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210 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 NEWSBRIEFS

Sand Skinks are Elusive Creatures
They leave S-shaped designs in the sand.
Federal and state wildlife officials classify
them as threatened. They live on the
sand ridges of Central Florida. That sums
up what most people know about Sand
Skinks (Neoseps reynoldsi), if they’ve heard
of them at all. Sand Skinks are among
the creatures that live on the Lake Wales
Ridge, a chain of prehistoric islands that
comprised all of the dry real estate in
what once was peninsular Florida.

Like better-known species such as
Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus),
their habitat is often bulldozed to make
way for new development. This is the
time of year when biologists try to learn
more about these elusive reptiles because
the skinks become more active and easier
to detect as temperatures rise. The survey
method is fairly low-tech. It involves
placing a 2 x 2 piece of plywood on bare
ground and going back every week or so
and looking for tracks. Sand Skinks for-
age in the sand beneath the board, leav-
ing trails in the sand that can look like
anything from a winding riverbed to a
plateful of macaroni.

Data collection is simple. Either
tracks are there or they aren’t. In fact, it’s
good to stop here and mention that one
of the important aspects in wildlife sur-
veys is the ability to collect information
along fixed routes, which are marked
with flags, metal poles, wooden stakes or
some other method. If you see these
markers or the boards, that’s what they’re
for. Don’t disturb them or you could
screw up someone’s research project.

As wild creatures go, Sand Skinks
are a relatively recent addition to the sci-
entific list of creatures. The Sand Skink
was officially described in the scientific
literature as a separate species in 1910 by
Leonard Stejneger (1851–1943), who
was head curator of reptiles and amphib-
ians at the Smithsonian Institution.

Sand Skinks look like small snakes
— they’re only about 5 inches long —
with tiny legs. They belong to a group of
reptiles known as “sand-swimmers.” That
means they move around just under the
ground’s surface looking for something
to eat. Termites make up a major part of
their diet. Mole Skinks (Eumeces egregius)
and some species of snakes, such as

Southeastern Crowned Snakes (Tantilla
coronata), also are in this category.

Because of their secretive habits,
Sand Skinks are rarely seen and scientists
are still trying to learn more about what
they need to survive. Surveys at various
wildlife preserves are part of that research
because they provide a baseline, a basis
for comparison to spot population trends
(used here in a generic sense, population
estimates for Sand Skinks don’t exist).

What do exist are lists that give the
number of locations where Sand Skinks
are found, but it’s unclear how big a ter-
ritory each Sand Skink occupies or where
the young go after they hatch. One small
step in Sand Skink research occurred
when a University of Florida student
named Byrum Cooper set out on a quest
to figure out how to capture these elusive
creatures. This short 1953 account, pub-
lished in the Florida Academy of Sciences
quarterly journal, concluded that a
potato rake and quick hands were the
best tools for collecting specimens. Some
of you may know this young student as
Buck Cooper, the retired B-52 navigator
who served as naturalist at the Street
Nature Center in Winter Haven for sev-
eral years.

By the way, nowadays it is illegal to
collect Sand Skinks or any other pro-
tected species without a permit from
state and federal wildlife officials.

One interesting side benefit of Sand
Skink surveys is learning about other
creatures that inhabit the scrub.
Researchers have reported finding milli-
pedes, centipedes, ants, termites, spiders,
and various other even smaller beetles
and other invertebrates. Sometimes other
reptiles are using the board as a tempo-
rary shelter. They include Scrub Lizards
(Sceloporus woodi), a type of lizard called

a Six-lined Racerunner (Aspidoscelis sex-
lineatus), and various species of snakes.
One researcher even found a baby rat-
tlesnake. I guess it’s a good idea to lift the
boards carefully.

The Ledger

Lakeland, Florida; 11 May 2005

Snake Sanctuary: 
Rattlesnakes Roost in 

Rocky Stretch of Western Iowa
Just north of here, Prairie Rattlesnakes
(Crotalus viridis) slither among rocks and
yucca plants in a stretch of Loess Hills that
is Iowa’s little slice of the West. Across the
Missouri River, the Prairie Rattlesnake is
common in Nebraska, but these 15 acres
in Plymouth County are thought to be
the species’ only home in Iowa.

The Nature Conservancy, a private,
nonprofit preservation group hoping to
protect the species in Iowa, recently
added the snake’s hibernating area to its
3,050-acre Broken Kettle Grasslands,
which is an important bird sanctuary.
This rocky stretch of the silty-soil Loess
Hills offers hiding places the snakes need
for hibernation. The conservancy bought
the land to prevent housing develop-
ment, traffic, mowing, and, eventually,
farming in the area, all of which could
harm the snake, said Susanne Hickey, the
group’s Loess Hills project director. The
area is open to the public. “It’s a western
species that gets into the Loess Hills
because it’s a drier habitat,” Hickey said.

The Broken Kettle area has an esti-
mated 110 adult rattlesnakes, said
Conservancy herpetologist Dan Fogell.
Fifty of the snakes have been tagged with
microchips, which are injected under
their skin with a syringe. The $6.50 chips

N E W S B R I E F S

Florida Sand Skinks (Neoseps reynoldsi) are among a select group of lizards known as “sand-swim-
mers,” most of which have reduced or missing limbs.

