Daily Reptile News

Croc, 140, dies at Australia Zoo

MOST people would consider living until you’re 140 a pretty big achievement – especially if you’re blind and have been shot twice.

It was an amazing feat for one of Australia Zoo’s oldest and most colourful residents, Mr Freshie; a freshwater croc who died on Tuesday.

The old reptile, who was estimated to be between 120- and 140-years-old, had called the Sunshine Coast zoo home for decades.

He was caught in North Queensland almost 40 years ago by Steve Irwin and his dad, Bob.

The pair travelled to Moorehead River to rescue a severely wounded male croc.

Mr Freshie, “a harmless reptile”, had been shot twice – once in the tail and once in his left eye, leaving him blind and badly injured.

As they prepared to rescue Mr Freshie, the Irwin duo discovered he was no ordinary croc. A local tribe of Aborigines considered the reptile sacred and explained how several generations had watched Mr Freshie roam the local waterways for 100 years.

Mr Freshie was treated and rehabilitated at Australia Zoo, where he retired to peaceful ponds and lush green surrounds.

It was at the zoo where he met his girlfriend, Blondie.

Australia Zoo released a statement this afternoon announcing the death.

“He lived in a large pond, ate scrumptious food, and enjoyed lots of love and admiration from his keepers,” the statement said.

“Despite his age, Mr Freshie had a great appetite and a skip in his step; he didn’t look a day over 80.”

Many freshwater crocodiles like Mr Freshie are shot in Australia.

Freshwater crocs are harmless reptiles and have never been linked to a human fatality.

Shooting wild crocodiles is inhumane. An injured croc can submerge, and hold its breath for hours. It can take months of suffering for a bullet-wounded crocodile to die.

Naked PETA Beauty Asks Austin Shoppers to Leave Snakes in the Jungle

Austin, Texas — With her naked body painted like snakeskin under a banner that reads, “Exotic Skins Belong in the Jungle–Not on Your Feet,” a PETA member will lead a protest on Tuesday urging shoppers to scratch exotic-animal skins off their shopping lists. Other activists will hold signs reading, “Whose Skin Are You In?” PETA wants shoppers to know that exotic animals are skinned alive, beaten to death, or killed for their skins in other cruel ways.

Although most of the leather sold in the U.S. comes from cows, other species–including snakes, alligators, and kangaroos–are hunted and killed specifically for their skins. Snakes are commonly nailed to trees or posts and skinned alive. Their mutilated bodies are discarded, and it sometimes takes hours for them to die. Alligators are often crammed into tiny spaces on factory farms and are beaten to death with hammers or axes. According to the Australian government code for hunting kangaroos, orphaned babies and wounded adults are to be decapitated or hit sharply on the head.

“I’ll gladly bare some of my skin if it will help save animals’ skins,” says PETA’s Ashley Byrne. “We’re asking Austin residents to take a bite out of cruelty by giving snakeskin and other exotic leather the boot.”

UN adds iguanas, tree frogs and other terrestrial species to endangered list

UN adds iguanas, tree frogs and other terrestrial species to endangered list

The United Nations is adding several reptiles and amphibians from Central America and Iran to its endangered species trade list overseen by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Guatemalan spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaura palearis) and other three species of iguanas native to central and south-eastern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula and Central America were added to the list by consensus yesterday at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) under way in Doha, Qatar.

CITES ” which now includes 144 member States ” was created in 1975 to protect wildlife against over-exploitation and to prevent international trade from threatening species with extinction.

The iguanas are in demand for the international exotic pet trade, mainly in Europe and the United States. Their inclusion on the list means that governments can regulate their trade.

The CITES summit also adopted measures to protect a whole genus of tree frogs from Central and South America that is under pressure owing to habitat degradation and loss, and to a fungal disease known as chytridiomycosis.

In addition, the international commercial trade of a salamander endemic to Iran, known as the Kaiser”s newt (Neurergus kaiseri), is now prohibited.

Meanwhile, CITES voted against the protection of the commercially valuable precious pink and red corals in the family Coralliidae, comprised of more than 30 coral species.

Delegates voted against a similar proposal at The Hague three years ago.

They cited a lack of sufficient scientific evidence and the impact on the livelihoods of costal local populations depending on corals as the reasons for the opposing votes.

House Evacuated for Eight Weeks after Pet Cobra Vanishes

Snakes, as every schoolboy knows, can go for quite some time between meals. Even monocled cobras — extremely poisonous, but hardly the hardiest of reptiles — can survive up to six weeks without a bite. Which helps explain why a house in the western German city of Mülheim is being sealed off and evacuated for two months.

The saga began over a week ago when amateur snake keeper Kevin O., 19, brought home his exotic new pet and installed it in a terrarium complete with the ventilation system necessary to keep the three-month old serpent toasty warm. Just a short time later, however, the snake tank was empty and its occupant was nowhere to be found. O. called the authorities.

What followed was one of the lengthiest and most expensive pet-hunts Germany has seen in recent years. The walls, floor and ceiling of O’s attic apartment were dismantled and the two units on the ground floor below were also carefully searched. Flour was strewn on the floor in the hopes of collecting tracks. Strong, double-sided tape was installed to perhaps trap the cobra baby. The fire department even brought in mini-cameras to search the tightest and most inaccessible corners.

