Cold Blood

I'm LJ, a reptile and amphibian enthusiast with a dream of one day owning my own reptile zoo. This blog is dedicated to herpetology and will feature posts containing photos and information on animals with 'cold blood'. Please feel free to send in. Have a look at my new blog for biology and other animals - biokingdom

[coldbloodkingdom]

Snapping up your handbags

Regardless of how hard it is to understand as to why people will still want animal skin for clothes and accessories, it is still a multi-billion dollar industry. While travelling Australia, I was surprised to see so many stores that sold animal skins, so unashamed. Where I am from, the general opinion is that it is a bit of a taboo. Crocodile skin bags and belts, kangaroo strips of fur, not even a coat, just a strip of fur like a carpet sample etc.

The estuarine crocodile (also known as the saltwater crocodile), is farmed on large scale in Australia for skin. To begin the farm's stock wild specimens were collected and bred overtime to create a captive bred population. Once the young crocodiles have reached a desired length they are killed and skinned to be sold to make into clothes and accessories. Also occasionally wild specimens will be captured because they are deemed a threat to the local people.

Many people will be against this idea but the workers will defend their position by saying that they are protecting the wild populations, because they are farming captive bred specimens so that wild animals aren't being hunted. Estuarine crocodiles were hunted to near extinction, with the population reducing by 95% in the 70's, and the argument is that this will not happen again if the industry is regulated by using captive bred animals. Also that this will protect people as the crocodiles are 'encroaching on their land' and posing a threat

.

I personally do not agree with that sort of language being used in that way with animals. 'Encroaching on our land' and 'crocodile infested water'. Correct me if I am somehow wrong, but I believe the land belongs to them due to the fact that they live there and have lived there many years before people. There is of course no guarantee that every crocodile in a farm is captive bred, wild captures still happen. There is also plenty of controversy surrounding the conditions of the farms, over crowding and spread of disease. Which of course is not an appropriate living condition for any creature.

Should the farms be closed to make a stand against the industry, or does it actually protect the wild populations?

[coldbloodkingdom]

Return from Down Under

After a good seven months of travelling the amazing place that is Australia, I am back and motivated to get back into blogging. I have seen and experienced so many amazing things while over in Australia, and I can’t wait to share some things I have learned along the way. If you are interested in the story, myself and my girlfriend posted updates on a blog along the way at notmuchfunforlittleharpo . It is a diary sort of thing but could be useful if you’re planning on travelling there.

[birdandmoon]

Here’s a new comic about saving our amphibian pals! Learn more at PARC. Thanks to An Martel’s work and the Lips Lab for their help. (Any inaccuracies are my own.)

[coldbloodkingdom]

Amphibians, salamanders, conservation

[coldbloodkingdom]

Working holiday Australia

I am travelling Australia in September on a working holiday visa. I am just wondering if anyone knows of any good places where I could possibly get volunteer experience with reptiles. I know places are limited and not everywhere will accept people who aren't permanent Australian residents. Well to be honest I am looking for experience in any animal group but obviously I would prefer reptiles. Thanks :)

[coldbloodkingdom]

The origin of species

Probably considered the most important piece of writings in science, Charles Darwin's The origin of species, I bought yesterday from waterstones at price of £2.50. I know hard to think you could buy anything in that store at £2.50. Seeing as I am trying to expand my knowledge of biology, zoology and related topics I figured it would be a good place to start. I'm sure it will be an interesting read

[coldbloodkingdom]

Word of the day

Parthenogenesis I have been studying Australian reptiles before I head over there next year and found this word interesting. There are some gecko species in Auzzie that do this. It is where a group of females exist together and reproduce without mating, asexually.

[mypersonalfallout]

How people can be afraid of snakes amazes me, massive pythons or venomous pit vipers… Yeah, I could understand. But little guys like this, baby garter snakes no bigger than 8 inches long, I’ll never know. Just look at those deep red eyes and that beautiful checkered pattern. Anyway I just fed this little guy (not in his water bowl obviously) and he’s easily my best feeding snake, even better than my 6 foot carpet python Axl. He just grabs the mouse and eats it, no messing around, down in seconds. I couldn’t ask for better.

[elevennineteenreptiles]

Please reblog!! Help get the word out to others about the animals that we love so much.

