Latest Reptiles of Australia Stories
It was a saltwater crocodile, a man-eating species that can grow to 15ft. This one was still a baby at 2ft and appeared friendly, but the folk in the Noonamah Tavern played it safe and taped its mouth. Sarah Sparre, the barmaid, said: "It's not every day you see something like that. You could say that we were a bit surprised. He was pretty easy-going. But we weren't going to test him out." The visitor may have escaped from a crocodile farm a few miles away, near Darwin. After entertaining...
By Kathy Marks Not much happens in the Northern Territory town of Noonamah (population 483), so when a crocodile wandered into the pub car park, the drinkers invited it in. It was a saltwater crocodile, a man-eating species that can grow to 15ft. This one was still a baby at 2ft and appeared friendly, but the folk in the Noonamah Tavern played it safe and taped its mouth. Sarah Sparre, the barmaid, said: "It's not every day you see something like that. You could say that we were a bit...
Why bother running on hind legs when the four you've been given work perfectly well? This is the question that puzzles Christofer Clemente. For birds and primates, there's a perfectly good answer: birds have converted their forelimbs into wings, and primates have better things to do with their hands. But why have some lizards gone bipedal? Have they evolved to trot on two feet, or is their upright posture simply a fluke of physics? Curious to find the answer, Clemente and his colleagues...
The number of Loggerhead sea turtle nests on Florida beaches is on a steady decline, leaving wildlife officials concerned for the animal's safety.Anne Meylan, an official for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said 4,692 of the 45,084 loggerhead nests counted last year in Florida are now gone.Florida accounts for 90 percent of the nation's loggerhead nests, which have decreased by nearly half since 1998, when the state reported 85,988 nests.Statistics show loggerhead sea...
The beaches of French Guiana constitute a major reproduction site for leatherback turtles. This sea turtle, although a protected species, is threatened by human activity: it ingests plastics, gets accidentally caught in fishing nets, sees its egg-laying sites destroyed, and its adults hunted illegally for their meat and their eggs. Female turtles return to the same beach every two to three years to lay their eggs. What happens in the interval remains a mystery. It is sometimes possible to...
A group of medical professionals in Texas hope to attach a prosthetic flipper to an injured sea turtle found by tourists.The disabled Atlantic green sea turtle, named Allison after one of the tourists' daughter, was found with only one of four flippers remaining. Workers at Sea Turtle Inc., a 31-year-old nonprofit turtle conservation facility, helped nurse the turtle back to a reasonable size and weight, although having only one flipper has made it very difficult for it return to the...
A leatherback turtle was tracked by satellite traveling 12,774 miles (20,558 kilometers) from Indonesia to Oregon, one of the longest recorded migrations of any vertebrate animal, scientists announced in a new report on sea turtle conservation. Leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are the largest of all living turtles and are widely distributed throughout the world's oceans. They have been seen in the waters off Argentina, Tasmania, Alaska and Nova Scotia. Adult...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The number of loggerhead turtle nests was substantially lower in 2007 than in past years, according to preliminary numbers from scientists statewide.Scientists found 28,500 nests from 19 surveyed beaches, down from almost 50,000 last year. The number was so low that this could be the lowest nesting year on record for loggerheads, said Blair Witherington, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The turtles' nesting numbers...
CANBERRA (Reuters) - When is a fish not a fish? When it is a giant killer reptile with four legs and sharp teeth.Politicians in Australia have been pondering the meaning of "fish" and have passed new laws making it clear crocodiles should be fish too.The decision is at odds with the arbiter of the Australian English language, the Macquarie Dictionary, which rules that fish are "completely aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body usually...
CANBERRA (Reuters) - When is a fish not a fish? When it is a giant killer reptile with four legs and sharp teeth. Politicians in Australia have been pondering the meaning of "fish" and have passed new laws making it clear crocodiles should be fish too. The decision is at odds with the arbiter of the Australian English language, the Macquarie Dictionary, which rules that fish are "completely aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body usually...
Latest Reptiles of Australia Reference Libraries
The Children's Python (Antaresia childreni), is a non-venomous python found in Australia. It is found mainly in the extreme north of Western Australia, the northern third of Northern territory, and in northeastern Queensland. It is also found on the islands of the Torres Strait. It was named in honor of John George Children, who was a curator of the zoological collection at the British Museum around that time. No subspecies are currently recognized. Adults grow to about 30 inches in...
The Arafura File Snake (Acrochordus arafurae), is an aquatic species of snake found in northern Australia and New guinea. This quite common snake is often hunted by the indigenous people of northern Australia. They simply catch a snake and toss it on the bank as the snake is quite immobilized without the support of the water. The skin of the Arafura file snake is used to make drums in New guinea. Adult Arafura File Snakes grow to 8.25 feet in length. Females are known to grow larger than...
The Fierce Snake, also known as the Small Scaled Snake and Inland Taipan, is a highly venomous snake that belongs to the Elapidae family. The Fierce Snake is the most venomous snake in the world. A single bite from this snake can kill as many as 100 human adults. It is 50 times more venomous than the Indian Cobra, and as much as 850 times more venomous than the Diamondback. The victim of an intravenous bite from the fierce snake will die in less than two seconds. The Fierce Snake is...
The Tiger Snake, Notechis scutatus, is a highly venomous species of elapid snake found in Australia. They most often found along inland waterways and around the lower lakes of the River Murray. There are two species recognized; The Common Tiger Snake and The Tasmanian Tiger Snake. As with most snakes color varies widely among tiger snakes and is an unreliable means of identifying the species. Colors can vary from jet black, yellow/orange with gray bands, and sandy gray with no bands....
The Brown Tree Snake, Boiga irregularis, is an arboreal colubrid snake native to eastern and northern coastal Australia, Papua New Guinea, and a large number of islands in northwestern Melanesia. This is a nocturnal snake and is rarely seen by humans in its habitat. The snake is considered a pest in Guam where it is not native. It was carried there on a US military transport at the end of WWII. The slightly venomous, but rather harmless, snake killed almost the entire native bird...
