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Wake Up, Floridians, to this 
Cold-blooded Killing

As if the results of the sixth day of
Creation, when God made “every thing
that creepeth upon the earth,” were being
canceled out, hordes of new people are
putting some of Florida’s humblest resi-
dents to flight, wiping them out in hun-
dreds of thousands. Amphibians and
Reptiles: Status and Conservation in
Florida, a just-published scientific survey
edited by Walter E. Meshaka, Jr. and
Kimberly J. Babbitt, paints a gloomy pic-
ture of what is happening to the state’s
herpetofauna.

Crushed beneath car wheels, buried
by bulldozers, poisoned by insecticides
and fertilizers, chased from back yards
and patios as obnoxious pests, eaten alive
by exotic red ants, over-collected by ego-
tistical pet owners, Florida’s snakes, tur-
tles, frogs, lizards, and salamanders face a
future that is getting grimmer and nar-
rower year by year.

“Florida has a greater biodiversity of
reptiles than any place on the North
American continent, just a wonderful
diversity of creatures,” said Bruce Means,
executive director of the Coastal Plains
Institute and one of the contributors to
the book. “Unfortunately, they are under
assault from wildly burgeoning human
masses. I’ve been doing this for 44 years,
and I’ve seen species like the Southern
Dusky Salamander just disappear. I am
not optimistic about the future at all.”

A collection of articles by scientists
who are experts in their field, the book
speaks openly of “persecution” and “extir-
pation” of some reptiles, particularly Box
Turtles, Gopher Tortoises, and Common
Kingsnakes. Scientific abbreviations like
“DOR” stand for “Dead on Road,” and
mean the myriad squashings of frogs,

lizards, turtles, and snakes beneath the
wheels of ever more abundant vehicles.
Some roads, like U.S. 441 across Payne’s
Prairie in Alachua County, and the
Tamiami Trail that runs across Florida
from Miami to Tampa, are virtual abat-
toirs, greased with the gory little bodies
of “anurans.” “On Aug. 5, 1991, I
stopped counting after 10,000,” biologist
Jim Weimer said in a 1996 interview,
describing a single night on U.S. 441
across Payne’s Prairie. “This was just one
night. On May 2, 1991, there were over
5,000 Southern Leopard Frogs killed.”

Florida is growing by leaps and
bounds. The population is already above
15.3 million and expected to reach 25
million over the next quarter-century.
Every hour, 28 new people come to live
in Florida. Billions of dollars are to be
made in development. “But at what
price?” Meshaka and Babbitt ask in their
introduction. “Drives to work are
unbearable, and one must drive farther
and farther to see nature . . . as space runs
out, agriculture is now giving way to
human development, the borders of
which stand cheek to jowl with every
major wetland, upland, and estuarine
system in the state.”

The condition of Florida’s herpeto-
fauna has become “drastically unrecog-
nizable” from what it was 50 years ago.
In short, these little frogs, snakes, lizards,
salamanders, and turtles are behaving like
croaking, slithering, wriggling, plodding-
footed, extremely stressed little canaries
in a sunny coal mine. Their deaths are
hastening the day when Florida, the rich-
est habitat in America for mammals,
birds, reptiles, turtles, crocodilians, and
amphibians, will be little more than a
sterile monoculture.

Interestingly, enormous Palm Beach
County is not the most biodiverse
county in Florida when it comes to her-
petofauna. That honor goes to little
Franklin County, southwest of
Tallahassee in the Big Bend, with 99
native amphibian, turtle, crocodilian,
and squamate reptile species. Nearby
Liberty County is second, with 98, and
Santa Rosa County has 97. Palm Beach
County, by contrast, has only 69, Martin
44, and St. Lucie 46 species. The least
biodiverse place in Florida, when it

comes to these creatures, is DeSoto
County, just east of Charlotte County
near Florida’s lower west coast.

If you want to grasp the dizzying
reach of these creatures’ antiquity, con-
sider the lowly Eastern Box Turtle
(Terrapene carolina). It has been in
Florida since the Pliocene Era, which
began five million years ago. At least
three subspecies occur in the state, and
one island, Egmont Key, off Tampa Bay,
used to have so many of them that early
18th Century French explorers in the
Gulf referred to all of America as “L’île
aux Tortues,” the Isle of Turtles [see
Iguana 12: 152–159]. Egmont Key
became a National Wildlife Refuge in
1974, but it is being eroded and lacks the
funds to afford more than a single care-
taker. The Box Turtle is generally thought
of as “common” in Florida but this report
suggests it may not be nearly as common
as supposed.

The fate of the Gopher Tortoise
(Gopherus polyphemus) is even more dire.
This slow-moving creature lives in bur-
rows on sandy uplands, the very sort of
land most prized by developers.
Bulldozers often entomb the hapless tor-
toises alive. Thanks to their slow metab-
olism, they may linger for months under-

ground before dying of thirst and
hunger. As many as 68,000 Gopher
Tortoises have been killed in Florida over
the past 12 years, according to Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission figures, in order to make
room for roads, houses, malls, and golf
courses. “Current Gopher Tortoise regu-
lations and conservation measures appear
to be inadequate to sustain the species in

N E W S B R I E F S

IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2006 73NEWSBRIEFS

As many as 68,000 Gopher Tortoises
(Gopherus polyphemus) have been killed in
Florida over the past 12 years in order to
make room for roads, houses, malls, and golf
courses.

