|
|
Archives
SnakeScientists have found the first direct fossil evidence that snakes preyed on dinosaurs. While a bit of a "duh" revelation, the find is one of the very few reasonably complete snake fossils ever found from the era, and does provide important insight into the evolution of one of Ellen's favorite belly dance accessories.
After many years of enjoying Om, my leopard spotted tortoise, we have finally found out that Om is a SHE.
Much to Olivia's tantrums... I'm still not renaming Om to "Chrissy."
See? See, The Grammas? Snakes can be helpful family pets! Yeah, I call "shenanigans" on it, too, but it makes for a fun story. Us? Oh hell no. There's a REASON Oriana's cage has 30 pounds of books sitting on its lid.
I guess this is just more proof that rednecks can be as gentle and careful as the next person. And yes, folks, that's the same kind of snake Ellen has. Oriana's about 2/3rds that big I think. Sorry, The Grammas, snakey isn't going anywhere any time soon.
Ron gets a no prize that wondersss if he hasss a mousssee??? for bringing us this colorful poster.
A more common mutation among snakes is the growth of a second head, which occurs in a similar way to the formation of Siamese twins in humans.
Sometimes luck is bad, sometimes it's good, but for a turtle named Lucky, fortune seems to include the use of furniture sliders. He certainly doesn't seem to be suffering. He's certainly a lot more energetic than our own leopard-spotted tortoise!
Florida is having a huge problems with pythons in the Everglades.
Just goes to show you, it you can't take of it, don't own it.
Ellen would almost crash her car too:
Miss Dixon-Yeung, 27, was driving to the supermarket when the creature appeared from beneath the bonnet of her silver Audi TT.She enlisted the help of Asda worker Joe Moore to remove the removed the reptile, which was later identified as a harmless North American corn snake.
The difference would be, as I'm sure you already have guessed, that Ellen would be trying to catch the thing to bring it home. Oh, and not to worry, snakey-snake ended up safely home in a field behind the store.
Mark gets a no-prize Ellen would recognize instantly for bringing us news of a patrol who's mission is to keep Burmese pythons out of the Florida keys. Which wouldn't sound like too much of a problem, except it would appear some 30,000 of the buggers live just north of there, in the Everglades.
Don't worry. Ellen already has one.
Scientists have announced the discovery of the largest snake ever found. Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers, this forty-two foot monster is thought to have lived about 60 million years ago. Not only does the find have implications about snake evolution, it also provides all sorts of information about the climate in which the critter lived.
What I want to know is, only five million years after the dinosaurs died out, just what this thing was eating? It's my understanding that for quite some time after the K-T event, the biggest animals wandering around were largish birds. And by "largish" I'm definitely not talking about house-sized beasties. More like "really really big ostrich" sized, which it sounds like this thing could eat in a gulp.
Meet Jonathan, the tortoise who has unexpectedly become perhaps the oldest living animal on Earth.
No, Ellen, you can't have one.
Masseuse to customer: would you like one snake, or two? Corn snakes are on the list, so maybe we can get Cornbread a job.
Ron gets a no-prize that carries its house on its back for letting us know the latest news in turtle evolution. And for giving us the title of this article, of course.
I've always thought it more than amazing that a turtle's shell is essentially its front and back ribs spread apart and fused together. It's nice to know we're finally figuring out just how that happened.
I can't have a snake like this...
Who needs ADT when you can have a Cobra tank by the door!
With chickens, goats, ducks, geese and rabbits on his 800ft allotment, Ronnie Kenyon runs a proper little menagerie.But even he draws the line at his latest guest - a 17ft python.
My life 10 years from now, let me show you it...
My life.
Don't be hatin'. Hopefully someone turned the poor thing upright once the video was done. I think that's a leopard tortoise. If so, that's our own Om in about 10 years.
It's snakes in a mutha f'ing apartment:
A nearly fatal bite by a poisonous snake led to the arrest of a man Wednesday for keeping 51 deadly cobras and mambas in his Tokyo apartment without permission, police said.
Mark gets a hissy and hot no-prize for bringing us yet another reason not to live in a Tokyo apartment complex.
