Vol. 27 (2007), No. 1

t he n e w sl e t t e r o f t he

minnesota herpetological society

WEB VERSION

Information edited/removed to respect privacy concerns.

January’s Speaker: Ruthie Schneider Program: Operant Conditioning of Reptiles

Helpful Herp Handout page 8

JA NU AR Y 20 0 7

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President Bruce Haig

Board of Directors

BELL MUSEUM

OF

NATURAL HISTORY, 10 CHURCH STREET SOUTHEAST, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 55455-0104

Vice President Jennifer Hensley

Recording S ecretary Ellen Heck

Membership Secretary George Richard

V O I C E M A I L : 612.624.7065 • M H S W E B P A G E : HTTP :// WWW. MNHERPSOC . ORG M H S G R O U P E M A I L : H T T P :// W W W. G R O U P S . YA H O O . C O M / G R O U P / M N H E R P S O C

Treasurer Nancy Haig

January 2007

Newsletter Editor Asra Halvorson Members at Large Todd Turner David Dewitt

Carmelita Knudson

Education Jan Larson

Library Tim Banovitz

Webmaster Anke Reinders

Volume 27

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The Purpose of the Minnesota Herpetological Society is to:

Sarah Richard

Adoption Sarah Richard

The Minnesota H er pet ol og i ca l S o c i e t y

Committees

• of • •

Further the education of the membership and the general public in care and captive propagation reptiles and amphibians; Educate the members and the general public in the ecological role of reptiles and amphibians; Promote the study and conservation of reptiles and amphibians.

The Minnesota Herpetological Society is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Membership is open to all individuals with an interest in amphibians and reptiles. The Minnesota Herpetological Society Newsletter is published monthly to provide its members with information concerning the society’s activities and a media for exchanging information, opinions and resources.

General Meetings are held at Borlaug Hall, Room 335 on the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota, on the first Friday of each month (unless there is a holiday conflict). The meeting starts at 7:00pm and lasts about three hours. Please check the MHS Voice mail for changes in schedules or cancellations.

Submissions to the Newsletter Ads or Notices must be submitted no later than the night of the General Meeting to be included in the next issue. Longer articles will be printed as time and space allows and should be in electronic file format if possible. See inside back cover for ad rates.

Submissions may be sent to: The Minnesota Herpetological Society Attn: Newsletter Editor Bell Museum of Natural History 10 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN 55455.0104

Copyright 2006, Minnesota Herpetological Society. Except where noted, contents may be reproduced for non-profit, noncommercial use only. All material must be reproduced without change. Proper credit will be given including the author/photographer and the MHS Newsletter citing: volume, number and date.

The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

He was naked, on crack and in alligator’s mouth (Gators TRY to do their part in the war on drugs)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Carlos Mayid couldn’t see Adrian Apgar being attacked by an alligator early Wednesday, but he could hear him.

With his cellphone in hand and a sheriff’s operator on the line, Mayid left his home near Lake Parker, Fla., and walked down his street in the predawn darkness toward the screams of a man who was fighting for his life in the water.

In the recording of a dramatic 911 call released Thursday, Mayid is heard breathing heavily and walking through wet grass as Apgar’s repeated cries grow louder. Finally, he got close enough to yell back.

“Hey. What’s up? What do you need?” Mayid hollered.

“A gator’s got me,” Apgar replied, his voice faint in the background.

Mayid’s call shortly after 4 a.m. sent four Polk County, Fla., deputies racing to the 2,150-acre lake just outside Lakeland, Fla., where they jumped into the water and wrenched Apgar’s arm from the gator’s mouth. The 45-year-old victim, who told authorities he’d passed out nude on the shore after smoking crack cocaine, was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

Later Wednesday, state wildlife authorities trapped and killed a nearly 12-foot-long alligator thought to be the one that attacked Apgar.

Mayid’s call was picked up by operator Josh Fulman.

“There’s a guy screaming bloody murder over here, ‘Help,’ in front of the Moose Lodge,” Mayid said. He could not be reached Thursday to elaborate on his experience.

“I can hear him from inside my house ... He’s screaming, ‘Help, help, help, help.’ “

A dramatic back-and-forth followed, with Mayid serving as the middleman between victim and operator.

