Search found 521 matches
- February 23rd, 2013, 11:27 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Interresting article some may be interested in
- Replies: 24
- Views: 5879
Re: Interresting article some may be interested in
Some late-night reading fodder.... http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=WR97022 http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/02-0482?journalCode=ecol http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2000.99458.x/full http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/515979 http://www.hotkeepers.com/aho/pdf/menu...
- February 23rd, 2013, 7:53 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Interresting article some may be interested in
- Replies: 24
- Views: 5879
Re: Interresting article some may be interested in
Of course sites/species can be disturbed regardless of what is published- nobody has argued that it doesn't. What gets me is when folks get on other people's case for sharing locality information and supposedly endangered the animals thereby. Even more so when they express reluctance to share locali...
- February 23rd, 2013, 5:17 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Interresting article some may be interested in
- Replies: 24
- Views: 5879
Re: Interresting article some may be interested in
In that case it would probably be better if everyone knew the animals were there, so that people who aren't poachers are better able to help officials catch people who are. Which assumes that the local people who suddenly become aware actually care about the animals. Especially with regards to herp...
- February 23rd, 2013, 3:25 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Interresting article some may be interested in
- Replies: 24
- Views: 5879
Re: Interresting article some may be interested in
Gerry, my response to your question is that locality information can be transmitted to government or private agencies for conservation purposes discretely, rather than advertised to anyone with access to a particular journal article. In many cases those data already ARE transmitted through scientifi...
- February 23rd, 2013, 3:47 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Interresting article some may be interested in
- Replies: 24
- Views: 5879
Re: Interresting article some may be interested in
It's sad how many of our fellow academics don't realize that when they publish a map or exact coordinates to a site, ANYONE can find it if they look hard enough. I recently found a site that was teeming with a threatened species of salamander (saw >20 in one day) using just such methods, because the...
- February 18th, 2013, 4:41 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Quick question on Sexing a snake..
- Replies: 26
- Views: 11719
Re: Quick question on Sexing a snake..
I have heard you can tell by the tail. Like short tail is female and long tail is male... Or the other way around. Is that one true?^ Also what is the best way to find out if a snake is gravid.. If I run into any I would like to know if they are so I can just take pictures and not bother them.... I...
- February 4th, 2013, 8:21 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Talk about your envenomations.
- Replies: 41
- Views: 7651
Re: Talk about your envenomations.
I get hive-like/allergic reactions to colubrid saliva. So far, I react to Coluber, Lampropeltis, Pantherophis, Nerodia, Thamnophis, and Pituophis. I'm also allergic to pit viper musk, ever since I got sprayed in the face/eye by a copperhead I was drawing blood from. Species I've had reactions to inc...
- January 24th, 2013, 5:03 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Family Visit to Panama
- Replies: 10
- Views: 4503
Re: Family Visit to Panama
Great stuff as usual, Chris! Sorry to hear the stomach bug prevented you from getting out more. You and M need to come visit Oz now!
Van
Van
- January 21st, 2013, 10:20 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: AVID/PIT Tags
- Replies: 22
- Views: 4766
Re: AVID/PIT Tags
No difference between the two. AVID is simply a brand/manufacturer. It depends on what you want to do. By "track", do you mean follow each animal individually, as in radio telemetry? You can't do that with PIT tags. All you can do is tag them and then recognize the tag if/when the animal i...
- January 21st, 2013, 10:13 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Snake core body temps?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2568
Re: Snake core body temps?
I use a thermocouple (via cloacal insertion) to measure the internal body temperature of snakes. It's fairly small, and can be easily brought into the field (but, be sure to pack it in a plastic bag in the tropics). Another point, since Brian mentions it here- if you're doing scientific work that y...
- January 16th, 2013, 1:27 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Photos from a trip to the Red Centre
- Replies: 14
- Views: 5004
Re: Photos from a trip to the Red Centre
Great stuff David! I've only done some driving around since I got over here, mostly to Victoria for field work, and its amazing to me how fast you go from civilization to pretty much nothing- and that's in the most populated part of the country.
Van
Van
- January 15th, 2013, 1:37 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Snake core body temps?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2568
Re: Snake core body temps?
Almost every telemetry study records body temperature, because the transmitters change the rate of signalling with temperature. Do a search for snake thermoregulation or operative temperature, and you should find something. I'm not sure how much has been done in the tropics though. In temperate regi...
