That Reptile Blog – Reptile, Amphibian and Exotic Pet Care and Information

Herpetologists still reeling from the recent (April, 2010) discovery of the 6-foot-long Northern Sierra Madre Forest Monitor (Varanus bitatawa) in the Philippines have had yet another shock this week – a large, Red-Headed Monitor Lizard, previously unknown to science, has surfaced in Indonesia!  A glossy black body and brilliant red head led to its being christened the Torch Monitor.  Also known as the Sago Monitor (Varanus obor), it is the only Varanid that sports red coloration. Read More »

As reptile enthusiasts know, snakes are difficult to find.  But dogs are very good at it, and as a consequence are bitten by venomous species more often than are their owners.  Spring is prime hiking time, and also when snakes are most likely to be encountered while basking, seeking mates, or searching for meals after the long winter’s fast.  The recent experience of one of our readers, whose Arizona property was frequented by Mojave Rattlesnakes, spurred me to look into the question of snake-dog interactions.  Read More »

Recent (March, 2010) findings by Paleontologists at Georgia’s Columbus State University helped bring to light the habits of Deinosuchus, a 29-foot-long crocodile that inhabited the region some 79 million years ago.

Uncovering an Ancient Story

As I mentioned when writing about an extinct snake recently (please see article below), its common knowledge that reptiles resembling those we know today lived alongside dinosaurs.  However, physical evidence of this really makes the story come to life for me.

In this case, the evidence consisted of bite marks on dinosaur bones and the contents of fossilized feces (known to those who study such things as “coprolites”). Read More »

I’ve recently finished writing a revision of my 1997 book Newts and Salamanders and would like to introduce it here and to thank everyone for their past support and kind comments.

Care and Natural History

Although technically a captive care manual, I’ve included a great deal of natural history information garnered from a lifetime of working with amphibians as well as research updates from technical and popular journals.  Captive breeding is stressed, with specific advice given for each species covered.  Read More »

It’s well-known that the world still hides countless “undiscovered” animals and plants – even Central Park in NYC recently yielded a previously unknown centipede.  However, it is still something of a surprise when large, colorful creatures remain unseen into modern times.  Such is the case for the Northern Sierra Madre Forest Monitor (Varanus bitatawa), a spectacularly colored, 6-foot-long lizard that has been designated as a new species in the current (April, 2010) issue of the journal Biology Letters. Read More »