Table of contents for May 2024 in Practical Reptile Keeping

Out of Africa FEATURE | BRIGHT TAILS AND BODY STRIPES Colourful tails and body stripes Have you ever wondered why prototype vehicles are covered in the random patterns they are? Or why a certain F1 team owned by an energy drinks company covered their car in a similar livery? No, I am not going to be writing an article on branding but rather focusing on the close association it has to colourful lizards, and specifically, their tails. That’s right technology has borrowed from nature again! In fact, we can trace the use of random patterning back to World War I, when ships were painted with black and white patterns of this type. This was borrowed from the black and white striping of zebras! To us, the bold stripes of a zebra…

The description of ‘tree dragon’ is usually applied to the arboreal Asian agamids, and they belong to the same family as bearded dragons and water dragons. Tree dragons are found in the subfamilies Draconinae (represented by true Asian agamids, such as the mountain horned dragon) and Amphibolurinae (which comprises all Australian species, including the beloved bearded dragon, and others found further north in Asia, such as the green water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus). Less familiar species The tree dragon group includes some of the most sought-after, bewildering and exotic-looking lizards in existence. Many are adorned with amazing crests and stunning colouration. Unfortunately they have also proven to be fairly specialised in their care, for the most part. Read any publication on lizard husbandry that mentions this group and it will invariably…

There are severe pressures on the wild populations of these species, which are confined to the island of Madagascar, off the eastern coast of Africa. Loss of habitat and pollution represent the major threats, and only a small number of these frogs can be exported under quotas. This provides the opportunity to establish them in collections now, before it is too late. The best-known member of the group is undoubtedly the golden mantella, which is now being bred regularly in vivarium surroundings, but the futures of others are far less certain, with some species being virtually unknown in the hobby. Yet the demand for these frogs is continuing to rise, and for this reason alone, every effort should be made to persuade them to reproduce. Restricted choice This article concentrates…

A group of scientists led by researchers of the Khamai Foundation, an Ecuadorian conservation group, have discovered five dazzling new species of eyelash vipers in the jungles and cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador in South America. Prior to this research, the captivating new vipers, now recognised as among the most alluring ever found, were mistakenly classified as part of a single, highly variable species whose distribution was believed to span an area from Mexico down to northwestern Peru. The decade-long study behind this discovery was initiated thanks to an unexpected incident, when one of the authors was bitten by one of these previously undiscovered species! Eyelash vipers stand out due to a distinctive feature: a set of enlarged spine-like scales positioned above their eyes. These “lashes” bestow a formidable…

A Halloween toy was among hundreds of plastic items found in the intestinal tracts of dead sea turtles in the Mediterranean, a new study reveals. Researchers examined 135 loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) either washed up or killed as “bycatch” (accidentally caught) in fishing nets off northern Cyprus. More than 40% of these turtles contained "macroplastics", defined as pieces larger than 5mm (0.2in), including bottle tops and the Halloween toy - a rubber witch’s finger. Possible bioindicator The research team, led by the University of Exeter and the North Cyprus Society for the Protection of Turtles (SPOT), say loggerheads might act as a potential “bioindicator” species that could help them understand the scale and impact of plastic pollution. “The journey of that Halloween toy - from a child’s costume to the…

FEATURE | WEIRD SNAKES The trend within the snake keeping hobby today seems to be centred around a few species where hundreds of colour and pattern morphs have been developed. A snake keeper can have twenty different ball python (Python regius) morphs, but in the end, they are all ball pythons and they all behave in the same way. I prefer to keep as many different species of snake as I can, because it allows me to enjoy the diversity of their behaviour, noting the adaptations that these reptiles have evolved for their particular lifestyles. 1 Madagascan leaf-nosed snake (Langaha madagascariensis) This slender snake originates from the forests of Madagascar and reaches a maximum length of about 90cm (35in). Madagascan leaf-nosed snakes are very secretive and rely on their resemblance…