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Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula) are declin-
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collectors ae being killed by non-native fire
ants.

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74 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2006 NEWSBRIEFS

Florida through the next century,” writes
Ray E. Ashton Jr. in the new report.

The grimmest article of all in the
new book is “The Decline and
Extirpation of the Kingsnake in Florida,”
by Kenneth L. Krysko and Daniel J.
Smith. The Common Kingsnake (Lampro-
peltis getula) is a magnificent creature,
coming in several colors, harmless, beau-
tiful and sweet-tempered, and therefore
much sought-after by collectors, who pay
up to $300 for one. Traffic and drainage
along the infamous U.S. 441 across
Payne’s Prairie practically wiped out the
snake in the 1960s. By 1977, not a single
Common Kingsnake could be found
there. Collectors captured practically all
the Common Kingsnakes along the
Tamiami Trail west of Miami by 1995.
Franklin County used to abound with
them. A survey in 2000 found a single
specimen, mortally wounded on a high-
way. At present, the only large popula-
tion of Common Kingsnakes lies around
and to the west of Lake Okeechobee.
Non-native fire ants are busily killing off
these refugees.

More than 77,590 American
Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) have
been killed as “nuisances,” because they
invaded Florida back yards since 1977;
the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission now fields about 5,000 calls
each year from alarmed homeowners.
The state lets private trappers dispose of
them, and their meat and hides were
worth nearly $3 million in 1999.

The pet industry is thriving at the
expense of wildlife. One Florida collector
caught 4,194 Southern Cricket Frogs
(Acris gryllus) and sold them over a two-
year period. Turtles are captured and sold
at the rate of up to 5,663 a year. Rat-

tlesnakes are sought-after for their skins,
meat, and gallbladders, which are used in
Chinese traditional medicine. About
20,000 snakes of all species are removed
from the wild annually to be sold as pets.

The legendary Ross Allen of Silver
Springs was one of the biggest entrepre-
neurs. Jolly old Ross Allen was a hero to
countless children and Boy Scouts in the
1950s and 1960s. They loved watching
him handle snakes fearlessly, and were
thrilled to hear how many times he had
been bitten by rattlers and survived. They
didn’t know Allen was in the snake trade
up to his neck. Over a five-year period,
Allen bought and sold 6,858 Eastern Rat
Snakes (Elaphe obsoleta; now assigned by
some authorities to Pantherophis
alleghaniensis) alone, the new report says.
Allen regarded the woods of central
Florida as a kind of infinite piggybank of
valuable snakes.

The figures in the new book are dev-
astating. From 1990 to 1994, collectors
captured and sold 5,683 salamanders,
88,096 frogs and toads, 17,627 turtles,
189,712 lizards, and 85,311 snakes of all
species. Eighty percent of the lizards, 76

percent of the snakes, 50 percent of the
turtles, and 27 percent of the lizards came
from Lake Okeechobee south. This is just
the legal, reported trade.

A few bright spots appear in the
report. American Alligators are thriving,
even getting larger. The average “nui-
sance” Alligator hide now measures 7.3
feet in length. Also, 1.26 million acres of
state-protected land remains in Florida,
off-limits to development.

Still, Meshaka and Babbitt declare:
“Rather than just waving our arms to
attempt to slow the rate of human
growth and habitat alteration, we should
anticipate the worst and develop plans
that have the potential to maintain cur-
rent levels of biodiversity.”

Michael Browning
Palm Beach Post

15 September 2005

American Alligators Killed
Any Florida alligator longer than 4 feet
that makes residents or visitors feel
unsafe, and that is reported to the state’s
Gator Hotline, is subject to a practice
called “harvesting.” The animal is taken
away by a trapper and ultimately killed.
Linda Collins, a spokeswoman for
Florida’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator
Program (SNAP) reports that a total of
7,991 were harvested in 2005.

For years, the city of Sanibel only had
aggressive gators removed from the island.
However, following an incident in July
2004, in which a woman was killed by a
12-foot American Alligator, Sanibel joined
the statewide program for removing them.

Since the change on Sanibel, more
than 100 American Alligators have been
harvested there, including 23 in 2005.
No fatalities and no subsequent reports
of pets or human attacks have been
reported since the policy was instituted.

News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida)

Over one five-year period, Ross Allen,
famous Florida snake-handler, bought and
sold 6,858 Eastern Rat Snakes (Elaphe obso-
leta; now assigned by some authorities to
Pantherophis alleghaniensis).

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American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)
that frighten or threaten Florida residents may
be “harvested” (taken by a hunter and killed).

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Nearly 80,000 American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) have been killed as “nuisances”
since 1977.