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 211NEWSBRIEFS

carry a 10-digit code that can be read by
passing the scanner over the snake. They
are similar to the microchips that veteri-
narians use in pets. On a recent day,
Fogell and crew bet they could find a rat-
tler within five minutes along a ridge a
quarter-mile from Iowa Highway 12.
They scored.

Fogell, who lives in Omaha and
teaches at Southeast Community College
in Lincoln, Nebraska, passed an electronic
reader over the snake, and immediately
saw an identification number in the dis-
play. A repeat customer, this snake. Fogell’s
colleague grabbed the snake with a gizmo
similar to those some people use to pick
things off the floor. Pulling a trigger oper-
ates a clamping device on the end. Fogell
then grabbed a long plastic tube — pic-
ture a bigger and sturdier version of the
ones they put on single roses at the floral
shops — and pushed the snake’s head
inside. With the snake unable to bite,
Fogell passed the rattler to a colleague,
who weighed and measured it.

The first of five rattlers found was a
female, 31 inches long. These snakes
mate in spring and late summer but
often keep the sperm for a year before
they become pregnant. They give birth to
live snakes, often a dozen or more at a
time, and hope the Blue Racers (Coluber
constrictor), another snake species, don’t
eat them. Fogell is tracking the snake
population for the Nature Conservancy.
Earlier, he used radio transmitters to
track the snakes’ movements for the Iowa
Department of Natural Resources.
During that study, he discovered that the
snakes slither up to two miles from their
rocky homes.

Later, Fogell mentioned that the
snakes roam the countryside for two rea-
sons: Sex and food. One of the apparently
nervous visitors asked Fogell if there is a
time that the venomous snakes are aggres-
sive. “Every day,” Fogell replied.
Especially if they’ve just given birth.
Judging by the varying volume and fre-
quency of the snakes’ rattle-shaking, these
snakes were in various stages of agitation.

But the snakes aren’t normally
aggressive toward humans. There is no
record of anyone being bit by a rat-
tlesnake on this land, Fogell said. Most
people will find a way to get away from
the snake when they hear its warning rat-
tle. Landowners nearby, however, have
reported that the snakes have bitten their
dogs and cattle.

In Iowa’s slice of the West, the rat-
tlers rule.

Perry Beeman
Des Moines Register

Endangered Bog Turtle 
Holding up Highway Project

A turtle is slowing down a Route 7 high-
way bypass project in Brookfield
(Connecticut), despite a push by Gov.
M. Jodi Rell to speed things up. The state
Department of Environmental
Protection is withholding permits for
work until a report is done on whether
Bog Turtles (Glyptemys muhlenbergii)
might live in the area of the bypass. In
November, Rell had said there would be
no holdup to planned construction on
the bypass. The $98-million project was
scheduled to go out to bid this month.

Chris Cooper, a spokesman with
the Department of Transportation, said
that, without permits from the DEP, the
project cannot go out to bid. But Cooper
said, even if the Bog Turtle is present, the
road could still be built. “We will work
with environmental experts because it is

an endangered species,” Cooper said.
“The state is committed to the project as
part of its regional transportation
improvement plan.”

Tom Harley, manager of the con-
sulting design unit for the DOT, said a
report on whether Bog Turtles are living
in the area is expected in June and will be
turned over to the DEP.

Julie Victoria, a wildlife biologist
with the DEP, said the proposed bypass
area might be a historic habitat for the
Bog Turtle, which was listed as federally
threatened in November 1997. The turtle
grows to about 3 inches in length and has
orange splotches on either side of its neck.

Boston Globe (Massachusetts), 18 May 2005

European Wall Lizards 
in British Columbia

Lizard Invasion: Scientists ponder the
implications, as a species native to
Europe appears to be thriving on South
Vancouver Island. They’re sunning them-
selves at the Saanich Fairground and
scampering on the walls of Wilkinson
Road jail. They’re scurrying past Stelly’s
Cross Road and scaling Triangle
Mountain.

Thousands of European Wall
Lizards (Podarcis muralis), a non-native
species, are making this part of the world
their home. Biologists are wondering
what effects they are having on BC’s
native Alligator Lizard (Elgaria coerulea).
“We have great and grave concerns over
exotic species,” said Richard Hebda,
curator of botany and Earth history at
the Royal BC Museum. “Exotic species
are poised to take over the niche aban-
doned by native species.”

European Wall Lizards were intro-
duced into Greater Victoria in the late
1970s, when Rudy’s Pet Park Zoo on
Durrance Road closed. A few Wall
Lizards either escaped or were released
into the wilds of Central Saanich. The
reptiles survived, living in rock walls, and
slowly spreading through the gardens and
forests of the Saanich Peninsula. Hebda
remembers spotting a few tiny green and
black-flecked creatures in a broken con-
crete wall on his property about 1988. A
few years later, they were quite abundant.
“They’re delightful creatures, but there
were never as many as we see now. Their
numbers have gone way up. At first they

Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) range
widely across the Great Plains and barely into
extreme western Iowa.