If you are heading down to the Baleric Islands for a summer break shortly, you may encounter these lizards. While this particular subspecies is restricted to the islands of Formentera, Ilia Cordillera and Es Vedrà, south of Ibiza, as well as nearby rocky outcrops, the Ibiza wall lizard (P. p. pityusensis) itself has also been introduced to the Spanish mainland. It can be found around the town of Aleria in the south of the country, and used to occur in the area of Barcelona for a period, but has since died out there. You can also spot the Ibizan subspecies on Mallorca, where it has now become established, and it remains quite numerous on Ibiza itself. As their name suggests, these lizards can often be seen in the vicinity of…

The gastric-brooding frogs (Rheobatrachus silus and Rheobatrachus vitellinus) represented a closely related pair of species amongst approximately 5280 different species of amphibian found on the Australian continent. They appear to have been easily overlooked, compared with the multitudes of brightly coloured and more charismatic anurans (tail-less amphibians), from a part of the world where caudates (newts and salamanders) are unknown. Indeed, for many years, no-one knew these frogs actually existed. The southern species (R.silus) was formally discovered by science as late as 1973. Its northern relative (R.vitellinus) was recognised even later, in 1984. Yet both possessed an amazing secret; an ability that would shock the scientific world. The secret was in the name they became known by… that of gastricbrooding frogs. A quirky reproductive technique Breeding in the case of…

Researchers from the Khamai Foundation have also made another significant discovery in northern South America, working with Liberty University in the U.S.. They have found a new species of coffee snake endemic to the cloud forests of northwestern Ecuador. Biologist Alejandro Arteaga stumbled across the snake in Ecuador’s Pichincha province, while looking for animals to include in a book about the reptiles of Ecuador. “This is species number 30 that I have discovered, out of a target of 100!” he says. Like other coffee snakes, the newly-classified Tudors’s coffee snake (Ninia guytudori) often frequents coffee plantations, especially in areas where its cloud forest habitat has been destroyed. It is endemic to the Pacific slopes of the Andes in northwestern Ecuador, where it lives at elevations of between 1000-1500m (3281-4921 ft)…

When it comes to laying eggs, tree frogs have some unusual habits. Instead of always laying their eggs on tree branches where they usually live, they often lay their eggs on the ground. But why would a tree frog do this, especially when it puts its eggs at risk from predators such as snakes? Temperature matters In order to solve this puzzle, a team from Nagoya University in Japan studied the spawning behaviour of the forest green tree frog (Zhangixalus arboreus), a species commonly found in Japanese forests. They found that the frog’s behaviour is likely to be part of a strategy to avoid the colder environment in tree branches, in favour of a warmer environment on the ground. Tree frogs create distinctive “foam nests” by bubbling secretions from their…

A ancient species of snake dubbed Vasuki indicus, which existed around 47 million years ago in the present-day state of Gujarat in India, may have been one of the largest snakes to have ever lived, according to new research.This recently-discovered giant serpent, which reached an estimated length of between 11 - 15m (36-49 ft), was part of the now extinct Madtsoiidae snake family, but represented a distinct lineage that originated in India. The new find Debajit Datta and Sunil Bajpai describe the specimen recovered from the Panandhro Lignite Mine in Kutch, which dates to the Middle Eocene period. Its remains consist of 27 mostly well-preserved vertebrae, some of which are articulated, and appear to be from a fully-grown animal. The new species has been named Vasuki indicus after the mythical…

There are a few things that are purely American, anyway you cut it. Apple pie is the all-American dessert. Baseball has often been hailed as the “Great American Pastime”. The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of American equality and opportunity, and the Constitution is the promise of endless American freedom. Among the herpetologically-minded citizens of this great country, there is one serpent that represents the tenacity and never-say-die spirit of the American people: the rattlesnake. The genera Crotalus and Sistrurus, to which all rattlesnake species belong, are spread across much of North and South America. While a few species live elsewhere, the majority of rattlesnakes live inside the contiguous United States, and there is just something about these reptiles that make them the quintessential embodiment of the vitality, fortitude,…