Aussie lizard

A v. cool Postcrossing card I received today, all the way from Australia. The sender writes that she was going to send me a card with another lizard, a thorny devil, Moloch horridus, but then realized that I had already gotten one like that, via Germany. So she picked this one instead - yay! :-D It shows a goanna, specifically a large sand monitor, Varanus gouldii. Check out that head and neck ... ! 

Postcrossing rocks ... ! Oh, and I love the thorny devil's Latin name. :-D

Turtle attack

The camera strap will be defeated ... !!

Vintage lizard!

Ooh, check it out ... ! Very cool postcard that I got from Daïre in Estonia on my birthday last week. Isn't it fantastic? Black and white works incredibly well in photographing reptiles sometimes ... it's to do with how it shows light and shadow on their bodies, I think. Kind of chiaroscuro, if that's the word I want. :-)

Pretty sure this is 'just' a regular bearded dragon, Pogona vitticeps or some related species. But it's still wonderful. Hey, there's a reason why they're so popular.

Snake in the sand

Check out this fantastic postcard that I got from Switzerland a few weeks ago. Isn't it wonderful? May be my favorite postcard this month. I had to look twice before I realized what it was exactly. :-) I love it. More snakes on postcards!!

I really don't understand how anyone could see this and think that reptiles are horrible monsters or totally uninteresting. These creatures are marvels of the natural world. :-)

Reptiles in Barcelona Zoo

Remember I went to Barcelona a couple of months ago? And I visited Barcelona Zoo. They have a pretty large reptile house that is supposed to be good - of course I had to see that. :-) And it was definitely well worth the visit. Of course I made a video. ;-)

This first one is from the reptile house ... like I said it was good, a lot of interesting species, very nice enclosures, the animals seemed to be very well taken care of. I posted some pictures from there already - you may remember the turtle trying to mate with a very uninterested female. He's in the video too, in living color. Enjoy. :-)


Widescreen here.

In addition to the reptile house, the Zoo also has a smallish group of Galapagos turtles. There were five or six of them. They have their own enclosure with a relatively roomy indoor area and a nice outdoor area as well. Some of them were outside when I arrived, so I really got to take a good look at them. Which of course I was thrilled about. Amazing animals. Watch the one that wades out into the water. Kind of slow, but very determined ... ;-)


Widescreen here.

Oslo Reptilpark

As I've mentioned before - on several occasions :-) - we don't have any real zoo here in Oslo, but we do have a reptile zoo, Oslo Reptilpark. It's a great place and something not to be missed if you visit the city. They have lots of fascinating animals (and the displays are often rotated so that if you visit several times you will not be seeing all the same animals) and displays made with lots of care and attention to detail. The only reason to stay away from the place may be if you suffer from herpetophobia ... although IMO that's only all the more reason to visit, since seeing these beautiful creatures under controlled conditions is the best way to start getting rid of your fear. :-) This is a video from my most recent visit, in December 2010. It was the winter meeting of the Herpetological Society. What better place for our meetings. :-)



Widescreen here.

Salamanders!

I got a really cool Postcrossing card the other day ... a card from Germany showing a fire salamander, Salamandra salamandra. (I have reptiles and amphibians listed among my interests on my profile. :-) An absolutely gorgeous photo. Almost the coolest thing about it is what the sender wrote to me - that she has salamanders like these living in her garden ... !! omg WANT ... !! :-o She says that although they aren't too common where she lives, she still sees them often, because there's a ... colony, or whatever, in her garden. I am SO JEALOUS ... !!

We don't have this species of salamander in Norway - unsurprisingly - we only have great crested newt, Triturus cristatus, and smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris. Wonderful animals too of course, but they rather pale in comparison with the amazing fire salamanders. Literally. :-)

More in the same vein: If you like salamanders, then take a look at this video I made with footage I've shot over the past few years, showing various salamanders. I love saying salamander, it's a brilliant word! Salamander!! :-D



Fullscreen here.

Moods of the red eared slider: Annoyance

I really wish you wouldn't stick that thing in my face right now ...

You're starting to piss me off ...

I said stop it ... !!

GET LOST!!!

A turtle book

But at the same time so much more.

I just finished this book today. It's pretty short, only about 195 pages plus notes and bibliography, but still so informative. An easy read, it's a popular science book, but it's wonderful, I love it. The story of Lonesome George is just amazing. Read it and weep.

