Vol. 30 (2010), No. 11

the newsletter of the

M INNESOTA H ERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY

NOVEMBER MEETING : Two Speakers with Ecological Updates: Chris Smith and Carol Hall plus ELECTIONS! November 2010

Volume 30

Number 11

BELL MUSEUM

B OARD

OF

OF

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

D IRECTORS

THE MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY

President Jennifer Hensley Vice President Sonja Koolmo Recording Secretary Ellen Heck Membership Secretary Heather Clayton

New Voice Mail: 612.326.6516 • MHS W EBPAGE : http://www.mnherpsoc.org

MHS G ROUP E MAIL : http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/mnherpsoc

November 2010

Volume 30

Number 11

Treasurer Missy Hicks

THE PURPOSE OF THE MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY IS TO:

Newsletter Editor Sally Brewer

• Further the education of the membership and the general public in care and captive propagation of 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.

Members at Large Jeff LeClere Chris Smith Matt Carter Kathy Claugherty

Committees Adoption Sarah Richard Education Jan Larson

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 Library Nancy Haig Webmaster Anke Reinders

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

-or-

Sally Brewer mn.mhseditor@gmail.com

Hennepin Regional Poison Center 800-222-1222 Cover Photo: Eastern Red-Backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) by Jim Gerholdt

© Copyright 2010, Minnesota Herpetological Society. Except where noted, contents may be reproduced for non-profit, non-commercial use only. All material must be reproduced without change. Proper credit will be given including the author/photographer and the Minnesota Herpetological Society Newsletter citing: volume, number and date.

The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

November 2010

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Number 11

November Meeting – Friday, November 5, 7 P.M. Two Speakers PLUS Elections FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER, WE WILL HAVE TWO SPEAKERS.

Chris Smith: Impacts of Woody Biomass Harvest on Amphibian Diversity and Abundance in an Aspen Dominated Ecosystem, A Progress Report and Carol Hall (Minnesota County Biological Survey): MCBS Herp Surveys: past, present, and future FIRST, Christopher Smith, one of our fellow society members and a Master's student in the lab of Ken Kozak in the University of Minnesota's Dept. of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, will give a presentation. He will provide us with a brief glimpse of his Master's research project, which focused on the impacts of woody biomass harvest on amphibian diversity and abundance in an aspen dominated ecosystem.

SECOND, we will get some insight into the past, present, and future of the MCBS Surveys from Carol Hall. Carol has worked with the Minnesota DNR for over 20 years; most of which time has been with the Minnesota County Biological Survey (MCBS) where she coordinates, supervises and conducts inventories of amphibians and reptiles throughout Minnesota.

2011 Preview MHS Meetings DECEMBER Friday, December 3, 2010 – Jessi Krebs, Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. 2011 PREVIEW January 2011 - Bruce Delles February 2011 - Garrick DeMeyer of crestedgecko.com March 2011 - Blake Bauer June 2011 - Jeff Lemm San Diego Zoo all photos by Jim Gerholdt

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The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

November 2010

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N EWS , N OTES , & A NNOUNCEMENTS Up Coming Hands-On Events Join Us! Get to Know Other MHS Members!

THE REQUIREMENTS ARE EASY. You bring your own herp(s) to show and talk about to the people who stop by the table. You don’t make speeches to large audiences, you talk one-on-one to people who ask you questions about your animal.

Children are invited to participate if they have an adult or older sibling with them.

March 12-13, 2011 Pet Expo MPLS Convention Center.

Thursday, May 12, 2011 5:30–8 PM Environmental Fair Zachary Lane Elementary School 4350 Zachary Lane N Plymouth, MN

For more information about participating in Hands-On, please contact: Jan Larson 507-263-4391 jan.skunkhollow@juno.com

ADOPTION REPORT

Minnesota Herpetological Society Board Minutes and Treasurer’s Report for September 11, 2010 The Board was unable to meet in October. There are no approved minutes for the September Board meeting and no Treasurer Report.

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20 animals were collected and all found homes. Some will probably be back next month (as they went out as fosters) but hopefully not too many. Please do remember to let me know the day before the meeting if you are bringing something back.

Sarah Richard, Adoption Chair Minnesota Herpetological Society www.RealSarah@aol.com 612-781-9544

October 2010 Alligator Corn Snake Ball Python (4) Spotted Python Reticulated Python Sulcatta (2) Painted Turtle (2) Bearded Dragon (4) Spiny Tailed Iguana Iguana Schneider's Skink Water Dragon

The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

November 2010

Volume 30

Number 11

MHS Elections Coming Up in November NOTICE OF ELECTION

Date: November 5, 2010

The membership of the Minnesota Herpetological Society is hereby notified that the Annual Meeting, including elections for the 2011 Board of Directors, will take place November 5, 2010 at the Geneneral Membership Meeting.

