10 Most Beautiful Snakes on Earth

Written by Michele Collet

From: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com

Photo: nasmac

Snakes. The word makes some shudder and others cringe while yet others think in wonder of the huge world of reptiles and their marvels. Whether you hate them or love them, one thing cannot be denied, which is their beauty. Count the top 10 down with me!

10. Honduran Milk Snake

Photo: Doug Mong

Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis, is found in Honduras and Nicaragua. While at first glance not one of the most beautiful snakes, take a look at its scales above - they are bright (which is what the 'lampro' in the binomial name stands for) and a brilliant red and black. They are constrictors, but look a lot like coral snakes which herpetologists believe is an example of Batesian Mimicry - when a harmless animal takes on the appearance of a venomous one to protect themselves.

Photo: Doug Mong

9. Leucistic Texas Rat Snake

Photo: Doug Mong

This Leucistic Texas Rat Snake is a lovely lady in white. She gets her coloring and the "leucistic" element of her name from a condition that results in a lack of all pigmentation, rather than just melanin which appears in albinism. This is why her eyes are of normal color. Texas Rat Snakes are (obviously) found in Texas as well as in Arizona and Louisiana. They are non venomous so a bite will give you little more than a sore leg.

8. Indigo Eastern Rat Snake

Photo: Ameng Wu

The Eastern Indigo snake is unofficially the longest in America, reaching lengths of 9.2ft. Carnivorous in habits, he has been known to beat his prey against other objects in a frenzied fashion to kill it. He will even eat other snakes such as the Texas Rattlesnake, and is immune to its venom. That aside, he deserves number 8 in our countdown for his brilliant black beauty that can look almost blue in the light.

7. The Emerald Tree Boa

Photo: Derek Ramsey

One of the most vivid and unforgettable snakes is the Emerald Tree Boa, Corallus Caninus. These are found in South America and the Amazon. Even though it looks like it is closely related to the Green Tree Python and sleeps the same way, they are only distant relatives. One thing that the Emerald has, is very large front teeth. They way she catche her prey is to stay coiled on the branch, head down, ready to strike. She then catches small
mammals with her front teeth and pulls them in to their doom.

6. The Iridescent Shieldtail

Photo: Sandilya Theuerkauf

The only reason this lovely is not in the top 3 is that it is hard to see exactly how beautiful she is from this photograph, but she is actually even more gorgeous than she appears here. She has to be one of the most beautiful snakes in the world. The Iridescent Shieldtail, Melanophidium bilineatum , is not well known. Only three specimens are thought to have ever been caught and little is known of how it behaves in the wild. Recently some more have been seen but all that can be said for certain is that it's beautiful and rare.

5. Amelanistic Burmese Python

Photo: Danleo

This head turner is an Amelanistic Burmese python - a species which retains their yellow, carotenoid-derived pigments. Mammals only produce pigments with melanins while birds and reptiles can also produce them by other means including carotenoids as we see here. Effectively though, she can be considered an albino snake in that amelanistic is classified under albinism

4. Brazilian Rainbow Boa

Photo: Doug Mong

This beauty is the Brazilian Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria
named for the iridescent color of its scales. The underlying color is either brown, orange as we see here or a mix of the two. It is found in Central and South America and all the way through the Amazon basin. It is medium sized compared to other snakes and it likes the rivers and drainage areas, living for up to 20 years.

3. Eastern Coral Snake

Photo: Norman Benton

Micrurus fulvius is one of the most beautiful of all snakes. Unfortunately it is also very venomous, as are all coral snakes. On the good side, there are only about 15 to 20 recorded bites a year but on the bad side they are deadly and soon there will be no more antivenin for it. Pfizer, has said that with such low demand, it is not worth the cost and research spent on it, and current stock is due to expire at the end of this year. The snakes are forest animals, living in leaf litter and brush. They flee before biting, but if you do get bitten it is imperative you go to a doctor. Respiratory failure occurs within hours.

2. Blue Racer Snake

Photo: Jon Fife

This beauty is a pretty rare photograph of a Blue Racer snake. I say rare because its not often you get such a brilliant blue reflecting from the scales, as often they seem more gray in color. Its formal name is Coluber constrictor but despite this, they normally simply pin their prey to the ground and swallow them alive. They are known mostly east of the Rockies but have been seen as far south as Mexico.

