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198 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWSBRIEFS

Suspect Sliders Stopped
The Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission approved
new regulations concerning many species
that are not native to Florida. The new
rules add the Red-eared Slider (Trachemys
scripta elegans) to a list of “conditional
species” that are covered under this rule.
The rule will prohibit the possession of
any Red-eared Slider less than four inches
(10 cm) carapace length after 1 July
2008, except by special permit. Red-
eared Sliders possessed prior to 1 July
2007 (when the rules are proposed to
become effective) will be exempt, as will
those with distinctive aberrant color pat-
terns (e.g., albino, amelanistic); the latter
sell for high prices, are unlikely to be
released, and probably have low survival
value in the wild. The rule does not pro-
hibit breeders from exporting sliders out
of state. The Florida reptile pet industry

expressed its support for the new rules.
Thanks go to everyone who wrote to the
Commission last year in support of
establishing rules that would help to pro-
hibit the mass sales of Red-ear Slider
hatchlings in Florida (at least some of
which are released into the wild to com-
pete or hybridize with native turtles).

Carolina Herp Atlas on the Web
The Carolina Herp Atlas, a new online
database developed by Davidson College
and partly funded by the N.C. Wildlife
Resources Commission (WRC), will har-
ness the power of “backyard biologists”
with an interactive website that could
shed new light on countless animals
across North and South Carolina. “Many
species of amphibians and reptiles are
very difficult to sample because they’re
either rare, difficult to find, or active at
times that make it tough,” said Mike
Dorcas, an associate professor with
Davidson’s biology department. “The
Carolina Herp Atlas provides a method
where we can rapidly collect information
on the distribution of amphibians and
reptiles, and that information is desper-
ately needed for us to make management
decisions.” 

“In the past, we’ve relied on a small
number of herpetologists to provide the
critical information that is used by the
Wildlife Resources Commission to prior-
itize conservation activities for reptiles
and amphibians,” said Chris McGrath, a
biologist with the N.C. WRC. “The
Carolina Herp Atlas is a powerful new
tool that gives all citizens an opportunity
to contribute scientific information that
will help the Commission achieve our
wildlife conservation goals.”

For more information or to become
a member, visit the Carolina Herp Atlas
at www.carolinaherpatlas.org. 

Raleigh, North Carolina

Funding Cut for the Savannah 
River Ecology Laboratory

The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
(SREL) is a research unit of The
University of Georgia, located on a U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) facility
and primarily funded by DOE. Founded
in 1951, SREL provides independent
evaluations of the ecological effects of the
nuclear reactor located on the site.
Activities include extensive research,
including many valuable herpetological
studies, as well as education and out-
reach. A major benefit of the Savannah
River Ecology Lab has been its long-term
research and steady accumulation of
detailed field records that can provide
insights into, among other things, the
possible consequences of climate change
on the complex ecology of the region.
Unfortunately, we may lose this valuable
resource. Funding was exhausted at the
end of May 2007, and the lab will be
forced to close unless additional funds
can be obtained.

During the past year, SREL has
worked with Savannah River Site (SRS)
representatives to implement a new 5-
year cooperative agreement with task-
based funding, similar to what has been
used for the past 20+ years. According to
written and verbal communications from
DOE, the funds have been budgeted for
SREL tasks that have been underway
since September 2006, and the funds are
actually at the SRS to complete these

N E W S B R I E F S

Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans)
have become a plague in Florida, where they
have been introduced, presumably via the pet
trade. Many have been released into the wild,
where they are breeding and competing or
even hybridizing with native turtles. The
female (top) was collected in Miami, the
adult (middle) was photographed in Oak
Grove Park (Miami), and the 28 turtles in
the tubs (bottom) were trapped in one night
using 12 traps at Crandon Park on Key
Biscayne.

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Redbelly Water Snakes (Nerodia erythrogaster) are essentially ubiquitous in the Carolinas. This
image graces the Carolina Herp Atlas homepage (www.carolinaherpatlas.org).

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tasks. However, the funds have not been
released to SREL, a decision made by
officials at DOE Headquarters in
Washington, D.C. The nature of the
tasks proposed and approved by SRS
managers appears not to have played a
role in this decision.