[fuckyeah-earth]

[frogs-are-awesome]

Common reed frog (Hyperolius viridiflavus)

Picture by zimbart via flickr

[libutron]

Sri Lankan Kangaroo Lizard (Otocryptis wiegmanni) - male | ©Madhawa Karunaratne   (Sinharaja World Heritage Site, Sri Lanka)

Known as the Brown-patched kangaroo lizard, Wiegmann’s Agama, and Sri Lankan kangaroo lizard, Otocryptis wiegmanni (Agamidae - Draconinae) is on of the 15 species of agamid lizards endemic to Sri Lanka.

This lizard has a complex pattern of territorial behavior, consisting of five steps which include: attacking, appalling, struggling, savaging and chasing.

[Source]

[coldbloodkingdom]

The Caiman

Inhabiting central and south America, these are smaller than most crocodylians, growing between the smallest dwarf caiman at 3ft long and the largest at 13ft, the black caiman. One of the most commonly come across in zoos if you visit is the Spectacled caiman. I saw on at Chester Zoo yesterday. Typically arund 6ft long at full length. They feed on many invertabrates suprisingly, such as insects and molluscs etc. But also larger ones feed on fish and occasionally mammalian prey.

Hunting is not a frequent problem for these animals, as they are not wanted for skin or any other purpose. They were once thought to be depleting fish numbers, but it has been observed that they in fact stop feeding during dryer seasons. Under the IUCN red list this species is listed as least concern.

[astronomy-to-zoology]

Sotmatosuchis inermis

…was a very large (10m/32ft) stomatosuchid crocodilian from the late Cretaceous of Egypt. Unlike many other crocodyliforms it is largely unknown what exactly S. inermis ate. Its flattened skull had a long, lid-like snout which was filled with small conical teeth. Some theorize that the mandible might of been toothless and supported a pelican-like throat pouch. 

Sadly the only known specimen (a large skull, collected by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer) was destroyed when the Munich Museum was bombed in 1944.

Classification

Animalia-Chordata-Reptilia-Crocodylomorpha-Neosuchia-Stomatosuchidae-Sotmatosuchis-S. inermis

Image: Dmitry Bogdanov

[llbwwb]

(via 500px / S n F by Suyud Wahyudin)

[earthlynation-blog]

Very Unhappy by Erin Gardner on Flickr.

[coldbloodkingdom]

Climbing Crocs!

Recent studies have discovered that crocodiles can actually climb, after observing the creatures basking in trees.

Their abilities vary between species and depending on size, with smaller crocs reaching the higher branches. It is believed that they do this not only to bask in the sun, but also to survey their area with a better vantage point, to be on the look out for prey, predators and competitors. 

The finding may have implications for the study of extinct animals from fossils, as little about the skeletons of living crocodiles suggests that they have climbing ability.  

Dr Paul Willis, director of the Royal Institute of Australia, in Adelaide, is a palaeontologist who published research on the possibility of extinct tree-dwelling crocodiles in the 1990s. He says that the idea was met with bemusement at the time, so the new finding is a pleasant surprise.

[creatures-alive]

Uroplatus phantasticus by Thor Hakonsen on Flickr.

[coldbloodkingdom]

Trevor the Chameleon

I am currently waiting to see if I can get an interview to do a 3 month internship at Chester Zoo. I'm hoping it can be with reptiles, but they don't usually do that with 3 month interns, only the 1 year, which I can't afford to do at the moment because it is unpaid. After doing experience in a small zoo in 2012, to be able to do it for 3 months is so exciting. 

When I worked at Kirkley Hall zoo volunteering, I met a very interesting chameleon who they called Trevor. Trevor was a panther chameleon.

Panther Chameleons

A species of chameleon that are found in Madagascan tropical forests. Male panther chameleons reach on average a length of around 17 inches, bigger than and more colourful than the females. 

I always found their feet interesting, they have 5 toes on each foot fused together in groups of 3 and 2, so they kind of look like a pair of tongs and they have a good grip. One of the most well know attributes of chameleons are their strong and fast tongues that can reach their prey within thousandths of a second.

When keeping these as pets, they require a varied diet, a mixture of live foods including, crickets, meal worms, wax worms and roaches. Another very important point is the need of fresh air flow, failure to provide this can lead to respiratory problems.