Herps In The News - $6,000 Reward Offered In Turtle Killing

A female snapping turtle was apparently beaten so badly that it died two days later. It was found on a golf course and it is believed it was beaten with a golf club. Making it even sadder is the fact that she apparently was looking for a place to lay eggs.



See the articles at the below links for more info:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/reward-offered-in-beating-of-turtle-on-golf-course-b9931567z1-211046401.html

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/mother-turtle-dies-after-beating-at-delevan-golf-course-b9932299z1-211210151.html

A Hat tip to Deb H for sending me one of the articles and a link to it and for sending a pic that was apparently of the deceased turtle. Since we have some young kids viewing the site, I opted not to publish that pic as it was pretty gory. You can easily imagine the injuries to the turtle if you watched the video which I found after a bit of searching the web.

All the best,
Glenn B

Some Herp Pics

All of these were submitted by LIHS member Deb H. for your viewing enjoyment:

Xenodermus javanicus, photo source: Source:
 http://imgur.com/gallery/jvl43QY

Here is a link to some info on the above snake. Information on it is scant at best:
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/190514/0

A very small woman or very large snake.
No source supplied.

A Turtle Being All It Can Be
Source: http://i.imgur.com/FpAIIaP.jpg

 

All the best,

Glenn B 

Knock - Knock...

..."Who's there"?

"Co".

"Co who"?

"Cobra".

Get a load of this cobra and imagine it knocking on your front door! Maybe they are a common sight in India but I would never get used to them being around my house like this. See the below link for more photos:

http://moozhiyarpuranam.blogspot.com/2011/06/king-cobra-at-sitout-of-our-lineman.html

A hat tip and my thanks to Deb H once again for another fine submission for the blog.

All the best,
Glenn B

Upcoming Event - Annual LIHS Auction

The Long Island Herpetological Society's (LIHS) 5th Annual Auction is slated to take place on Sunday June 9th, from 1-4PM (possible earlier end time), at SUNY Farmingdale in the Conference Center. Directions to the conference center can be found at this link and here is a link to a campus map.

This is a great opportunity to give the LIHS some financial help. There are potentially going to b two types of auctions going off: the first being wherein all auction proceeds go to the LIHS and the second being wherein the LIHS receives 50% and he item's seller the other 50% (although historically most auctioned items have been auctioned so that 100% of the proceeds go to the LIHS). At the same time you will be bidding on mostly herp related items and some non-herp items (both either new or used) and have great chance at getting some nice items for yourself. See the LIHS 5th Annual Auction flyer. See a preview of some of the items up for auction here.

Hope to see you at the auction with plenty of cash to spend.

All the best,
Glenn B

The LIHS Exhibit at Reptile & Amphibian Appreciation Day at CSHFHA

It was a beautiful day today, Saturday June 1, 2013, at the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery & Aquarium for their annual Reptile and Amphibian Appreciation Day and for their annual Turtle & Tortoise Pageant. As usual, the Long Island Herpetological Society was there showing of animals owned by several of the membership and giving out herp care and natural history info. Used to be that another herp group or two would show up but for the last several years the only group to show has been the LIHS. We sure enjoy doing these shows at the hatchery and I hope that we will keep on participating for many years to come. It's a nice place run by nice folks.
 
The hatchery had a fair amount of visitors today, so we had a good number stop by the tables to take a look at our herps. The LIHS had a fair turnout of the membership and thus we were able to exhibit a good variety of animals for the folks who stopped by to take a look. Some folks went further than just looking and wanted to hold a lizard, a snake, a turtle or tortoise. It worked out well and I don't think anyone who stopped by the LIHS exhibit at the hatchery today was at all disappointed. In fact, I saw a lot of 'wowed' faces and a lot of smiling ones too. I cannot describe it well enough in words so I'll show it in pictures.
 
Just one thing before I go to the pics, I have to say that I somehow missed the Turtle and Tortoise Pageant; I had entered my Hermann's Tortoises with an online entry but never even realized the show was taking place. I will admit to having left the show site for about an hour, with John Heiser, my friend and fellow LIHS member (and board member) to look for and photograph salamanders on the adjoining Nature Conservancy property but the pageant did not look like it had kicked off by the time we got back. So, I don't know how I missed it.  Oh well, next year I will pay more attention.
 
Okay, here are the photos from the event. As an intro to the pics, let me say, these event would never even take place without the dedication of certain of the LIHS membership; the guys and gals, plus or minus a few, who show up at about every presentation, expo, exhibit, and so on. Thus, I will show some member pics first. Sorry to say, I did not get shots of all the members in attendance, I missed Ann and Scott and his girlfriend and a lady sitting next to me whose name I am ashamed to say I cannot remember (old age coming on folks). Oh well here are the shots:

Rich Meyer and well I guess I did get a pic of Scott,
or at least of his back, during the exhibit.

