Promotion, Care and Enjoyment of Reptiles and Amphibians through Education. Find!us!at!U!!

Transcription

1 HERPUTOPIA NEWSLETTER Promotion, Care and Enjoyment of Reptiles and Amphibians through Education COMMITTEE february 2012 Estab 1998 Vol 7 Issue 1 PATRON - KEN GRIFFITHS PRESIDENTGarthRankin garthfay@bigpond.net.auVICEPRESIDENTFrancesNathaniel SECRETARY Lorelle Pembridge ASSISTANT SECRETARY Christine Pembridge TREASURERLynneZweers PUBLICOFFICERPhilipZweers NEWSLETTEREDITORFaySmith PUBLISHERPhilipZweers Pleasephone foranyfurtherenquiries FindusatUwww.illawarrareptilesociety.com.au POSTALADDRESS POBOX183ALBIONPARKNSW2527 MEETINGS: First Monday of the month at 7.00 pm (excluding January, April October) Fairy Meadow Community Centre: Guest Park, opposite Woolworths corner Princes Hwy and Cambridge Ave, Fairy Meadow AT EACH MEETING - Lucky Door Prize, Sausage Sizzle $2.00, Drinks $1.00, Free Tea and Coffee EVENTCALENDAR 6 th February 2012 The Central Bearded Dragon is the most commonly held reptile in Australia. Many mistakes are mad in their care. Garth will help to improve your knowledge and answer all your questions. 5 th March 2012 Jack Hinde is President of the Shoalhaven Reptile Club and is an expert in elapid (venomous snakes). His talk will be on the rare, fascinating and little understood Broad-Headed Snake. APRIL 2012 There will be NO meeting this month as this is our Annual Reptile Show on Sunday 15 th 2012 at Kembla Grange Racecourse. Volunteers needed. 7 th May 2012 Trivia night and Trophy presentation. REPTILERAMBLINGS The Christmas party 2011 was not only a banquet fit for a king, but a guest speaker providing a feast in his own right. If anyone went hungry, it was not from lack of choice. There was everything: calamari rings, Spring rolls, fish cocktails, roast beef and BBQ chicken, chicken schnitzels and gravy. Also lasagne, potato salad, coleslaw, potato wedges, fresh garden salads, Caesar salad, Greek salad and bread rolls, followed by dessert, cheesecake, chocolate cake, caramel slices, fruit salad and trifle. Over 100 invited guests were then presented with a real treat, Rex Neindorf, creator of the Alice Springs Reptile Centre travelled from the Northern Territory with his partner Andrea and baby daughter Hannah. He took us on a guided tour around his fabulous park with designer cages especially built for those reptiles unique to the Red Centre, such as Perentie Monitors, Thorny Devils and King Browns. His insights into what is involved in the setting up and day to day running of the centre, made us realise that there is more to it than meets the eye. Rex s unique park is constantly involved with film crews doing documentaries. He showed us many slides of famous visitors, such as Sir David Attenborough, Dr Harry Cooper, Rob Bredl and Steve Irwin.

2 The Park is very much involved in reptile rescue, rehabilitation and release and the breeding of such wonderful Australian icons as the Thorny Devil. You can imagine, when Rex showed us a slide of a baby Horny Devil hatching from an egg, 100 people going Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. Rex was not only a wealth of information but an inspiration to all herpers that we can all achieve our dreams. A wonderful evening Rex. Thank you very much to you, Andrea and Hannah for being with us for the Illawarra Reptile Societies Annual Christmas Party. Welcometonewmembers Ann-Maree Bonanna, Mitchell Hubbard, Drew Paterson, Krista Lloyd, Samuel Dittmer Timothy Vojtech, Ricky Wayne Adams, Marc Williamson and Simon Wrench. Membership Fees Single Member is $20 and Family Membership is $30. Yearly fees are due in August. Direct Deposit to the following account. ILLAWARRA REPTILE SOCIETY INC BSB: ACCOUNT: Please put your member No. in the xxx field for your identification. Adrian Reptile World - DVD available from the front meeting desk for $25, along with the latest issue of Scales and Tails $8 Scales Tails $8 Available at each meeting and at Garth s HAINES GLASS - DAPTO 298 Princes Highway, Dapto PHONE FAX MOBILE COVERINGTHESOUTHCOASTFOR ALLYOURGLASSREQUIREMENTS GLASSFORREPTILECABINETSA SPECIALTY.*Domestic Specialists * Laminated Glass *Table Tops Shower Screens. Framed Mirrors. Rear view Mirrors