The SREL has been home to her-
petologists Drs. J. Whitfield Gibbons
and Justin D. Congdon and their col-
leagues, collaborators, and students for
30+ years. Gibbons, who received the
esteemed Henry S. Fitch Award for
Excellence in Herpetology in 2006, and
his colleagues have conducted ecological
research on reptiles and amphibians since
1967, producing over 700 research
papers and 15 books. The SRS has been
a host to several long-term ecological
studies, resulting in the marking of over
20,000 turtles, and the capture and re-
release of 1.4 million amphibians and
20,000 snakes. Closure of SREL would
also bring to an end an ongoing, long-
term study of an amphibian community
at Rainbow Bay that was initiated in
1978 and continues today with the help
of researcher David Scott. The loss of this
long-term amphibian study comes at a
critical time, when amphibian popula-
tion declines are being reported globally
and as many as 32% of amphibian
species are threatened. SREL was one of
the founding constituents of Partners in
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

(PARC; www.parcplace.org), and mem-
bers of SREL were present at the first
stakeholder meeting to establish PARC
in Atlanta in 1998.

“Closure of SREL would be a tragic
loss to the global science of reptile and
amphibian ecology,” stated Brian Todd,
SREL graduate student and doctoral can-
didate at the University of Georgia. “The
attempted closure of SREL is yet another
warning of the increased hostility against
independent environmental oversight
and ecological research that we have seen
in recent years. Today it may be SREL,
but tomorrow it could undoubtedly be
any other ecological research lab. It sad-
dens me deeply that the closure of SREL
may come so soon after the losses of
SREL founder Dr. Eugene Odum and
vocal SREL advocate and alumnus Dr.
Frank Golley. It does no honor to their
memory to dismantle the lab that they
put on the map. We must come together
and take a stand to declare that ‘enough
is enough’ or we will see no end to the
loss of important institutions like SREL
and others.”

In late May, the Investigations and
Oversight (I&O) Subcommittee and the
Energy and Environment (E&E)
Subcommittee of the House Committee
on Science and Technology called on
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to
continue funding for the Savannah River
Ecology Lab. “We are currently unsure

why and how the decision was made to
terminate the Department’s support for
the facility,” wrote I&O Subcommittee
Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC). “We ask
that you continue to provide support to
the lab until the Committee can thor-
oughly review the Department’s actions
in this case.” “The Subcommittees
deserve a chance to review the logic that
led DOE to terminate support for a lab
that has been doing world-class research
since 1951,” added E&E Subcommittee
Chairman Nick Lampson (D-TX). “On
the face of it, this is a difficult action to
understand.”

Miller and Lampson called the lab
indispensable in tracking the environ-
mental conditions around the Savannah
River site and providing unbiased infor-
mation to the public and the government
about those conditions. The Chairmen
have asked for continued support for the
lab from DOE pending further review by
the Subcommittee. They have also asked
that the Department provide all records
since 1 August 2006 regarding the lab
and the decision to terminate support.

All citizens, including researchers,
parents, teachers, and children, who want
to urge DOE to release the funding for
SREL to continue tasks approved by SRS
managers should contact individuals who
could make this happen. The more peo-
ple who express their concern, the more
likely it is that action will be taken. You
should write letters to your congressional
representatives, newspapers, or anyone
else you think should know.

Kansas River Flood Triggers 
Snake Movements

Alfred Cramer and Lisa Bryson had been
sitting on large, jagged rocks watching
the rapid flow of the Kansas River when
they suddenly realized they had close
company. “There was a snake and a
muskrat, or something like a rat,”
Cramer said of a couple of critters they
saw crawling among the rocks near the
river’s edge just east of the Bowersock
Dam. Cramer and Bryson decided it was
time to move off the rocks to the dirt
path behind them. They were among a
steady stream of people who continued
to gather Tuesday on the banks of the
Kaw (= Kansas) to watch the slowly
receding river and the tremendous
amount of debris it carried.

Ornate Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris ornata) are among the 1.4 million amphibians that have been
examined in long-term studies conducted at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory since 1967.
The lab will be forced to close unless additional funds can be obtained after threatened cuts in
federal support.

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200 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWSBRIEFS

Lawrence residents Jonathan Doerr
and Steve Dahlberg also saw snakes on
the bank. “We thought there was a
Copperhead over there, but someone
said it was something else,” Dahlberg
said, pointing to a now-vacant slab of
rock. The flood may cause more snake
sightings near the river, but that doesn’t
mean there are more of them, said John
Simmons, collections manager in the
division of herpetology at Kansas
University’s Natural History Museum.
Simmons indicated that the rising water
has flooded the snakes’ usual places to sit
and hide, causing them to move around,
looking for places to go. Water snakes in
the Lawrence area are not venomous, and
Water Moccasins, which are venomous,
to not occur in the area.