- January 13th, 2013, 6:58 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: emergence triggers
- Replies: 24
- Views: 2870
Re: emergence triggers
van, what you think points towards a single event. like i am thinking. lunar. i know that temps are important, but then they should have been out on that day. we went to three different locations that day. many species would have been represented by the locations, but nothing. Not necessarily. I th...
- January 13th, 2013, 4:41 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: emergence triggers
- Replies: 24
- Views: 2870
Re: emergence triggers
In my experience, the bulk of emergence occurs around the same time of year regardless of annual weather variation. There are always some early risers that may be influenced by weather, but repeated sampling often reveals that early most early risers either do it consistently from year to year, or d...
- January 12th, 2013, 9:08 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Fenix flashlights
- Replies: 31
- Views: 8162
Re: Fenix flashlights
It sounds like you'd burned through most of the battery power- what you described is what happens. The unit I have didn't come with batteries so I can't comment on those batteries specifically. That said, 2.5 hours on high power probably will drain them, especially if they aren't really high-quality...
- January 11th, 2013, 12:28 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: How do you guys make time for family while herping?
- Replies: 55
- Views: 23342
Re: How do you guys make time for family while herping?
so there comes the point...I have done a lot to try to tight rope everything and in my mind am more than caring to her needs lol. I'm the last person in the world who should give relationship advice, but this statement reeks of suppressed frustration and/or bitterness to me. While you don't want to...
- January 6th, 2013, 10:49 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Fenix flashlights
- Replies: 31
- Views: 8162
Re: Fenix flashlights
RE: the headstrap issue on the HP11- the "problem" hasn't been corrected, but technically there isn't anything malfunctioning on the device. The problem is that the headstraps don't work straight out of the box for exactly the reasons gbp describes- the top strap is too short, and the side...
- January 5th, 2013, 4:38 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Fenix flashlights
- Replies: 31
- Views: 8162
Re: Fenix flashlights
Funny Eric, I just got the Hp11 headlamp and LD41 flashlight myself. Haven't used them in the field yet but the LD41 is going to be a lot of fun. It produces 520 lumens at its high setting and can run through 4 AA batteries in about 2 hours (or less/slower at the lower settings). It's kind of like h...
- January 5th, 2013, 3:07 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: TN Herpers
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6755
Re: TN Herpers
Is this a new name because I have never heard of any Racer being called that before. Nah, it's just some local vernacular, just like you sometimes hear coontail or velvet tail rattler for atrox and horridus, or cowsucker/pilot snake for ratsnake, spreading/puff adder for hognose, sand rattler for p...
- January 5th, 2013, 2:05 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: TN Herpers
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6755
Re: TN Herpers
I've heard black/black-masked racers called blue racers by the uninformed throughout their range in the south. In the public's defense, I often think they look a bit blue myself.
- January 2nd, 2013, 12:58 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: test- can anyone else see the photo?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 671
Re: test- can anyone else see the photo?
Scott (or other mods), please feel free to delete this thread at your convenience.
- January 2nd, 2013, 12:57 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: test- can anyone else see the photo?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 671
- January 2nd, 2013, 12:47 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: test- can anyone else see the photo?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 671
- December 31st, 2012, 6:30 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Coldest day you have ever found a herp?
- Replies: 56
- Views: 12989
Re: Coldest day you have ever found a herp?
Caught a speckled kingsnake at 38 degrees F once, and also saw a few salamanders. For my current research I often catch tussock skinks while there's still patches of snow on the ground, and the temps range from below freezing in the early morning to the upper teens C (mid-50s F) in the afternoon. Bl...
- December 9th, 2012, 6:29 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Herpin' Hounds...
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9186
Re: Herpin' Hounds...
Does he taste just like raisins?This is my dog, my dog is amazing. (Bonus points to anyone that can tell me the reference)
- December 2nd, 2012, 1:54 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Who has caught a herp on hook and line?
- Replies: 37
- Views: 4783
Re: Who has caught a herp on hook and line?
This intrigues me; I never thought of doing this. Do the lizards basically get "in the zone," focusing on attacking the mealworm such that they don't give up even when you grab them, or do they actually swallow the mealworm and you have get them to regurge? Yeah- they grab and hold on lik...
- December 2nd, 2012, 2:06 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Who has caught a herp on hook and line?
- Replies: 37
- Views: 4783
Re: Who has caught a herp on hook and line?
Not on hook, but I've found the easiest way to catch small insectivorous lizards- especially small skinks- is by fishing with a mealworm tied to a 2-3 foot length of thread dangled from a fishing rod. Beats the heck out of noosing, that's for sure.
