T.R. Herp

It sucks to hear the bad news about Brian Barczyk. **kcancer

To all the Florida exotic pet owners out there, the FWC is not on your side.

Can you spare a minute to help Nicole Paddock? FWC Mandates Threaten Pet Owners and Small Business; FL Animal Owners ask Gov to Intervene

It's not David Attenborough, but its still a good chameleon doc.

Wildlife Instincts: Chameleons - Designed to Hunt | Free Documentary Nature Wildlife Instincts - Episode 4: Chameleons - Designed to Hunt | Free Documentary Nature Madagascar is home to a huge array of chameleons. The extraordinary l...

The tegu ban was deemed unconstitutional.

UPDATE: More details at https://www.facebook.com/usarkfl/photos/a.166328888040966/327614405245746/.
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We have some news... good news. The judge agreed with USARK FL and found that SB1414 is in fact unconstitutional! We will post full details soon but the judge granted our motion for summary judgment and now we just await his formal order stating the same. Thank you to everyone who supported us. Please keep the donations coming! We must still pay for this lawsuit and future actions. What a win!

NOTE: This will take a few days to all be finalized and for FWC to rescind their Executive Order. We also do not know if FWC will appeal. Also, by "unconstitutional" we mean the Florida Constitution, not the U.S. Constitution. This is a state lawsuit against a state agency, not a federal lawsuit.

Take a look at one of the worlds most amazing collection of Uroplatus at Riverbanks Zoo!

Z-Learning Ep. 39: Leaf-Tailed Gecko

All Access Riverbanks: Caring for Geckos

Saving reptiles from their greatest threat... loss of habitat.

"...turtle mortality decreased a whopping 89 percent, and snake mortality declined by 28 percent."

“You can get together and make a difference... It just takes perseverance.”

How one community rallied to save turtles from becoming roadkill

Mary Beth Griggs via www.popsci.com/turtle-roadkill

The Long Point Causeway is a gentle two lane road running over a small spit of marshland in Lake Erie. It’s lovely, bordered by trees and wetlands, and until recently, it was an apocalyptic hellscape straight out of Mad Max for the turtle species living nearby.

Turtles wandered onto the road in an effort to...well...get to the other side, either to access their nesting grounds or their winter hibernating habitats depending on the season. Other reptiles like snakes may have been attracted to the warm surface of the asphalt, where they could bask in the sun and take the chill off their cold-blooded bodies.

In 2003 the causeway was one of the top four roadways in the world for turtle mortality. Today, thanks to efforts of the community, that ranking has fallen dramatically.

Disturbed by the number of turtles (some endangered) that were getting flattened on the road, local resident Rick Levick and neighbors decided to put together a project that would keep the turtles off the pavement while still allowing these reptiles access to their favored habitats.

In 2006, they started the process of erecting fences made of durable fabrics and built light-filled tunnels under the road, the perfect size for turtles.

A study published on Friday in the Wildlife Society Bulletin shows that their efforts were successful. By looking at the data from five years before the project was built and comparing it to data collected five years later, the researchers showed that turtle mortality decreased a whopping 89 percent, and snake mortality declined by 28 percent.

But it’s the turtle success that has researchers the most excited.
“Turtles, their life history traits make them very susceptible to mortality,” says lead author Chantel Markle. “Some species take a very long time [up to 20 years] to reach the age of sexual maturity.” That means that it’s hard for the turtle population to bounce back after many individuals are killed on the road.

Keeping the turtles off the road requires two main components: fencing and culverts. Markle found that the fencing was most effective at keeping animals off the road when it was in a long unbroken line, but driveways and marinas meant that this wasn’t always a viable solution. In areas where the fencing had to be broken up, it was effective enough to curve the fence back in a gentle u-turn, guiding the turtle back to the safety of the wetlands.

And speaking of wetlands, the researchers had to use two different types of durable cloth fencing for two different landscapes. One had to be sturdy enough to withstand the moist conditions of the wetland, and another—for more exposed areas—was made out of mesh to allow strong winds to sweep right through them.

Culverts built under the road rounded out the strategy. These culverts or tunnels were a surprising success, with turtles starting to use them immediately after they were installed in 2014.

The methods used here, Markle says, could potentially be applied to other areas where turtles are having some difficulty crossing the road. But Markle says her biggest takeaway was just how much change people can make to their community and environment by working together.

“You can get together and make a difference," Markle says. "It just takes perseverance.”

Photo: Midland painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) © James Paterson

What a wonderful job Dr. Mark D. Scherz has done putting together this Uroplatus poster.

Something to spruce up your home office: a new poster featuring nine of the nineteen described Uroplatus leaf-tailed gecko species from Madagascar, with a bonus undescribed species
(Uroplatus sp. Ca11, a.k.a. U. aff. henkeli 'Montagne d'Ambre'). The geckos are shown to scale, from the enormous Uroplatus giganteus, to the delicate Uroplatus ebenaui. This poster also features the two newest species, Uroplatus fetsy and U. finaritra, described by our team in 2019.
Get it here: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/p/46013283.Y8UA9

We'd like to give a shout out to our reptile veterinarian Dr. Ivan Alfonso, who was able to remove large mass that developed in one of our snakes.

A ‘sly’ species of leaf-tailed gecko uncovered from Madagascar Scientists have described a new species of leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus fetsy, believed to be found only in Madagascar’s Ankarana Special Reserve.All Uroplatus species are endemic to Madagascar and are best known for their leaf-like tails and coloration that allow them to blend into the foliage.Th...

Florida Folk, FWC is having a Pet Amnesty Day tomorrow at the Central Fl Zoo. If you have a reptile you can no longer take care of and would like to surrender or if you are interested in adopting surrendered pets (they are looking for people that can take in pond turtles right now) check out the link below for more info.

Amnesty Program Amnesty Program

So any of you that are part of an animal classified FB group have probably noticed that FB is enforcing their no animal sales policy. Though we do not have anything available at the moment (still no Madagascar coming in for us), it looks like we will have to find another avenue to post our sale ads. This will probably be either our website or perhaps starting a MeWe page in the future. Will keep everyone posted should we end up having to bail from this particular platform. With that said, Happy Friday everyone.