Mike Belt
Lawrence Journal-World, 9 May 2007

Adding Insult to Injury
A Chesterton man faces possible charges
of illegal possession of venomous snakes
after one of his “pets” bit him. Robert
Urbanski, 66, was airlifted to Methodist
Hospital in Indianapolis after suffering
the snake bite. Urbanski told rescue per-
sonnel he was handling a Western
Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus
atrox) when it bit him. 

An Indiana Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) conservation officer
arrived at the home and learned that two
rattlesnakes were still inside the house.
Urbanski told investigators that he had
purchased the snakes five days earlier at a
swap meet in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
One was a Western Diamondback and
the other a Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake
(Sistrurus miliarius). Owning venomous

snakes without a permit is illegal in
Indiana. The DNR said Urbanski did
not have a permit. The case was referred
to the Porter County Prosecutor’s Office
for possible charges for illegal possession
of venomous snakes.

The snakes are being held at the
DNR’s Michigan City office and will be
destroyed. They cannot be returned to
the wild. Western Diamondbacks are
commonly found in the southwest,
whereas Pigmy Rattlesnakes are found in
Florida. Neither is indigenous to north-
western Indiana. 

Tom Wyatt
Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune

7 & 8 May 2007

A License to Kill Gopher Tortoises
Workers buried the 30-pound Gopher
Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) on a Lee
County construction site, its shell
crushed by a backhoe. Two weeks later,

despite a spinal injury, the determined
tortoise dug its way out. The remarkable
resurrection led a wildlife expert to nick-
name the 16-inch-long tortoise
“Phoenix.” It was the largest Gopher
Tortoise ever found in the wild. It died
last week.

For 16 years, Florida officials have
allowed developers to bury Gopher
Tortoises alive and pave over their bur-
rows, in exchange for paying money into
a fund to buy land for tortoises elsewhere.
Because of their low metabolic rate, tor-
toises can take months to suffocate under
convenience store parking lots, shopping
centers, and new subdivisions.

By this year, the state’s pay-to-pave
program had issued permits to bury
more than 94,000 Gopher Tortoises.
Now the species is in sharp decline, and
tortoise experts blame the permitting
program. “It’s a massive loss of tortoises,”
said George Heinrich of Heinrich
Ecological Services in St. Petersburg and
a former co-chairman of the Gopher
Tortoise Council, a group of biologists
concerned about the animal’s future.

State wildlife officials have decided
to end the program by 31 July 2007,
prompting a rush by developers to beat
the deadline. Up to a dozen applications
a week have been sent in for the last per-
mits to kill Gopher Tortoises, according
to Rick McCann, who runs the permit
program for the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Four months ago, for instance, the
Orlando-Orange County Expressway
Authority got a permit to kill more than
400 Gopher Tortoises whose burrows
were in the path of a new highway.
Before the bulldozers could crank up, the
Humane Society of the United States

Flooding causes snakes along rivers to move
to higher ground. The Northern Water
Snake (Nerodia sipedon) is a common species
in the Kaw River system, and probably
accounts for most sightings of snakes during
springtime floods.

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A “pet” Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
(Crotalus atrox) bit its owner, who may face
charges for illegal possession of a venomous
snake.

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Florida’s “pay-to-pave” program had issued permits to bury more than 94,000 Gopher Tortoises
(Gopherus polyphemus).

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lodged a protest. Last month the express-
way authority agreed to drop its plans to
kill the tortoises and agreed to move
them to a Gopher Tortoise preserve area
in the 48,000-acre Nokuse Plantation in
the Panhandle.

The Humane Society is eager to see
the pay-to-pave program end, said
Jennifer Hobgood, program coordinator
in the society’s Tallahassee regional office.
But Hobgood is concerned about the
rush to beat the deadline. The permits
the state wildlife commission are issuing
now have no expiration date, so develop-
ers who get them can use them any time
in the future. “They would be permitted
to kill limitless numbers of tortoises
indefinitely,” Hobgood said.

No one knows for sure how many
Gopher Tortoises remain, but more live
in Florida than anywhere else. However,
the habitat Gopher Tortoises favor also is
popular with developers. By 2003, more
than 1.7 million acres of Florida land
that was once tortoise habitat had been
turned into home sites, roads, shopping
centers, and the like, according to the
wildlife commission. In 1979, state
wildlife officials included them on a list
of imperiled animals as a “species of spe-
cial concern.” That meant no one could
harm or harass one without the state’s
permission.

