Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, New Zealand, Dec. 29, 2013. Photo by Flickr user _somaholiday. Creative Commons licence.
- Atlas Obscura on the comeback of the only remaining rhyncocephalian, the tuatara (Sphenodon). Breeding programs having more tuataras than they know what to do with is a nice problem to have. (I know people who, through zoo connections, have handled tuataras. I’ve never so much as seen one in the flesh.)
- Kenya has banned the export of various snakes, including the African Rock Python (Python sebae), due to the impact of collecting and poaching on wild populations. I would have thought that there wouldn’t be much demand, relatively speaking, for the large and nasty African Rock Python, but they’ve been collected so much that, like overfished species, their full-grown size in the wild has diminished. [via]
- A plan to reintroduce the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) to an island in the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts is running into opposition from local residents, though the island is a more isolated and remote reintroduction site than just about any other alternative. [via]
- The discovery of a rattlesnake in a Texas home led to 23 more turning up in the cellar, where they’d been overwintering.
- Ceal Klingler writes about the time that a Panamint Rattlesnake (Crotalus stephensi) came by for a visit. [via]
- That Arizona bill allowing snakes to be shot within city limits — which I mentioned in my last roundup — has apparently passed.
- The Mexican Garter Snake (Thamnophis eques) is endangered in Arizona, so residents presumably still can’t shoot it. It was believed to have disappeared from the Colorado River system, but it was recently spotted near Lake Havasu City, which has wildlife officials scratching their heads a bit. [via]
- I knew about caudal luring — when a predator wiggles uses its tail (usually wiggling it) to attract prey — but this report of Puff Adders (Bitis arietans) using their tongues to do it is something else.
- Painted turtles (Chrysemys) don’t leave the water to hibernate, even when it freezes: they spend the winter under ice. How does that work? How do they breathe? The Nature Conservancy’s Cool Green Science blog explains.
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