MySpace code for IRCF banner now available!

Rich of HerpCenter.com has created a webpage from which you can retrieve MySpace code to add an IRCF banner! If you want to spread the word about IRCF, please add the banner code to your MySpace Profile - it's really easy!

IRCF is a member-based organization; I would like to encourage you to visit the site and consider membership. The IGUANA journal is very professionally put together, containing fantastic photos and well-written articles that cover ranges of conservation, species focus, husbandry, book reviews, etc.

I would love to see the organization grow with a proactive membership who certainly can make a difference in making one less reptile extinct! Everyone's efforts contribute to the greater whole - preserving endangered reptiles and their ecosystems.

Please do leave me a comment upon the add; I'd like to make certain that your profile is added to my network.

The IRCF March Journal has hit the mailboxes

The journal has arrived, with a stunning cover and first-time color centerfold inset, highlighting the endangered gharial. Inside, you'll find a number of articles, including coverage of the Texas Horned Lizard population study (I found it quite cute to see little lizards affixed with collars of transmittors!) , the plight of the gharial, and aspects of lighting and reptilian immunity.

How do you get this issue? Simply join the IRCF! You'll receive 4 quarterly professionally put-together issues. You will not be disappointed! By joining, you are contributing to IRCF's efforts with assisting endangered reptiles.

Warming Up To Snake Time

It's beginning to warm up in northern New Mexico. Soon the rescue calls will come and I'll have more to put up on this blog. In addition, I'll be storm chasing in the southern plains, which should put me in contact with snakes on the long, lonely roads of New Mexico and West Texas.

In the meantime, here's a picture of a big water python (Liasis mackloti) captured by Wildlife Center snake rescue volunteer Jeff Silverman in Northern Queensland, Australia, where he and his wife Megan are obtaining their post-grad degrees.

Fossil of Ancient Gliding Lizard Found in China

Source: EarthTimes.org

Fossil findings of an ancient arboreal lizard in northeastern China's Liaoning province indicate that the reptile could glide through air using a membrane it could stretch across its elongated ribs. The lizard, named Xianglong zhaoi, was alive in the early Cretaceous period ... The fossil that was found is about six inches long and scientists believe the specimen to be immature, meaning it would have died at a young age.
The details of the finding are reported in the latest issue of the journal for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Xing Xu of Shenyang Normal University in China, and his colleagues, who conducted studies on the specimen, said the fossil was discovered in a region, known to have yielded several other species, including feathered dinosaurs and early bird remains. The scientists found that reptile's gliding membrane, which is called “patagium,” is stretched across eight elongated dorsal ribs. When it is fully expanded, it would have spanned about 4.5 inches. The reptile had curved claws helping it to stay on treetops and then launch itself into the air.
The scientists believe it could probably glide a longer distance than the modern-day "flying" lizards. Many of the gliding animals that exist today like the flying frogs and squirrels make use of a membrane found between their toes or between their body and legs to glide. Scientists say a membrane spread between ribs is only known to occur in an ancient lizardlike animal that lived during the Late Triassic era and certain living dragon lizards in Southeast Asia.

Killer Meat-Eating Frogs Terrorize San Francisco

Source: FOXNews.com

It sounds like the plot to a bad B-movie. Meat-eating killer frogs have invaded a pond in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, leaving environmentalists wondering how to stop their deadly march before they move on to bigger waters. The African clawed frogs have chomped through everything from turtles to fish in Lily Pond, near the California Academy of Sciences, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The frogs, which can grow up to 5 inches in length, have even gone cannibalistic. "They've eaten everything they can get their mouths around, and now they're eating each other," Eric Mills of the animal-rights group Action for Animals told the newspaper. Park officials have pulled some 2,500 of the frogs from the pond since 2003. They are taken to a fish and game facility where they are euthanized by a nerve poison, the paper said. But the frogs keep coming back. Last week, the city's Animal Control and Welfare Commission voted to ask the city for cash to drain the pond and terminate the population once and for all, the paper reported.
"The fear is they will get out," Richard Schulke, president of the city's Animal Control and Welfare Commission, told the paper. [So much for the tolerance initiative in San Francisco...]