Since 1991, developers who wanted
to build in Gopher Tortoise habitat could
choose between two state-authorized
solutions: Write a check to the state and
pave over the burrows, suffocating the
occupants, or pay someone to find all the
Gopher Tortoises and move them.
Moving tortoises was the feel-good
choice, McCann said, but it didn’t always
work. The tortoises often tried to find
their way home, only to be run over; or
they carried a respiratory disease that
then spread to other tortoises already on
their new home turf. For a while, the
state required developers who wanted to
relocate Gopher Tortoises to pay to test
them for the disease first, making that
option much more expensive than pay-
ing to kill the tortoises.

McCann contended that the pay-
to-pave program was, in a way, better for
Gopher Tortoises, because the money
collected from developers was used to
buy and preserve 25, 000 acres of tortoise
habitat. Unfortunately, that makes up for
only one-fifth of the habitat that’s been

wiped out, Hobgood said. Meanwhile,
the government has sanctioned suffocat-
ing tens of thousands of the animals.

In a report last summer, a panel of
state wildlife experts estimated that the
population of Gopher Tortoises in
Florida has declined by more than half in
the past 60 to 90 years. That persuaded
state officials to take the first step toward
bumping the tortoise up to “threatened,”
one rung below “endangered.” The
change is long overdue, said Matt Aresco,
conservation director of Nokuse
Plantation.

Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times

7 May 2007

Monitor Lizard Shot in Orlando
A 41⁄2-foot monitor lizard that made
waves in the Lost Lake subdivision earlier
this month is believed to be dead,
Casselberry police said. A police officer
caught the lizard sunning on the bank of
a pond and shot it twice. The creature
crawled back into the water after being
struck, and authorities have not been
able to locate the body.

Officers had been given the go-
ahead to take out the vicious lizard after
several attempts to trap it, including one
in which it dragged a trapper into the
water. Police think the creature once was
a house pet that either escaped or was
released when it grew too large to be con-
fined. Residents in the area feared for
their pets’ and children’s safety after close
encounters with the lizard.

Sarah Langbein
Orlando Sentinel

27 May 2007

Cairo Snake Smuggler Snared
Customs officers were stunned when a
passenger was caught trying to smuggle
700 live snakes onto a plane. The man
was stopped at Cairo’s international air-
port with the serpents stashed in small
cloth sacks in a carry-on bag. Among the
snakes were two poisonous cobras. The
would-be smuggler said he had hoped to
take them into Saudi Arabia and sell
them.

Police confiscated the snakes and
turned the passenger over to the prosecu-
tor’s office, accusing him of violating
export laws and endangering the lives of
other passengers. According to customs
officials, the would-be smuggler claimed
that the snakes are wanted by Saudis who
display them in glass jars in their shops,
sell them to research centers, and keep
them as pets.

news.sky.com
25 May 2007

An Orlando police officer shot a Monitor Lizard (Varanus niloticus) sunning on the bank of a
pond. Residents in the area feared for their pets’ and children’s safety.

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Customs officers in Cairo arrested a passen-
ger trying to smuggle 700 live snakes, includ-
ing two Egyptian Cobras (Naja haje), onto a
plane. The snakes were destined for Saudi
Arabia.

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Los Angeles Gator Captured
One of America’s most-wanted has
finally been caught — after spending the
past two years lounging in a Los Angeles
lake. For months, the 2-m American
Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) called
Reggie evaded authorities and made
more headline news than the average A-
list celebrity. The late “Crocodile
Hunter” Steve Irwin had even offered to
help nab Reggie at one point, when the
local newspaper kept a “Reggie Watch”
on its masthead.

Reggie even inspired a song, two
children’s books, and innumerable T-
shirts. Every day, crowds of people con-
verged on Harbor City’s Lake Machado,
hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive
creature that was dumped in the park by
its owner back in 2005.

