group. The other fruit-eating monitor lizard from Panay Island is locally known as “mabitang.

Turtles killed ‘in millions’ by fishing gear

Described as the first global synthesis of existing data, the study found especially high rates of “bycatch” in the Mediterranean and eastern Pacific.

Six of the seven sea turtle types are on the Red List of Threatened Species.

Writing in the journal Conservation Letters, researchers advocate much greater use of gear safe for turtles.

These include circular hooks rather than the conventional J-shaped hooks on long fishing lines, and hatches that allow the reptiles to escape from trawls.

Turtles must come to the surface to breathe.

When they are caught in a net or on a fishing hook, they cannot surface, and drown.

Lead researcher Bryan Wallace said the state of the world’s turtles was an indicator of the wider health of the oceans.

“Sea turtles are sentinel species of how oceans are functioning,” he said.

“The impacts that human activities have on them give us an idea as to how those same activities are affecting the oceans on which billions of people around the world depend for their own well-being.”

Dr Wallace works in the global marine division of Conservation International and at Duke University in the US.

Off target

The raw material from the study came from records of bycatch – incidental catches in fishing gear – from different regions of the world.

Over the period 1990-2008, records showed that more than 85,000 turtles were snared.

However, those records covered a tiny proportion of the world’s total fishing fleets.

“Because the reports we reviewed typically covered less than 1% of all fleets, with little or no information from small-scale fisheries around the world, we conservatively estimate that the true total is probably not in tens of thousands, but in the millions of turtles taken as bycatch in the past two decades,” said Dr Wallace.

Three types of fishing gear are identified in the survey – long-lines, gillnets and trawls.

Modern long-line boats trail strings of hooks that can be 40km long, usually in search of high-value species such as tuna and marlin.

Gillnets are usually stationary, and use mesh of a set size in an attempt to target certain species of fish.

The researchers suggest that several areas of the world account for particularly high levels of bycatch – the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean for all types of gear, together with trawling operations off the west coast of Africa.

Catches cut

Modifying fishing gear can have a dramatic impact on the size of bycatch.

Shrimp trawls fitted with turtle excluder devices (TEDs) catch markedly fewer of the reptiles.

A grid prevents anything large from entering the back portion of the net, and a hole above the grid allows accidentally snared animals such as turtles to escape.

A number of countries now require that shrimp boats must use nets fitted with TEDs.

The circular long-line hooks also reduce bycatch of birds such as albatrosses.

However, some fleets have resisted adopting selective gear because fishermen believe it will reduce their catch.

In many parts of the developing world, the gear is not available.

Marine turtles face other significant threats.

Debris in the oceans, such as plastic bags, can also cause drowning, while development in coastal regions can affect nesting and reproduction.

Some turtles are still targeted for meat, and their shells used for tourist souvenirs.

Numbers of adult leatherbacks – the largest species, growing to more than 2m long and capable of journeys that span entire oceans – are thought to have declined by more than 75% between 1982 and 1996.

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