Time: 7:00 p.m.

As of October 12 when this newsletter went to the printer, here was the list of candidates running for positions on the MHS board. As you can see we have several vacant positions.

If you would like to run or would like to nominate someone, PLEASE contact our Recording Secretary: Ellen Heck Lnheck@msn.com For further updates please check the MHS listserve.

Where: Room 335 Borlaug Hall U of MN St. Paul campus Who: All current MHS members in good standing POSITIONS:

CANDIDATES:

President: Vice President: Treasurer: Recording Secretary: Newsletter Editor: Membership Secretary: 4 Members at Large:

Jenn Hensley Sonja Koolmo -----------Ellen Heck -----------Heather Clayton Jeff LeClere Chris Smith Matt Carter ------------

2010 Midwest Herpetological Symposium Cancelled he following statement was was posted on the St. Louis Herp Society website: Everyone, It is with sincere regrets that we are cancelling this year’s Midwest Herpetological Symposium in St. Louis. There was a severe lack in registrations that brought our board to this decision . . . . We would like to thank the SLHS board for their assistance in preparing for this event, and the speakers for volunteering their time. Hopefully

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the series will successfully resume next year. We apologize for any inconvienience.

MHS WILL BE HOSTING THE 2011 MIDWEST HERPETOLOGICAL SYMPOSIUM. We are working to avoid just such an unfortunate situation. The speakers and hotel are booked and we have began our advertising - more detailed information will be posted online in the upcoming months. We encourage ALL our members to consider attending and/or volunteering to help out.

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The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

November 2010

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Number 11

OCTOBER MEETING REVIEW: Jeff Ronne–Boas, What Else?

by Ellen Heck photos courtesy of Jeff Ronne

he October speaker was Jeff Ronne of the Boaphile. He has been working with and breeding boas for 25 years. He caught his first reptile when he was 8 years old and has been involved with them ever since. He got his first pair of boas Jeff Ronne while living in West Virginia in the mid-80’s. He at one point also had pythons, but after having a large burmese mistake him for a rabbit and chase him around the basement, he got rid of them and focused on boas.

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He does have a star tortoise and a redfoot, as well as a cat named Gracie.

Jeff also breeds rats and has for the last 10 years produced some rather unusual red-haired rats. He did show a picture of a ball python, but wouldn’t talk about it.

Jeff is very active with US Ark. This came up at more than one point during his talk. He warns that although it is just the large snakes now, it is not likely to stop there. He feels that there is legislation being produced by people who are ideologically driven to take away pets and are using pseudo-science to do it. For more information, see the US Ark website at www.usark.org.

The tools he uses are pretty basic.

A snake hook, which he uses to pull open drawers or touch the nose of a snake to indicate feeding is not on the agenda. He recommended that people

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never pick up a boa with a snake hook, as it can break the ribs on a larger snake as the animal is pressed into the curved hook. He also uses a long piece of styrofoam to tap snakes on the nose before picking them up or changing their water. Again, this lets the snake know it isn’t feeding time and has the added advantage of not injuring the snake if the animal bites it. He also will use a glove if the animal is particularly vicious.

For a long time, boas were considered impossible to breed in captivity.

Their courtship behavior was unknown and mysterious. Ironically, the secret to breeding them was for the most part discovered by breeders in the nontropical states of Minnesota and Iowa; Jeff, Rob Tudehope and Karl Hermann. As it turns out, the problem is that their courtship does not follow the standard pattern used by most reptiles. Generally, the female is “cycled”, then the male introduced at the right moment and not for any great length of time. With boas, the courtship takes at least a week and as

long as 6 months, although Jeff has found that the average time is about 2 months.

He discovered this because he didn’t know the “proper” way to breed snakes and simply put the male in with the female until it looked like breeding had occurred. Apparently the female requires the stimulation of the male to develop the egg follicles. Some boa species are easier to breed than others.

According to Jeff, Hog Island boas are very easy to breed; “you can just show the male to the female and she is gravid.”

Jeff ’s housing setup for male boas (in racks at bottom) and female boas (in cages above the racks).

Courtship behavior can go on as long as six months.

The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

Jeff keeps his females in 4’x2.5’ enclosures with a shelf. They are stacked 3 high in rows with the males in drawers underneath. This keeps them in close proximity when they are breeding and makes it easier to move them around when feeding, rather than keeping them in their own room.