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Bog Turtles (Glyptemys muhlenbergii) are
listed as “threatened” under the Endangered
Species Act and as “endangered” by agencies
in states with extant populations.

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were a curiosity, now they’re just every-
where,” he said. The lizards — which are
about 10 cm long, not including their tail
— no longer inhabit just the warm cracks
in rock walls at his home, they also dash
around the garden.

University of Victoria biology pro-
fessor Pat Gregory first heard about the
European Wall Lizards in 1990 and
immediately went to see them. “I was
impressed by their numbers,” said the
herpetologist. “I don’t know how many
we saw that day.” He thought about the
possibilities they offered for future
research studies. “Any introduced species
is interesting and you have to take them
quite seriously,” said Gregory. “It’s inter-
esting to see how they fit into an entirely
different system from their native one.
It’s interesting to know whether they
pose a threat to native species.”

A study by a master’s student on the
interaction between the European Wall
Lizard and Alligator Lizard shows they
didn’t get along too badly, said Gregory.
“The student found the Alligator Lizards
were reluctant to go under the same
cover as the wall lizards. But she didn’t
find any aggressive behavior.” However,
more research needs to be done on the
population ecology of Alligator Lizards in
places where wall lizards have been intro-
duced, said Gregory. “Just because we
haven’t observed a depressing effect on
the population of the Alligator Lizard
doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. There’s
nothing really obvious in terms of their
negative effects, but there might be some
less obvious effects.”

Hebda has already heard tales of
people who grew up in Central Saanich
capturing Wall Lizards and releasing
them in their suburban neighborhoods
— a practice he frowns on. “I think bio-
logically we have enough challenges
already.” Getting rid of them would be
impossible because there are far too many
of them, said Gregory, and gardeners
would probably object. “They’re small
and numerous and people seem to like
them,” he said.

Louise Dickson
Times Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia

European Wall Lizards 
in Ohio River Park

State wildlife staffers are putting out traps
at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in an
effort to exterminate an exotic lizard that
has been found there. The Common
Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis) is native to
parts of Europe and can grow to more
than eight inches. It has no known pred-
ators in North America and can survive
midwestern winters. How the lizards got
to the park just north of Louisville,
Kentucky is not known. They were
introduced to the Midwest in 1951,
when a Cincinnati resident brought
some back from Italy and released them.
Indiana Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) herpetologist Zack
Walker has designed special traps to cap-
ture Wall Lizards, while sparing native
species. “I’ve constructed the traps to tar-
get Wall Lizards and to exclude other
species of wildlife. If a non-target species

is caught, it will be released without
harm,” he said. Once the Wall Lizards
are caught, they will be exterminated.

WKYT, Lexington, Kentucky

The Island Snake Lady
Not many young women would take
pride in being called “the island snake
lady,” but Kristin Stanford does. Based at
Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory
on Gibraltar Island in Lake Erie,
Stanford acquired the nickname shortly
after beginning a research project on the
endangered Lake Erie Water Snake
(Nerodia sipedon insularum). It lives only
on the rocky shores of western Lake Erie
islands, and, until Stanford arrived five
years ago, it enjoyed a lousy reputation
among island residents and visitors.

Water Snakes make poor neighbors.
They bask innocently near docks, jetties,
and piers, and curious travelers, especially
children, try to catch them. That’s a big
mistake because, though they’re harmless,
they’re mean, ill-tempered, and quick to
bite. Combine their nasty personality
with most people’s innate fear of snakes
and you’ve got a conservation education
nightmare.

Enter Stanford. Five years ago, after
completing her master’s degree at
Northern Illinois University, where she
studied the Plains Garter Snake
(Thamnophis radix), Stanford jumped at
the chance to do her doctoral research on
the Lake Erie Water Snake. She under-
stood that a key to the unpopular species’
survival was convincing the islands’
human population that, if left alone,
water snakes are harmless and even eco-
logically beneficial.

Over the course of four years,
Stanford captured water snakes on South
Bass, Gibraltar, Middle Bass, North
Bass, and Kelley’s islands. Her work
included surgically implanting radio
transmitters into 61 snakes so she could
track their movements and locate their
winter dens. The fieldwork is complete,
and Stanford is writing her dissertation
— but that was the easy part.
Convincing people to appreciate water
snakes was the greater challenge. Having
just spent a week at Stone Lab teaching
an ornithology class, I observed firsthand
that Stanford’s people skills are among
her greatest assets.

212 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 NEWSBRIEFS

European Wall Lizards (Podarcis muralis) have been repeatedly introduced into North American
cities, where they frequently thrive in habitats dramatically altered by humans.

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 213NEWSBRIEFS

Last year, she taught a popular and
successful one-week herpetology class.
She obviously excelled because she was
recognized last week as one of 2004’s
outstanding summer instructors at the
Stone Lab. This year she’s co-teaching a
five-week herpetology class. Although the
class covers all types of reptiles and
amphibians, snakes are her passion. One
day she turned her class loose on six-acre
Gibraltar Island. The assignment was to
catch snakes. Ninety minutes later the
students returned, each with a pillowcase
filled with three or four writhing snakes.
On a break, I wandered into the herp lab
and found Stanford holding an
absolutely beautiful Fox Snake (Elaphe
vulpina). “Fox Snakes live in wetlands
along Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio,
and I’m studying their abundance and
habitat requirements,” she said. She’s
hoping to determine the effects of habi-
tat fragmentation on these boldly pat-
terned constrictors.