Mark gets a gargantuan no-prize for bringing us an example of just how big a big snake can be. One only hopes the snake hit the camera and not the photographer.
After a 2 & 1/2 week sojurn, Tank the tortoise has returned. While this article is a lot cheesier, it includes a video of the wanderer and his buddy.
I think Om will get to be about half the size of these guys.
Master CB (1.8 pound cornsnake of DOOM!),-ahem... of LOVE )and his girl he protects at night from 'monsters in the closet and under the bed'. CB, you do a great job! O loves ya!
LAWRENCE (WBZ) ― Lawrence officials are investigating a bizarre case of animal cruelty in which a pet python was nailed to a telephone pole with six roofing nails and left to die.
A reward is being offered to help find whoever nailed the python to the pole at an intersection on Lexington Street, where he was left dangling for at least eight hours.
Story and video can be found here
To paraphrase a Finding Nemo quote, "Keepers are friends, not food":
A pet store owner is calling a police sergeant a hero for saving her from the coils of a 12-foot Burmese python doing its best to turn her into a meal.
Surprisingly enough, absolutely everyone got out of it unharmed, including the snake. File this one under "Lessons: cheaply learned."
Leave it to Fark to reveal the first known case of a cigarette-smoking turtle. Because we all know every story originating is China is completely and totally true, right?
It's not like he can run fast or anything:
Animal control officers in Tracy [CA] have been contacted by the owner of a 150-pound tortoise that was found wandering around a residential neighborhood Monday afternoon.
Om will most likely be less than half that size fully grown. Little surprise then the next tortoise Ellen wants will be much, much bigger.
A Kuranda [Australia] couple fears for their children's safety after a 5m python devoured their dog in front of them, just weeks after other snakes killed their cat and guinea pig.
It took me reading the article twice to make sure the creature wasn't their pet, but instead a wild animal. Ellen keeps both of her snakes locked in tanks.
Tortoise: 1, House: 0. Om's not quite big enough to stack straw up next to a heating lamp (he's about 1/4th the size of the article's subject), but he will be one day. Time to re-think some tank arrangements!
Answer me guys? WHY?
Can't you be happy with a flag attached to the back of your bike?
A NEW species of a giant spitting cobra - bout 2.6 metres long and with enough venom to kill up to 20 people in one bite - has been discovered in Kenya, a study said today.NEAT!The large brown spitting cobra, initially included under the black-necked spitting cobra species, was discovered at a snake farm in June 2004, but confirmed as a separate species this year.
The black-necked species grow to a maximum of two metres, with an average of 1.5 metres, scientists said, making the new species the largest in the world.
I know, I know, I can't have one.
Turtle ownership jumped 86% from 2001, to a pet population of 2 million. DeHaven cites a big increase in domestic breeding of turtles free of the salmonella that once plagued imported turtles.
In our case, Om was acquired not because of salmonella-free chelonians, but rather because of an encounter with a beach ball-sized example. Don't worry, Ellen, you've already got one. :)
Mike J. gets a no-prize with a clever movie reference for bringing us the last thing I'd ever want to have happen to my front yard.
It's not that I exactly mind having dozens of baby snapping turtles crawling around. It's that I'd end up living with half the dratted things.
No Ellen, you can't have one.
It really amazed me when people do bad things to animals.
Bob, an African spurred tortoise, was in guarded condition Saturday after thieves stole him July 7 and tried to cut his neck and slice his legs from his shell, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
Let's hope they find the guys that did this.
Of course AMCGLTD loves torts! We have one!
Mind you , the first several pixes are Galapagos torts. They are huge! Many of the torts there are of unknown age and or well over 100 years old.
And our favorite tort of all, the Leopard Spot!
Note, the rock next to him is as big as a brick. That is how big OM will get.
No Really, buy me.
I am sorry red monitor, Scott would kill us even though we had our CC ready for you. :/
Olivia and I went to check out LLL Reptile in San Diego today. Small, yet neat store! Check it out if you can get there!
And of course...Big Red, the LLL mascot. He is HUGE and has the entire front window display as his home.
