Reptiles & Amphibians
Latest Contributing Articles
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Making a Tank a Crested Gecko Home
Cresties are fun, cute, and easy to take care of. Learn what goes into putting together the best home for these little lizards and what they need to thrive and survive.
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Teaching Wildlife to Cope with Cane Toads
Australian wildlife are learning new ways to deal with venomous cane toads. Some predators are encouraged to eat them, others warned off the potentially fatal meal
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Anole Lizards
Anole lizards are common in the Americas but popular as pets. They are easy to care for and entertaining to watch. One type can even be deployed in greenhouses.
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False Tomato Frog
The False Tomato Frog, Dyscophus guineti, inhabits the Republic of Madagascar. With the ability to inflate its red body, this frog resembles a tomato.
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Frogs in Winter
The internal body temperature of a frog varies with the outside air temperature. In winter, frogs must employ remarkable strategies to avoid freezing to death.
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Venemous Cobras Found in Southern Africa
Various species of cobra are found in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically in Botswana, several deadly cobra species are found in desert, savanna and forest regions.
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How to Care for and Play With a Bearded Dragon
Bearded dragons make great pets. This article discusses how to care for this interesting lizard and what to expect as he grows from a juvenile to an adult.
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How to Feed and Water a Bearded Dragon
Bearded dragons can live for a decade when fed a simple, healthy diet. This article gives detailed feeding instructions for juvenile to adult beardies.
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How to Set Up a Bearded Dragon Aquarium Habitat
Bearded dragons are wonderful reptile pets because they are docile and easy to care for. Setting up the proper living space will keep a beardie safe and healthy.
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The Two Most Common Types of Snakes Kept as Pets
The most common snakes kept as pets fall into two families: Boidae (boids) and Colubridae (colubrids). For beginner snake owners, colubrids offer the best choices.
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Keeping Track of Your Tortoise
Tortoises have a reputation for being slow, sedentary creatures, but as many owners have discovered the creatures have a talent for escaping gardens and running away.
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Leopard Geckos as Pets
Leopard geckos are hardy, colorful, lizards that make for a pet with personality as long as their specific needs as to housing, feeding, and heating are met.
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Milk Snakes and Kingsnakes
Kingsnakes and milk snakes are fairly popular as pet snakes due to their coloring and because they are relatively easy to care for.
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Loggerhead Turtle Population Declining
It has been an unusually cold winter in South Florida and the freezing temperatures have also endangered the survival and welfare of the Loggerhead turtles.
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The Medical Importance of Reptiles
Humankind tends to fear and loathe reptiles but useful medical products that will make peoples' lives healthier and happier are being derived from these scaly creatures.
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The Ecological Importance of Reptiles
While reptiles are not as ecologically important to humankind as are fishes, birds, and mammals, they suffer at the hand of humans more than any other animal group.
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The Cultural Impact of Reptiles
Every culture since prehistoric times has worshipped and revered or loathed and feared reptiles. Few animals evoke the range of human emotions as do the scaly creatures.
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The Economic Importance of Reptiles
From the Biblical serpent in the Garden of Eden to present day rattlesnake roundups and the use of alligator hide as leather, humans have always interacted with reptiles.
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Burmese Pythons in South Florida- It's Our Fault
Floridians must take responsibility for the introduction of this dangerous and deadly species into our environment, and all of the subsequent results.
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Medical and Cultural Importance of Amphibians
Humans have interacted with amphibians since antiquity. Some of these exchanges are direct and easily understood while others are more difficult to discern.
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Before Buying That Cute Baby Python
Burmese python's can make rewarding and fascinating captives when kept properly. Be sure to look into individual state and city laws pertaining to large python ownership.
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Economic and Ecologic Importance of Amphibians
Humans have interacted with amphibians since antiquity. Some of these exchanges are direct and easily understood while other connections are more difficult to discern.
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The Ecology and Taxonomy of Reptiles
Although most abundant in the tropics and subtropics, the nearly 8,000 species of living reptiles inhabit every continent except Antarctica.
