American Toad

Anaxyrus americanus  (formerly Bufo americanus)

Reptiles Alive Name: Tony & Walker

Hissstory: Tony was found on RA Wildlife Educator Tony’s driveway in May of 2009.  Walker was found in the RA tortoise yard in August of 2010.

RA Diet: Meal worms, crickets, and earthworms.

Natural Diet: Insects and small animals including baby snakes and other frogs.

Range: The northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States north into Canada.  American toads are native to the Washington DC area.

Habitat: Toads can be found nearly anywhere there is shallow water in which to breed including suburban and urban parks, yards, and gardens.

Size: On average. American toads grow  2-3.5 inches, however, the largest on record was 4 and 3/8 inches.

Lifespan: Can live up to ten years.

Reproduction: Toads breed March-July. Females choose the males with the best song.   She then lays the eggs in long spiraling strands in vernal pools and roadside ditches.

Conservation: If you have a toad living in yard, consider yourself lucky!  Toads provide pest control by eating a huge amount of insects daily. One American toad can eat up to 1,000 insects every day!!  Protect toads you find and provide shelter for toads in your yard to encourage them to stay.

Cool Facts: You can’t get warts from touching a toad – but you can get poisoned!  The warts on a toad’s body are actually poison glands.  When a toad feels threatened, thick sticky white poison will ooze out of the warts.  The poison isn’t strong enough to seriously hurt a human – but if you eat a toad, you will probably get a bad stomachache.  So, don’t eat toads!

Leopard Tortoise

Geochelone pardalis

Janis the Leopard Tortoise

Reptiles Alive Name: “Janis” (aka Dash)

Hissstory: Janis was donated to Reptiles Alive by our former Lead Keeper, Janis Gerritts in October of 2002.

RA Diet: Janis dines on grass, weeds, hay and occasionally gets some fruit as a special treat.

Natural Diet: Leopard tortoises graze on grasses and weeds.  Kind of like cows with shells.

Range:  Leopard tortoises are found in Africa from South Africa north to Sudan.

Habitat: Deserts and savannas are the primary habitat of leopard tortoises.   They hide in burrows during the hottest part of the day.

Size: Leopard tortoises are big turtles.  They can grow over 20 inches long and weigh around 50 pounds. The record weight for a leopard tortoise is 96 pounds.

Lifespan: Tortoises can live for up to around 100 years.

Reproduction: Leopard tortoise females lay around 20-25 eggs in a clutch.  The eggs hatch in 120 to 150 days.

Conservation: Leopard tortoises have two main threats:  habitat loss and collection for the pet trade or bush meat markets.

Cool Fact: Leopard tortoises have voices!  When mating, a male tortoise makes a series of grunts that can actually be quite loud.

Eastern Rat Snake (aka Black Rat Snake)

Pantherophis alleghaniensis (formerly Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta)

Reptiles Alive Name: “Rachel”

Hisssstory: Rachel was a professor’s pet at Marymount University in Arlington VA.  He donated Rachel to Reptiles Alive in October 2009.

RA Diet: Rachel likes to eat frozen mice and rats that are thawed and warmed before she eats them.

Natural Diet: Rat snakes dine on eggs, small mammals, birds, and lizards.

Range: Eastern rat snakes are found in the eastern United States from New York to Florida and west to the Great Plains.

Habitat: Rat snakes live in forests, farmland, swamps, and even in buildings and houses!

Size: Eastern rat snakes grow 4 – 6 feet long, the record is a giant 8 feet 4 inch snake.  In many parts of their range, they are the largest snake species.

Lifespan: Rat snakes can live 20 years or more.

Reproduction: Eastern rat snakes breed April-June. Females lay 5-30 eggs that hatch in about 90 days, usually around September or October.

Conservation: Rat snakes are harmless to humans and highly beneficial to us because of all the rats, mice, and other rodents they consume.  They also serve as food to other animals including eagles and hawks.   Like all animals, snakes play an important role in the health of the environment.  If you see a snake, please leave it alone.

