Thai police raided Boonlue Prasitsom’s warehouse finding more than 200 lizards in water filled tanks. It is believed that Boonlue was planning to smuggle the lizards to China. Officials believe Boonlue has been poaching lizards for more than ten years and is one of the countries biggest offenders. Last week Indonesian officials also busted a man carrying hundreds of reptiles in luggage.
Category Archives: Foreign News
Overgrown Crocodile for sale.
Ms Sandstrom who dose reptile shows at schools, parties and other functions says her 2.6m long croc named Snappy will be sold as he is to large and dangerous for her to handle anymore. Snappy will be replaced by 2 smaller Crocodiles. I really have to speak out on this one. A pet is a pet for life not just until it gets to big and inconvenient for you. Stories like this are all to common in America and it really pisses me off to hear of this one. I mean what the heck did she expect the Salt Water Crocodile to stay small forever. I honestly think she should not be allowed to keep them anymore if they are so meaningless to her that she can just dump them when they get to big. Like it or not but I dont care, this is one of those stories that I really do not like to tell. I equally hate to give the website a plug but everyone should go there and tell her how much of an immature keeper she really is, check the link below.
Lost Frogs found in India
A frog last seen 136 years ago is one of 5 lost frogs to be rediscovered in India. The search for the lost frogs in India stems from the story below where scientists searched 21 country’s in search for lost frogs The Chalazodes bubble-nest frog was last documented by a British Herpetologist in 1874. Scientists believe the frog hatches from the egg fully developed. Also found during the search were the Anamalai dot frog, the Dehradun stream frog, the Silent Valley tropical frog, and the Elegant tropical frog.
Search for lost Frogs success.
Last August we spoke about researchers traveling the globe in search for lost Frog species. Their target was 100 lost frogs, the succeeded in finding 4 of those and concluded that the other 96 species were in fact extinct. “Rediscoveries provide reason for hope for these species, but the flip side of the coin is that the vast majority of species that teams were looking for were not found. This is a reminder that we are in the midst of what is being called the Sixth Great Extinction with species disappearing at 100 to 1000 times the historic rate—and amphibians are really at the forefront of this extinction wave,” said Dr. Robin Moore “We need to turn these discoveries and rediscoveries into an opportunity to stem the crisis by focusing on protecting one of the most vulnerable groups of animals and their critical habitats.”
Zoo snake enclosure still unfinished
The Chattbir Zoo apparently has yet to finish a snake enclosure. Last year they had to release 32 Sand Boas into the jungle when a mother gave birth to them and they did not have room to keep them do to the enclosure not being done. They do have one Python at the zoo but the cold winter conditions require them to move it to a veterinary hospital during the winter. Work was started on the new snake enclosure in 2008 but is still not complete. Activists filed a complaint agents the zoo claiming they were misusing funds meant to finish the enclosure and according to the zoo an inquiry by the government held up the completion of the new snake enclosure.
Mother and child held captive by man with snakes
A Swedish woman and her child were held captive for hours by a man who said if they tried to leave he would unleash six green Asian pit vipers and two puff adders on them. Police were eventually able to slip in and free the woman and child and the man surrendered without incident. Animal expert Jonas Wahlstrom, director of the Skansen Aquarium collected the snakes and removed them. There were also 2 lizards found and police said the apartment had garbage all over it.
The reptile enthusiasts of Sweden need to stand up, we all need to stand up and work towards the common goal of keeping reptiles out of the hand of people like this. The vast majority of us are good honest people but there are a few who for some reason chose to do stupid things like this and put a bad light on us as a community.
I urge everyone to contact the local government in Stockholm with the contact info below and tell them a story of responsible reptile keeping.
Government Offices of Sweden Switchboard work +46 8 405 10 00
Address work Rosenbad 4
Postal address postal SE-103 33 Stockholm
New snake species discovered.
A new snake has been discovered at the Chu Mon Ray National Park in Sa Thay district, Kon Tum province in the Central Highlands
The stream snakes of the genus Opisthotropis have speciated in many of the streams to become localized endemics. There are 19 species in the genus most of which have not been researched. Most are found in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia but species occur from Sumatra to the Philippines.
Most probably eat fish, but a few eat crustaceans, and it seems likely that some are more aquatic than others – spending most of their lives in the water and perhaps leaving the water only to lay their eggs.