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Mexican Garter Snake 
One Step Closer to Protection 

as an Endangered Species
Responding to a petition and lawsuit
from the Center for Biological Diversity,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) announced today that the
Mexican Garter Snake (Thamnophis
eques) may warrant protection as an
endangered species under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) and
announced that they will begin a status
review to be completed by September
2006. The species is an aquatic Garter
Snake with a distribution in Arizona,
southwestern New Mexico, and México.
It is one of hundreds of native riparian
species that are threatened by the
destruction and degradation of rivers,
streams, and springs in the Southwest.
The Center petitioned for protection of
the snake 15 December 2003.

Populations of the Mexican Garter
Snake are severely fragmented and iso-
lated due to loss and destruction of suit-
able habitat, which consists of riparian
areas with permanent water, streamside
vegetation for cover, and native prey
species. “The decline of the Mexican
Garter Snake is symptomatic of an
extremely widespread decline in the
aquatic fauna of the Southwest,” stated
Dr. Phil Rosen, herpetologist with the
University of Arizona.

The Mexican Garter Snake has been
extirpated from most of its U.S. range,
including the Colorado, Gila, and much
of the Santa Cruz and San Pedro rivers.
The decline of the Mexican Garter Snake
is closely linked to the deteriorating qual-
ity of streamside habitats, the disappear-
ance of native frogs and fishes, and the
rampant introduction and spread of non-
native species, such as the Bullfrog,
Sunfish, and Bass.

“Widespread degradation of south-
west rivers and introduction of dozens of
exotic species necessitates protection of the

Mexican Garter Snake,” stated Noah
Greenwald, conservation biologist for the
Center for Biological Diversity. “The
Endangered Species Act is an important
safety net for the nation’s wildlife and could
help save the Mexican Garter Snake.”

Center for Biological Diversity
5 January 2006

Second Eastern Box Turtle
Conservation Workshop

The North Carolina Zoological Park and
the Humane Society of the United States
are pleased to announce that the Second
Eastern Box Turtle Conservation
Workshop will be held at the North
Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro,
North Carolina on 24–25 March 2006.

This workshop will pick up the
work started at the first workshop held in
Laurel, Maryland in 2004. Several pre-
sentations will be scheduled in the morn-
ing, but the focus of the meeting will be
to develop working groups for the issues
identified under Research, Repatriation,
and Rehabilitation of Box Turtles and
Box Turtle Conservation Education.

U.S. Turtle Species Added to 
CITES Appendix III

The Alligator Snapping Turtle
(Macroclemys temminckii) and all species
of Map Turtles (Graptemys spp.), which
are native to the United States, are being
given international protection by their
inclusion in Appendix III of the
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES). The listing, which will
allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
to work with states to regulate exports,

marked the first time the U.S. has used
Appendix III to protect native species.

The Alligator Snapping Turtle, the
largest freshwater turtle in the world, is a
species of concern due to several factors
that include loss of habitat and collection
from the wild for human consumption
and export as pets.

Twelve species of North American
Map Turtles are currently recognized.
Two of these are on the Federal list of
threatened species and a third is a candi-
date species for Federal listing. Map
Turtles are vulnerable for many reasons;
some currently known threats to the
species include loss of habitat, exposure
to contaminants, and collection for the
pet trade.

Surprising Killer Of 
Southeastern Salt Marshes: 

Common Sea Snails
Conserving Diamondback 

Terrapins May Help 
Preserve Coastal Habitats

Periwinkles (Littorina sp.), the spiral-
shelled snails commonly found along
rocky U.S. shorelines, play a primary role
in the unprecedented disappearance of salt
marsh in the southeastern states, accord-
ing to new research published in Science.
Based on extensive field studies, the work
challenges six decades of salt marsh sci-
ence. Ecologists have long thought that
stressed soil – too much salt, not enough
oxygen – was the main killer of this criti-
cal marine habitat. Brian Silliman, a
Brown University research fellow and a

IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2006 75NEWSBRIEFS

Mexican Garter Snakes (Thamnophis eques)
are one step closer to protection as an endan-
gered species.

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Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina car-
olina) are the focus of a second conservation
workshop this month in North Carolina.

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Alligator Snapping Turtles (Macroclemys tem-
minckii) and all species of Map Turtles, such as
this Barbour’s Map Turtle (Graptemys barbouri)
are now included in CITES Appendix III.

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76 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2006 NEWSBRIEFS

University of Florida assistant professor,
said drought-stressed soils pave the way for
predatory periwinkles that spread fungal
disease as they graze on cordgrass.

“Snails can transform healthy marsh
to mudflats in a matter of months,” said
Silliman, lead author of the Science paper.
“This finding represents a huge shift in
the way we see salt marsh ecology. For
years, scientists thought marsh die-off
was simply a ‘bottom-up’ problem
related solely to soil conditions. We
found that the trouble also comes from
the top down. Drought makes the marsh
vulnerable, then the snails move in.”