However, when Reggie’s time was
up — as he sunbathed in a secluded area
of the park — he refused to surrender
without a fight. In true Hollywood style,
as TV helicopters hovered above, and
fans and paparazzi gazed on, Reggie
thrashed around as six men attempted to
restrain him while reptile expert Ian
Recchio hooked his neck so the alligator’s
jaws could be taped shut. Reggie was
then loaded onto a truck by firefighters
bound for the Los Angeles Zoo, where he
will be kept in quarantine for up to two
months. Clearly fame doesn’t come with-
out a price.

www.itv.com
25 May 2007

New Texas Regulations Protect
Nongame Wildlife

On 24 May, the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Commission approved a measure that
will prohibit commercial collection of all

wild turtles from public waters and pub-
lic land in the state, but will still allow
collection of three varieties of turtles on
private property, including ranch stock
tanks and farm ponds. The turtle provi-
sions are part of new Texas nongame reg-
ulations that create a “white list” of 84
species that can be collected and sold and
prohibit the commercial collection of all
other nongame animals not on the list.

The new regulations are designed to
help monitor and regulate the escalating
commercial collection and sale of wild

turtles, snakes, and other nongame ani-
mals (species not covered under hunting
and fishing regulations) in Texas. The
change would protect at least 15 species
of turtles and more than 200 other
nongame wildlife species that are not on
the white list.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department (TPWD) staff had pro-
posed new nongame regulations in April
that would have prohibited the commer-
cial collection of turtles everywhere in the
state. However, public comments during
the past few months showed that while
about 90 percent of those who com-
mented support turtle protection, some
landowners expressed concerns about not
being able to effectively manage turtles
within their property.

“We currently have a huge and
growing demand for turtle meat, coupled
with unrestricted commercial collection,
and we need to move toward sustainabil-
ity,” said Matt Wagner, Ph.D., TPWD
wildlife diversity program leader, in a
briefing to commissioners on 23 May. “It
is a fact that unrestricted take of any
species from the wild, including turtles,
over the long term leads to population
declines. If we need to further restrict
activity in the future, based on ongoing
monitoring, we can.”

The new regulations will allow com-
mercial collection of three varieties of tur-
tles from private property in Texas,
including the Red-eared Slider
(Trachemys scripta elegans), the Common
Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina),
and the five varieties of softshell turtles
(Apalone spp.). Commercial collection of
all wild turtles will be prohibited on pub-
lic land and in public waters of the state,
such as rivers and public lakes.

Wildlife biologists say the new
nongame regulations are needed in part
because of increased pressure from out-
of-state collectors and dealers, fueled in
part by a growing demand for turtle
meat sold to China and other Asian mar-
kets. In recent years, an average of
94,442 turtles per year were collected or
purchased by at least 50 Texas dealers,
mostly for export from the state.

Wildlife experts are expressing par-
ticular concern about the turtle trade.
Abundant scientific research indicates
that unregulated commercial turtle har-
vest from the wild is not sustainable. At
least four southeastern states have pro-
hibited commercial collection of turtles
from the wild, and most others are more
restrictive than Texas.

A total of 84 species are on the new
white list, with annual permitting and
rigorous reporting required for anyone
possessing more than 25 specimens in
the aggregate of listed animals for com-
mercial purposes.

“For any nongame species not on
the white list, there will be a possession
limit of up to six nongame animals at
one time for personal use,” said Matt
Wagner, TPWD wildlife diversity pro-
gram director. “We want kids, for exam-
ple, to be able to keep a pet turtle or
two.”

“Reggie,” a 2-m long American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) became quite a celebrity before
his capture in a Los Angeles (California) lake.

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Spiny Softshell Turtles (Apalone spinifera)
may still be collected for commercial use on
private land after implementation of new
Texas regulations addressing the unrestricted
take of turtles from the wild.

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Box Turtle 
Conservation Workshop

A Box Turtle Conservation Workshop
will be held 9–10 November 2007 at
Patuxent Research Refuge’s National
Wildlife Visitor Center in Laurel,
Maryland. This is the third in a series of
workshops aimed at bringing together
individuals actively engaged in box turtle
research and conservation to assess the
status of these species, the challenges they
face, and to devise strategies to help
secure their future. The workshop is
sponsored by the Jug Bay Wetlands
Sanctuary, The Humane Society of the
United States, and the North Carolina
Zoological Park.

This workshop will focus exclusively
on research studies of box turtle popula-
tion status, ecology, and life history strate-
gies. Box turtle populations are declining
throughout their range, yet few efforts
have been made to assess current popula-
tion status in the interest of developing
long-term conservation strategies. The
principal goals of this workshop will be to
provide current information, where it
exists, on population size assessment
throughout the species’ ranges, and to ini-
tiate population studies in as many states
as possible where these turtles occur.