Fulman told Mayid that deputies were on the way, but there was little the two could do. Meanwhile, Apgar kept screaming.

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Replying to a plea from Apgar that was inaudible on the tape, Mayid said, “I ain’t going over there. I can’t go in there anyway. ... I don’t know how the hell they’re going to get through.”

Mayid ended up getting close enough to ask Apgar where the alligator had bitten him, yelling, “Help is on the way, help is on the way.”

About five minutes into the nearly eight-minute call, the operator suggested Mayid tell Apgar to punch the alligator.

“I don’t know if it’s true, but if you punch him in the nose ... it may let him go,” Fulman said.

Mayid relayed the message and immediately came back with Apgar’s response: “Too big.”

Said Mayid, “He says he needs a gun.”

Polk County deputies arrived about two minutes later and soon reached Apgar in the water. He was slumped over in the alligator’s jaws in chest-deep water on the east side of Lake Parker.

After a tug-of-war with the gator, three deputies and their sergeant were able to rescue Apgar and carry him to shore.

The rescue took about 20 minutes.

Apgar told the deputies he had been smoking crack cocaine and fell asleep on the shore when the alligator attacked him.

The area includes a strip of land with a picnic table.

But local and state officials said Thursday they don’t know if Apgar was on the land or already in the water when he was attacked.

Sheriff’s officials have said Apgar, 45, suffered a broken right arm. His left arm was nearly severed, and he had bites to his buttocks and leg. He underwent surgery Wednesday afternoon at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.

A hospital spokeswoman said Apgar was alive Thursday, but a family member asked that his specific condition not be released and would not talk to reporters.

Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the 11-foot, 9-inch, 600-

Continued on page 7

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The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

January 2007 Volume 27

Number 1

News, Notes, & Announcements White Snake Sale and Photo Contest

Time to start digging out the Herp closet and searching through all those great herp photos and get ready for the March meeting. Bring any herp related items for the White Snake Sale. Last year we had to throw away a lot of junk and dirty cages so please bring useable stuff only and please, please, bring clean cages.

Rules for the photo/art contest will be in the next newsletter.

This is a big fund raiser for the society so if everyone participates we’ll all come out winners.

December Adoption Report

January’s Speaker: Ruthie Schneider

Program: Classical and Operant Conditioning of Reptiles

Ruthie Schneider grew up in the Twin Cities and has lived here most of her life. After high school, she interned with FROGS! at the MN Zoo. She attended Wartburg College in Waverly, IA and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biology. Ruthie gained venomous experience at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo and later as a herpetarium zookeeper at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, KS. Ruthie has been a member of MHS since 2004. She currently works as a zookeeper at Como Zoo.

Operant Conditioning has become a standard in the daily husbandry of most zoological collections. Only five years after a formal training program was implemented, reptilian training has made its debut at St. Paul’s Como Zoo. Utilizing the principles of classical and operant conditioning, a Galapagos Tortoise training program was introduced in the spring of 2005. The advantages of training giant tortoises at a public zoological institute go well beyond husbandry. This presentation will feature the tools and methods necessary to begin the Galapagos training, and will also highlight the tortoises’ progress, challenges along the way, future training and demonstration goals and major updates within the past year.

Conditioning another reptilian species began in the spring of 2006 for a green anaconda. The presentation will also outline the steps involved and reasons why training a large constrictor is important.

By Sarah Richard, Adoption Chair

I always consider it a successful month when I leave with no animals in my car. We had a successful month.

Water turtles... a plethora 2.3 Red Eared Sliders 2.0 Painted turtles 1.0 False Map turtle

Snakes 3.0 Ball Pythons (small med and large) 2.0 Boas Lizards 1.0 Iguana 1.0 Bearded

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Thanks to everyone who helped out by opening their hearts and homes to these critters.

The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

Croc’s jaw snaps... but the show goes on

A circus ringmaster carried on with a performance - despite having his thumb bitten off by a crocodile.

German Daniel Renz, 39, was on tour with his Renz Universal Circus in Le Mans, France, when the accident happened.

The 4 000-strong audience clapped and cheered - believing it was part of the act.

Renz had been trying to demonstrate to the audience “that crocodiles are not man-eaters” by stroking King, a 1,7m crocodile - when it suddenly snapped its jaws.