With her background, it’s only nat-
ural that Stanford has acquired the
“island snake lady” nickname. But her
reputation is largely due to the outreach
programs she does throughout a multi-
county area. She provides educational
programs to schools and other groups
and writes a monthly newspaper column
in which she answers reader questions
about snakes and other herps. In fact, if
you have any snake questions, contact
her at “theislandsnakelady@yahoo.com.”

During my week at Stone Lab, I dis-
covered two additional tangible indica-
tions of Stanford’s influence. Many drive-
ways on the islands now sport signs
provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the Ohio DNR that read,
“Water Snakes Welcome Here.” I doubt
there were any of those before Kristin
arrived. And finally, there’s Arthur Wolf,
Stanford’s 9-year old protégé, who lives

on Middle Bass Island. “I call him ‘My
little snake man,’” she said. “He’s caught
many water snakes for me on Middle
Bass.” His father, who captains one of
Stone Lab’s research boats, told me he’s
now catching Fox Snakes for Stanford.
Wolf ’s extraordinary exploits are featured
in the current issue of “Wild Ohio for
Kids Magazine.” Kristin Stanford does it
all — researcher, teacher, mentor, com-
munity relations expert. Not a bad
resume for the “island snake lady.”

Scott Shalaway
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Spiny Softshell Scoped
Thirteen-year-old Steve Glen thought he
was battling a big catfish in River Canard
until he reeled in one strange looking
turtle. A bit of research on the internet
confirmed that he’d landed a threatened
species, an Eastern Spiny Softshell
(Apalone spinifera). The turtle had swal-
lowed the worm and hook and needed
medical attention.

A Spiny Softshell is a rare sight, said
Tammy Dobbie, Point Pelee National
Park’s ecosystem management coordina-
tor. “We usually have on average one
valid sighting a year in and around Point
Pelee National Park,” she said, adding
that 2002 was the last time live ones were
spotted at the park. “You don’t get many
sightings. They are around but they’re a
shy and secretive turtle.”

Dobbie said the Spiny Softshell, the
only turtle like it in the country, is found
in southern Ontario and southern
Quebec. They’re hard to spot because
they’re rare and the speedy swimmers
spend most of their time underwater in
lakes. Sometimes only their nostrils stick
out of the water.

Erie Wildlife Rescue drove the tur-
tle to a Windsor veterinarian who

planned to anesthetize it and put a scope
down its neck to find the hook
Wednesday. The scope will help the vet
see what damage has been done and, if
all goes well, the turtle will be put on
antibiotics and later released back in
River Canard, she said.

The turtle is a female that is esti-
mated by its size to be more than twenty
years old, she said. The 2.4-kg turtle is 32
cm long and 26.5 cm wide. Males are
usually up to 23 cm long.

Dobbie said the Glens did the right
thing and the turtle is worth saving
because females don’t reproduce until
they’re more than twelve years old. She
said losing even one female of the threat-
ened species would hurt the population.

Sharon Hill
Windsor (Ontario) Star

Turtle Saved from Soup
They’re calling him “the lucky Royal
Turtle” — an endangered reptile that was
saved from a likely fate in a Chinese soup
pot by keen-eyed wildlife officials and a
microchip.

Poachers snatched the animal, a
species called the Royal Turtle in
Cambodia because the eggs were once
fed to kings, from a Cambodian river
two months ago and toted it across the
Vietnamese border with a stash of more
common turtles.

Conservationists said that at 33
pounds, the animal was sure to have
fetched a good price when it reached the
smuggler’s destination — the food mar-
kets of China, where turtle meat is a del-
icacy often made into soup.

A raid on the smuggler’s house in
southern Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province
was the turtle’s first stroke of good luck.
About 30 turtles were confiscated and
transported to a wildlife inspection center.

Endangered Lake Erie Water Snakes
(Nerodia sipedon insularum) have become the
subject of research for the island snake lady.

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A giant River Terrapin (Batagur baska) was
saved from the soup pot by a keen-eyed
wildlife official and a microchip.

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Spiny Softshell Turtles (Apalone spinifera) range
widely across eastern North America and as far
north as southern Ontario and Quebec.

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“My staff said they had never seen a
turtle that big,” said Ta Van Dao, head of
the forest control bureau in Tay Ninh.
“Its head and eyes were also different
from the regular turtles.”

The Vietnamese wildlife officials
consulted an endangered species book
and then called Doug Hendrie, an Asian
turtle specialist based in Hanoi for the
New York-based World Conservation
Society. They confirmed that it was a
Batagur baska, or Asian River Terrapin.
Officials then found a microchip
implanted under its wrinkly skin, pin-
pointing its exact home on the Sre
Ambel River in southern Cambodia.

Hendrie said there were only about
two to eight females remaining there, mak-
ing the return of this adult male even more
vital. It had been tagged in Cambodia for
research two years ago but not seen again
until its discovery in Vietnam.