Indian Warbler 'Lost' For 139 Years Makes Spectacular Return

Large-billed Reed-warbler: the world's least known bird.
Source: ScienceDaily.com

Ornithologists across the world are celebrating with the news that a wetland bird that has eluded scientists ever since its discovery in India in 1867 has been refound. Twice. The Large-billed Reed-warbler is the world’s least known bird. A single bird was collected in the Sutlej Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, in 1867, but many had questioned whether it was indeed represented a true species and wasn’t just an aberrant individual of a common species.

But on 27 March 2006, ornithologist Philip Round, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, Mahidol University, was bird ringing (banding) at a wastewater treatment centre (the royally initiated Laem Phak Bia Environmental Research and Development Project) near Bangkok, Thailand. “Although reed-warblers are generally drab and look very similar, one of the birds I caught that morning struck me as very odd, something about it didn’t quite add up; it had a long beak and short wings,” said Round. “Then, it dawned on me—I was probably holding a Large-billed Reed-warbler. I was dumbstruck, it felt as if I was holding a living dodo.”

“I knew it was essential to get cast-iron proof of its identity. I took many photographs, and carefully collected two feathers for DNA analysis, so as not to harm the bird.” Round contacted Professor Staffan Bensch, from Lund University, Sweden, who had previously examined the Indian specimen and confirmed it did represent a valid species. He examined photographs and DNA of the Thai bird and confirmed the two were the same species.

"A priority now is to find out where the Large-billed Reed-warbler’s main population lives, whether it is threatened, and if so, how these threats can be addressed.” —Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife International. “This rediscovery of the Large-billed Reed-warbler on the shores of Inner Gulf of Thailand (a BirdLife Important Bird Area, IBA) illustrates the importance of wetland habitats and the remarkable biodiversity they are home to,” said Ms Kritsana Kaewplang, BCST Director. “It also demonstrates the contribution of routine monitoring and ringing of migratory birds at even well-known sites.”

“This remarkable discovery gives Indian ornithologists an added incentive to continue our search for the Large-billed Reed-warbler in India,” said Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society. “Like the discovery of Bugun Liocichla last year in Arunachal Pradesh, it shows us just how much we still have to learn about our remarkable avifauna.”

BirdLife International’s Dr Stuart Butchart, commented: “Almost nothing is known about this mysterious bird. The Indian specimen has short, round wings and we speculated it is resident or short-distance migrant, so its appearance in Thailand is very surprising. A priority now is to find out where the Large-billed Reed-warbler’s main population lives, whether it is threatened, and if so, how these threats can be addressed.” But, in a further twist to this remarkable tale, six months after the rediscovery, another Large-billed Reed-warbler specimen was discovered in the collection of the Natural History Museum at Tring, in a drawer of Blyth’s Reed-warblers (Acrocephalus dumetorum) collected in India during the 19th Century. Once again, Professor Staffan Bensch confirmed the identification using DNA.

“Finding one Large-billed Reed-warbler after 139 years was remarkable, finding a second—right under ornithologists’ noses for that length of time—is nothing short of a miracle,” said Butchart. The second specimen is from a different part of India and is bound to fuel debate as to the whereabouts of more Large-billed Reed-warblers. “Now people are aware Large-billed Reed-warblers are out there, we can expect someone to discover the breeding grounds before long. Myanmar or Bangladesh are strong possibilities, but this species has proved so elusive that it could produce yet another surprise,” said Butchart.

In memory of Vega$ Iguana

My female green iguana Vega$ passed away this morning. She had been a part of her family nearly 11 years and has touched many folks' lives in person and on the net. We miss her terribly and have posted a blog of her last few days on MySpace account at http://www.myspace.com/vegasiguana

For those who dont' have myspace, please feel free to express your condolences on this blogger. If you have any fond memories of her or how she made a difference in your life, please do share them, whether in this blogger or at Myspace. I can also be reached at des[at]IRCF.org

If you wish to do something in her memory, please donate to IRCF in her name. If it wasn't for her, my life's path would not have led me have so many friends in the reptile world and become involved with reptile conservation.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts and well wishes.

des