Another chance for a yellow-legged frog

Nearly 80 tadpoles of the imperiled Southern Calif. amphibian have been found and are being nurtured.

SAN DIEGO - The mountain yellow-legged frog, that marvelous invalid of amphibians, may have yet another chance to avoid extinction.

Already imperiled by modernity, the sweet-voiced croaker was devastated by the 2003 forest fires that ravaged its native habitat in Southern California forest land.

Then 11 were found near the City Creek area of the San Bernardino Mountains and brought to the San Diego Zoo for a captive-breeding experiment.

Despite around-the-clock attention, they succumbed to a condition akin to tuberculosis.

Amphibian-lovers were close to saying farewell to the yellow-legged frog, which once roamed Southern California.

But in August, 82 tadpoles were spotted along a stream in the San Jacinto Mountains. The first thought of wildlife officials was to leave them alone. But the U.S. Forest Service noted that the stream’s water level was dropping, a death sentence for the tadpoles.

“The very next day we had a multi-agency response team at the site,” said Gar Abbas, aquatic ecosystems program man-

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Renz said: “I saw him chomp down on my left thumb, bite into it, and twist his head to rip it off, before dropping it onto the floor of the cage.

“The stump started spurting blood but I couldn’t just run off. There were five crocodiles out of their cages so I had to go on with the show until we could get them all back in.”

At the end Renz held up his thumbless hand to rapturous applause: “The audience thought it was just part of the show,” he added. - Ananova.com

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_ id=iol1165308063891R525

ager with the Forest Service.

The tadpoles were scooped up and rushed to the zoo’s Conservation and Research for Endangered Species facility, scene of the earlier disappointment.

Five of the 82 tadpoles died shortly after arriving at the complex in the zoo’s Wild Animal Park. The rest are morphing nicely. Eleven already are frogs, and others are growing legs.

Their hopes dashed before, the frogs’ caregivers are cautious in their optimism.

“I’m pretty confident, but you never know, especially with tadpoles,” said frog project leader Jeffrey Lemm. “It can look good one day and turn around the next.”

Long-range plans call for releasing the frogs into the wild but keeping some studs in captivity. The yellow-legged frog once could be seen and heard throughout the lower half of the state, but predators and habitat loss reduced its population to a few hundred.

These are tough times for frogs. A fast-moving fungus has wiped out 120 species worldwide since 1980. That gives the yellow-legged effort a certain urgency.

“Frogs globally are in big trouble,” said Allison Alberts,

Continued on page 7

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The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

Offerings to a Stone Snake Provide the Earliest Evidence of Religion:

70,000-year-old African ritual practices linked to mythology of modern Botswanans

An elongated rock, carved to enhance its resemblance to a snake, offers evidence of ritualistic or religious behavior 70,000 years ago in Africa.

The discovery of carvings on a snake-shaped rock along with 70,000-year-old spearheads nearby has dramatically pushed back the earliest evidence for ritual behavior, or what could be called religion. The finding, which researchers have yet to formally publish, comes from a cave hidden in the Tsodilo Hills of Botswana, a mecca of sorts for the local people, who call it the Mountain of the Gods.

“It’s very big news,” says Sheila Coulson, an archaeologist at the University of Oslo in Norway and leader of the study.

Prior to the discovery, researchers had identified signs of ritual practice going back at most 40,000 years from sites in Europe.

Researchers believe that anatomically modern humans emerged from East Africa perhaps 120,000 years ago. “The difficulty was always this incredible time lag between that occurrence and any more complex aspect of the culture other than just basic survival,” Coulson says. Although some carved ornaments and wall markings from another African site are as old as the new find, they seem to have had no obvious ritual significance.

A chief of the local San people invited Coulson and her colleagues to study the cave in Tsodilo Hills. They were unprepared for what they found when they entered: a six-meterlong rock that bore a striking resemblance to a snake, including a mouthlike gash at the end. “My first words I remember saying are, ‘My god what is that?’“ Coulson says. “I’d never seen anything like it.”

Hundreds of small notches, widely spaced in some places and closer together in others, covered the rock. Entrants to the cave apparently made these markings to enhance the snake illusion by creating the impression of scales and movement [see picture below]. “When flickering light hits it, it very much looks like the snake is flexing,” Coulson says. Snakes feature prominently in the traditions and the mythology of the San, sometimes called the Bushmen.