Nature Museums are Threatened
The great American natural history
museum could be headed for the vulner-
able species list, alongside the polar bear
and the redwood tree. A national survey
last year showed nature museums’ annual
bottom lines sinking chronically into the
red, and some of the leading institutions

have winnowed their staffs since the
decade began.

Science leaders worry that financial
pressures and demands to boost atten-
dance could prompt natural history muse-
ums to self-lobotomize, cutting away
brain matter — the pure scientific research
that’s largely hidden from the public — to
save the exhibits and educational pro-
grams that are the institutions’ visible cash
generators. Research is what makes natu-
ral history museums special: The mandate
to venture into nature and bring back new
finds and fresh questions, while maintain-
ing millions of specimens. Some scientists
say that amid global warming and a rapid
die-off of species, these collections encom-
passing the world’s life forms, living and
extinct, have become especially valuable
for the clues they might hold. How have
creatures through the eons adapted or
failed as their environments have changed?
What’s happening now? Biologists say
those questions are vital in coping with
today’s challenges, and they can’t be
answered fully without museum collec-
tions. “With some major exceptions,
there’s been a 20-year retraction” in
museum-based natural history research,
said Leonard Krishtalka, who directs the
museum at the University of Kansas.
“We’re slowly witnessing, by the whittling
of curatorial positions, the extinction of
incredible knowledge. For many organ-
isms there are only one or two world
experts, and they retire with no one to
replace them.”

Officials with the American
Assocation of Museums, which conducted
the 2006 survey that tags natural history
as an underperforming sector, cautioned
against drawing strong statistical conclu-
sions, but there’s no shortage of anecdotal
woe. The Milwaukee Public Museum lies
fiscally prostrate. The Academy of Natural
Sciences in Philadelphia, the deficit-rid-
den, 195-year-old granddaddy of
American natural history museums, sold
some of the family jewels to prop up its
finances last year, earning $1 million for a
chunk of its mineral collection. The
Smithsonian Institution’s natural history
museum in Washington, D.C., which
draws more than 5 million visitors a year
and has the nation’s largest collection, with
more than 126 million specimens, is seen
as deeply troubled; the staff has shrunk
almost a third since 2000. Even the
American Museum of Natural History in

New York, which stands with the
Smithsonian and the Field Museum in
Chicago as the Big Three of natural his-
tory exhibits and research, has had to
economize. The museum has reduced its
staff about 11% this decade, although
curators were untouched. The L.A.
museum, which vies with San Francisco’s
California Academy of Sciences for fourth
place in national rankings, turned to
shock therapy in 2003, laying off 7% of
its staff to save $2 million and reverse a
long string of deficits. Most remaining
employees endured a wage freeze that
ended this year.

Universities aren’t a strong alterna-
tive, scientists say, because many have
given up their expensive-to-maintain nat-
ural history collections and focused their
efforts elsewhere, including biomedical
research, genetics, and technology.

Experts even worry that the very
name “natural history museum” has a
Victorian tinge that makes it harder to
compete for audiences and funding. “It
harks back 300 years and doesn’t resonate
anymore,” said Krishtalka, the University
of Kansas museum director who reclassi-
fied his venue as a “biodiversity institute.”
The challenge and potential salvation, he
believes, lie in making visitors and donors
understand the connection between the
fate of the Earth and all those seemingly
inert specimens tucked into drawers or
arrayed on back-room shelves in jars of
alcohol. “Our collections and knowledge
help inform solutions to the problems the
planet’s facing,” Krishtalka said. “Our
time is now, and museums that reach out
and grab that mission strongly will be the
ones who survive.”

Mike Boehm (mike.boehm@latimes.com)
Los Angeles Times

3 June 2007Box turtle populations are declining through-
out their range, a November workshop will
focus exclusively on research studies of box
turtle population status, ecology, and life his-
tory strategies.

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Natural History museums are essential for
addressing many different kinds of questions.
For example, the study elevating the Grand
Cayman Blue Iguana (Cyclura lewisi) to full-
species status involved the examination of
museum specimens.