The turtle was shipped back to
Cambodia last week.

The Associated Press

Save Rattlesnakes in 
New York Park

The ponytailed environmentalist hiked
down the ridge, over the gray rocks and
matted brown leaves, stopped among the
hardwoods, and said, “Right down the
side, it’s prime country here.”

The warm, southeast-facing rock
cliffs overlooking Lake Champlain mark
the northern limit of the Timber
Rattlesnake’s habitat. Jaime Ethier, in
boots and jeans, was bushwhacking from
Champlain Palisades down to the peb-
bled shores of the lake — through terrain
where he wouldn’t see a coiled dark snake
unless he nearly stepped on it. The
Adirondack Council conservation direc-
tor appeared unconcerned. He kept
going off the trail to peer into crevices
likely to hold a den of poisonous reptiles,
whose spiky tails make the telltale rattle
or buzzing sound when disturbed. He’d
met a rattlesnake almost two years earlier
in this forest 110 miles north of Albany
and wanted to see another. Ethier was
out of luck on a day of overcast skies and
temperatures in the mid-50s, probably
still too cool for the snakes.

Ethier’s group wants to undo state
conservation plans to allow mountain
bikes in this neck of the 6-million-acre
Adirondack Park, afraid cyclists will kill

rattlers. Protected by state law, rattlers are
considered a threatened species in New
York, where bounties that led to their
widespread killing were outlawed in
1971. State wildlife officials estimate
New York has 3,000 to 6,000 rat-
tlesnakes left, mostly around the Hudson
Highlands and a dozen Adirondack dens.

But the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service has declined to list them under
the federal Endangered Species Act.
“There are so few statewide, we feel that
losing one or two to a mountain bike
would be a tragedy,” explained John
Sheehan, the council’s spokesman. With
more than 1,000 miles of trails and
primitive roads already open to moun-
tain bikes in the park, the group sees no
need to add “recreational conflicts” to the
rattlesnake’s diminishing range.

Cyclists counter that riding on 5
miles of trails in the Split Rock
Mountain Wild Forest will do little
harm. “It’s a low probability that a biker’s
going to run a snake over,” said Paul
Capone, trail coordinator for the
Adirondack Park Mountain Biking
Initiative. “I’m sure there are rattlesnakes
in that area, but for the most part I
would say they prefer the habitat on the
rocky open areas where bikes will not be
riding.” Bikes are allowed in 1.3 million
acres of Adirondack wild forest and
excluded from 1 million acres of more
primitive wilderness areas. But as state
officials issue new forest conservation
plans, cyclists are losing ground. At Split
Rock Mountain, they’re being kept off
trails down to the shoreline. “The reason
people like to go there is access to Lake

Champlain,” Capone said. “It’s kind of a
critical time for mountain biking.”

Wildlife biologists say it’s also a crit-
ical time for Timber Rattlesnakes, whose
bite is seldom fatal to humans (they don’t
always inject venom). Fear, misunder-
standing, development sprawl and their
attraction as dead curios or live pets have
shrunk numbers, habitat and prospects.
Timber Rattlesnakes are found in rugged
terrain and hardwood forests from east
Texas to southern Wisconsin, and from
north Florida to a spot in New Hamp-
shire. Believed gone entirely from Maine
and Rhode Island, they are considered
threatened or endangered in the
Northeast except Pennsylvania, which
has licensed hunting.

Rattlers hibernate in winter and are
active from about May through Sep-
tember. In New York, females start repro-
ducing at age 8 or 9, giving birth to lit-
ters of five to 12 every few years. They
mate in late August. “Given their low
reproductive rate along with a high mor-
tality rate of young, as well as being killed
or captured by humans, the Timber
Rattlesnake is in serious trouble in the
Northeast,” James Beemer, a civilian
Defense Department biologist, wrote in
a 2001 study.

With no reports of snake-cyclist
incidents in the Tongue Mountain Range
above Lake George, where mountain
biking is allowed on certain trails away
from the dens, the state Department of
Environmental Conservation says it
expects none above Lake Champlain
either but will monitor it. Rattlers have
not been responsible for any fatalities in
New York for decades. Unless you try to
pick up or harass one, you stand a better
chance of being struck by lightning than
bitten, Beemer said.

After studying Timber Rattlesnakes
for more than a decade on the U.S.
Military Academy’s reserve in the
Hudson Highlands, he notes that the
ambush hunters are deadly to mice, chip-
munks and squirrels but are “extremely
shy” of humans and will hide or try to
leave unnoticed.

Red Nova (Dallas, Texas)

Arizona Roadkill: 
Huge Toll on Park-Area Highways

More than 50,000 wild animals are run
over on roads in and around Saguaro

214 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 NEWSBRIEFS

Populations of Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus
horridus) near the species’ northern-most
limits remain vulnerable to human contact.
A New York conservation group wants to
undo state conservation plans to allow
mountain bikes into portions of the 6-mil-
lion-acre Adirondack Park, afraid cyclists will
kill rattlers.