Photo: Jon Fife

1. Green Tree Python

Photo: Micha L. Rieser

Morelia viridis, the Green Tree Python is a stunner that is found in New Guinea, Indonesia and parts of Australia. It, along with the Emerald Tree Boa, have a unique way of sleeping. They loop one or two coils along a branch, saddle style and place their head in the middle. Remember if it is in Indonesia, it is a python, if it is in South America, a boa. They are often mixed up because they are the only two that sleep this way.

Photo: Silvain de Munck

Sadly it is threatened due to the destruction of its habitat by logging, as well as by the pet trade. For her grace, her beauty and her threatened status, she easily deserves the number one spot in our countdown.

As I said earlier, whether you shudder at snakes or you like them, their beauty cannot be denied. There are others some feel more beautiful but I think this gives a good cross section of their amazing diversity in appearance. Several are threatened by loss of habitat, thereby threatening other species. However, hopefully we can remember that they are needed in this world to keep the food chain balanced. If for no reason but their beauty I hope you will think twice when you hear of new logging in the Amazon or other areas.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4. 5 , 6

Baby Red Panda Born at National Zoo

• By Lisa Grossman

• From: http://www.wired.com/

A baby red panda was born at the National Zoo in Washington, DC on June 16. The newborn is the first red panda to be born at the zoo in 15 years.

The proud parents, two-year-old Shama and three-year-old Tate, first met in February 2009, and got busy immediately. But because red pandas mate only once a year, and “because the two were inexperienced,” it took them a few tries to get Shama pregnant, the National Zoo said in a press release.

“This birth indicates that the animals are comfortable and well adjusted in their home here,” said Tony Barthel, curator of the Zoo’s Asia Trail. “We are excited about the opportunity we’ll have to watch and learn from the interactions between the red pandas as Shama raises the cub.”

Despite their name, red pandas (Ailurus fulgens, also called “lesser panda,” “bear cat” and “firefox”) are more closely related to raccoons than to giant pandas. They live in cool bamboo forests in the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in China, in the Himalayas and in Burma. Fewer than 2,500 red pandas remain in the wild, making this birth a victory for conservationists worldwide as well as for its first-timer parents.

The red pandas’ enclosure at the zoo is closed to the public to let Shama and her baby bond, but these early pictures are high-pitched-squeal-inducingly cute.

Images: Smithsonian

Photos of the Very Rare Pink Katydid

by Jerry James Stone, San Francisco, CA

from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Photo via Flickr

What you are looking at is the very rare and very pink katydid. First discovered back in 1887, the pink katydid is so rare that they occur once out of every 500 individuals. You have a better chance of spotting a unicorn in the wild.

Of course, the color pink alone isn't very common to the animal kingdom, flamingos aside. It's the result of a condition called erythrism, similar to the recessive gene that afflicts albino animals.

Katydids are large, leaf-shaped and usually green. They are named after a song they sing: katy did katy did katy did. Their green skin makes them somewhat hard to find for insect-chowing predators. But the pink ones are not afforded the same luxury.

While people have tried to produce pink katydids in captivity, there had been little success until last year. The New Orleans Audubon Insectarium had acquired both a pink male and a pink female katydid which resulted in a litter of new pink babies.

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Photo via Photobucket

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Rare yellow lobster in Cape Cod tank

EASTHAM, Mass. -- This lobster will catch your eye, but not because you're imagining its tail dipped in butter. "Fiona" the lobster is bright orange and yellow, even though she's never been near a boiling pot.

Specialists tell The Boston Globe this "yellow lobster" is one in 30 million.

Fiona was recently caught off Canada and given by a friend to Nathan Nickerson, the owner of Arnold's Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, on Cape Cod.

New England Aquarium director of research Michael Tlusty said a rare genetic mutation produces yellow lobsters. Life isn't easy for such animals -- their bright colors make it easy for predators to spot them.