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The Ecology and Taxonomy of Amphibians
At around 5,400 species of frogs and toads, salamanders and caecillians, the extant (living) amphibians are the smallest group of tetrapod vertebrates.
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The History of Reptiles
The species of modern reptiles are but mere shadows representing the shattered remains of what was once the grandest collection of animals on the planet.
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The History of Amphibians
Both in their ontogeny (biological development of an individual) and phylogeny (evolutionary history of a group) amphibians reveal their watery origins.
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Florida Okays Python Hunt
The State of Florida, buoyed by a successful 2009 season, will let a few hunters seek boa constrictors and reticulated pythons all year long in 2010.
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Driving Away Iguanas
The iguana population in South Florida is booming and homeowners are struggling to keep them out of the yard. Here's a few tips on controlling their population.
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Giant Lizards Invade Florida!
South Florida is literally crawling with iguanas, basilisks and anoles which began showing up in the 1980s and are now propagating prolifically.
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Reptiles and Amphibians as Pets
Herpetofauna are fun and easy pets to keep, and with numbers in the wild declining ownership is now playing an integral part in the preservation of many unique species.
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An Invasive Snake in the Grass
The Florida Everglades is being invaded by Burmese Pythons at an alarming rate. The Python Patrol and politicians are on a mission to prevent the pythons from spreading.
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Tools for Adding Water to Reptile Tanks
A look at the pluses and minuses of different products that can be used to add drinking water and humidity for tropical geckos, lizards, snakes, and other reptiles.
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How to Tell If an Iguana is Sick
Iguanas make wonderful pets and are becoming more popular every day; however, they, like every other pet, may get sick.
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Does My Reptile Need a Calcium Supplement?
Reptiles often do not get the nutrients they need from the diets they are fed in captivity. Without supplementation, reptiles may succumb to Metabolic Bone Disease.
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How to Determine the Gender of Your Snake
This article is aimed to assist snake enthusiasts who are new to captive breeding snakes. The most basic step is figuring out whether your snake is male or female.
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Bearded Dragons as Pets
The hardy and docile Bearded Dragon is an ideal pet for experienced reptile enthusiasts and novices alike.
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Venomous Snakes
Only about 250 species of snakes have venom powerful enough to kill a human. Those snakes account for the deaths of an estimated 30,000-40,000 people per year worldwide.
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The Characteristics of Snakes
"Always carry a small flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
(W. C. Fields)
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Florida Alligator Attacks
Ever heard a news story about an alligator attack? Here you will find the reality of how humans can live safely around these magnificent but dangerous creatures.
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The Characteristics of Lizards
Lizards and snakes are so morphologically similar that they are classified together into the same order and suborder.
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The Characteristics of Frogs and Toads
"Theories pass. The frog remains." (Jean Rostand)
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The Characteristics of Salamanders
"Salamander - borne in the sun-kissed flame. Who was it lit your candle and branded you with your name?"
(Lyrics from the Jethro Toll song "Salamander")
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The Optimal Crested Gecko Food
There are a variety of foods for Crested Geckos. It can be hard to know what to feed them to keep them healthy and happy. This is a quick guide to a perfect diet.
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The Characteristics of Caecilians
Lurking on or in the floor of tropical forests are the most unusual of all the amphibians-the legless caecilians.
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Diet for Painted Turtle
Good health is based on good nutrition and painted turtle pets depend on their owners for both.
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Feeding, Housing, & Caring for Fire Belly Newts
Fire belly newts are some of the most common amphibians found in pet stores. Before buying one though, you should know how to take care of them properly.
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The Characteristics of Alligators and Crocodiles
Crocodilians are "living fossils" in the sense that they are the only remaining reptiles of the same lineage from which the dinosaurs and birds descended.
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The Characteristics of Turtles
Turtles, the most ancient lineage of the living reptiles, have scarcely changed over the course of their 260 million years history.
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The Characteristics of Amphibians
Amphibians are fishes out of water leading what amounts to a double existence. This duality is acknowledged even in their scientific name - Gr. amphi, dual + bios, life.
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The Characteristics of Reptiles
Through the evolution of a unique set of characteristics, reptiles were the first true terrestrial animals to appear.
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