Thousands of acres of salt marsh
have disappeared from South Carolina to
Texas since 2000, according to several sci-
entific studies. In Louisiana alone, more
than 100,000 acres of marsh were severely
damaged between June 2000 and
September 2001. This drastic decline
poses a serious threat to the ecology and
economy of the southeastern seaboard
and the Gulf Coast. Salt marshes serve as
nursery grounds that support commercial
fisheries, protect coastline from storm-
induced floods, and filter fresh water
before it flows out to sea.

Mark Bertness, chair of the
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology at Brown and a co-author of the
paper, said a better understanding of the
causes of salt marsh loss would point to
better ways to protect them. “Loss of blue
crabs and turtles, which prey on periwin-
kles, allows the snails to flourish,”
Bertness said. “Protect the crabs and tur-
tles [such as Diamondback Terrapins,
Malaclemys terrapin] and you can help
save the marshes.”

Silliman came up with the periwin-
kle premise as a graduate student con-
ducting field research in Virginia.

Silliman found that removing snails from
cordgrass, the dominant plant species in
salt marshes, bumped up grass growth as
much as 50 percent. Silliman earned his
Ph.D. at Brown and worked in the
Bertness lab along with Johan van de
Koppel, a former postdoctoral research
associate now at the Netherlands
Institute of Ecology. For more than two
years, the trio tested Silliman’s top-down
hypothesis of marsh ecology along the
Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana
coasts in conjunction with Louisiana
State University researchers Lee Stanton
and Irving Mendelssohn.

In 12 randomly selected die-off sites,
the team surveyed periwinkle populations.
They found the largest concentration of
snails – as many as 2,000 per square meter
– along dead-zone borders. To test the idea
that the snails contribute to cordgrass
death, they created dozens of deterrents –
wire mesh enclosures measuring about
one meter square. Enclosures were placed
ahead of fronts of grass-grazing snails and
monitored for more than a year.

Inside the enclosures, snail-free
cordgrass thrived. In fact, plant biomass
increased more than threefold. Outside
the cages, in 11 of the 12 sites, snail over-
grazing converted healthy marsh to
exposed mudflats in as little as three
months. When snail density was high,
destruction was more extensive.

Researchers also wanted to test the
notion that increased soil salinity,
brought on by drought, acts in concert
with snails to kill marshland. So, in one
healthy site in Georgia, the team elevated
soil salt concentrations in areas with and
without snails. Sites were monitored for
eight months. In the experimental plots,

increased salinity reduced grass growth
by 45 percent, while high salt levels, in
combination with the presence of snails,
reduced grass growth by 84 percent.

How do periwinkles contribute to
marsh destruction? Silliman has shown
that they kill the grass by slicing the
stems during grazing, leaving plants vul-
nerable to harmful fungi. In a process
called “fungal farming,” snails then con-
sume the fungi living off injured grass.
“We’ve found a synergism between cli-
mate change and grazers,” Silliman
explained. “Severe drought triggers for-
mation of traveling fronts of grazing
snails. Then there is runaway consump-
tion, which leads to waves of marsh
destruction. Given predicted increases in
climate change-induced drought, these
results highlight the potential for marsh
die-off to be even more intense and
extensive in the future.”

The findings, the authors argue,
underscore the interplay of climate and
consumers in the worldwide collapse of
coastal systems. While an overabundance
of snails may fuel southeastern salt marsh
destruction, they point to other examples
of habitat destruction that may be
caused, in part, by a plethora of grazers:
Sea urchins wiping out California kelp
beds, sea stars devastating Australian
coral reefs, snow geese decimating
marshes along the Artic Sea, bark beetles
killing off Arizona pine forests.

Georgia Sea Grant, Louisiana Sea Grant,
The Nature Conservancy, the National
Science Foundation and the Schure-
Beijerinck-Popping Fund supported the
work.

Science Daily, 20 December 2005
Source: Brown University

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/
12/051219091308.htm)

Florida May Require Permit 
for Large Reptiles

You can’t keep them from eating alligators
in the Everglades. You can’t bust people
for letting them loose — unless you hap-
pen to catch them in the act — but you
can, at least, make people think twice
before buying a Burmese Python or a
Nile monitor or any of a handful of large,
nonnative reptiles that have formed wild
colonies from Flamingo to DeLand.

That’s the rationale behind a new
state bill that would require a $100 annual

Diamondback Terrapins (Malaclemys terra-
pin) are known predators of small mollusks
like periwinkles. Impacted by the declining
quality of coastal habitats and heavily
exploited by humans for food, terrapin pop-
ulations in many areas have declined dramat-
ically in historical times. Actively managing
the species may not only help conserve these
turtles, but may help preserve salt marsh habi-
tats in the southeastern United States.

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Periwinkles (Littorina sp.) are spiral-shelled
snails commonly found along rocky U.S.
shorelines. They apparently play a primary
role in the unprecedented disappearance of
salt marsh habitats in southeastern states.

