DesertBoas

A very strange looking ball python indeed. Puma paradox from a yellowbelly x fire yellowbelly or ivory.

A new chapter in the wild began today for 26 eastern indigo snakes reared at the Zoo in the latest milestone in a conservation partnership to restore a native species to its original range. In a collaboration between Zoo Atlanta, the Central Florida Zoo’s Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation and Auburn University, the snakes were released into the Conecuh National Forest near Andalusia, Alabama, on July 14, 2017.

Previously to the beginning of a reintroduction effort, the eastern indigo snake had not been sighted in the wild in Alabama in around 50 years. The snakes are a keystone species of the longleaf pine-wiregrass and sandhills ecosystem, and their reintroduction carries significant positive ecological benefits for the national forest.

Zoos are known for their conservation work on other continents around the world, but conservation begins in our own backyards. This is a notable example of a project that continues to have a direct impact on re-establishing an iconic species in its native range.

Our Zoo has reared more than 80 eastern indigo snakes for the reintroduction program, which is a cooperation among stakeholders throughout the Southeast. Additional project partners include the Alabama Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and The Nature Conservancy.

The newest group of reintroduced snakes had been reared here since 2015. As they had been designated for release into the wild, the young snakes received care and feeding in behind-the-scenes facilities where they had limited interactions with humans. In this environment, the snakes were able to grow to a size capable of avoiding many of the predators that feed on juvenile snakes.

Prior to their release, the snakes received passive integrated responder tags (PIT) for identification. Preliminary results from tracking efforts have shown that previous groups of reintroduced snakes are surviving, thriving, and reproducing.

To date, more than 100 eastern indigo snakes have been released into Conecuh National Forest, a majority of which have been reared at the Zoo. The goal of the project is to release 300 snakes over a 10-year period at an average of 30 snakes a year.

The largest nonvenomous snake species in North America and a native of southern Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi, the eastern indigo snake has declined across its historic range with the destruction of its ecosystem. This decline is also observed in Georgia’s state reptile, the gopher tortoise, which creates burrows that are often used by eastern indigo snakes and other species.

Eastern indigo snakes play an additional valuable role in their environment by keeping other snake populations in check, as they are known to eat venomous species, including copperheads. These snakes are not constrictors; instead, they overpower their prey using the crushing force of their jaws.

To learn more things people dont realize about zoos here ~>

Calico Dominican Red Mountain Boa (Epicrates Striatus Striatus)

Deep cleaned and re-arranged the tank, actually kinda proud of this one! 2/3 are heavily covered and practically invisible from outsider view, and a chunk in the middle is more free to allow him to stretch out if he so wishes

This is a step-by-step setup of Kharjo’s (the leopard gecko) bioactive vivarium (still a work in progress).

First, gravel for a shallow drainage layer, and a basking rock placed directly on the glass, over the Under Tank Heater (UTH).

Next, I cut out a piece of black trash bag (clean), to prevent the soil from mixing in with the gravel and defeating the purpose of the drainage layer.

Then I poked holes in it, so it would still drain.

I added a thin layer of peat moss, to aid in drainage and to offer the plants some nutrients as it eventually breaks down.

Then I added the main substrate: 2 parts soil (which is primarily clay), that I collected from my yard and baked to sanitize. 1 part play sand 1 part peat moss

Finally, I added Aloe Vera, and some Sansevieria and created a dry and humid hide out of flat stones. (I don’t have the whole cleaner crew yet, so it’s not exactly bioactive yet. So I spot-clean)

It’s still pretty basic, and would benefit from a nice 3D background, but that shall have to wait for another day.

no for real, those lil spurs that some snakes have? those are leggies.

those itty bitty bits of bone in the ribs, right at the base of the tail? that’s actually all what remains of the pelvis an leggies. li’l bits of femur, that be the spurs. 

whale leggy

say hello to very good fine whale Orcinus orca. 

now look at friend orca’s skeleton. see any bones what don’t make sense?