The report is in

Which report, you say? Why, this one. The report commissioned by the Food Authority from the Science Committee for Food Safety, the scientific body they get their facts from. It's been eagerly awaited ... the report, I mean. My community - the reptile geeks - have been very anxious to see it. It's kind of the be all and end all for us ... at least for quite a while. The FA want to change the regulations on the reptile issue, they want the ban to end, but they need scientific facts to back that decision. The herpetological association has given the Science Committee a list of 31 species that should be allowed - species that are easy to keep, aren't dangerous to humans and don't pose a threat to our fauna. This report is the verdict on that. And ... it's mostly positive. I was pleasantly surprised. There are a couple of things that I would have changed in the info on the species that is my primary interest here - Chinemys reevesii, of course - but overall I think it looks really good and that the conclusion is positive.

I was going to write a post about the debate today surrounding this, and refute some of the ridiculous things the animal rights people are saying, but I just don't have the energy. I feel a lot better today (which, alas, didn't take much ;-) but I'm still not exactly bursting with energy. Maybe tomorrow. :-)

But in any case, if you want to take part in the discussion on this issue, read the report. If you don't, you will disqualify yourself from having an opinion. And if you're one of those 'animals are people too' folks, please be aware that it may not say what you think it says.

Spot the lizard

I want one ... !!

Emys orbicularis, the European pond turtle. Cuteness!! I want one ... !



From this year's trip to the Nordic Ark, obviously. :-) Widescreen here.

Oh, the ignorance ... !!

Just have to rant a little bit about some blatant ignorance on display on prime time television tonight. But first, ignorance in a local paper. Tanumine found this article in the paper edition and saved it for me. :-)

As I've posted about before, it's the Food Authority that is the be all and end all when it comes to reptiles in this country. They are responsible for enacting the ban on reptiles in private ownership. Since what they do means literally life or death for the animals that end up with them, it would have been nice to know that they had the basic knowledge in place, at least. But no. The FA representative in this article is actually quoted as saying that because land turtles (tortoises) are the only type of reptile that they give dispensations for, if we get an aquatic turtle handed in, then we know that it's been illegally imported. ARGH! NO, you don't know that!! This would probably come as a shock to a lot of FA employees - and not only to them - but enough reptiles are bred in this country to pretty much fully cover the domestic market. Yes, some reptiles are imported as well, because people sometimes want something they can't get here. (Which is probably due to the ban, yeah.) But the supply of lizards, snakes and turtles that is bred in this country is sufficient to cover the demand. So no, you don't know that they've been imported illegally. This species, Trachemys scripta elegans, is easy to breed - they're the rats of the reptile world (yes, it is Raphael's species :-) - and I think I can pretty much guarantee you that this particular specimen was bred and hatched in good old Norway, birthplace of giants.

This article is kind of sad. Could have been worse on the scaremongering front, but could have been so much better on the actual facts front. >:-(

But back to the TV show. The new season of Dyrlegene ('The Vets') on TV2. Trude Mostue is on it, blech. She's not doing any veterinary work, though - she's just the host, like any random stupid TV personality chick. Way to waste an expensive education. In tonight's episode, someone had dumped five turtles (again, T.s. elegans, or RES - red eared slider) that they apparently no longer wanted to keep, in the turtle pond at the garden center Plantasjen in Asker. They had eight RES and suddenly there were thirteen, and the new arrivals didn't seem quite healthy. So, call in the vet. In all likelihood a vet with no real knowledge of reptiles, alas. (See the comments of the earlier post I linked to above if you need an explanation.)

This vet showed her ignorance by saying several things that were pretty much ... just ... wrong. First she says that the turtles are slimy, and that this is a bad sign. Hello, they're slimy because the water is filthy! Indeed, when the pond had been emptied out and cleaned and given a full water change, the turtles that were left were not slimy. Gee, I wonder if there's a connection. She said that both their shells and their skin was slimy - if the latter is true, then that may be bad, it may be a fungal infection. I didn't get a chance to see, there weren't any good closeups. I couldn't see any sign of it, as far as that goes. But 'sliminess' isn't an objective quality. I hope there aren't any ignorant or relatively ignorant turtle owners out there who saw this show and are now thinking Oh no, my turtle is slimy too, it must be sick! No, that is absolutely not necessarily true.