There is a great disparity in size, and sometimes age, between male and female boas being bred. In one extreme example, a 20 year old female was bred to a 4 year old male, despite being approximately 20 times his weight. Males can be bred as young as 16-18 months if they are big enough, but Jeff has found that, at that age, only about 25% are willing. They tend to be more willing as they get older and will usually breed consistently at 3 years old. Females should be at least 3 years, with 4-6 years working better. It is more of an age thing than a size thing – they need to be mature, not just big, to breed successfully.

Babies can be premature if the female is kept too cool, or be born “full of yolk”, so the female should be kept warmer than usual, about 88-89° F. The use of a temperature gun is highly recommended to give accurate readings; in fact Jeff said that it is required to successfully breed boas.

He also keeps the room at 77° F so that the female can move in and out of the hot spot to thermo-regulate.

The hot spot should be large enough to accommodate the entire snake and should be 91-92° F. It should also be an actual spot, not a strip of warmth.

It should not be too hot, as this will cause the female to move off of it and possibly get too cold, especially if the overall room temperature is lower than 77° F.

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Before giving birth, the female will have what Jeff refers to as the prebirth waxy “poo”, although this is misleading; it is not a regular stool. It will occur 2 days to 1 week before birth. There is some speculation as to its purpose; it may be a semen plug that seals the backend of the ova duct.

The size of the ovulation can indicate the size of the clutch, depending on the size of the babies. The female will show a lot of scale separation to the point where the skin can be seen between the scales.

A close-up showing considerable scale separation of a female boa during ovulation.

After courtship, ovulation occurs.

This is not a moment in time but an hours- or days-long process. The female pushes the ova into the ova ducts to be fertilized. While they are doing this, they are oblivious to their surroundings. Sperm retention from a previous breeding can occur but is unusual. Parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction, can also occur, although all the babies will be females.

About 16-20 days after ovulation, the female will go into a shed. It is possible to project a birth date from this, as it is easy to miss the far more subtle process of ovulation, but since the shed is variable, occurring as much as 40 days later, it is not as accurate.

The snake may also have an intermediate shed if kept cooler.

November 2010

Female giving birth to a healthy clutch.

continued on page 8 7

The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

Jeff Ronne, continued

Some slugs(unfertilized ova) are simply a part of breeding boas.

It is possible that one or more babies will be expelled along with it. This isn’t common, although the babies born this way may be perfectly normal.

About 105-110 days after the postovulation shed (if it is on time) or 124 days after ovulation, the birth occurs.

Boas generally give birth on a rainy (or snowy) day when the barometric pressure drops. This was first noted

by Karl Hermann. These dates are for the common boa, although most boa species have a similar timeline, give or take 5 days.

A typical boa birth will be messy: membraneenclosed babies, slugs, and “lots of goo”.

Momma boa and her large clutch of healthy babies.

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The birth of boas tends to be a bit messy. There is a large mass of membrane-encased babies, slugs and “lots of goo”. Slugs are unfertilized ova and are simply part of breeding boas.

So are premature births. It used to be that all premature babies died. Jeff suggests keeping premature babies in a rack at 90-92° F to give them time to absorb the egg sac and the yolk in their belly. The problem is that the yolk will solidify if the snake is kept too cool, resulting in death.

In one unusual case, Jeff had a premature baby born with a full term clutch. The coloring on the premature baby is much paler than that of her clutch mates and Jeff believes her ovum was fertilized several weeks after the others. She is perfectly healthy and full-sized now, just with an unusually pale pattern.

Re-absorption of a clutch can also occur; Jeff has had snakes show definite ovulation but which never produced any babies. The largest clutch he has had was 64 babies from a snake named Sarah.

The Newsletter of the Minnesota Herpetological Society

November 2010

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Our Herps,Ourselves–Lizards Have Family Values

By Larry O'Hanlon, news.discovery.com Oct 8, 2010

L

izards get a bad rap when it comes to their families: They lay their eggs and never look back.

But that's not the case for desert night lizards, which have been found investing time and energy in their young and forming families -- a strategy that was thought exclusive to mammals and birds.

"Birds, mammals and reptiles are so different in so many ways," said Alison Davis, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley.

Reptiles aren't even warm-blooded, she notes, yet here they are forming families just like their warmer cousins.

It's a seismic shift for the way we think of reptiles, and evidence of how a survival strategy -- like parental care and social groups -- evolves over and over, in very divergent groups. "It's basically the same rules of the game," Davis said.