look close. most of them nice bones you can see have purpose. they support, they fins, they teefers, et centera. but look real close. see ‘em there? hanging low after the ribs? what those? 

those be leggy.

this picture here is of very fine whale grandpa name Rhodocetus. you can see that whale grandpa is clearly lots like a whale! look at him teefers. look at him skull. compare to fine whale orca skull up top. see similars? similar shape, similar teefers, lotsa similars.

now look at him LEGS.

that right there is whale grandpa’s LEG. and his pelvis. see dark round place where femur goes? this whale had leg. but grandpa whale not so great at walking; grandpa whale good at swim! now this grandpa whale livin’ aboot 48-48 million years back, give or take. 

then later, we get this grandma whale. she mighty fine grandma whale name Dorudon.  

gramma whale Dorudon lived later, ‘bout 40-34 million years ago. her leggies were itty bitty! but they stil stuck out and could still move. 

after Dorudon, whale leggies get smaller n smaller until they just itty bitty remnants. n before grampa whale Rhodocetus? other grampa n gramma whales leggies were bigger. so we can see over time that whale leggies get smaller n smaller because they weren’t useful under the water. we have loads n loads of whale skellies from all over the planet an’ through time. we can see whale friend go from having the useful leggies to having no leggies and i think that is very good evidence of the evolutions.

I’ll start with the no. No, they’re definitely vestigial limbs. That bony area’s a similar structure in all cetaceans and it’s really made up of two parts: the pelvic remnant and the femoral remnant. So in orcas they’re really reduced and streamlined, but you can see in baleen whales that there’s a lot of the pelvis/femur structure still in place. I used an orca because it was easy to find pics of their skeleton at 4 AM, but if you look at other whales, there’s clearly defined ischium/pubis/femur construction. Like, here’s an outline of a right whale skeleton with the leggy bits labeled.

Their femur remnant actually slots into the acetabulum like on a tetrapod that walks!

But the yes is that the pelvic bones actually aren’t vestigial meaning “useless.” Rather, they’re vestigial meaning “reduced.” They’re certainly smaller than they were, but much like our appendix, they actually do serve a purpose! 

In the world of herpetoculture there are as many opinions on how to properly keep species as there are species themselves. Some of it is backed by science and facts while much of it is baseless and is just done that way because that’s how it always has been. One of the major spheres of influence comes from breeders of reptiles. The goal of reptile breeders is to produce reptiles for sale, which is their job. Therefore many breeders keep lots of animals in rack systems to conserve space and feed their animals frequently to encourage rapid growth and sexual maturation. Whether or not rack systems are wrong is the subject of a different post. What I would like to concentrate on is how we sometimes over feed reptiles, especially snakes, and what the side effects are.

It is well known that after snakes eat their metabolisms are kicked into high gear to help digest the meal. Studies in Burmese pythons show that their hearts actually grow larger in size after a meal to accommodate the increase need for oxygenation of the tissues and to supply more blood to the GI tract. I never really paid much attention to this as a clinician until I had a client who breeds several species of python tell me that his snakes just aren’t living as long as they did when he first got into the business. After spending several days pouring over all of his data (he keeps meticulous records on each snake) and running diagnostics on a few snakes and necropsies on those that had died, I only really found one main issue- he was feeding larger prey items more often starting about a decade ago. I looked into the literature and spoke with some other herp vets and found that animals that are fed more often age faster than those that eat less.

Who cares right? The difference seems only to be a few years in longevity. For breeders whose main goal is producing young to sell, it probably is insignificant. But for people that own snakes just for their own enjoyment or those in zoological institutions those extra years may really matter, especially for endangered species. I see a lot more obesity in reptiles than I used to due to over feeding so not only are we making reptiles fat which causes health problems, we are shortening their lives just be speeding up their metabolisms.

Below are a few of the articles if you would like to read them and form your own conclusion.

HHNNNGGGGG LOOK AT THIS STUNNING CHILD