What else? She said that they had algae on their shells and that that is bad. Well, they had hardly any that I could see, and algae is not bad. It's not in itself a problem. It can only be a problem if the shell is covered to such an extent that it hinders vitamin D uptake during basking. But for that to happen, it has to be a really extreme case ... like this guy. :-D Just a few bits of green, that's absolutely not a problem. Don't worry if your turtle has a little algae. :-)

She claimed that four of the turtles were so ill that they had to be put down. So, a sad ending. I personally, from what I could see from the TV footage, would have kept the animals for observation for quite a while before passing a death sentence on them. They did not seem at all that sick to me. And I wonder what kind of experience she has that allows her to say this, all things considered. In fact, I question her experience.

Most especially when she said this final thing - that something else she was worried about was salmonella. Because turtles often have salmonella and then, if they do, that's a disease in these animals, and they can end up infecting humans. Bah, humbug!! How on earth can a veterinary professional say something like that?? No, turtles carrying salmonella do not have a disease. The key word is carrying. They are carriers of the bacterium, but it doesn't make them ill. This is exactly why reptile keepers need to be so careful about hygiene - you can't tell if your turtle or other reptile has salmonella in its body, because they don't show any symptoms, because they don't have a disease - they're just carriers.

You see, miss doctor lady, salmonella isn't a disease, it's just a germ. Salmonellosis is the disease.

It's one thing that laypeople mix these terms up, we don't know any better. But when medical personnel do so on prime time TV, that's another matter.

This is what happens when authorities issue blanket bans without scientific foundation. The result is one big mess. >:-(

Turtles eating scallops

Today was a feeding day for my little guys and I think Raphael was hungry ... I've been sitting in my chair journaling a whole stack of books on behalf of OsloS-OBCZ after the BookCrossing meetup this afternoon, and he came out into the living room twice to check if there was anything to eat. :-D

Here they all are eating scallops. This wasn't tonight but a few weeks ago. They just got their regular boring food tonight. :-)

Warsaw 2009: reptiles at the Zoo again

Some photos from my visit to the reptile house in Warsaw Zoo. Not all of them are that good ... please remember that these were all taken through glass. :-) You can see a video from my visit here ... for those of you who may have missed that. :-)

A map turtle in the first enclosure ... this held a number of freshwater turtles of similar size, various sliders and maps and so on, and this one was staying out of the crowd a bit. :-) Soo pretty, I want one ... !!

A gila monster.

A green basilisk. This shot I am soo happy with. Again, remember that this was taken through glass ... and with a compact camera on almost full zoom. Really good shot if I do say so myself. :-)

A yellow anaconda.

Are you lookin' at me?? A Cuban crocodile.

Nile crocodiles ... juveniles, obviously. This facility isn't equipped to house fully grown individuals of this species.

An Amazon milk frog. These critters are so pretty, but they always look so sad. :-) At least that's how they look to me. I wonder what it is that makes me 'read' them that way.

Yellow poison dart frogs.

This toad had buried itself comfortably in the moist substrate.

Another lizzie shot that I'm really happy with. :-)

A radiated tortoise chomping on its dinner.

This Asian river turtle was huge ... the picture doesn't show its size properly, but it was quite impressive.

Hello there ... !! :-D

More photos here.

Anton the adorable

So, does everyone remember Anne Ida's little turtle Anton that I, ahem, procured for her a couple months back? I posted some pictures back then, to show you what a cutie he is. :-) Now here's Anton again, doing lots of totally adorable turtle things like begging for food and eating scallops and sniffing at laundry. :-) Enjoy. :-)

Anne Ida posted a fun shot of him on her blog recently - peeping out of the window! :-D - and here's another one.

Speaking of them pulling their heads into their bodies and so on ... :-)

Warsaw 2009: reptiles at the Zoo

I mentioned that when I went to Warsaw Zoo back in March, the one thing I really went there for was to see the reptile house. It's called Gady. Don't know what that means. (Any Poles reading this, feel free to help me out. :-) Just before we were going to leave I got the brilliant idea of making a video of the place. You may have seen it already, it's the featured video on my Youtube channel ... but if not, then here it is. Enjoy. :-)

For the record, I have to say that this is one of the better reptile houses that I've visited. The enclosures could have been bigger, sure, but they were perfectly fine as they were. Nice setups ... some really good. The animals seemed to be doing very well. I got a really good impression of the place. :-)

Welcome home, Anton!!