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204 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWSBRIEFS

2007 Gopher Tortoise 
Council Meeting

The 29th annual meeting of the Gopher
Tortoise Council (GTC) is scheduled for
11–14 October 2007 at Adventures
Unlimited, a private retreat facility north
of Milton, Florida, in the western Florida
Panhandle. GTC is a group of scientists,
agency personnel, educators, and layper-
sons who are interested in the ecology
and conservation of the Gopher Tortoise
(Gopherus polyphemus) and the upland
ecosystems in which it lives, especially
longleaf pine-wiregrass habitats. The
annual meeting is an informal venue to
share ideas and research results. Students
are especially encouraged to attend and
present their research. Friday’s special ses-
sion, “Real World Solutions for
Conservation,” will highlight the appli-
cation of scientific research, unique
approaches, and new partnerships to
solving conservation challenges.

EPA Sued Over Pesticide Poisoning
of San Francisco Bay Area

Endangered Species
The Center for Biological Diversity filed
a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) for violating
the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by
registering and allowing the use of 60
toxic pesticides in habitats for nearly a
dozen San Francisco Bay Area endan-
gered species without determining
whether the chemicals jeopardize their
existence. May 27th would have been the
centennial birthday of Rachel Carson,
whose pioneering 1962 book Silent
Spring raised awareness about the deadly
impacts of pesticides on the environ-
ment and human health, and led to a
federal review of pesticide policy and an

eventual ban on DDT in the United
States.

“Ending the use of known poisons
in habitat for our most endangered
wildlife is an appropriate 100th birthday
tribute to Rachel Carson, who alerted us
to the hazards of exposure to toxic chem-
icals almost half a century ago,” said Jeff
Miller, conservation advocate with the
Center. “Unfortunately, the EPA has not
learned from her legacy and still has no
plan to adequately assess impacts while
registering and approving pesticide uses
that pose a clear and present danger both
to imperiled species and human health.”

At least 61 million pounds of pesti-
cide active ingredients were applied in
Bay Area counties from 1999 through
2005 — over 8.5 million pounds annu-
ally. Actual pesticide use may have been
several times this amount since most
home and commercial pesticide use is
not reported to the state. Under the Bush
administration, the EPA has consistently
failed to consult with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (USFWS) on endan-
gered species impacts when registering
and authorizing use of toxic pesticides.

Studies by the USFWS, EPA, U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS), and
California Department of Pesticide
Regulation show that at least 60 pesticides
of concern are used or accumulate in or
adjacent to (upstream or upwind) habitat
for 11 Bay Area endangered species,
including freshwater and wetlands habi-
tat for the California Tiger Salamander
(Ambystoma californiense) and San
Francisco Garter Snake (Thamnophis sir-
talis tetrataenia) and terrestrial habitat for
the Alameda Striped Racer (Masticophis
lateralis euryxanthus). According to the
Service, pesticide use may threaten an
additional 19 of the 51 Bay Area animal
species listed under the ESA.

The EPA is required under the ESA
to consult with the USFWS over registra-
tion, re-registration, and approved uses of
pesticides that may endanger listed
species or adversely affect their desig-
nated critical habitat. The consultation is
designed to ensure that the EPA avoids
authorizing pesticide uses that jeopardize
the existence of endangered species. The
Center is seeking pesticide-use restric-
tions in habitat for the 11 Bay Area
species until EPA and USFWS assess-
ments of pesticide impacts have been
completed. The consultations should

result in some permanent use restrictions
for harmful pesticides.

Similar protections were obtained
by the Center for the California Red-
legged Frog (Rana aurora draytonii)
under a settlement signed by the EPA
and the pesticide industry last October.
The use of 66 pesticides is now prohib-
ited in and adjacent to core frog habitats
statewide for three years, until the EPA
completes consultations.

“The registrations of contaminants
known to be deadly to endangered
species and harmful to human health,
such as atrazine, should be cancelled,”
said Miller. “Given the proximity of agri-
cultural pesticide spraying to some Bay
Area residential areas, surveys that have
detected accumulation of pesticides in
local creeks and San Francisco Bay, and
what we know about movement of pes-
ticides through drift and runoff, we
should be wondering if we are next when
we see endangered species poisoned by
these chemicals.”

