Featured image: Freshwater Crocodile (Crocodylus johnsoni), Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo, May 2013.

  1. How do you tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? Usually the answer has something to do with snouts and teeth. Add another difference: alligators and caimans have shorter foreleg (humerus) and hind leg (femur) bones than crocodiles. Crocodiles can gallop—alligators not so much. [Royal Society Open Science]
  2. Evidence of parental care in snakes does exist, but it’s rare and tantalizing. Here’s another data point. Python mothers are already known to incubate their egg clutches: while cold-blooded, they can raise the temperature of their clutch through muscle movement. A new study finds that Southern African Rock Pythons (Python natalensis) also stay with their young for the first two weeks after their eggs hatch. (Much like rattlesnakes have been observed doing.) [Journal of Zoology]
  3. Audubon magazine looks at efforts to reintroduce the Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi) into its former range, and asks a very Audubon question: what is the impact of this on songbirds? (Indigo snakes are snake predators: feeding on nest raiders like rat snakes can reduce predation on songbirds.)
  4. No surprise: “The European Union is a major destination for illegally smuggled live snakes, lizards and tortoises from southern Africa, posing a serious threat to their conservation.” From what I heard when I was more active in the trade, Europeans have a reputation for smuggling everything from everywhere: they have all the species, just don’t ask too many questions about how they got them.
  5. The Turtle Conservation Coalition has released a report highlighting the most endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles. A lot of the “25+” most endangered species are in southeast Asia, as you might expect, but not all of them are. The 68-page report, titled Turtles in Troublecan be downloaded as a PDF here.

Questions I’ve answered on Quora in the past month: