Herper.com: Reptiles and Amphibians

Reptiles and Amphibians in the News

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Tiger Ate Snakes

A tiger in the Sunderbans, which apparently died of age-related problems, was found to have a couple of cobras in its stomach. (News source.)

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Snakebites

A teenager was bitten by a baby rattlesnakes in Palouse Falls State Park, Washington. (News source.)

A Tennessee girl was apparently bitten by a venomous snake. (News source.) Seems to be a little confusion over the account, though.

A UK man was nipped by an adder. (News source.)

A snake-catcher in India was killed by a cobra. (News source.)

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Monday, May 25, 2009

Helping Overseas

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Venom Response Team helped US Army doctors track down antivenom and treat an Iraqi officer who had been bitten by a cobra. (News source.)

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Venomous Snakes and Snakebite News

A bushmaster and other venomous snakes were allegedly dumped in the woods near Haskell Indian Nations University, and are being hunted. (News source.) [Almost sounds like an animal-rights ploy, like the "cobra sightings" in South Carolina last year, except there are apparently actual sightings, assuming the identifications are correct. I'm not sure why someone would dump a bushmaster -- they're not inexpensive, and it wouldn't be hard to find a new home for one.]

An alleged snakebite death in a US soldier at a training camp is being reevaluated. (News source.)

A young California girl was bitten by a rattlesnake. (News source.)

A Wyoming man tried to suck the venom out of a rattlesnake bite on his dog's nose and ended up sick himself. (News source.)

A Swaziland cobra bite victim is being sent to the US for skin grafts. (News source.)

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Cobra Bite

Details on an Indian man's snakebite by a cobra. (News source.)

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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Survives Cobra Bite

An Indian boy has survived being bitten by a cobra while the electricity in his home was out. (News source.)

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Cobra Spitting Explained

New research shows that spitting cobras rely on a two-part method for accuracy. (News source.)

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

35,000 Cobras

An Indian man says he has 35,000 cobras on his 3.5 acre snake farm. He collects nuisance snakes, and milks them for venom for a local college. (News source.)

Oddly, he claims to feed them prawns...

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Monday, June 9, 2008

Snake Bites

An individual staying at the Sheraton Vistana Village resort in Orlando, FL, was bitten by a rattlesnake. (News source.)

And Thai police are scratching their heads over a strange cobra bite fatality...

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Saturday, May 24, 2008

More on NC Cobra Panic

A woman claims to have seen one of the alleged roaming cobras, but a search by a reptile group comes up empty. (News source.)

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Cobras Loose in NC?

A flyer that states that two monocled cobras are loose in Onslow Co., NC, has local law enforcement on edge. There is speculation that the flyers are being posted by an animal-rights group that is trying to push a ban on exotic species in that state. (In which case, there may not be any loose cobras at all...) (News source.)

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

NC "Cobra" Sighting

A North Carolina man reported an 8-foot snake that reared up beside him while he was on an ATV in Cumberland County. A wildlife rehabber suggests it was a king cobra. Police are checking it out. Not enough of a description is given for me to determine whether or not the identification matches, but I'd say it's a bit iffy. (News source.)

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Monday, May 5, 2008

Woman Helps Cobra

A woman in India found a wounded cobra, and treated it (antiseptic creams and feeding syringes of milk) despite neighbors requesting she put it back where she found it. (News source.)

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Antivenom Rushed to Cobra Victim

More details have been published on the Bushnell, FL, case of a pet cobra bite. The victim is still unconscious, though. (News source.)

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Friday, April 25, 2008

Snake Stories

A Chinese man was bitten by his pet cobra. Antivenom had to be flown from Shanghai to Beijing. (News source.)

While trying to flush out a snake from a shed, an Australian man accidentally shot and killed the woman helping him. (News source.)

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Plastic Surgery for Cobra Victim

UK donations have paid for initial plastic surgery for a young boy who was disfigured when a cobra spat in his face. (News source.)

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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Cobra Fatality

A 70-year old woman in India died after being bitten by a cobra while sleeping in her bed. She woke, and was rushed to the hospital, but could not be revived after she slipped into a coma. (News source.)

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Venom Smuggling

Bangladesh officers arrested four traders with 12 lbs of cobra venom. It appeared to have been smuggled into the area. The traders were trying to sell it locally. (News source.)

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Snake in the Cashbox

Here is an interesting set of photos of a shop in Jeppinamogru, India, where the shopkeeper found a cobra in the cashbox. That caught the neighbors' interests...

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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Don't Try This At Home

Here's a profile on a snake enthusiast in India who apparently believes that drinking cobra venom means he's immune...

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Sunday, December 30, 2007

Malaysian Snake Charmer

Here's a brief profile on a 16-year old Malaysian snake charmer.

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Snake Charmers

In India, snake charming is illegal (apparently a conservation measure). Generations have passed along this tradition, and the current tribe members (bedias) are trying to band together and get governmental notice, as they have no other means of sustaining themselves. (News source.)

You'd think this would be good test case for commercial snake farming, venom extraction facility, etc., wonder if something along that line would be feasible.

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Friday, December 21, 2007

Murder by Cobra

A man in India was sentenced to life today for killing his 2nd wife (of whom his current 1st wife knew nothing about) with a cobra in the bed. The snake charmer who sold it to him, and suggested the plot, was also sentenced to life. (News source.)

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Sunday, December 9, 2007

British Columbia Cobra Bite

A Surrey, B.C., man was bitten by his pet cobra, and may lose a finger (or a hand). Hospital doesn't want to administer antivenom yet. (And, correctly refuses to give the home-made "antivenom" concoction a friend sent to the keeper.) (News source.)

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Friday, December 7, 2007

New Giant Spitting Cobra

A new species of "giant" spitting cobra was described from Kenya. Naja ashei reaches almost nine feet in length. The late James Ashe, founder of the Bio-Ken snake farm, first caught the snake in the 1960s, and suggested it was a new species. (News source.)

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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Doberman vs Cobra

A pet Doberman managed to kill a seven-foot cobra that wandered into a home in Tamil Nadu, India. (News source.)

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Sunday, November 18, 2007

King Cobra Breeding Center Starts Up Again

A captive breeding program for king cobras in Mangalore, India, has restarted, though apparently with some opposition. (News source.)

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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Smuggled Reptiles

6 Bangledeshi nationals were arrested for possession (on the wrong side of the India border, it looks like) of 10 endangered reptiles: king cobras and elongated tortoises. (News source.)

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Thursday, October 4, 2007

Cobra Festival

Cobras are the primary attraction at the Hindu festival of Naga Panchami in Shirala, in the state of Maharashtra, India. (News source.)

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Monday, October 1, 2007

Cobra Fatality

A Cambodian man (who had been drinking) captured a 6-foot cobra by improvising his trousers into a bag. He was bitten three times by the snake, and died. His last words: "Don't worry - it's nothing a drink can't fix." (News source.)

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

India Snake Wedding

A Hindu woman of the Vaishnav sect "married" a king cobra in a ceremony approved by local elders. The woman has left milk for the cobra on a regular basis, believing that it healed her. (News source.)

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Monday, July 30, 2007

King Cobras in India

The first record of a king cobra nest (and subsequent hatching) from the Ramsar wetland site in the Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary has been noted. (News source)

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Saturday, May 26, 2007

King Cobra Study Halted

India's Karnataka Forest Department has withdrawn permission for renowned herpetologist Romulus Whitaker to continue his study of king cobras in their natural habitat, apparently due to political maneuvering by a former employee with a grudge. No official charges have been made, but the innuendo encouraged animal rights-activist MP Maneka Gandhi to solicit an inquiry. Whitaker is well-known for having started a conservationist snake park and crocodile bank in Chennai. (News source.)

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