The discovery of the desert night lizard family groups comes as a result of a five-year genetic study of more than 2,100 adults and juvenile lizards from the Mojave Desert of California. Davis, who conducted the research as a graduate student at the University of California at Santa Cruz, is the lead author of a paper describing the desert night lizard discovery in the latest issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Davis started the work on the desert night lizards after reading a decades-old scientific paper which, in passing, mentioned that these lizards collected in groups.

"So we went out and looked for these fabled groups," she said. And she found them under the spiny trunks of fallen Joshua trees. By carefully tracking the

An adult female desert night lizard with her 3-day-old offspring. photo by Mitch Mulks

individuals for five years and checking how groups that huddle under logs in the winter were genetically related, she discovered the family structures.

"One of the coolest parts was doing the DNA analysis," said Davis. "It's like you are revealing the secret lives of lizards."

The existence of family groups in lizards seems to coincide with species of lizards that give birth to their offspring (called viviparity), as do the desert night lizards, rather than lay eggs, as do about 85 percent of lizards, Davis said.

Viviparity typically means fewer offspring and longer-lived individuals. And since she estimates some of the desert night lizards she has studied are up to 20 years old, this matches the pattern and contrasts with some egg-laying lizards that live just one year, she said.

tion of social groups, like those found by Davis, he said.

For example, said Shine, in Australia there are reptiles that find and mate with the same individual monogamously for 20 years. And there are siblings that seem to recognize each other as such, he said.

"We have this very simplistic view of reptiles," said Shine.

And it is very often wrong. The ongoing discoveries of social structures among reptiles, such as the desert night lizards, is such a major theoretical shift for herpetologists that it has caused Shine to stop collecting lizards.

"If you go and pick up a lizard from the field you could be disrupting a sophisticated social order," Shine told Discovery News. "There may be somebody at home waiting for that individual."

"Viviparity has evolved about a hundred times in reptiles," said herpetologist Rick Shine of the University of Sydney in Australia. And it's not surprising that this less prolific, more troublesome way of reproducing usually results in reptiles that show more parental care and the evolu-

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Minnesota Herpetological Society Membership Application New

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Please enclose the proper payment with your application. MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Membership is for 12 months from the date of approval, a receipt will be sent only upon request.

MAIL TO: Minnesota Herpetological Society, Bell Museum of Natural History, 10 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

Please allow 6-8 weeks for processing.

Rodents! New sizes!

Order your MHS Rodents today! Ordering by phone?

See new phone# below.

MICE

WEIG HT(grams)

PRICE

Pinkies Fuzzies Hoppers Weanlings* Adult Jumbo Adult

2-3 grams 5-7 grams 8-11 grams 12-15 grams 25-30 grams 45+ grams

$7 / dz $7 / dz $8 / dz $9 / dz $10 / dz $14 / dz

RATS Weanlings Small Adult Med. Adults Large Adult Jumbo

WEIG HT(grams)

PRICE

40-45 grams 50-60 grams 125-150 grams 200-240 grams 250-350 grams

$17 $18 $24 $30 $36

/ / / / /

dz dz dz dz dz

*Weanlings(Small mice)only while supplies last* For pick-up at monthly meetings only. Orders may be placed the following ways: 1. at the meeting for the following month 2. emailing your request to: rodentorders@yahoo.com 3. calling the MHS voicemail: 612.326.6516 Orders MUST be placed 10 DAYS IN ADVANCE of the date of meeting in order to guarantee availability.

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Advertising Policies MHS Ad Policy: The MHS assumes NO RESPONSIBILITY regarding the health or legality of any animal, or the quality or legality of any product or service advertised in the MHS Newsletter. Any ad may be rejected at the discretion of the Newsletter Editor. Due to space limitations, unpaid and complimentary advertisements are subject to occasional omission.

Classified Ads: All active members are allowed a classified ad, run free of charge as space permits.

Ads may be run (3) consecutive months, after which time they may be resubmitted.

Submissions : All adver tisements should be submitted to the MHS Editor, Bell Museum of Natural History, 10 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Deadline is the night of the General Meeting for inclusion in the next newsletter. Make checks payable to: Minnesota Herpetological Society.

MINNESOTA HERPETOLOGICAL SOCIETY BELL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 10 CHURCH STREET SE MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55455-0104

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ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Next Meeting: Friday–November 5, 2010–7:00 pm Room 335 Borlaug Hall, U of M St. Paul Campus Parking generally available after 6 p.m.

Please park in the pay parking lot.

Parking in outside ring is by contract only.

MHS Voice Mail: 612.326.6516

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This newsletter is printed on recycled paper.

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