Latest Colubrids Stories

By Judy Fahys, The Salt Lake Tribune Jul. 10--Jim Dix knows what it's like to have a rattlesnake problem on your hands. His family once fled their home in California when he was a kid because a pet rattler got loose in the house. "My parents had to go to a hotel for a week until I found it," says Dix, grinning at the memory. These days, the west-side resident fields calls from people throughout the Salt Lake Valley with rattlesnake problems of their own. He operates Reptile Rescue, an...

* SCIENTIFIC NAME: Tropidoclonion lineatum * DESCRIPTION: Slender, olive brown to gray-brown snake. White to gray midback stripe and another on each side; double row of dark half-moons extend down the midbelly. Up to 13.8 inches in length. Head is small, barely wider than body. * HABITAT: Grasslands and urban lots in former prairie, where it is found under rocks, logs, leaves, boards and other debris. * BEHAVIOR: Secretive and nocturnal. Subsists almost entirely on earthworms. Often curls...

Research may hold promise for medical treatment of high blood pressureMost snakes are born with poisonous bites they use for defense. But what can non-poisonous snakes do to ward off predators?What if they could borrow a dose of poison by eating toxic toads, then recycling the toxins?That's exactly what happens in the relationship between an Asian snake and a species of toad, according to a team of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Integrative Organismal...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Biologists working in the forests of Borneo have found a previously unknown type of snake which can change its color spontaneously like a chameleon, the environmental body WWF said on Tuesday. The poisonous snake, about half a meter (half a yard) long, was discovered in the wetlands and swamp forests of Betung National Park in the Indonesian part of the island, which is also shared by Malaysia and Brunei. When picked up and put in a bucket, it was reddish-brown but...

GENEVA -- Biologists working in the forests of Borneo have found a previously unknown type of snake which can change its color spontaneously like a chameleon, the environmental body WWF said on Tuesday.The poisonous snake, about half a meter (half a yard) long, was discovered in the wetlands and swamp forests of Betung National Park in the Indonesian part of the island, which is also shared by Malaysia and Brunei.When picked up and put in a bucket, it was reddish-brown but later changed its...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Biologists working in the forests of Borneo have found a previously unknown type of snake which can change its color spontaneously like a chameleon, the environmental body WWF said on Tuesday.The poisonous snake, about half a meter (half a yard) long, was discovered in the wetlands and swamp forests of Betung National Park in the Indonesian part of the island, which is also shared by Malaysia and Brunei.When picked up and put in a bucket, it was reddish-brown but later...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- It may not matter to people who hate snakes, but researchers at Washington University have discovered that rattlers are adaptable and have some interesting habits. For example, they swim and climb trees. Some males go more than six miles a year to look for mates. One snake caught rainwater in its funnel-shaped coil and drank from its own cup. The researchers, who have tracked 28 venoumous pit vipers for six years, also found that the snakes seem to prefer habitat...