John Heiser setting up for the show (on left) and Wayne showing off his herps (right).




Tara and Harry

Harry and Chris at Harry's table and Wayne at the next table.

Vin R and John H (and one of Vin's daughters). It appears
as if Vin may be giving photography pointers to John.

An up and coming LIHS member with a very
pretty smile and a very nice ball python.


Of course, besides the members who show up at the events, there are also the animals that make up an important part of each event at which the LIHS exhibits. Today was no exception. Most of the animals that I got good shots of were my own, since they were right in front of me on my table but there are some others.



My two female bearded dragons.

Female Hermann's Tortoise who, along with me, missed the
Turtle and Tortoise Pageant. I will say this for her, one of her
offspring won the show, he came from good stock! 

One of Harry turtles, I think it was a Yellow Bellied Slider,
being very uncooperative for the photographer.

 Now, you may have thought that getting LIHS members there, with their herps would be enough but you would be wrong. We depend on the visitors who come to our exhibits to make them the hit they usually turn out to be, just as was today's. Without them giving their support by showing up for us, there would be no reason to for us to do further presentations. The only way we keep them coming back is to keep them interested and luckily for us we know how to present them with the 'wow factor'. Take harry for instance. He stands around, nonchalantly as if without a care in the world whether or not someone takes a look at his turtles and lets the turtles lure them in as can be seen in the next three shots. Of course though, Harry has a secret, he lubes the carapaces of each of his turtles with olive oil to make them nice and shiny and you can bet the firsts ones to come by Harry's tables are the women but rest assured, the men are drawn in just as easily by the glitz.

Husband walking by but wife stopped at the very first of
Harry's turtle enclosures and seems rapt in what she sees.



Husband comes back to see what wife is
looking at as she goes to grab camera and
lifts up son so he can have a look. Harry
 pretends not to care and looks away.

Husband has to touch it to figure out why it shines like that.
Harry turns to look just in time as husband is bitten on finger
(note wife smiling at that) by Harry's terribly vicious
Yellow Headed Hinge-backed Thumb Chomper.



Harry yelling for them to come back as they flee to a
safer haven. (Of course, all those captions were
in jest, no one was bitten by anything except
maybe the herp-bug and thus will wind up getting
a herp of their own to care for in their homes.)

Harry was not the only one to master the 'wow factor'. Wayne did it too, just take a look at the next couple of shots.

Wayne seems to be asking a young girl to tell her
mom just how big was the snake she just held
while her sister still has hold of it. I bet it gets
bigger with each person she tells.



Another young lad, holding that same 'wow factor, snake while
his dad takes his picture. The other kid to the left seems to be
holding his nose like one of Wayne's herps just... (well you know).

Then there were the animals on my table. Seems that one of my little lizards, a New Caledonian Mossy Gecko, got a lot of attention from kids and adults.

The lad in the white shirt asked what kind of lizard was it and
as I was saying Rachodactylus -----, he completed the name
by adding chahoua. He knew his herps. His mom is
holding it. One cool mom as they go field herping together.

Mom wants one, can't you tell!

Then again, maybe mom wants a snake.

Then there was this young fella, who was so
engrossed that he did not see the redfoot tort
sneaking up to try to taste his thumb. 



Mom maybe warning him about the redfoot?



The red headed kid looks like he is taking aim through the
bearded dragon's tail. I am thinking maybe he was setting
his sights on becoming a herpetologist when he grows up.

Then there was this pretty young lass and the bearded dragons
just wowed her without any help at all from me.

She was also pretty fascinated with the two baby
turtles I got as Craig's List castaways. I got them
from a nice couple in Brooklyn who wanted
to assure they would go to a good home
because they could not take care of them. 

You can never take the kid out of a herper, no matter how old
 they are. I know that from personal experience, and from
seeing all the older kids who stop by to see the herps.

Herpers = Ladies, Gentlemen and children of all ages.

Finally, maybe the happiest family group at the exhibit today was the one that figured out how to actually enter their tortoise into the Turtle & Tortoise Pageant which was going on concurrently with the LIHS exhibit at the hatchery's Reptile & Amphibian Appreciation Day. Why are the so happy? Read the caption to the below photo. By the way, the lady in the pic is one of my wife's bosses; she bought a Hermann's Tortoise from me last year that is now their family pet. Today, they entered that tortoise into the pageant and that has something to do with those smiles.

They weren't just smiling for the camera, they had other things
to smile about - like just having won first place for Tank, their
Hermann's Tortoise, and their entry in the Turtle & Tortoise
pageant. Yes, this knucklehead (as in me) forgot to get a
picture of their tortoise.

I think I will end it with that pic of the pageant winners. I have a bunch of other nice photos from the hatchery but no others of merit from the LIHS exhibition. I figure I can write up another post and use the other pics from the hatchery exhibits in it. Some nice shots of fish and even nicer shots of their baby turtle collection; later for that though. 