Believe it or not, the smaller snake is only a few months younger than Cornbread. This little guy is a rescue from someone that fed him one pinky mouse a week.
He is also going to lose a nice chunk of tail from numerous bad sheds.
Okay, pet pythons running loose in the Everglades is, on the face of it, cool, in a sorta "sewers of New York" way. But what I want to know is, what the hell is a weatherman doing on the story?
Great. First it's Jim Cantore, weatherman of DOOOOMMMMM!!!, now this guy. Those weather people, they're up to no damned good, I tell ya...
"You got a snake on your head! A snake on your head!!
Err... I guess you have to be me and Amber to get this...
EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK, Fla. - "SNAKE!" Hearing this shout, Skip Snow slammed on the brakes. When the off-roader plowed to a halt, he and his partner, Lori Oberhofer, leaped out and took off running toward two snakes, actually — a pair of 10-foot Burmese pythons lying on a levee, sunning themselves.
Scott! Let's go visit Florida!I found my new career!
CINCINNATI (Dec. 18) - A 13-foot boa constrictor wrapped itself around its owner's neck and killed the man in his home, authorities said.
Read entire article here
Bit of advice, don't go INTO your snake cage. Use a hook for crying out loud.
This is the wet noodle that all the grandmas whine about being in Olivia's room. Can't you see by his mean nature that he keeps the monsters out! Mean I tell ya! GRRR!!! Look at those fangs!
...the only way your human can find you whilst walkabout-ing in the living room is to put a Barbie Bandaid on your shell.
Turtles do not accessorize. Oh hell no.
Compare to this first picture for a measure of how big he's gotten. That lens cap is about the same diameter as a tennis ball.
Yes, yes she is named after the journalist. That still does not get me out of the shit I am in. Did I mention I really need that backhoe? No really! I'll buy it from you! REALLY!
Wendy, Amber and I are in the deepest shit possible. We hit a reptile show this Satruday and ALL came home with a snake.
Did I mention we need shovels? Dontations are accepted. So are backhoes.
I know! I'm not allowed to have one this big!
A LITTLE bloating after a big meal is an occupational hazard for pythons. But this unfortunate creature found itself unable to slink away and sleep it off.
Really cool pix is included with the story!
Amber and Ron's new baby cornsnake(*ahem, Cornbread's new honey) was delivered by the Fed Ex stork this morning! Everyone start knitting pink snake booties!!
Pixes will go up as soon as I get them.
Well, probably not, because unlike this person I'm sure Ellen would know how to properly pack a snake:
A German woman sparked panic at her local post office when a 1.5-metre (5-foot) albino python escaped from a packet she had mailed, police said on Tuesday.The 28-year-old woman, who had sold the snake over the Internet, stuffed it in a package labelled "attention -- glass" to be sent to its new owner.
One of Ellen's snakes was in fact shipped to her, but it was very carefully packed and (as I recall) marked correctly as an animal. The snake inside was also less than 8 inches long.
Still, all around a great way to collect early on an inheritance. Now, where'd I put those stamps?
Fark linked up this report detailing a new theory about the why's and how's of primate evolution. Instead of postulating food gathering or socialization as the primary engine, Lynne Isbell, an anthropologist at the University of California, Davis, believes it was all about the avoidance of what may have been the main tree-based predator when primates evolved... snakes. Each innovation by one group resulted in another innovation to counter it from the other, until we ended up with the sophisticated species we have today. It's an interesting theory, which provides many predictions, so we'll just have to see how it pans out.
It took surgery to save a 12-foot Burmese python after it swallowed an entire queen-size electric blanket - with the electrical cord and control box.The blanket must have gotten tangled up in the snake's rabbit dinner, owner Karl Beznoska said. He said he kept the blanket in the 60-pound reptile's cage for warmth.
Read entire article here.
Thanks to Joshua for the link!
I know Scott, I can't have one.
A water snake with chameleon-like ability has been found in the forests of Borneo island by researchers from the U.S. and Germany working in the area. The World Wildlife Fund said Tuesday the previously unknown snake, which is poisonous, can change the colour of its skin spontaneously like a chameleon.