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2006 77NEWSBRIEFS

permit to keep certain large reptile species,
and provide for “pet amnesty days,” during
which 16-foot pythons and the like can be
turned in, no questions asked.

While the exact list of species has yet
to be figured out, and the state’s plan for
the unwanted animals is fuzzy at best, the
bill “is a great start,” said Florida Rep.
Ralph Poppell, R-Vero Beach, who is co-
sponsoring the legislation along with
Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge. It would
put large reptiles in the same tightly con-
trolled category as venomous snakes —
which Florida residents also need a $100
permit to keep.

“Before, you could just buy little
Johnny one, no big deal,” Poppell said.
Now little Johnny could be forking over
$2,500 during the course of the snake’s
life, and have to answer to the state if it
ever gets loose. The bill would, its sup-
porters hope, slow the tide of unwanted
reptile pets and reduce impulse purchases,
since buyers would need a permit in hand
first. Biologists don’t expect the bill, if it
passes, will make Burmese Pythons vanish
from the Everglades, or even slow their
progress beyond South Florida. “There’s
thousands of them out there,” said Kevin
Enge, a biologist with the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission.
“Burmese Pythons could potentially sur-
vive up to Orlando or on the coast even
farther north.”

Strangely, the recent abundance of
pythons seems to have only encouraged
more python-dumping. “The park biol-
ogists are finding clean ones lately, with-
out scratches or marks,” Enge said, indi-
cating they’ve been raised in captivity.

The bill would give unhappy own-
ers a way to dispose of their erstwhile
captives. The state’s first “pet amnesty”
event is being planned for Orlando.
What will happen to the dropped-off

creatures, however, is unclear. “That’s
something we’ll have to work out,” Enge
said. “A lot of these animals I don’t think
there’s a real market for. Realistically, they
are probably gonna be euthanized. How
we’re gonna explain that to the public I
don’t know.”

Dave Soltz, manager of Mr. Petman
in South Daytona, said he felt the $100
permit requirement would dissuade retail
buyers of large reptiles. Soltz said he tries
to be as clear as possible about the
growth and requirements of pets like
Burmese pythons, but it doesn’t always
take. “We give them as much informa-
tion as they’re willing to listen to,” he
said. Commercial reptile breeders, of
which Florida has dozens, have lent sup-
port to the permitting measure —
because the alternative could be to shut
down the trade in all exotics. “That
would be the next step,” Poppell said.
“But we really don’t want to put people
out of business.”

Enge thinks dealers may have been
responsible for the first releases of Nile
Monitors and Burmese Pythons, because
it takes quantities of animals to establish
a breeding colony. Eugene Bessette, an
Alachua County snake breeder who sup-
ports the restrictions and helped the state
craft them, said he thought individual pet
owners were to blame for most of the
releases. “People throw away cats; they
throw away dogs; they throw away chil-
dren,” Bessette said. “We live in a dispos-
able society.” Whatever the cause, the fact
is that colonies of Spiny-tailed Iguanas,
Nile Monitors, Burmese Pythons, African
Rock Pythons, and Boa Constrictors are
established in pockets of Florida, and
have been for years. Eradication efforts are
likely to intensify soon, Enge said.
“They’re gearing up for the Burmese
Pythons. There will probably be federal
money to try and eradicate them.”

It’s not merely because 16-foot
snakes freak people out, said Enge, but
because their prey items could include
threatened and endangered species. “So
far what we’ve found in their stomachs
are limpkins, house wrens, one had a
feral cat,” Enge said. “We worry that they
could get into Wood Stork colonies.”

The bill, if it passes, may serve to
keep the next big, unwelcome, predatory
species out of the state. Anacondas are
being considered for the list. At least two
have been discovered in the Everglades,
probably released by their owners and

not reproducing. No one expects that the
giant South American snakes would sur-
vive and breed here, but then, no one
expected Burmese Pythons to, either.
“Ten years ago, I’d have said Burmese
Pythons could never become established
in Florida,” Enge said.

Virginia Smith
Daytona Beach News Journal

19 February 2006

State to Consider Reptile Ban 
in Schools1

For students who have pet snakes, sala-
manders, or other reptiles in their class-
rooms, an order to remove the coveted
creatures would probably seem cold-
blooded.

State officials aren’t ready to lay
down that law in public schools yet, but
they recently did so at licensed child care
centers across North Carolina. The rea-
son is Salmonella – a bacterium found in
the digestive tracts of all reptiles that can
cause diarrhea, fever, headaches, and
severe vomiting in humans.

A newly formed panel with the
N.C. Commission for Health Services

1 Editors’ note: The IRCF strongly endorses
the educational use of reptiles in properly
supervised situations in which necessary
precautions and hygiene are enforced.

Spiny-tailed or Black Iguanas, such as this
Ctenosaura similis, a Middle American native,
are locally abundant in several regions of
southern Florida where they often inflict
considerable damage on decorative landscap-
ing, most of which is composed of non-
native vegetation.