3 ILLAWARRAPETFOODS Shop1, 138 Terry Street Albion Park Phone: % off reptile accessories to all IRS members (not foods) * Crickets Woodies $5.50 each * *Enclosures *Substrate * Heating Lighting * Artificial plants FORSALE FEBRUARY2012 Adswillonlyappearfor2months Water Dragons hatchlings Windorah Stimson hatchlings Garth Southern Angle Head Dragon Hatchlings Bill x Adult Diamond 3.5 year old Female 1 x 2.5 year old Coastal Carpet Both Friendly Ashley Members Notices: Custom reptile enclosures and tub racks, Kane AT Custom Cabinets-custom built reptile cabinets in all sizes true_b27@hotmail.com For all you Own Custom made Reptile Cabinets Carmelo Alice Springs snake catchers were forced to bag a child s scooter to remove a 1m-long Western Brown that slithered inside it to hide. Snake hander Rex Neindorf told ninemsn his team was trying to catch the dangerous creature on a house rooftop in the town's south last week when it escaped onto the ground and slithered underneath the scooter to hide. BESTWISHESTOJOHNCANN Probably the best-known and most respected herpetologist in Australia is John Cann. John suffered a stroke recently (Tuesday 3 rd January) and was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital. His condition was stabilised and eventually he was allowed to return home. Everyone at the Illawarra Reptile Society wishes John a speedy recovery and a healthy future. For those who are new to reptiles, the Cann Family has run a snake show at La Perouse for 95 years, being a world record for a continuous show. John s passion is for turtles and he has discovered approximately a dozen new species including the Mary river turtle (pictured with John). His classic work Australian Freshwater Turtles is an icon in Australian natural science publications. "I said to (my colleague) you lift the scooter and I'll pin it down, but when we picked up the scooter we saw it had disappeared," Mr Neindorf told ninemsn. "Then we saw there was a little hole underneath it, about 1cm wide. It's small but big enough for a snake to get inside." The reptile handlers were eventually able to coax the snake out from inside the scooter by "tickling" and "poking" it. Mr Neindorf said he had recently been called to remove a number of snakes from unusual hiding spots. Earlier this week, his team removed a snake from inside a washing machine. Another Alice Springs resident got a shock a couple of weeks ago when they discovered a snake hiding in their oven. "They tried to turn the stove on to flush the snake out, but unfortunately that doesn't work," Mr Neindorf said. "We took the stove to bits. Once a snake is inside a washing machine or oven, it can access almost every area." The Western Brown was released into the wild once it was removed from inside the scooter. By Fiona Willan, ninemsn

4 The snake named Leptotyphlops carlae, as thin as a spaghetti noodle, is resting on a US quarter. Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State University, discovered the species and determined that it is the smallest of the more than 3,100 known snake species. (Credit: Blair Hedges, Penn State) World's Smallest Snake Found In Barbados (Aug. 4, 2008) At 2,500 Pounds And 43 Feet, Prehistoric Snake Is Largest On Record ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2009) The largest snake the world has ever known -- as long as a school bus and as heavy as a small car -- ruled tropical ecosystems only 6 million years after the demise of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, according to a new discovery published in the journal Nature. BOOKSONSALE Keeping and Breeding Australian Lizards Edited by Mike Swan RRP $70.00 Our price $50.00 An Introduction to Keeping and Breeding Australian Reptiles Mike Swan and Damien Goodall RRP $40.00 Our price $28.00 Keeping and Breeding Australian Pythons Edited by Mike Swan RRP $50.00 Our price $36.00 What is a Golf Ball Worth? The ball was in the pond on Hole 16 at Oak Crest Golf Club in Norway, Michigan. It was a brand new Titlelist with the Verso logo on it and he didn't want to lose it OR take the two stroke penalty as he was already behind in points NEVER PUT YOUR ARM IN THE WATER TO RETRIEVE A GOLF BALL.

5 Like a drop on a wine glass, a snake venom "tear" runs down the groove of the fang. The surface tension acting on the venom is the dominant physical force underlying envenomation. And venom is a non- Newtonian fluid. It sticks when necessary while waiting for prey, whereas any break in the prey's skin acts as a venom attractant and soaks the venom into the deeper tissues. (Credit: Bruce A. Young, University of Massachusetts, Lowell They managed to sew his arm back on. He was playing golf again within 6 months WCS and the Museo delle Scienze of Trento, Italy discover a spectacularly colored new snake. Named Matilda s horned viper, the snake is restricted to remote forest in southwest Tanzania. (Credit: Tim Davenport/WCS

6 Nonvenomous Asian Snakes 'Borrow' Defensive Poison From Toxic Toads ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2007) Most 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 Systems (IOS). "Sequestration of toxins in a specialized [neck gland] structure in a vertebrate is a remarkable finding," said William Zamer, IOS deputy director at NSF. "This finding offers new insights into the complex mechanisms underlying ecological relationships and will lead to important insights about fundamental biological questions." Herpetologists Deborah Hutchinson, Alan Savitzky of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and colleagues published results of research on the snake's dependence on certain toads in this week's online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hutchinson studied the Asian snake Rhabdophis tigrinus and its relationship to a species of toxic toad it eats. In the PNAS paper, she and co-authors describe dietary sequestration of toxins by the snakes. The process allows the snakes to store toxins from the toads in their neck glands. When under attack, the snakes re-release the poisons from these neck glands. Many invertebrates sequester dietary toxins for use in defense, including milkweed insects and sea slugs. But vertebrate examples of toxin sequestration, especially from vertebrate prey, are rare. "A snake that's dependent on a diet of toads for chemical defense is highly unusual," said Hutchinson. Hutchinson said the research had identified six compounds in the snakes that may hold promise in medical treatments for people suffering from hypertension and related blood pressure disorders. The researchers made their case by testing Rhabdophis tigrinus on several Japanese islands, one with a large population of the toxic toads and another with none, and compared them with snakes from the Japanese island of Honshu, where toads are few. The presence of toxins in the snakes' neck glands depended upon their access to the toads. Snakes without the borrowed toxins were more likely to turn and flee from danger than to hold their ground and perform a toxin-releasing defensive manoeuvre. A Juvenile Rhabdophis tigrinus snake from Ishima, a Japanese island, curls in a defense posture. (Credit: Old Dominion University, Alan Savitsky TONY S PET SHOP Unit 3/232 Shellharbour Road, WARILLA PHONE: Glass and Custom made quality enclosures Turtle tanks. All reptile accessories, heat mats, UV lights, Reptile sands, interior furnishings. Reptile Food. Reptile books. All Reptile needs and Pet needs. Honest, friendly and professional advice.