Quote of the Week:
A house is not a home without a pet.
Anonymous

Well, I'm back home after the trip to Hurum, which went perfectly, exactly as planned, without a hitch. :-) The little guy wasn't too happy to see us at first, but he turned out to be quite confident and sociable, and very quickly asserted his presence. :-) He was also strong and healthy; a bit overweight, IMO - not fat, but chubby - but that can be sorted out. So there was no reason for him not to come with us ... and into the travel cage he went. With the heating pad, which I'm afraid was malfunctioning to some extent, and an insulating blanket.

He burrowed into the towel that I keep on the bottom of the travel cage. Much more than this, too. When we got home we had trouble digging him out of the folds of the towel, he was hard to find. :-D

We just had to let him out of the cage a little as soon as we got on the bus. Isn't he just too cute?? :-) I know he has quite a lot of algae on his carapace, but that's going to be scrubbed away very soon. :-)

Crispin, if you read this, beware - your toothbrush is in grave danger ... !!!

Are you lookin' at me?!

And here he is - little Anton - with his new twolegs, Anne Ida. Aw, precious. :-) Good luck to the two of you, I'm sure it'll go great. And you know where to find me if you have any questions about anything at all. :-) Thanks for the road trip and for dinner!!

More pictures here.

Herman climbing and falling

I spent a lot of time outside with the turtles in September ... more time just in that month than in all of the preceding summer, in fact. Or maybe I should say 'summer'. :-) Now though there's no chance I would let them put even their little noses out of doors. Winter is coming. :-) So I'm glad I have all my photos and videos from their lawn adventures to tide me over till next spring.

Here's Herman climbing their favorite tree, and then trying to get out of it, with mixed results. (No, he wasn't hurt in any way. :-)

Rant on stupidity

A pretty much pointless rant into the ether ... but I've just got to say this.

If you've been in Norway and paying any attention to the news the past couple of days, you will have heard the story about the hapless smuggler who got caught getting off the boat from Denmark in Kristiansand on Sunday with 14 ball pythons and 10 leopard geckos taped to his body. And, idiot that he was, a tarantula in his bag that apparently led the customs officers to examine him more thoroughly. Although he must have looked pretty noticeably weird. I do agree with him that it's ridiculous that the reptiles were taken away from him, while he was allowed to keep the spider ... the only animal in the bunch that could actually have done serious harm to a human being. o_O But overall my feelings towards this man are ...

... intense annoyance and significant anger at his incredible stupidity!!! He supposedly is a reptile fan. FUCKWIT!!! What kind of complete & utter dumbass tries to pull off a smuggling operation like this on foot?? on the ferry .... ! and what kind of idiot doesn't consider the implications for a cause that he now alleges he believes in?? This story is EXACTLY the kind of thing that most hinders the progress of that cause. When the media get hold of stories like this, they run with it - everyone hears it - and people get freaked, for which I can't honestly say I entirely blame them, but it's always guaranteed to make things more difficult for the herpetological community as a whole and for our cause. >:-(

Just to make it clear, this guy was smuggling with intent to sell. Ten baby leos of pretty much identical morphs, and more than a dozen ball pythons hatched this summer ... nobody wants that. I mean, no one person. This wasn't for himself, he was going to sell. So this story, as I said, understandably freaks non-reptile people out. OMG there's a black market for dangerous animals!!1! Yeah, there's a black market. These particular animals weren't dangerous, though. But of course there is a black market. There's also a significant number of animals in captivity that are forced to do without proper medical care if they need it ... potentially a hundred thousand animals, at least. Many of them - as readers of this blog will know ;-) - do have access to a vet. But their owners take their pets' lives into their hands every time they make that contact. Animal welfare my shiny metal ass.

This is a really messy rant, sorry ... cases like this one just piss me off so much I can hardly talk about it coherently. It's just one setback after the other for a cause that I really feel strongly about. People like this guy do such a fantastic job of making the herpetological community look bad, it's like they actually set out to do it. Like that's their goal. If this guy really cares about the reptile cause, and he still went out and did this, he must just be incredibly stupid. :-(

I question whether he does cares, since he claims to VG that you can cuddle the geckos like any other pet. Growl. No, you cannot 'cuddle' reptiles like a mammal or a bird. If you think you can, you shouldn't have them.

You can read about the case in Norwegian here and here, and in English in various places ... The Guardian, The Sun, The Australian. Fascinating, I'm sure.

I am of course happy that the animals will not be put to death as they normally would have been, but that the Butterfly Park will take them in instead. But of course that is nothing but blind dumb luck. Maybe one small advantage of the media attention.

Rant over, thank you for listening.