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This young Burmese Python (Python molu-
rus bivittatus; top), caught in Everglades
National Park, is testament to the reality that
wild snakes are thriving and breeding in
southern Florida. The larger adult (bottom)
is more typical of snakes being seen and
reported; many obviously are former pets
released by owners when they become too
large to easily accommodate in captivity.

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will meet for the first time this month to
discuss school sanitation rules, which
haven’t been revised in 15 years, and it
could be a scaly outcome for the use of
reptiles in education. “The sanitation
requirements now (at schools) are not
nearly as restrictive as they are for tod-
dlers and infants at child care facilities,”
said Ed Norman, an environmental epi-
demiologist with the children’s health
branch of the N.C. Department of
Environment, Health, and Natural
Resources. “This committee has formed
to look at those rules.” Norman said the
rules governing child care centers were
reviewed in August and went into effect
January 1. Public health officials sug-
gested the reptile ban as a way of pre-
venting Salmonella outbreaks among
preschoolers who can be forgetful about
handwashing. Since Salmonella is carried
in the intestinal tracts of reptiles, they
intermittently or continuously shed the
bacteria in their feces. The disease can be
fatal for young children or anyone with a
weakened immune system, Norman said.
“Younger kids are at greater risk, but
really, any child could be,” he said.

Robert Hunt, environmental super-
visor for the Nash County Health
Department, said he knows of no child-
care centers here that were affected by the
new rule. In line with the state standard,
his office performs health inspections
only once a year at public schools in the
county, but Hunt said he would recom-
mend that children not be allowed to
handle a reptile – especially iguanas – in
a classroom. “Ensuring proper handling
and handwashing afterward is very
important,” Hunt said.

Reptiles can’t be found at every
school around the Twin Counties, but
they’re not exactly uncommon. Science
kits furnished as part of the N.C.

Standard Course of Study provide many
classrooms with critters such as hermit
crabs, earthworms, and mice. At D.S.
Johnson Elementary School, that’s also
how fourth-grade teacher Edith Berry
obtained eight anoles – tiny lizards that
resemble chameleons. Berry said the ben-
efits have been innumerable. Her stu-
dents learn about the lizard’s ecosystem,
its ability to change color according to its
surroundings and its dietary affection for
crickets. “It’s been absolutely wonderful,”
Berry said. “It’s one of the reasons my
students have grown to love science.”
Berry requires her students to wear dis-
posable gloves while handling the anoles.

At Williford Elementary School,
third-grade teacher Suzanne Lindsey does-
n’t feel that’s necessary. Lindsey said she
has had a snake in her classroom aquar-
ium every spring for about the last 20
years – usually from April through the end
of the school year. She’s also occasionally
had other reptiles. “It would be a terrible
thing to have something that neat and not
be able to touch it,” Lindsey said. “But my
kids are only allowed to hold it under
supervision. “They understand the risk of
Salmonella, and we talk about the impor-
tance of handwashing when we’re fin-
ished.” Lindsey’s students are not allowed
to feed the reptiles or help with cleaning
the aquarium, and she said having an ani-
mal in the classroom is more enriching
than simply looking at a picture. Last year,
their Red-bellied Water Snake (Nerodia
erythrogaster) turned out to be pregnant
and gave birth to 63 babies that were each

smaller than a pencil. “Every class came by
and saw them, and it was so memorable,”
Lindsey said. If the law changes, she said,
so be it. “If we’re told they’re no longer
allowed, I’ll respect that,” Lindsey said.
“Unfortunately, these laws come and go.”

Michael Barrett
Rocky Mount Telegram

6 February 2006

Lose the Lizards in Lee County
The City of Cape Coral has a population
of the Nile Monitor Lizard (Varanus niloti-
cus) perhaps numbering in the thousands.
The City has been logging sightings and
attempting to eradicate the monitor lizard
since 2001. The trapping effort has
included city employees, grant-funded indi-
viduals, college interns, and volunteers. So
far, we have captured 120 monitors.

In recent months, monitors have
been sighted on Sanibel Island, Fort
Myers, and in the Charlotte Harbor
Aquatic Buffer Preserve. They are proba-
bly established on Pine Island. The fears
that these exotic lizards would spread to
the barrier islands are most likely
founded. With the realization that the
City’s current efforts are not adequate to
reduce the population of monitors, we
are enlisting the aid of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Wildlife
Services. They have been the lead agency
dealing with Brown Tree Snakes, African
Pouch Rats, and feral hogs, among oth-
ers. They are familiar with the monitor
lizard problem and are interested in
assessing what is needed to control the
population. They are attempting to
gauge the amount of local support for an
eradication/management effort. They are
also interested in meeting with anyone
concerned about the spread of the Nile
Monitor in southwestern Florida.

We are asking you for support in
eradicating the monitors of Lee County,
Florida. The USDA needs to hear from
concerned individuals now. The amount
of federal funding for this will depend on
the amount of public support for its
necessity. Please pass this information
along to anyone that is concerned with
the spread of monitor lizards in south-
western Florida. A letter or email to your
congressional representatives or the
USDA stating your support for eradicat-
ing the Florida populations of monitors
would be helpful.