- November 25th, 2012, 3:23 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Snapping Turtle Poop
- Replies: 11
- Views: 6691
Re: Snapping Turtle Poop
It often has nuts/seeds/acorns in it...
/really
/really
- November 9th, 2012, 12:54 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Snake Tongs - Satan's Side Arm or God's Gift to Herpers?
- Replies: 23
- Views: 10992
Re: Snake Tongs - Satan's Side Arm or God's Gift to Herpers?
Tongs are excellent tools that increase safety while handling of dangerous snakes. They are less useful in handling slender elapids than fat pit vipers, but the risk of injury to the snake with whitney/m1/gentle giant-styles is much lower than some people (particularly many Australians) think. You a...
- November 8th, 2012, 9:39 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Best place to live for herping and every day life
- Replies: 114
- Views: 50030
Re: Best place to live for herping and every day life
NW Arkansas is a surprisingly good choice as well. Good towns, cheap living, lots of friendly people. Good herping nearby and you're within a day's drive of most of Texas, Kansas, the Mississippi Valley, Snake Rd, etc., and 2 days of AZ, FL, etc.
Van
Van
- November 4th, 2012, 1:53 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Best place to live for herping and every day life
- Replies: 114
- Views: 50030
Re: Best place to live for herping and every day life
Sydney, Australia is pretty awesome. The upside is that it is a large, cosmopolitan city with a lot of friendly folks, good food, and culture that is easy to get out of. Herps are easy to find in the city and surrounding areas and you can get to parks using public transit alone. The downsides are th...
- October 19th, 2012, 8:42 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Teaching a herp class - help, ideas, anything?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 4148
Re: Teaching a herp class - help, ideas, anything?
Your course sounds really good- I like your idea of taking them out in the field to see field work on species "in action". While some people would worry about giving up site locations, most of the time that probably won't be an issue. The herp class I took and later worked with in grad sch...
- October 12th, 2012, 9:58 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Mountain Kingsnakes in Arizona
- Replies: 49
- Views: 27830
Re: Mountain Kingsnakes in Arizona
To add to Gerry's point- personally, I don't necessarily accept the evolutionary species concept as "the" be all end all answer. My goal was simply to explain why that particular paper wasn't just junk science published only to boost someone's CV/reputation. It simply does a decent job of ...
- October 11th, 2012, 11:56 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Mountain Kingsnakes in Arizona
- Replies: 49
- Views: 27830
Re: Mountain Kingsnakes in Arizona
The Sagebrush Lizards in Sutter Butte are geographically and therefore reproductively isolated from other sagebrush lizards. Therefore they are evolving independently, no? But no one is claiming them to be a separate species, presumably because there hasn't been enough independent evolution - but h...
- October 11th, 2012, 10:44 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Mountain Kingsnakes in Arizona
- Replies: 49
- Views: 27830
Re: Mountain Kingsnakes in Arizona
The same method that the same researchers applied to the Pyro paper, thus casting suspicion for me on the validity of the Pyro paper. Not technically true. The getula paper only analyzed a single mitochondrial gene, while the pyro paper analyzed a mitochondrial gene and two nuclear genes. Both use ...
- October 3rd, 2012, 9:33 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Thoughts about this Virus?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3901
Re: Thoughts about this Virus?
I also like how all of the articles that I've read about this event have come out of the northeast (Vermont, Massachusetts). The study was done in Alabama on Agkistrodon . While it's not impossible that the snakes in the NE carry the virus throughout the winter, the species assemblages/environment i...
- October 2nd, 2012, 12:59 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: (Re)Discovered - a real live Lanthanotus!!
- Replies: 18
- Views: 5511
Re: (Re)Discovered - a real live Lanthanotus!!
Sort of. The most recent genetic evidence suggests that its placement in the Varanoids is no closer to snakes than Varanids or Helodermatids, despite some its morphological similarities.By the way, are you all aware that this animal is probably the link between snakes and lizards?
- October 1st, 2012, 8:57 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: 4 Belgians, 2 weeks, AZ
- Replies: 76
- Views: 17768
Re: 4 Belgians, 2 weeks, AZ
So anyway, I don't mean to badger you (get it, badger, ha ha, the Badger State), but...the system you describe conjures images of all sorts of unintended consequences to my mind (diminished respect for & compliance with the law being one of them...), and I am curious how these consequences are ...
- September 28th, 2012, 7:00 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Hydrophis donaldi - news
- Replies: 65
- Views: 14996
Re: Hydrophis donaldi - news
Not sure how much it happens these days, but I have examples of behavioral studies done (one that comes to mind is something along the lines of reactions of Coleonyx to various snake musks) where several dozen lizards were wild-caught for the study, then euthanized...I understand why they weren't r...
