There is currently a large push by various government officials and animal rights groups to try and ban many species of reptiles from being kept and traded in the United States. Please do your part to get educated and to defend your rights from these malicious individuals and organizations. Recently, an organization called USARK (The United Association of Reptile Keepers) has been very effective in stopping much of this dangerous legislation that is being pushed by animal rights activists. Please join now to stay informed and please donate the needed funds quickly! The issue is being decided on in the next several days. Please donate your support!
Category Archives: Animal
Central Arizona Herping Trip from August 2009
We got a chance to head out for one night in August searching for reptiles. We headed into the deserts to the North and East of Phoenix and had some decent luck. It was a great outing! We tried some of the prickly pear that was ripe on all of the cactus in the area as well. I can’t wait to do it again next year!
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The first snake of the night was was this pretty little California Kingsnake:
As we climbed slightly in elevation, it began to get a little cooler and we then found this very cooperative Blacktailed Rattlesnake:
Here is a closer shot of this photogenic animal:
Shortly after finding the Blacktailed Rattlesnake, we started heading for lower ground where it was a bit warmer again and then we found this young Longnose Snake. When Longnose snakes are juveniles, they do not yet have any of their orange or red coloration. This is developed later in life. They look very similar to California Kingsnakes. Here is the one that we found. If you look very carefully, you can see the red beginning to creep in at the edge of some of the scales:
We eventually decided to take a side road that turned out to be a very long dirt road. We drove for many miles, not seeing any further animal life. After what seemed like an hour, we finally saw this large Gila monster waddling across the dirt road. Here is a picture of the beast:
Trip to White Mountains, Arizona
It was a slow year for me for herping this past season. I didn’t get a chance to get out much. I did make a few trips to the White Mountains and here are a couple of photos. Not much but gartersnakes, although it was not really a herping trip, but a family fishing trip. Here are a few photos:
Road herping banned in Texas
Yes….. if you can believe it, hunting for reptiles along public roadways has been outlawed. The way that it became outlawed was very underhanded and dishonest. There is a large effort underway to correct this ridiculous law. Please see this article about this issue and see what you can do to help fix this problem:
http://www.kingsnake.com/alterna/sos.html
Herping Banned in Texas?
There has been some severe abuses of power by some in Texas recently and there has been some behind the scenes trickery that has resulted in the passing of a bill that effectively bans the observation and collection of reptiles from public roadways. Since public roadways are the only way for someone to view or collect reptiles and amphibians in the state of Texas (since the remaining land in Texas is all privately owned) this effectively has banned reptile hunting in Texas. I can’t believe that this nonsense has happened. There are now efforts underway to encourage the Governor of Texas to veto this bill and or to pass legislation during future sessions to make it legal again. Please visit this link in order to participate in stopping this bill from becoming effective! Every voice counts, you do NOT need to be a resident of Texas to voice your opinion. Please click the link below:
Here is another photo from our outing last week
I have several pictures to post on the blog. I have had the chance to see several Chuckwallas up at South Mountain Park in the past few weeks. I found a patch nose snake yesterday morning, but it escaped before I could photograph it. Here is a photo of one of the Mohave Rattlesnakes that we found last Saturday.
Ground Snake from Western Arizona
The season is well on its way. We had a nice dust storm with some light sprinkles this past weekend and decided to see what would turn up out in the desert. Headed out west of Phoenix and found several critters including Mojave Rattlesnakes, Sidewinders, a Gopher Snake, and this pretty little Ground Snake:
Sun Valley Parkway…. The passing of an era.
I just received word that the land along Sun Valley Parkway, west of the White Tank Mountains in central Arizona is now scheduled for development. The area is a vast expanse of open desert land in central Arizona west of Phoenix. The road, Sun Valley Parkway was a favorite local herping spot for Phoenix residents for years. It is now being developed with new subdivisions and thousands of new homes.
I personally have always avoided the area since I knew that this would inevitably happen. The White Tank Mountains will now be completely surrounded by development and the habitat will be lost.
The area was home to many desert reptiles including Gila Monsters, Desert Tortoises, California Kingsnakes, and many others. All of these reptiles and other plants and wildlife will be gone.
This reminds me of another issue. Why doesn’t the Arizona Game and Fish Department do something about this? While they cannot do anything to stop the developement, they could at least make some use of this situation. Gila Monsters and Desert Tortoises are both protected in the state of Arizona. You cannot legally collect these animals from the wild. They are thought by some to be in danger of over collection and have been protected from take by the Arizona Game and Fish for quite some time. Why can’t these animals that are certainly facing extermination be collected by Arizona residents? Why is there no special procedure or permit to allow for this? If these animals are so endangered, why not allow animals from this population whose days are numbered to be legally collected by those who care about these animals and would like to be able to legally possess them?
Hopefully wildlife laws will someday make sense and actually serve both humans and wildlife both. I wish there were something that could be done. I apologize in advance for such a sad post to this blog.