Cool Facts: There are many myths and misunderstandings with rat snakes.  Baby rat snakes are often confused with the venomous copperhead snake because they have a pattern of squares and diamonds down their back that slowly fades to black as they get bigger.  Rat snakes also rattle their tails when they are frightened, and flatten their head into a triangle shape.  Due to these two traits, there is a myth that rat snakes can mate with copperheads and rattle snakes to produce venomous hybrid offspring.  It is actually physically impossible for rat snakes to mate with either copperheads or rattle snakes.  Snake identification can be tricky – even for snake experts.  It is always a good idea to leave snakes alone.

Water Monitor Lizard

Varanus salvator

Splash the Water Monitor Lizard

Reptiles Alive Name: “Splash”

Hissstory: Splash was either an abandoned or escaped pet.  He was found hiding in a drain pipe in the city of Alexandria, VA.  An animal control officer was able to capture him and then called us.  We received him in July 2006 and he has been just a ton of fun ever since!

RA Diet: We feed Splash a varied diet including: roaches, crickets, super worms, cooked chicken eggs, and his favorite:  dead mice.

Natural Diet: Monitors eat carrion, fish, shellfish, small reptiles (including baby crocodiles!) and mammals, eggs of all kinds, and insects.  Pretty much, they will eat anything except their vegetables!

Range: Water monitors are found in southern Asia, from Bengal in the west to the Philippines and the Indo-Australian islands.

Habitat: Water monitors like to live anywhere  near water, including swamps, woodlands, and riverbanks.

Size: Water monitors are one of the biggest species of lizards on Earth.  They can grow almost 10 feet long and weigh up to 75 pounds.  Whew – that is BIG!

Lifespan: Monitor lizards can live for over 20 years.

Reproduction: Water monitors  will take advantage of termite mounds as well as rotting logs or stumps to lay their eggs.  Females lay 20-50 eggs which take about 6 months to hatch.

Conservation: Water monitors are listed as CITES Appendix II, meaning they are becoming endangered.  Their biggest threats come from habitat loss, the skin trade, and the pet trade.

Cool Facts: The largest living lizard in the world is a monitor lizard commonly known as the “Komodo dragon.”  Water monitors are very closely related to the the Komodo dragon, and just like the dragon, the water monitor is very intelligent.  Some scientists believe monitor lizards may be the most intelligent groups of lizards.  After working with monitors, I would say I agree.  They are fast learners and they are VERY curious.  There really is something going on behind those dragon eyes!

Spiny Soft Shell Turtle

Apalone (Trionyx) spinifera

Reptiles Alive Name: “Apalone”

Hissstory: Apalone was transferred to us from the Virginia Living Museum in February 2005.

RA Diet: Apalone likes to eat aquatic turtle pellet food, worms, crickets and super worms.

Natural Diet: Soft shclled turtles prey on fish, worms, insects, tadpoles, and frogs.

Range: Spiny soft-shelled turtles live in much of the eastern United States.  They are found in the far southwestern corner of Virginia and there is a tiny population of them in far western Maryland.

Habitat: Hangouts for soft-shelled turtles include slow moving water with muddy or sandy bottoms.

Size: Spiny soft-shelled turtle females can grow to about 15 inches long.  Male spiny soft-shells are much smaller and grow to around 8 inches.

Lifespan: Soft-shelled turtles can live over 25 years.

Reproduction: Soft-shelled turtles lay from 4 to 33 spherical eggs on land in the spring. The eggs hatch around August and September.  Sometimes, the  eggs & babies remain in the nest and  hatch in the spring.

Conservation: Soft-shelled turtles are being over- harvested for the Asian food market.  They are now a threatened and protected species in parts of their range, including Maryland.