78 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2006 NEWSBRIEFS

A Red-bellied Water Snake (Nerodia erythro-
gaster) in a classroom at Williford Elementary
School (North Carolina) greatly enriched the
learning experience for students.

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Todd Campbell, Assistant Professor of
Biology at the University of Tampa, holding
a Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus). Building
on work by Kraig Hankins (City of Cape
Coral), Kenneth Krysko (Florida Museum of
Natural History), and Kevin Enge (Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commis-
sion), whose collective efforts generated a
public awareness of this issue, Dr. Campbell
has been actively working on the monitor
problem since 2003.

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2006 79NEWSBRIEFS

Thank you for your efforts to preserve
Florida’s and the nation’s natural resources.

Bernice Constantin
Florida and Puerto Rico Wildlife Services

2820 East University Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32641

bernice.u.constantin@aphis.usda.gov

Kraig Hankins
Environmental Biologist, City of Cape Coral

khankins@capecoral.net

Grant To Fund 
Bog Turtle Conservation

A program aimed at restoring and con-
serving Tennessee’s smallest, most endan-
gered turtle got a $11,350 boost from the
American Zoological Association’s
Conservation Endowment Fund. The
grant to the Knoxville Zoo and Bern W.
Tyron, the zoo’s director of animal col-
lections/herpetology, will be used in
2006 to increase resources and staff for
the Tennessee Bog Turtle Program. The
program began in 1986 when the first
animal was found in Johnson County.
Funding comes from the Nature
Conservancy of Tennessee, Tennessee
Wildlife Resources Agency, and the zoo.

Bog Turtles (Glyptemys muhlenbergii)
live in wetlands with shallow, slowly flow-
ing water. Bog Turtles are characterized by
a large bright orange, red, or yellow
blotch on each side of the head. These
animals have been found in 12 states,
from New York to Maryland, and, after a
250-mile gap, south from southwestern
Virginia to northern Georgia.

Fewer than 100 live turtles have
been discovered in Tennessee since the
first was found almost 20 years ago.
Tyron estimated 93 wild turtles now live
in the remnants of a wetland bog in east-
ern Tennessee. The mud-loving turtles
aren’t always easily seen. Two of the
Johnson County sites were found as
recently as 2002 and 2003.

One of North America’s smallest
turtle species, the average Bog Turtle is
3 1⁄2” long. The largest known Southern
Bog Turtle, found in Johnson County, is
only 41⁄2” long.

Helping wild turtles reproduce is
the key to helping the species survive.
Researchers haven’t seen young turtles in
recent years, but have found destroyed
nests. “The eggs just disappear,” Tyron
said. Data suggest that only half of the
females lay eggs in any given year; typi-
cally each only lays three eggs. Some of

the grant money will pay for an outdoor
egg incubation station to safeguard the
wild turtles’ eggs. Tyron and field coordi-
nator, Lynn Eastin, will remove eggs
from the nests they find to the center.
After they hatch, baby turtles will be
returned to their nest spots.

While the program’s priority is
restoring and managing animals found in
the wild, it also places captive-born tur-
tles into the field. Born and reared for a
time at the zoo, 113 of the captive-born
turtles have been put on undisclosed
Carter County property in the last 15
years. Even after 15 years, Tyron said the
release of the zoo-born turtles remains an
experiment that cannot replace efforts to
save those born in the wild. He estimates
more than 50 percent of the captive-bred
turtles have survived in Carter County.
Add those to the 93 known wild animals
and still fewer than 200 Bog Turtles live
in the Tennessee countryside.

Other CEF grant money will hire a
second field coordinator for the program
and pay for 23 tiny radio transmitters.
Secured to turtle shells by epoxy, the 5.2-
g transmitters have allowed researchers to
monitor 39 wild turtles since 2001 and
nine captive-born released turtles since
2002. The grant-funded transmitters are
in addition to 30 paid for by the Nature
Conservancy. Tyron plans to put a trans-
mitter on every adult wild female turtle
that is found. The transmitters will help
researchers know which turtles reproduce
and then find the eggs for the incubation
center.

Bog Turtles may be small, but they
can move. From April until fall hiberna-
tion, a turtle may crawl 1⁄2–3⁄4 of a mile.
The signal from one turtle’s transmitter
led researchers to the Johnson County
habitat found in 2002. One turtle trav-
eled almost 2 1⁄2 mi, moving out of its
home valley and over a mountain.
Researchers will never know exactly

where the animal was going; its trans-
mitter was found by the side of a road.

Amy McRary (amymcrary@comcast.net)
12 December 2005

Memorandum of Understanding
between ISG, IIF, and ICRF

In October 2005, a memorandum of
understanding between ISG, IIF, and
ICRF was established in order to facili-
tate cooperation in the development and
implementation of conservation action
on behalf of iguanas and their habitats.

