Field collecting absolutely everything???

Some of you may never have field collected.  Some of you may only field collect.  Some of you are doing this for new bloodlines.  Some of you are doing this to increase the variety of your collection.  BUT, some of you are doing it to increase the number of dollars in your wallet.

This post is directed towards those who are collecting every living animal just to make a dollar.  Perhaps your excuse is that you're just trying to recoup the cost of your trip.  But when you take animals that have little or no chance of survival outside their respective niche, then that is totally irresponsible, and you may be contributing to the loss of a species.

This rant comes from seeing some Horned Lizards being exhibited for sale at a recent reptile show that we attended.  Most people know that Horned Lizards (horny toads to most people) almost exclusively eat ants.  So...new owner...did the seller tell you that?  Do you know where to get ants?  And how many ants does it need to keep weight on and thrive? 

If you see this at a show, perhaps you should tell the show sponsor that this is not appropriate.  But the damage has already been done when the animal is removed from its habitat.  The person who took it is not going to drive back to return it.  They're probably not going to try to find those ants for its diet either.  They'll just try some other insects and let it languish and die while in their "care" if they can't find someone to buy it.

So, field collect if you want, but with integrity.

 

Crocs in winter...

See anything?  Nope, and they're NOT hiding under the snow!

We just got about 10 inches of snow.  Of course the crocodile which inhabits the larger enclosure has been shut inside since the middle of October.  The alligators, which inhabit the two smaller enclosures have been in since about the first of November. 

We would never leave these animals out year round, even when snow is not in the forecast.  Being in a latitude that does have variable weather, we have made accommodations for them inside a heated building.

This being said, we recently heard that there were some people in more temperate climates (think Arizona or Southern California for example) who are worried about their animals being outside since they too are experiencing a cold snap.  I can only say if it were me, I'd be bringing them inside, regardless of where they needed to be housed (e.g. tortoises in the bathtub?)  Even if they were all in cardboard boxes, at least they would be in a controlled environment. 

The time to worry about these things is not when it happens, but when you take ownership of the animal(s).  If you keep them inside, for the (usually) short duration of the inclement weather, your house may develop an "odor", but again, a cheap air freshener is still better than trying to replace your reptilian pals. If you elect to build heated enclosures outside, perhaps your electric bill would go up, but that would probably be far less than the replacement cost of your collection.

It's just common sense.

5,000 ball pythons later...

 

Finally got back to the huge (and I do mean huge) reptile show in Hamburg, PA, that’s held a few times a year, but we prefer the October show. They are the biggest/oldest show to showcase venomous snakes, and that was the main attraction, for us anyway.

 

The venomous contingency has been getting smaller and smaller. Many reasons probably account for this, including Pennsylvania coming down a bit harder on laws protecting some of the species; older/experienced adults are getting out of it, as they (we?) retire, have children or grandchildren; or heaven forbid, lose interest?

 

This year was a bit of a surprise, and a disappointment as many of the vendors we expected to see just weren’t there. Perhaps they were at other shows? There does seem to be a growing trend of larger shows all across the US, with lots of name recognition (NARBC for example) that, we assume, draw bigger crowds with their profusion of advertising, corporate sponsorship, etc, etc.  Although to clarify, NARBC does not allow venomous.

 

That being said, the other interesting factor we looked forward to at the Hamburg show, was the absolute variety of animals you could see in person as opposed to reading about on a price list, and ordering but with just faith in your fellow herper. ( We’ve all read the horror stories of the disgruntled buyer and/or the far less than honest seller.) Only this time it was all ball pythons…an absolute minimum of 5000! Just a few (maybe even as few as a couple) years ago it was corn snakes/leopard geckoes/bearded dragons. Now a sea of ball pythons.

 

Okay, I’m not knocking them. They’re wonderful, small pythons. The variety of color and patterns amazing. The prices too, can be amazing. Especially for some that appear to be colored quite normal, but they may have “XYZ” genes, so “If you breed them to…”, well, you get the picture.

 

We didn't leave empty handed.  There were some animals we couldn't pass up!  But we did not bring home any ball pythons...

 

Love knows no seasons...

Found these two on the pavement of the parking lot at the Nature Center, oblivious to cars, and almost everything else going on around them.  Mind you, it's October 10th.

Didn't most of us think that reptiles mated in the spring?  Maybe this was purely recreational?  The female doesn't seem all that interested.  Or perhaps she's just embarrassed to be exposed like this in the parking lot, and not a more intimate surrounding!

 

Notice the wet spot near the animals.  I'm not an amorous turtle expert but I do wonder if the male did that to mark his territory as if to say to any other male turtles in the area "Stay away, she's all mine."  Or perhaps the female was leaving her own mark with a "Come hither" attitude? 

 

I gently removed them to a leafy hillside close by so they could resume their activities.  

 

 

Hybrid, Cross-bred, why bred or rye bread?

I am so confused as to why people do certain things with reptiles, such as cross-breeding animals that would probably never meet in the wild, let along breed.  I'm assuming it's to get different color morphs, but then the animal is not a "pure" anything!  Kinda like "designer dogs" which are just mutt puppies.  Except this is much more common among mammals than reptiles, and mostly due to inattendant pet owners. 