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National Park each year. Taking a fresh
look at old data, researchers have con-
cluded that an earlier survey of park-area
roadkills understated by roughly seven
times the true casualty figures for toads,
snakes, rabbits, lizards, javelina, and
other critters.

After five years of weekly surveys of
50 miles of roads that ended in 1999,
National Park Service officials deter-
mined that about 7,100 animals were
killed annually in and around the east
and west units of the park. However,
researchers decided the original count
was too low after reanalyzing the data to
account for surveyor error, for animals
that get taken off the road after they’re
killed, and for the limitations of hunting
for roadkills by car. “We weren’t seeing
everything,” said Natasha Kline, who has
worked as a Saguaro Park biologist nearly
13 years.

While more animals are apparently
dying on park roads than originally had
been thought, some changes in road
design are slowly occurring to make these
and other thoroughfares more wildlife-
friendly. The changes will be aimed not
just at preventing roadkills, but also at
preserving connections for wild animals
crossing roads from one large block of
desert to another. As much as $10 mil-
lion would be spent over the next 20
years on making roads safer for wildlife
under a plan that appears to be headed to
the May 2006 ballot. The Regional
Transportation Authority’s 20-year plan
would require voter approval of a half-
cent sales tax increase to raise $1.9 billion
for a host of other transportation
improvements, including widened roads,
transit, sidewalks, and bike paths. Pima
County and state highway planners are
looking for other ways to better design
roads for wildlife, and the Park Service
and county last year collaborated on a
large $78,000 culvert project to provide
more space for javelina and other animals
crossing Sandario Road in Saguaro
National Park West.

A major concern stemming from
the roadkill study is the effect of the kills
on populations of toads and larger ani-
mals, including Desert Tortoises, Gila
Monsters, badgers, and rattlesnakes, said
Kline, who worked on the roadkill study.
The park is experiencing “massive” road-
kill of three amphibian species — the

Red-spotted Toad (Bufo punctatus),
Sonoran Green Toad (B. debilis), and
Couch’s Spadefoot (Scaphiopus couchii),
she said. Researchers have, for instance,
found that Sonoran Green Toads taken
from East Speedway north of the park
were significantly smaller than those
taken from loop roads within the park
that close after dark. “This is very sug-
gestive” that the toads’ populations are
affected by roadkill — not just individ-
ual toads, Kline said.

Although no statistics exist directly
linking roadkills to declines of larger ani-
mals, biologists are concerned about
them because they have both low repro-
ductive rates and low adult mortality
rates. Because they have low adult mor-
tality rates, those creatures tend to live
long lives, but because their birthrates are
low, “once you start taking adults out of
the population, you’ll affect it very
quickly,” said Kline, who has emerged as
Saguaro Park’s spokeswoman for a study
that involves many researchers and vol-
unteers.

The operator of a wildlife rescue
and rehabilitation center just north of
Saguaro National Park East said that she’s
not surprised by the Park Service study’s
conclusions, because she regularly sees
live wild animals in her center that were
brought in after somebody found them
lying on the road. “It’s our No. 1 prob-
lem with animals that come in — that

they’re hit by cars,” said Lisa Bates, who
gets 300–350 injured animals each year
at her Tucson Wildlife Center, just north
of Saguaro Park East. “I would guess that
a majority of animals admitted here were
hit by cars.” When center volunteers go
out to rescue wild animals, they’re all over
the highways every day. Volunteers see a
huge amount of roadkill, Bates said.

The sight of wild animals sprawled
dead along roads or shoulders makes
Rincon Valley Farmers Market executive
director Molly Eglin truly sad, she said
last week. But while she sees roadkill reg-
ularly on the roads, the 50,000-a-year
figure shocked her, she said. “I go to
town practically every day, and I usually
see something practically every day off to
the side of the road. But I never imag-
ined it was that many,” said Eglin, whose
market lies about one mile south of the
park’s southern border. “What’s worse is
the people who drive down Old Spanish
Trail like a maniac,” Eglin said. “They
drive really fast around the curves, the
double lines. It’s really, really dangerous.”
One morning last week, as she drove
down Freeman Road and then Speedway
abutting Saguaro Park East, Kline said
that she had already seen six dead ani-
mals along park-area roads: a Longnose
Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei) and a
Coachwhip (Masticophis flagellum), two
ground squirrels, a Curved-bill Thrasher,
and a rabbit. Then she stopped at a large
wash along Speedway, about 16 miles
east of Downtown Tucson, where she
said she hopes to get grant money for a
series of culverts to accommodate the
toads and other animals so they can cross
under Speedway instead of into the path
of cars. Two years ago, the Park Service
and the Pima County Department of
Transportation applied for a $500,000
state grant to install two large box cul-
verts and several smaller ones that would
accommodate toads. The application
failed, but Kline said she expects to seek
the grant again. The area along Speedway
where the culvert system would go had
heavy concentrations of roadkills, rang-
ing 85 to 1,000 in a small area, during
the five-year study period ending in
1999, according to a Park Service map of
the area.

A County Transportation Depart-
ment official said he has not heard yet
from the service about any effort to try

Roadkills have a huge impact on populations
of Arizona amphibians and reptiles. Species
affected include particularly vulnerable species
like Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) and
Gila Monsters (Heloderma suspectum).