In 2006, the Center published
“Poisoning Our Imperiled Wildlife: San
Francisco Bay Area Endangered Species
at Risk from Pesticides” (www.biological-
d i ve r s i t y.o rg / swcbd/Prog r ams /
science/pesticides/BayAreaPesticidesRepo
rt.pdf), a report analyzing the EPA’s dis-
mal record in protecting endangered
species and the agency’s ongoing refusal
to reform pesticide registration and use in
accordance with scientific findings.
Despite mounting evidence of harm to
endangered species and human health,
the Bush administration keeps dodging
use restrictions for dangerous pesticides
and has tried to exclude wildlife agency
oversight of the pesticide-registration
process. In 2004, the Center published
“Silent Spring Revisited: Pesticide Use
and Endangered Species” (www.biologi-
caldiversity.org/swcbd/programs/sci-
ence/pesticides/ REPORt.pdf), detailing
the decades-long failure of the EPA to
regulate pesticides harmful to endangered
species despite numerous lawsuits, three
of which have been filed by the Center.
The EPA still has no meaningful plan to
protect endangered species from pesti-
cides.

Numerous studies have definitively
linked pesticides with significant devel-
opmental, neurological, and reproductive
damage to amphibians. Pesticide con-
tamination can cause deformities, abnor-

The Gopher Tortoise Council is a group of
scientists, agency personnel, educators, and
laypersons who are interested in the ecology
and conservation of the Gopher Tortoise
(Gopherus polyphemus) and the upland
ecosystems in which it lives.

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2007 205NEWSBRIEFS

mal immune system functions, diseases,
injury, and death of frogs and salaman-
ders. Studies by Dr. Tyrone Hayes at the
University of California have strength-
ened the case for banning atrazine, a
potent chemical that is the most com-
mon contaminant of ground, surface,
and drinking water nationwide. Dr.
Hayes demonstrated that atrazine is an
endocrine disruptor that “assaults male
sexual development,” interfering with
reproduction by chemically castrating
and feminizing male frogs. Atrazine has
also been linked to increased prostate
cancer, decreased sperm count, and high
risk of breast cancer in humans.
Thousands of pounds of atrazine are
used each year in the Bay Area in close

proximity to habitat for the Red-legged
Frog and Tiger Salamander.

The Bush administration has
attempted to undercut Endangered
Species Act protections by changing how
pesticide impacts on wildlife are evalu-
ated and making it easier for pesticide
manufacturers to ignore the effects of
their products on endangered plants and
animals. The EPA proposed new regula-
tions in 2004 that would have removed
input from expert wildlife agencies in
determining whether pesticides threaten
endangered species, but a federal court
overturned these new rules in 2006.

The lawsuit, report on pesticide
impacts to Bay Area species, maps of pes-
ticide use, and information about the

listed species are available at: www.bio-
logicaldiversity.org/swcbd/programs/sci-
ence/pesticides/bay-area.html

Freshwater and wetlands habitat used by the
endangered San Francisco Garter Snake
(Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia) has been
contaminated by pesticides. A lawsuit seeks
to prevent further applications until a thor-
ough review of the effects of potentially
harmful agents has been properly assessed.

??
?

O B I T U A R Y

George McDuffie, a well-known Ohio herpetologist, passed
away on 15 April 2007. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 25

August 1927, George received his Bachelors (1952), Masters
(1956), and Doctoral degrees (1960) from the University of
Cincinnati, the latter doing research on the natural history of
Copperheads in the Buckeye State. His research on these snakes
was published in 1963 [Studies on the size, pattern, and col-
oration of the Northern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix
mokasen Daudin) in Ohio. Journal of the Ohio Herpetological
Society 4: 15–22]. He was one of the founding members of the
Ohio Herpetological Society, which evolved into the Society for
the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.

During the 1950s and 1960s, George mentored many
young herpetologists in southwestern Ohio, and most of them
experienced their first real snake hunt under his watchful eye.
He is remembered for his sense of humor, and on field trips to
Shawnee State Forest in southern Ohio, many students and col-
leagues on their first field trip listened in stunned silence to the
plethora of risqué limericks that he sang with gusto (and which
they eventually memorized and sang also). More importantly,
he took the time and made the effort to teach them how to find
amphibians and reptiles, and much of what they know today
about field herpetology can be traced directly back to George.

At the first Shawnee Herpetological Weekend held at
Shawnee State Forest in May 2006, keynote speaker Joseph T.
Collins (who grew up in Cincinnati and was mentored by
George during his teenage years) dedicated the event to George
McDuffie, and spoke fondly of his influence. Memorial contri-
butions should be sent to the Torch Lake Protection Alliance,
P.O. Box 706, Bellaire, MI 49615.

George Thomas McDuffie 
(1927–2007)

George McDuffie with a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus
atrox) ca. 1960. Photograph courtesy CNAH files.

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