Archive for the ‘Reptiles’ Category

I would not want to fall into that mess of crocodiles. That is alot of them.

Thanks goodness this snake really only has one head. The tail of the snake can appear to be it’s head to many. It moves about and is shaped a lot like the snakes head.

Pilot reaches for the contols while in flight and sees a snake raising it’s head up by the window to the cockpit.

The cat is trying to catch the Geni to get his 3 wishes.

Animals After Dark visit the news station. It ends up crawling into Jeanne’s shirt.

He arrives to find the party has already begun between the females and other males.

The world’s newest snake

I am not a real fan of snakes. They give me the shivers when I see one out in the wild and I have never ran across anything like this. The world’s newest snake has sinister looking yellow and black scales on its body. Its eyes are a dull greenish color and on its head are two devilish looking horns. The snake has been named after one of the three people that found it.

Matilda Davenport

Matilda, a young seven year old girl, was out with her father, Tim Davenport, and another person close to two years ago. They were in the southwestern part of Tanzania when the group found the devilish looking viper snake. Matilda’s father is the manager of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Tanzania. They found the viper in a small area of ground there in the southwestern area of Tanzania. The snake is a very frightening looking snake, and my opinion is it looks like the snake from hell, but that is only my opinion. The snake’s name is much more of a gentle name than I would have thought it would have been given. They named it after the 7 year old girl, Matilda. The snakes official name is, Matilda’s Horned Viper.

The Zootaxa journal

It was two years ago that the snake was discovered, but it has just now been declared the newest snake species that is known about in the world. They introduced the new snake species in the journal last month. The Zootaxa is a large journal that is for zoological taxonomers. The journal was started in 2001. It is an online journal of orderly zoological science. It enables zoologist to quickly document and analyze the world’s zoological diversity. The journal also contains many species whose lives  are being threatened by the dwindling of their living areas. It also allows the species to be quickly documented in the journal.

The Capture

Tim Stroh is only 19 years old but has already possibly made the catch of his life. He snagged an 800 pound alligator with only what he father referred to as a “puny bass rod.” Tim caught the 12 foot 3 inch long alligator and reeled him in. Even with Tims slender build, he was able to hoist the gator up into the boat. Once he had him on the boat and realize the huge size of the alligator, he hit him with his bang stick. If you are like me, I had no idea what a bang stick is, so I looked it up. A bang stick is a .44 calibre gun shell on a stick that they use them to kill gators and sharks.

Alligator Hunters

Tim and his family are gator hunters. They know what to do to capture an alligator safely. The family has been hunting gators together for the past 5 years and have all the permits needed to hunt them. They were also in season at the time. Alligator season continues until November 1st. They had heard about the monstrous alligator before going on to look for it. They took their boat out on St Lucid County Canal on September 16th. That is where Tim reeled him in. It only took them about an hour to locate the gator which was near a bridge.

Quite a Trophy Catch

The alligator was quite a large catch but according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, it’s not a record. At this time the largest gator ever caught in Florida was over 14 feet long and the heaviest gator caught weighed over 1000 pounds. Even that didn’t top the weight of the one caught in the Philippines in September which weighed in at 2,370 pounds. That is one giant gator.

Tim’s dad is a taxidermist and plans on mounting the gators head for Tim’s wall. He then will take a leg and make a lamp out of it. The back will become keychains and the rest of the 250 pounds of meat will be frozen and eaten. Up till now, the largest gator caught by the family was 400 pounds.

Attendants Found 247 Animals

As Karel Abelovsky, a 51 year old man from Czeck was checking in at the airport to board an airplane, workers scanned his suitcase. They were shocked when they thought they were seeing something live moving inside the suitcase. They referred to it as organic substances moving inside the case. Karel was bound for Madrid with his suitcase but thanks to the observant workers, he wasn’t able to board the plane.

Snakes, Reptiles, Mollusks Found in the Suitcase

The workers who scanned the suitcase at the Iberia Airlines desk located in the Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires had to open the case to see what was inside. I would say they were very careful after what the x-ray showed. When the suitcase was opened, inside was found over 200 reptiles and mollusks. There were 9 different types of snakes inside the case. Some were poisonous snakes. The South American pitviper was found inside clear containers as the other poisonus snakes were. The case contained 15 poisonous vipers of which two were yararas. A yarara can be as long as 1.50 metres or five feet. There were also a few boas. With the dogs they have checking baggage and the scanners, I don’t know how he expected to get these live animals through the check area.

Rare Animals Included

In the suitcase were also some rare animals. They were very rare and they are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. There were two of the animals that had died. The man is lucky that more hadn’t died. If he had made it onboard the aircraft, it is possible many would have died in the tightly packed cargo area where they would have suffocated from possibly a lack of oxygen. The animals were found in Karel’s suitcase back on December 7th but the story has only lately been made public. Karel was charged with attempting to smuggle the animals on to the plane. If he is found guilty, he could spend 10 years behind bars. It is thought that there could be an exotic animal smuggling ring involved.