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216 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2005 NEWSBRIEFS

again for the grant. But the department
now has a written policy calling for more
environmentally sensitive roads in areas
known for their wildlife populations, said
Rick Ellis, the department’s engineering
division manager. The county has had
the policy since December 2003 and has
used it twice. One project, connected
with the county’s Thornydale Road
widening, was to build a higher, wider
shoulder with taller trees along
Thornydale to accommodate endangered
Cactus Ferruginous Pigmy Owls
(Glaucidium brasilianum cactorum) try-
ing to cross the road. The second project
was the Sandario Road culvert.

Four major state highways in
Southern Arizona could also be in line
for new, wildlife-friendly design in the
next few years because of a grant just
obtained by a Flagstaff researcher. That
study will focus on how to make those
and other roads in the state more hos-
pitable to birds and mammals.

The tally — estimated annual
wildlife roadkills in and around Saguaro
National Park East and West (Source:
National Park Service): Reptiles, 27,000;
amphibians, 17,000; mammals, 6,000;
and birds, 1,000.

A. E. Araiza
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) 16 May 2005

Diversity in Darwin’s Tortoises
The giant tortoises of the Galápagos
Islands inspired Charles Darwin to for-
mulate his theory of natural selection to
describe the evolutionary diversity of
species. Now those tortoises have been
found to be even more diverse than
Darwin knew.

Nearly 150 years after Darwin’s
most important work, scientists have
found the tortoise Geochelone nigra,
found on the Galápagos island of Santa
Cruz, is not one species but three.

The discovery, announced today,
was led by Yale University scientists
Michael Russello, Adalgisa Caccone, and
Jeffrey Powell and is reported in the
Royal Society of London’s journal Biology
Letters. Darwin and others identified the
single taxon, or species, based on visible
characteristics such as shell shape. The
new research employed DNA analysis.
Altogether, 11 taxa of tortoises are on the
islands.

Between 2000 and 4000 individual
tortoises remain on Santa Cruz, and as
few as 100 individuals in each of the new
taxa may exist, the scientists said in argu-
ing for conservation of the habitat.

“It is ironic that, while Santa Cruz
has the largest population of tortoises, it
also has the largest human population —
projected to double in the next eight
years — which is their greatest source of
endangerment,” Russello said. “Since
accurate taxonomy is crucial for effective
conservation policy, these results have
fundamental importance for preserving
the genetic and taxonomic diversity of
these historically significant reptiles.”

Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience, 27 July 2005

Sale of Red-eared Sliders 
Skids to a Stop

Small turtles were being sold at kiosks in
Tallahassee’s two shopping malls on
Monday despite a federal ban against
their sale. Federal law prohibits the sale
of turtles under four inches as pets. Their
sale has been banned since 1970 because
of concerns that they transmit Salmo-
nella, a potentially deadly bacterium.

A Governor’s Square mall spokes-
woman said the lease for the Turtle
World kiosk, where the little Red-eared
Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) were
being sold Monday, was being termi-
nated this week. She declined to name
the owner of the kiosk because of the
mall’s privacy policies. “I cannot stress
enough that our main concern was the
customers,” said Eileen Walsh, marketing

manager for Governor’s Square. “Had we
known this in advance, we would not
have leased to him. And when we found
out, we took action.”

A worker at the Turtle World kiosk
at Governor’s Square Mall referred ques-
tions to the kiosk owner at Tallahassee
Mall. A worker at the Tallahassee Mall
kiosk told the Democrat that he wasn’t
authorized to comment and he hung up.

The U.S. Food and Drug Adminis-
tration is sending out notices to malls,
schools, and the news media about the
ban, said Stewart Watson, public affairs
specialist in the FDA’s Florida district
office in Maitland. “For a long time
when the law went into effect people
weren’t selling the turtles as much,”
Watson said. “It seems in the past year it
has exploded a lot.” Salmonella can be
found on the outer skin and shell sur-
faces of many turtles. Turtles under four
inches are considered more of a risk
because they’re small enough for children
to put them in their mouths, according
to the FDA. Watson and a Florida
Department of Health spokesman said
they were not aware of any contamina-
tions in Florida caused by turtle sales.
However, six cases of illnesses in
Wisconsin and Wyoming last year were
traced to the sale of turtles.

The illegal sale of small turtles carries
a possible fine of up to $1,000 and up to a
year in prison, according to the FDA.
Federal law allows the sale of small turtles
for “bona fide scientific, educational, or
exhibitional purposes, other than use as
pets.” Both kiosks at malls in Tallahassee
had signs saying the turtles were being sold
for educational purposes only. Watson said
he couldn’t comment on whether the signs
mean the sales are allowed because he said
it’s a legal question.

At Governor’s Square mall, the lease
for the Turtle World kiosk was being ter-
minated because of the apparent violation,
Walsh said. “Having a vendor say, ‘this is a
good learning experience’ is not the same
thing as having them sold through an edu-
cational institution,” she said.

Steven Darby, interim general man-
ager of Tallahassee Mall, said he had spo-
ken with FDA officials about the ban as
well as turtle experts. “We have spoken
with several people and are trying to
make an informed decision with regard
to the turtles,” Darby said.