The IUCN/SSC Iguana Specialist
Group (ISG) prioritizes and facilitates
conservation, science, and awareness pro-
grams that help ensure the survival of
wild iguanas and their habitats. The ISG
currently consists of 86 biologists, con-
servation managers, and government
officials from 25 countries. ISG mem-
bership is by invitation from elected co-
chairs on behalf of the chair of the
IUCN Species Survival Commission.

The International Iguana Founda-
tion (IIF), chartered in part to support
the conservation action plans of the ISG,
supports conservation, awareness, and
scientific programs that enhance the sur-
vival of wild iguanas and their habitats.
IIF Membership is restricted to approved
board members (14 currently serve).

The International Reptile Conser-
vation Foundation (IRCF) works to con-
serve reptiles and the natural habitats and
ecosystems that support them, with a
strong emphasis on iguanas. An advisory
council and editorial board advise the
president and other officers. Public mem-
bership is international with payment of
annual dues, and members receive quar-
terly copies of the journal Iguana.

Both IIF and IRCF are registered
501 c (3) nonprofit foundations and
engage in fund-raising activities to sup-
port iguana conservation. IRCF focuses
primarily on web-based marketing cam-
paigns and direct merchandising to fund
programs, whereas IIF relies strongly on
a zoo base of support and extramural
grants. Both IRCF and IIF fund projects
in accordance with ISG conservation pri-
orities, with priority given to those proj-
ects that: (1) Are components of
approved Species Recovery Plans, (2) Are
ISG endorsed, (3) Directly contribute to
the survival of endangered iguanas and
their habitats, and (4) Are part of an
established conservation program. For

Researchers studying Tennessee Bog Turtles
(Glyptemys muhlenbergii) received a grant
from the American Zoological Association’s
Conservation Endowment Fund.

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projects not involving iguanas, IRCF
seeks recommendations from other
IUCN specialist groups as appropriate.

Mutual benefits include: (1)
Enhanced ability to develop coordinated
strategies to meet ongoing project needs,
particularly those of an emergency nature
requiring a rapid response and the use of
volunteers. (2) Enhanced ability to reach
the general public with conservation mes-
sages through a variety of media, includ-
ing a strong internet presence, the journal
Iguana, joint public relations campaigns,
and public venues such as trade shows.
(3) Enhanced information-sharing chan-
nels with the American Zoo and
Aquarium Association (AZA), scientific
community, and public sector to raise

both monetary and in-kind services to
support iguana conservation projects. (4)
Enhanced communication to facilitate
prioritization of worthy projects, provide
insight into critical project needs, and fos-
ter public support for program priorities.

IIF, IRCF, and ISG are committed to
using their collective resources to promote
the cause of iguana conservation. IIF,
IRCF, and ISG pledge to work together to
identify and outline funding priorities and
projects that complement each other. In
general, IIF will seek to provide long-term
core project support, including baseline
funding for salaries and project costs,
including travel, equipment, and supplies,
whereas IRCF will focus on immediate,
discrete, critical program needs, and gaps

in funding and staff. Both IRCF and IIF
will continue to prioritize their iguana
conservation efforts based on the guidance
of the ISG. All three organizations will
strive to maintain open communication
channels to maximize information flow
and coordination of efforts. 

80 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2006 NEWSBRIEFS

During recent herpetological surveys,
Durrell Wildlife’s herpetologist on
the ground in Montserrat, Agnieszka
Ogrodowczyk, found a critically
endangered Giant Montserrat Galli-
wasp (Diploglossus montisserrati). The
significance of this find is that the
Montserrat Galliwasp had been con-
sidered possibly extinct, because only
two other individuals had been
found in the last ten years, both from
just one small area in the Centre

Hills. This discovery provides opti-
mism for believing that the giant gal-
liwasp of Montserrat is in a better
state than was previously thought.
However, the species must still be
regarded as highly threatened due to
the active volcano, which has already
reduced the forest, on which the
species appears to depend, by one
third of its original range. The animal
caught by Agnes was 41 cm in length
and weighed 170 g.

Giant Galliwasps are large (20
cm or more in head-body length),
secretive, ground-dwelling lizards
found only in the Neotropics. Four
species are known from the West
Indian islands of Hispaniola and
Jamaica, but the Montserrat species is
the only one found in the Eastern
Caribbean. All Galliwasps are threat-
ened with extinction, and one
Jamaican species is known from only
one museum specimen, and may in
fact be extinct.

The next step is for the Montser-
rat Forestry Department and Durrell
Wildlife Conservation Trust to
develop and carry out a full field 
survey of all the remaining moist for-
est areas in order to develop a conser-
vation strategy for this unique island
lizard. The herpetology staff at
Durrell Wildlife also is working on

and studying a closely related species
in an effort to better understand these
animals’ behavior and breeding ecol-
ogy in hopes of generating valuable
information that can be transferred to
field scientists in Montserrat to con-
serve the species in the wild.

The Montserrat Reporter Online
27 January 2006

The Montserrat Galliwasp in its habitat.

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Durrell herpetologist, Agnieszka
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Durrell Wildlife Finds Montserrat Galliwasp Lizard Thought to be Extinct

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