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Although many of the carvings looked old, more reliable markers of the site’s longevity lay buried in rock half a meter beneath the soft cave floor. In a one-meter-wide, twometer-deep excavation right next to the snake, the researchers uncovered more than 100 multicolored spear points from a total of 13,000 man-made artifacts.

The tips closely resemble those found elsewhere in Africa that researchers have dated at up to 77,000 years old, Coulson says. Judging from the rare colors of the stone points and the pattern of fragments, people from far and wide likely brought them to the cave partially made and finished working them there, she explains.

Some of the stone tips seem to have been burned or smashed in what may have been a type of sacrifice. Of 22 tips made from red stone, all of them show cracks and faults consistent with exposure to high heat, Coulson says, and some were burned white. Other spearheads exhibit chips and marks that suggest someone had struck the finished tips dead-on, something that researchers have observed at sites in Siberia, she notes.

“You put it all together and clearly something very extraordinary is happening,” says archaeologist and prehistoric religion specialist Neil Price, also at the University of Oslo, who was not part of the dig. “You have things occurring over a long period of time that do not have a functional explanation. There must be a whole complex of thinking behind these actions, and that in itself is exciting.” —JR Minkel

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID =3FE89A86-E7F2-99DF-366D045A5BF3EAB1 from Scientific American, 12/1/06

The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

January 2007 Volume 27

Number 1

Frog, continued from page 5 director of the conservation facility. “To me, it’s not acceptable to lose any species.”

Perry, Tony. Philadelphia Enquirer http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/health/1615 7758.htm

Alligator, continued from page 3

pound alligator trapped several hours after the attack had been euthanized, a necessary step to protect the public.

The alligator was “much larger” than average, Morse said.

Investigators aren’t positive the captured alligator was the one that attacked Apgar, but they think it is the culprit because it is the only gator feeding in that area.

Edwards, Amy L., The Orlando Sentinel http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003456199_gator01.html

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The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

January 2007 Volume 27

Number 1

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Helpful Reference Guide #1 Clip & Save!

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The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

Shoppers hopping mad over frog dissection kit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me ... a frog dissection kit?

Shoppers at upscale U.S. menswear and accessory store Jack Spade in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo district were hopping mad to see frog dissection kits selling alongside $775 leather file cases and $145 Italian calfskin passport holders.

The $40 kit came in a cloth bag complete with a vacuumsealed formaldehyde-treated frog, scissors, magnifying glass, forceps, probing sticks, ruler, instruction booklet on how to explore the animal’s innards, and a moist towelette.

After a barrage of complaints from shoppers and animal activists, the store said on Tuesday that it had cleared its shelves of the kits and would no longer offer them.

“We’re going to issue an apology,” said company spokesman Mordechai Rubinstein.

“The intent was to celebrate science and biology, present something educational for children and adults,” he said. “Jack Spade doesn’t support the unethical treatment of animals.”

Animal campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it wrote to the company last week after receiving complaints about the product.

“We were shocked to discover that the dissection kit contains the carcass of a real frog,” said spokesman Michael McGraw.

The Jack Spade store said it only sold a handful of the kits before ditching the idea.

Reuters.uk, November 21, 2006

January 2007 Volume 27

Number 1

MHS Treasurer's Report

Prepared by Nancy Haig, Treasurer

For November 2006 Beginning Checkbook Balance: . . . . . . . . . . . 20,071.99

Income: Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00 Library Fines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Raffle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68.50 Adoption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115.00 Rodent Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507.00 Hands Ons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Renfest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105.00 Total Income: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,095.50

Expense: Newsletter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Misc. Printing and Postage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.97 Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.99 Hands-On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Rodent Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Adoption Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.97 Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Renfest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.35 Voicemail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98.91 Total Expense: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465.19

Cash Increase/(Decrease): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630.31

Ending Checkbook Balance: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,702.30 Placement of Cash Holdings

Checking Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,702.30 Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155.00

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,857.30

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnough News&storyID=2006-1121T224932Z_01_N21415063_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-LIFEDISSECTION.XML&WTmodLoc=HP-C13-Oddly-2

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