To no avail. On Sunday, the search was called off and the renters were told they would have to find alternate accommodation for eight weeks — by which time, it is assumed, the snake will have starved to death. The house has been sealed off to cut off any possible reptilian escape routes, though the cobra is not likely to venture outdoors, say experts, due to chilly German temperatures.

A Hefty Bill

For Kevin O., however, the drama is far from over. In all, the search cost close to €40,000 — and that’s just for the fire department. There were numerous other agencies involved in the search in addition to the construction company tasked with stripping O’s apartment to the studs. The owner of the house is also unlikely to be pleased with the structure’s new look. Even if keeping poisonous pets is legal in Germany, it is considered likely that O. will be presented with a hefty bill.

In the meantime, the mini-cobra remains hidden. “We probably won’t find the snake even in a hundred years,” said a fire department spokesman on Sunday. “No matter what we do.”

Snake among sewerage system finds

Scottish Water staff have also found a platoon of toy soldiers, a live frog and a goldfish clogging the pipes.

The firm spends £6m a year clearing system blockages and urged people to think about what they flush away.

Many items also enter the system by falling into drains or manholes found in fields and roads.

A worker at the Dunfermline waste water treatment works was stunned to see a Mexican desert kingsnake curled beneath a metal grid boardwalk he was strolling along.

He contacted the Scottish SPCA, who collected the non-venomous constrictor snake and took it away.

‘Credit card’

A live badger found in a pumping station well at Drongan in Ayrshire also made a full recovery after it was rescued by the SSPCA.

A goldfish named Pooh, recovered in East Kilbride, and a frog found in a pump in Dornoch, Highlands, were none the worse for their time inside the sewer system.

However, a sheep found in a manhole chamber and a cow recovered from a storm tank were not so lucky.

As well as animals, Scottish Water workers have recovered an eclectic collection of items, including an iron which worked, despite its time in the network.

Staff in Dumfries even found a credit card of one of their colleagues, which had been stolen from his wife’s handbag on a night out.

‘Endangers health’

The thief stole some money then flushed the contents of the bag down the toilet, and the credit card eventually reappeared at the sewage plant.

False teeth and mobile phones are often found, as are rings and watches, which are handed to police.

Scottish Water dealt with more than 36,500 choked drains last year and urged the public to help reduce the amount by being more careful.

It estimated that 340 million items of sanitary waste were flushed each year and said 55% of all sewer blockages are caused by people disposing of cooking fat down their sink.

Waste water general manager Rob Mustard said: “When sewers, pumping stations and sewage works get clogged they overflow and sewage escapes into rivers.

“This endangers public health, wildlife and the environment.”

Snake bite

IMPHAL, March 21: In a prompt and timely action, troops of Red Shield Division saved the life of Y Dungcha, 36 year old from village Salam Kunjem, who was bitten by a viper on his left forearm while he was working in the fields.

A release said his friends gave a call to the Army post at Saiton of Moirang subdivision and sought help.

The post commander immediately rushed to the spot and picked up the snake bite victim and brought him to unit hospital of 16 Maratha Light Infantry, it said.

The unit doctor gave first aid by administering a life saving anti snake venom and the poisoning was controlled and the patient revived, the release added.

Girl bitten by crocodile as inquest into fatal attack begins

A five-year-old girl had a lucky escape in northern Australia when she was bitten by a saltwater crocodile while swimming in shallow waters yesterday.

The child had her leg cut open by the 2m (6.5 foot)-long reptile, which left bite marks in her thigh while she was swimming at Caledon Bay in Arnhem Land, an Aboriginal reserve in the remote northeastern corner of the Northern Territory.

Police said that they were not sure whether the crocodile had attacked the girl or if she had accidentally disturbed the animal which cut her as it was trying to get away.

Police Superintendent Craig Ryan said the crocodile’s claws gouged the girl’s leg and slashed her leg open. He said she was lucky to be alive.

“Any crocodile attack that you survive, you have to count your blessings,” he told the Northern Territory News. “The girl was extremely lucky that she only received a minor injury. Any croc attack has the potential to be fatal.”

Last week a 45-year-old professional fisherman was bitten several times in the head and shoulder by a saltwater crocodile while diving for trepang (sea cucumbers) in Port Essington, 120 miles northeast of Darwin. The man was rescued by his fellow divers and taken to hospital where he was treated for his injuries.

In March last year 11-year-old Briony Goodsell was fatally attacked by a crocodile while swimming in Black Jungle Swamp, a restricted area inside a crocodile-infested conservation reserve near Lambells Lagoon, a rural town 30 miles east of Darwin.

A coronial inquest into Briony’s death was expected to begin in a Darwin court today.

Crocodiles are commonly found throughout the Northern Territory, where an estimated 80,000 of the reptiles live in Top End waterways. Each year more than 200 crocodiles are caught by government rangers in traps placed around Darwin and its harbour.

There have been four fatal crocodile attacks in the Northern Territory and Queensland since September, 2008. The recent spate of attacks led to a proposal for a crocodile management plan which included trophy-hunting safaris and the widespread culling of the animals and a “croc-free zone” to be put in place around Darwin.

The plan, which was approved by the Commonwealth government in October, rejected safaris but increased the number of eggs and animals that can be harvested for farming, food and export.

The management plan has been supported by Briony’s mother, Charlene O’Sullivan, who said she hopes this week’s coronial inquest will prompt changes to crocodile management policies.

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