Galápagos Tortoises in the genus Geochelone
may be considerably more diverse than once
thought. Application of sophisticated mod-
ern technologies revealed three distinct
species on Santa Cruz, where only one (G.
nigra) was previously thought to occur.

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Turtle biologist Dale Jackson of
Tallahassee said Monday he had con-
tacted mall managers about the turtle
sales. He’s concerned that the Red-eared
Sliders have been released into the wild
and will harm native turtles. Jackson said
he and biologist Matt Aresco are filing a
petition with the state to ban the sale of
any Red-eared Sliders, which live prima-
rily in the Mississippi River valley and as
close to Florida as Alabama. They are
related to the Yellowbelly Slider
(Trachemys scripta scripta), which lives in
Florida. Once released in Florida, they
can breed with the Yellowbelly Slider to
create a hybrid subspecies, Jackson said.
Red-eared Sliders also grow larger than
the Yellowbelly Slider and can out-com-
pete them for food and basking areas on
logs, he said. “I think there is some value
in people raising little turtles if it gets
them interested in reptiles,” Jackson said.
“But we don’t need them raising Red-
eared Sliders if they are subsequently
released in nature.”

Bruce Ritchie
Democrat (Florida)

Red-eared Sliders 
Quietly Become a Threat

Red-eared Sliders for generations have
been the most popular turtles sold in pet
stores, and they also have been frequently
dumped into the wild — so much so
they have become common in some
Hawaiian watersheds.

That’s both illegal and a potential
threat to native stream animals, but peo-
ple who have brought the turtles home as
pets have few options as the animals out-
grow their aquariums. “They don’t get
sweeter as they get older. They can get
snappy,” said Christy Martin, public
information officer for the Coordinating
Group on Alien Pest Species. Martin rec-
ommended that unwanted turtles be
taken to a humane society, where they
have at least a chance of being adopted.
“There’s really nothing else you can do
with them. That’s the most responsible
thing to do,” she said.

In years past, the animals were sold
as juveniles not much bigger than a silver
dollar, but after the turtles were linked to
the bacterial disease salmonella, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration in 1975
banned the sale of Red-eared Sliders less

than 4 inches across. Officials thought
the bigger size would make them less
appealing to buyers and prevent children
from putting the baby reptiles in their
mouths, reducing the occurrence of sal-
monella.

Pet stores in Hawai‘i and elsewhere
still legally sell the sliders, which can
reach nearly a foot in shell length. Since
that’s more turtle than most folks can
handle, and since there is little demand
for the larger animals, many have been
released into the Hawaiian environment.
“That’s not a good idea because of the
impacts they could have on native
species,” said Philip Thomas of Hawaiian
Ecosystems At Risk, a government-
funded organization that supports alien
pest control efforts. The state has listed
them an “injurious species” because
young turtles could feed on ‘o‘opu, native
freshwater gobies that live in Hawaiian
streams.

The turtles, whose scientific name is
Trachemys scripta elegans, have a green to
brown shell, and their green heads have a
characteristic red stripe behind the eye
from which they get their name. They
are known to be in Kawa‘i Nui marsh
and surrounding streams on O‘ahu, have
been found in at least two parts of Maui,
and are in the Hanalei and Wailua river
basins on Kaua‘i. But they’re probably in
many other waterways as well. “I’ve had
reports from all over the island,” said
Don Heacock, aquatic biologist with the
state Division of Aquatic Resources on
Kaua‘i.

Horticulturist Keith Robinson
recently found a 7-inch turtle walking on
a road in Wainiha Valley this week, sug-

gesting they also may be in that valley’s
stream on Kaua‘i’s north shore. He said
people who saw that turtle recalled hav-
ing seen others in the Hule‘ia River near
Lihu‘e and in a drainage ditch near
Kekaha.

Red-eared Sliders are primarily
meat-eaters when young and eat a mix-
ture of meat and vegetation as adults,
according to Sean McKeown’s book,
Reptiles and Amphibians in the Hawaiian
Islands. Young Red-eared Sliders can
become carriers of salmonella if they eat
tainted meat. Humans can contract the
disease from handling the turtles. These
turtles can live for up to 25 years. They
require fresh water, a place to get out of
the water to bask, and proper food. As
they grow older, they need considerably
more room than the average home
aquarium provides.

When the FDA banned the sale of
the smallest turtles, it found that 14 per-
cent of all cases of salmonella poisoning
in the United States were associated with
the handling of pet turtles. Most of the
victims were young children.

The organization Tortoise Trust
urges people not to buy them in the first
place, since little thought generally is
given to providing care into their adult-
hood, if they survive. “There is a massive
surplus of unwanted adult turtles looking
for good homes, yet thousands of tiny
hatchlings continue to be bred each year,
making an already desperate humanitar-
ian situation even worse,” the organiza-
tion said on its Web site (http://tor-
toisetrust.org).

Jan TenBruggencate
Honolulu Advertiser (Hawaii)

Because of their popularity in the pet trade, Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) have
been introduced in many areas where they are not native, often with dire implications for native
species.

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