I'm not going to mention the particular cross-bred animals I came across on the internet today, because I don't want to ruffle any feathers, or should I say scales?  I was at a reptile show a couple weeks ago, and I also saw some cross-breds there.  They were (---x---)  and the prices are rather high for essentially "mutts!" I don't want to narrow down the particular species which may identify the person who did this.

To clarify, these are NOT hybrids.  According to Webster's, you would have to cross two genetically dissimilar animals.  Think cornsnakes and kingsnakes.  And yes, this has been done. 

There was talk a few years back that all the different forms albino milksnakes available were from crossing various milksnakes with one or two albinos, even though they might not have been the same species. (Think sinaloe crossed on thayeri, just for an example.  Don't know if it was ever done.)  There is talk that some of the odd, grey cornsnakes (are they called "black"?) are from crossing Great Plaines Ratsnakes on common cornsnakes, to get that black gene and dilute the red. 

The downside of the cornsnake brouhaha, is that true "Okeetee" corns are far and few between, and unless you caught one in North Carolina, at the Okeetee Hunt Club, chances are you just have a red cornsnake with no particular locality to call home.

I'm a purist.  I prefer to know the background of my animals.  But then I'm not looking for the next designer boa to make my fortune.  I just want the best animals I can afford. 

Let's get kinky!

Gotcha!

So, the other day, there was a picture on Facebook of a snake, and of course the person who posted the pic was all upset as to what type of snake, etc, etc.  The majority of responses (or so it would seem) were from people who said anything from a cottonmouth, to a black rat snake, and of course "the only good snake is a dead snake." There was a very obvious answer as to the type of snake being pictured.  That being the way the snake "kinked up" when viewed.

Today, after coming home from a trip to town, we found this guy on our sidewalk, next to our well house.

A bit kinky, wouldn't you say?  A very typical attitude for a black rat snake that knows something is going on.    Here's another shot as it was trying to get away, back to the hole it came from.

The most interesting feature, to us anyway, was that this snake was less than 2 feet long and almost solid black already.  Many black rat snakes, in this area, keep their pattern until they're upward of 3-4 feet or more.  This little guy should be a beauty in adulthood.

 

As for the "kinking", perhaps they want more "spring" in their step when they try to get away from their perceived threat? 

 

Elaine was bitten by a copperhead!

Oh, Elaine is our corgi, dog that is... 

Not the first time we've had a dog get bitten by something venomous, and we assume it was a copperhead since that's the only venomous snake in our neck of the woods.  We were mowing one of the pastures, and our dog usually follows us around looking for small mammals (especially rats or mice) that get run out of their hidey holes by the mower.

When we were through. about 2 p.m., we noticed she was walking unsteadily from under the front deck of the house.  Then we saw her swollen head, which she had trouble holding up, and her eyes were mostly shut. 

You can see a faint tinge of blood too, but that probably came from the two rabbits she had killed previous to the snake bite. 

We decided, from previous experience with another dog, to just monitor her progress, and make sure her airways were open.  Sine most animals get bit on the head, that is the most likely cause of distress...not being able to breathe due to swollen closed air passages.  By 6:00 that evening she looked better.  But her face is still obviously swollen.

 

Today she looks even better, and was running around barking, and contemplating chasing the horses.  She has edema under her chin, and may have draining later, but she's almost back to normal.

So what should someone expect if their dog gets bit?  It would depend on the size of the dog, and the type of bite received.  Copperheads are not know for "bad" bites, and the fact that animals do not react as frantically as humans do, I believe, aids in their recovery.  Of course you need to monitor the animal's behavior closely after the bite, but in this case all's well that ends well.
 

Brothers born miles apart or...

We recently acquired these two Prairie Rattlesnakes, from areas that were 50 miles apart,  So what should we think?  Are they the same animal genetically?  Are they two different species or subspecies?  Are they sexually dimorphic?  (We haven't probed them yet to determine sex.)  Maybe they're intergrades?  But with what?  You can almost take yourself back to Darwin's' time and wonder how he might have classified these two, given the circumstances. 

We're not color-driven herpers (thinking  $$$) looking for the next unusual morph.  We just like what we see, but in this case we're not sure what we're seeing.

These pictures were taken about 10 minutes apart, same enclosure, same exposure to light, and flash, and editing.  So, what do we have here???
 

What's in YOUR back yard???

We are blessed to live in the country, in a relatively unspoiled area (not many homes, lots of open spaces, woods, pasture, etc, etc.)  And we keep finding herps in our yard, that we did NOT release, and that really should not even be there.  When I say they shouldn't be there, I mean because they're a mile or more from their "preferred habitat!"  So here's our latest "find" in the back yard, literally, the BACK yard!

Shouldn't everyone have one?

Not the biggest snapping turtle we've ever encountered in the "wild" but definitely the stinkiest!  I tried to show his/her musk glands which are located behind the front legs, on the side.  These shots were taken a day later, but the day of the "capture" this turtle was just oozing musk.  OMG, such a stinky animal! Great defense!

In a previous post I mentioned we found a very large slider in our front yard.  And in that post I also mentioned that we are at least a mile from the river.  We do have some "drainage" behind the house, but it drains towards, the river and most of the time is dry and overgrown with grass.  Obviously these animals can travel quite a ways, under less than optimal conditions, for whatever reasons we can only surmise.