Police chief captain Joshua Tampubolon said the victim and friends were swimming in the Tembung River when the snake attacked on 21 March. It strangled and nearly swallowed the boy before villagers forced it to flee.
The new species belongs to the Pseudocalotes family and it is named after German professor Thomas Ziegler, who has had many research works about reptiles and amphibians in Vietnam.
This is the fifth lizard species uncovered in Vietnam since 2004. The four other species include Acanthosaura nataliae (2006), Bronchocela orlovi (2004), Brochocela vietnamensis (2005), and Pseudocophotis kontumensis (2007).
The standard specimen was collected by scientists during a joint research program on biodiversity between the Institute for Ecology and Biological Resources, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Saint Petersburg Institute for Zoology (Russia).
In an episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza is concerned about getting a massage from a man. Makes you wonder how he would feel getting rubbed down by a snake.
That’s the predicament facing ride enthusiasts at at Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey, England.
Visitors were offered a massage from a huge royal python.
The promotion was offered to help tourists relax before going on the amusement park’s new Kobra ride.
The new ride spins through a 295-foot track at 43 mph. But it was more than just the ride’s cars that were racing.
The unusual massages were offered to VIP guest of the grand opening and according to a spokesperson they “are said to produce a feeling of relaxation.”
Two men, from Switzerland and Mexico, were sentenced to prison in New Zealand on Monday for hunting and possessing protected native lizards in a case the judge said was akin to ivory smuggling.
The men were sentenced to six months in jail, but District Court Judge Raoul Neave reduced their terms to 18 weeks because they pleaded guilty to charges under New Zealand’s Wildlife Act.
In his sentencing remarks, Neave said wildlife was endangered around the world and the men’s actions were no different from the crimes of ivory hunters.
Thomas Benjamin Price, 31, a stockbroker from Gallen, Switzerland, and Gustavo Eduardo Toledo-Albarran, 28, a chef from Carranza, Mexico, arrived in New Zealand in early February and traveled to Otago Peninsula on South Island.
Toledo-Albarran spent five days searching for the lizards, the court heard. Price admitted possessing the lizards and Toledo-Albarran admitted illegally hunting them. They passed the reptiles to Manfred Walter Bachmann so he could smuggle them out of the country.
Bachmann, an engineer from Uganda who is originally from Germany, was caught with 13 adult lizards and three young reptiles in the southern city of Christchurch on Feb. 16. He was sentenced to 15 weeks in prison and deportation on release.
In a separate case, another German national, Hans Kurt Kubus, was caught at Christchurch International Airport late last year with 44 small lizards stuffed into his underwear as he tried to board a flight.
Kubus was sentenced in January to 14 weeks behind bars and ordered to pay a 5,000 New Zealand dollar ($3,540) fine. He will be deported to Germany at the end of his prison term.
New Zealand officials have warned that black market demand is driving bids to smuggle wildlife like the small native lizards, which can fetch up to 2,800 euros ($3,760) each. The country recently ordered a review of laws covering protected wildlife and is considering longer prison terms and higher fines.
Guam is getting a $230,000 federal grant to support its brown tree snake research and control program through the end of the year.
The U.S. territory’s Department of Agriculture will use the money to maintain about 700 traps to continue its native species recovery efforts.
Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas Tony Babauta said today in a Washington news release that the unintended introduction of the brown tree snake to Guam has had a devastating impact on native species.
Brown tree snakes hitched rides to Guam from their native Solomon Islands aboard military transportation during World War II. Since then, the snakes have wiped out 10 of 12 bird species on the island.
Officials fear the brown tree snake may one day make its way to Hawaii.
Indonesian zoo welcomes birth of 25 Komodo dragons
JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian zoo is welcoming the births of 25 endangered Komodo dragons, hatched after eight months in incubators.
Veterinarian Rahmat Suharta says the eggs, from three giant female lizards, hatched at the Surabaya Zoo in East Java over the past week.
He said Thursday that the babies, weighing between 2.8 ounces (80 grams) and 4.2 ounces (120 grams), brought to 69 the number of the giant lizards at the zoo, one of the largest in Southeast Asia. Eleven more eggs are expected to hatch in coming weeks.
Komodo dragons can be found in the wild primarily on the eastern Indonesian islands of Komodo, Padar and Rinca. The lizards — thought to number around 2,500 — can grow longer than 10 feet (3 meters) and weigh 150 pounds (70 kilograms).
A Monroe man’s attempt at snuffing snakes around his South 26th Street home with several fires went horribly wrong Wednesday afternoon. Instead of getting rid of the snakes, his wife ended up being taken to a local hospital with smoke inhalation and his shed was completely burned.
The man, whose name the Monroe Fire Department did not immediately release, apparently started several fires with pieces of paper in his shed and around his yard in an attempt to eliminate several snakes.
The shed caught fire and sent smoke billowing into the couple’s nearby home.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which started around 12:45, shortly after they arrived on the scene.
Monroe fire investigator Tommy James said the man will be cited for unauthorized burning and a Monroe police officer said the man will likely have to appear in court.