- September 28th, 2012, 4:09 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Hydrophis donaldi - news
- Replies: 65
- Views: 14996
Re: Hydrophis donaldi - news
I'm going to attempt to "read into" Indigo Blue's argument by asking: what if, instead of pickling a specimen of Species X, [assume here it's not extremely rare, only 9 left, difficult to keep, etc], it were maintained ALIVE by an individual or institution? What if hundreds of animals, wi...
- September 27th, 2012, 9:23 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Hydrophis donaldi - news
- Replies: 65
- Views: 14996
Re: Hydrophis donaldi - news
Maybe you're under the impression that you can be persuasive here merely by staging seemingly irrational and certainly unwarranted attacks against scientists/scientific work you obviously know little or nothing about, but if so you're quite mistaken. This is 'Murica, where the uninformed, uneducate...
- September 27th, 2012, 4:13 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Spring Timber Rattlesnakes and Forest Succession
- Replies: 111
- Views: 43936
Re: Spring Timber Rattlesnakes and Forest Succession
We may be reading the post differently. My interpretation was that vines and other prostrate plants can have high cover values but do not decrease substrate temperature the way taller trees and shrubs do. I agree. High canopy provides an elevated boundary layer that will absorb almost all of the so...
- September 23rd, 2012, 6:48 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Spring Timber Rattlesnakes and Forest Succession
- Replies: 111
- Views: 43936
Re: Spring Timber Rattlesnakes and Forest Succession
On the cooler days in late September and October it seems that Timbers are not relying on the rocks but the leaf litter as a better heat conductor. Has any one else noticed this too? Just touching the rocks this time of year it really is surprising how cool to the touch they are in comparison to th...
- September 20th, 2012, 3:54 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Toxicofera
- Replies: 13
- Views: 4067
Re: Toxicofera
Yes- I forgot about them! Do you happen to have a digital copy of Yaron's papers describing their placenta? The only paper I've been able to get online is the one that describes amino acid transport to offspring.You can add Xantusia (native to the New World) to this list.
Van
- September 20th, 2012, 1:07 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Toxicofera
- Replies: 13
- Views: 4067
Re: Toxicofera
I think Salamandra exhibit a form of viviparity similar to that of sand tiger sharks, where the female ovulates additional eggs that the larvae consume, rather than nutrients being transported across maternal and fetal tissues. This is still considered a form of matrotrophic viviparity rather than o...
- September 18th, 2012, 11:44 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: I'm embarassed to ask, but I'm dying to know the answer...
- Replies: 22
- Views: 6077
Re: I'm embarassed to ask, but I'm dying to know the answer.
Regarding George T. McDuffie, his 1960 PhD thesis from U. of Cincinnati was titled "Studies on the Ecology and Life History of the Copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix mokeson (Daudin), in Ohio". Only a small part of it, the stuff about the size and color patterns, was published in the JOHS...
- September 17th, 2012, 9:54 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Toxicofera
- Replies: 13
- Views: 4067
Re: Toxicofera
Mike, ovoviviparous is now considered an obsolete term because it implies that females carry their eggs more or less as a "mobile incubation chamber", without any physiological interaction or material transport between the embryo and the female. In reality, maternal and embryonic tissues m...
- September 10th, 2012, 12:43 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Question about holding hot snakes.
- Replies: 61
- Views: 31501
Re: Question about holding hot snakes.
The issue is avoiding 1/ harming the snake 2/ A serious bite. I'd reverse those. I know way too many people who've been envenomated because they handled a snake improperly because they "didn't want to hurt the snake". Not hurting the snake should definitely be a top priority, but your own...
- September 9th, 2012, 6:14 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Question about holding hot snakes.
- Replies: 61
- Views: 31501
Re: Question about holding hot snakes.
Depends. I think it is true if your method of "handling" is to tail or neck. If "handling" means in a tube or squeeze box, with buckets, tools, and no direct contact, with 100% attention on the animal at all times, I think you're right.This is simply not true.
- September 9th, 2012, 2:59 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Toxicofera
- Replies: 13
- Views: 4067
Re: Toxicofera
A large part of your question depends on whether Toxicofera is a valid group- I'm not really up on that literature so I couldn't say for sure. Viviparity (giving birth to live young) has evolved independently over 100 times in the Squamata, but, as you say, has apparently not evolved once in any oth...