Nickerson said the predators at his restaurant will never get a hold of Fiona. He said it would be like steaming a Rembrandt.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

RARE ANIMAL PHOTOS: Giant Armadillo, Bush Dog, More

June 8, 2009--A male jaguar focuses on a camera trap as the device snaps his photo on April 27, 2008, in Peru's Amazon rain forest. The camera was one of 23 set up over 8.5 square miles (22 square kilometers) in a remote and unstudied region of the country's northeast as part of the Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project, run by the National Zoo's Center for Conservation Education and Sustainability in Washington, D.C. The project is investigating how wildlife--particularly a small feline called an ocelot--is being impacted by oil exploration by the Madrid-based petroleum company Repsol Exploracisn Peru. (See a map of the region.) So far, preliminary results suggest that ocelots and other big cats, including jaguars, have not been disrupted by exploration operations, said National Zoo research scientist Joe Kolowski. The project, which is funded by the oil company, is also recording the area's rare and elusive forest creatures. Between April and September 2008, Kolowski and colleagues captured at least 28 different species of mammals and 18 species of birds on film. (See more camera-trap photos taken recently in Ecuador.) Checking the camera every ten days was like "Christmas morning," Kolowski said. "There was a lot of anticipation and anxiety about what we would find  ." This particular jaguar--identifiable by his spot pattern--was photographed nine times at four separate camera stations, a pattern of movement that is not unusual for the wide-ranging predators, he said. --Christine Dell'Amore —Photograph courtesy Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project

A curious ocelot trails a nine-banded armadillo in an April 29, 2008, image captured by a camera trap in the remote reaches of northeastern Peru's Amazon rain forest. The armadillo likely wasn't on the menu: Ocelots usually go after small rodents, birds, and reptiles--and the cat would probably have had a hard time getting through the armadillo's tough armor. Camera-trap photographs of two animals interacting are rare, Kolowski said, "and give you some idea of what the animals are doing in the forest, which is always interesting." —Photograph courtesy Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project

A prized game bird, the Salvin's curassow (pictured above in an April 2008 camera-trap photo in northeastern Peru) is declining throughout the human-inhabited areas of its range, which also includes Colombia and eastern Ecuador. But the turkey-size bird seems to be doing well in areas without hunting pressures, such as in the secluded region of the Amazon where this photograph was taken. For the Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project, National Zoo researchers are using a new type of digital "trail" camera with sensors that register an animal's body heat and movement. The new digital cameras also store thousands of photos, so the scientists don't need to trek off-site to develop film. —Photograph courtesy Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project

The giant armadillo--snapped by a camera trap in northeastern Peru on June 8, 2008--can weigh up to 71 pounds (32 kilograms). The beasts use their enormous front claws to dig into termite and ant colonies. Easily hunted for their meat, the gentle giants are now scarcely seen throughout most of South America. Seeing photographs of such rain forest animals is important, because the images can help "people to realize what's out there in a place where they'll likely never be able to go and see for themselves," the National Zoo's Kolowski said. —Photograph courtesy Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project

The few studies done on the short-eared dog (photographed by a camera trap on May 4, 2008) have centered on its diet, which mostly consists of rodents and fruit. Many people don't realize two species of wild dog roam the Amazon rain forest, the National Zoo's Kolowski said, so these photos show people "animals that they know nothing about and may not [have] even thought existed." —Photograph courtesy Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project

An image of two rarely seen bush dogs taken on April 14, 2008 is perhaps the "most exciting" of all the camera-trap photos recovered so far as part of the National Zoo's Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project, Kolowski said. Almost nothing is known about this species, which is rarely seen even by indigenous people who live and hunt in the rain forest. "It's fascinating how elusive these guys can be," Kolowski said, adding that it's unusual for a large dog species to go unstudied for so long. What scientists do know is that the animals are social, Kolowski said. In both camera-trap photos that have been taken so far during the project, bush dogs appeared in pairs. —Photograph courtesy Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project

A collared peccary and her very young piglet get their photo taken as they pause for a rest in a remote area of northeastern Peru on August 18, 2008. In addition to counting species and estimating population numbers, camera-trap photos provide scientists with unusual insights into animal behavior, such when different species reproduce. For instance, scientists could estimate the age of the piglet in this photo and figure out when peccaries usually birth, Kolowski pointed out. The zoo researcher hopes the Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project will allow "people to see the huge diversity of animals that live in the Amazon," as well as make the public aware of some of the threats, such as hunting and habitat loss, that exist for these rare creatures. —Photograph courtesy Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project