Muffy, a 9-year-old Burmese python, measures 22-plus feet. That's long enough to take America's longest title from Lulu, a snake at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.
Read entire article here.
I know, I know, Ellen you can't have one.
...A snake in a basket.
Because if she was we'd have yet another character added to our menagerie:
The next time Dan McBride rents a car, he may want to inspect it not just for dings and dents but also for snakes.The assistant athletic director at Eastern Kentucky University found a two-foot-long ball python in his rental car this week as he left the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament in Paducah.
I think our own ball python Pokey is a little bigger than this, in which case the snake would be kind of intimidating, but not a complete terror. Personality wise, Pokey is a bit dodgier than our surfer-dude-with-scales corn snake Cornbread, so I don't begrudge this guy's freak-out reaction.
At least none of The Grammas were around. If they were I have a feeling we'd be collecting life insurance policies right about now.
Oh please... let us go over what snakes we saw in the first 5 seconds of the preview!
Long Mommy! Cowhnbred long!
Err... Olivia? I don't think Cornbread wants you to measure him out.
Zookeepers at Tokyo's Mutsugoro Okoku zoo presented the hamster -- whose name means "meal" in Japanese -- to Aochan as a tasty morsel in October, after the snake refused to eat frozen mice.But instead of indulging, Aochan decided to make friends with the furry rodent, according to keeper Kazuya Yamamoto. The pair have shared a cage since.
See article with uber cute pix here.
Unlike a certain ball python *cough-Pokey-cough* won't eat ANYTHING right now. No carrots, no mice, no jelly bean, no M&M's**. We are tired of offering her everything in site. So last night, I shoved a mouse down her throat. Well, I force fed her in a gentle way with a thawed mouse and a chopstick. When it was all done she looked up at me in a very annoyed manner and back under her water dish she went! ** It's a Joke people!**
Everyone is going bonkers over the two-headed snake!
Now, let me tell you all about this unique little reptilian fella. This is a one of a kind, original hand puppet (specifically designed for someone with an extra hand growing from their arm). My inspiration to create this bad boy came from the infamous TWO HEADED ALBINO RAT SNAKE we all are raving about. The puppet is made from 1 1/2 cotton tube socks. The eyes and tongue are soft foam, adhered with a glue gun. The eyeballs and mouth were hand drawn with a Sharpie. The sewing has also been done by hand.
See auction with picture here.
Don't forget about the purple clay snake
Because otherwise I'd probably have three snakes soon:
For sale: One snake. Albino. Has two heads. Asking $150,000 or best offer. The World Aquarium in St. Louis has been home to We, a one-of-a-kind two-headed albino rat snake, since 1999. President Leonard Sonnenschein has decided to sell the reptile, and bidding on eBay will start at $150,000.
Looks a lot like a corn snake to me, but what do I know?
It's official, I have finally been "christened" by Cornbread. Yes, he peed on me. Well, if you could call it pee. It was more of a 'peepoo' thing.
He'd crawled under my laptop, I thought merely snoozing away. Suddenly, I felt like I peed myself. Nope, it was Cornbread.
Me: "Ewww! Eww!"
Scott: "What?"
Me: "Cornbread just did business on me!"
Scott: "It was dark, he was warm and relaxed. He's a guy. This should be filed under, 'duh'"
Thing is, I know he's right. And I sleep with him!
The husband, I mean. Maybe I should swap...
Shhh!! You are not supposed to know such an evil little creature comes out to play at night!
What's in the box!?!
Prepare for lots of pixes!
A deli cup? This is a snake, not a cup of coleslaw.
A tiny deli cup too. This is expensive coleslaw.
Oh please don't jump out!
It's CORNBREAD!
And LONG!
More pixes as the week goes on and he settles in :) Many thanks to South Mountain Reptiles for picking me out my new buddy!
Cornbread is being shipped today for arrival at my work tomorrow!
Pixes on the entire event will be posted!
Ok, so here is the new improved set up. No longer ugly and plain. Good snakey funness!