For now - let me just say thanks to everyone who made the day a success: the staff at Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery and Aquarium (all professional and very courteous), the LIHS members who lent a hand and the many visitors without whom there would be little reason for us to participate in these sponsored shows, or to hold our own exhibits. One very special word of thanks from me to Wayne who saved the life of my Mossy gecko when he noticed someone had placed its container in direct sunlight and it was overheating. Had he not seen it and taken swift action, I would have been going home minus one great lizard that was a gift to me from John Heiser.

All the best,
Glenn B

Snow Gator?

It sure looks as white as the driven snow, this is one pretty amazing looking American Alligator. This photo was submitted to the blog by Deb H (a hat tip and my thanks to her) along with a photo of another white gator but I lost the email into the nether world on cyberspace before I downloaded the second one. Sorry about that.

The source for this photo was: http://i.imgur.com/xeT5xpm.jpg

All the best,
Glenn B

Crested Geckos - Some New Additions

I had a couple of new crested geckos hatch out over the past two days, on May 29th and the other on the 30th. They are each about 3 to 3.25" long and both were from eggs that were on the somewhat smaller side. They seem to be doing well and are spending time in a nursery tank together. They will be getting a diet of mango and peach flavored baby foods, Repashy Crested Gecko Meal Replacement Powder, crickets and roaches along with daily misting for hydration. I also have six eggs left in the incubator including three new eggs as of earlier this past week. 

Although I have kept Crested geckos on and off over the past few years, it still amazes me how easy it is to care for them and to breed them if you can maintain the right temperatures for them. I keep mine in the basement where the year round temperature probably does not deviate more than 4 degrees either way from 70 except during longer hot spells when it may go into the low eighties. (in which case the CG tanks get moved into the finished basement room with the air conditioner.)Other than watching the temperature, I keep the humidity fairly high by daily mistings, use a substrate that holds moisture (I use cypress mulch), have plenty of hiding places for them in their enclosure, give them food on a daily basis and clean the tank about weekly (or sooner if their droppings are on the glass).

There is a chance I will have these or others on display tomorrow in the LIHS's exhibit at the Cold Spring Fish Hatchery and Aquarium's Reptile & Amphibian Appreciation Day. Hope to see you there. I should definitely have some tortoises, turtles and a couple of bearded dragons, if not these or some other geckos too.

All the best,
Glenn B

Blaptica dubia And Feeding Time At The Beardie Enclosure

Here is a short video of my Bearded Dragons wolfing down some Blaptica dubia (Guyanan Orange Spotted Roaches). Bear with it, the quality gets better after 15 seconds or so. They are working on the third share that I gave them within about a 10 minute time span. As you can see they go for them with gusto - no mustard, ketchup or relish required.




Blaptica dubia are supposed to be one of the more nutritional feeder insect species available on the commercial pet food market. They are easy to keep and fairly easy to breed. I just received a shipment of 1,000 of them today. My previous purchase was made back in late February, also a thousand lot. As you can see, even though I fed them to my beardies, Crested Geckos, Mossy Gecko and water turtles, they lasted quite a long time - even with the Bearded Dragons wolfing down many of them at each feeding. As for the Crested Geckos, I feed the roaches, of appropriate sizes to my adult crested geckos all the way down to newborn cresties. I also have a single New Caledonian Mossy Gecko (Rhacodactylus chahoua) who loves them as well. Today he polished off an adult male Blaptica dubia which was one heck of a feat considering the roach was about 1/3 to 1/2 his size. That first order of roaches lasted as long as it did because they were breeding just about all along. I did eventually get down to what was probably my last 50 of them or so because I was not really trying to establish a long term breeding colony and because I was feeding the roaches to my herps faster than they were reproducing. Thus their numbers fell to the point that I had to place another order few days ago.

All the best,
GB

Sunny Days Sure Make For Strange Bedfellows

 

I would imagine that when the gator is fully grown, it would prefer the turtle in its belly as opposed to under it but for now it seems quite content to have it where it is. If only gators had an elephant's memory, it might remain forever grateful.

 

 

Photo submitted by LIHS member Deb H, another hat tip to her. Source:

 

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/ngt051713/s_n15_00204063.jpg

 

All the best,

Glenn B 

More Eggs In The Incubator

I was cleaning out my Crested Gecko enclosure last night and much to my satisfaction I found another three eggs in the substrate. Usually each of the females lays two eggs at a time. I am uncertain if one still has not laid the second egg, if one of them laid three eggs (is that possible) or if one laid two eggs and the other just one. Anyway, that now makes three babies in the nursery tank and 8 eggs in the incubator (would have been 9 eggs but one that was in there for awhile proved infertile). Picture will probably be posted after they hatch.

All the best,
Glenn B