Last April, a male Burmese python led researchers at the Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades straight to a 17-foot female that was carrying 73 developing eggs. The…
Life in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is often defined by invisible power with little sympathy for the country’s citizens. Poor living conditions rarely change as elections are determined…
COLOMBO –From the misty Knuckles Hills that form a part of Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands, a new snake species has been added to the island’s already rich catalog of unique…
When Rohan Pandit and Wangchu Phiang accidentally stumbled upon a brown snake on a steep slope of a forest in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in India, little did…
Ritidian, a cliff-top refuge on the island of Guam, is one of the last places in the Pacific where you can find the mossy pillars and plunging crevices of a…
Remember that 3-meter (17-foot) pregnant Burmese python recently captured by wildlife authorities in southern Florida? These snakes, invasive to North America and destructive to native wildlife, are cryptic in both…
When many people think of snakes, they conjure up a vision of venomous serpents with huge fangs, large diamond-shaped heads, and cat-like eyes. The vision actually comes from the true-to-life…
All the amphibian and reptile species that have ever been recorded in Angola have now been included in a comprehensive atlas. Covering published records from 1840 to 2017, the atlas…
More young birds survived near a road through a Thai forest than those living deeper in the forest where more predators lurked, researchers found during a recent study. The disruptive…
Once again this year, researchers described several new species of animals and plants after months, or even several years, of trials and tribulations. Some were tiny, like the Japan pig,…
A king penguin standing out starkly from the crowd took the top prize in the British Ecological Society’s “Capturing Ecology” photo competition this year. Chris Oosthuizen of South Africa’s University…
The highly toxic brown tree snake, which has killed off most of the native birds on the Pacific island of Guam, was once thought to have its own distinctive venom.…
The highly venomous forest cobra, the largest of Africa’s true cobras, is not one, but five separate species, according to a new study. At first glance, forest cobras, which can…
A team of biologists researching sea snakes in the mining town of Weipa in Australia’s remote Cape York Peninsula have accidentally discovered a venomous snake that’s new to science. The black-and-white…
Able to retreat into their hard shells, snails seem to have a pretty good defense against would-be predators. But there’s a type of snake that has evolved unique adaptations and…
What do the world’s tiniest chameleon, a color-changing snake, and a turtle that breathes through its genitals have in common? Each of these reptiles sits perched on its own unique…
The fury of rodent mothers may have given rise to the toughest of all snakes. The skin of the Calabar burrowing python (Calabaria reinhardtii), a one-meter-long snake native to equatorial…
Across the swath of vertebrate lifeforms that inhabit Earth, scientists have a pretty good idea about where most of the known land mammals, birds and amphibians live. That makes identifying…
BOGOR, Indonesia — Scientists have discovered two new reptiles in the jungles of Sumatra island — home to the nation’s highest deforestation rate. Lycodon sidiki has become the seventh species…
Early this year Kenyan authorities tightened restrictions on the trade and export of several snake species, including two of the world's deadliest vipers. The decision follows a resolution to list…
On the streets of Morocco, several species of lizards, tortoise and snakes are being sold openly for use in traditional medicine, a new study has found. Many of these species are…
It was a sunny afternoon in North Sumatra when Muhamad Syahrial, a worker on a rubber estate in the Indonesian province, spotted a slithering snake among the children at play in…
Scientists have described a strikingly colored new species of snake from the mountains of east-central Mexico. This snake, with a vivid orange and black banding pattern on its body, belongs…
There are now 12 known species of West Indian boas. A team from Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology discovered the silver boa (Chilabothrus argentum) in a remote corner of the…
There is a longstanding disagreement amongst conservationists about whether or not it makes sense to focus efforts on protecting species that are popular with us Homo sapiens. Many argue that…
While driving through Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains National Park in 2013, graduate student Evan Buechley of the University of Utah, and his colleagues, spotted a black-colored snake with pale-yellowish markings. The…
A new snake belonging to the Colubridae family has been found in Gujarat, India and researchers say it not only represents a new species but also a new genus. The…
Hollywood and Youtube have shown us plenty of images of constrictor snakes killing their prey. But until now, it was widely believed that what we were watching was the snake…
Scientists say they’ve discovered a new species of horned pitviper in the critically endangered cloud forests of the Sierra Madre Oriental in Veracruz, Mexico, and determined that another pitviper is…
A new study uncovers surprising behavior in an already-surprising snake species.