Cool Facts: Soft-shelled turtles are very bizarre looking turtles. They have a smooth, leathery shell that looks so different from other turtle species. This shell is made of bone like other turtles, but it is covered in thick skin made of keratin.  The lighter shell allows these turtles to rocket through the water away from strong alligator jaws.

Honduran Milk Snake

Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis

Reptiles Alive Name: “Soy”

Hissstory: Soy was transferred to Reptiles Alive from another wildlife education organization in April 2008.

RA Diet: Frozen mice that are defrosted and warmed up before being served.  Mmm mmm good!

Natural Diet: Milk snakes will eat small mammals, eggs, and other reptiles – even other snakes!

Range: You can find Honduran milk snakes in Nicaragua, Northeastern Costa Rica, and the Caribbean slope of Honduras.

Habitat: Honduran milk snakes live on the forest floor of tropical rain forests.

Size: Honduran milk snakes are one of the largest species of milk snake in the world!  They can grow over 5 feet long.

Lifespan: Milk snakes typically live around 20 years.

Reproduction: Female milk snakes lay 3-24 eggs which hatch in around 10 weeks.

Conservation: Due to their beautiful colors, milk snakes are highly valued in the wild animal pet trade.  Even though these snakes are pretty, they don’t make good pets for most people.  Like all snakes, they will not play with you or want to cuddle.  Most pet reptiles end up unwanted, sick, or worse.
Cool Facts: Milk snakes use quick, jerky movements so that their bands flash, startling predators. Their bright colors signal danger and often confuse predators, making these snakes hard to follow. Other animals in the rain forest may use the same defense such as colorful parrots and highly venomous coral snakes, which milk snakes resemble.

Some people say the poem “Red touch yellow, kill a fellow.  Red touch black, venom lack” to help them remember if a snake is venomous or not.  The problem is,  there are SO MANY different species and subspecies of milk and coral snakes that the poem does not always work!  So at Reptiles Alive, we teach you this poem:

Red touch yellow, leave snakes alone.

Red touch black, leave snakes alone.

Behind the scenes on a typical Monday at Reptiles Alive.

Today is feeding day for the snakes.  What, they only get fed on Mondays?!

the menu

That’s right.  Put your hand on your neck.  Does it feel warm?  Oh good, that means you are still alive.  Humans are endothermic that means that we have a heater inside our body to keep us a nice warm 98.6 degrees F.  What powers that heater is the food you must eat every day.

Reptiles are ectothermic or exothermic meaning “outside temperature.”  They are the same temperature inside their body as the temperature outside their body.  That means they don’t burn much food to make heat energy.  That is why we must eat much more than reptiles do.

Some of the snakes don’t even eat every week!  One snake, the Kenya Sand Boa, often goes nine months in the wild without eating!

Lot’s of people ask us what we feed our carnivores.

fresh ratcicles

Since snakes aren’t to excited about the culinary delights of dog food or hot dogs, we have to resort to a more wholesome approach to their diet; ratcicles!  These are humanely killed rats from a zoo food supply company are shipped frozen.  We defrost them in warm water and its lunch time!

The baby alligator sure looks excited about his lunch.

Check out the video of the alligator and snapping turtle eating on the Reptiles Alive Facebook Page and become our fan!

Burmese Python

Python molurus bivittatus

Reptiles Alive Names: “Sunshine, Moonlight, and Starlight”

Hissstory: Sunshine was abandoned at a carpet warehouse in Sterling, VA in 2000.  The store owner called us to come and get her, and she was in pretty bad shape.  We spent about a year rehabilitating her back to health.  She has been healthy and growing ever since!  Moonlight was rescued by the Virginia Reptile Rescue from a pet store that was closed down and we adopted him in 2009.  Starlight was abandoned  as an unwanted pet at the Alexandria Animal Welfare League where we adopted him in 2009.

RA Diet: Two or three frozen and then defrosted triple extra large rats every 2-4 weeks.

Range: India, Burma, and Southeast Asia.

Habitat: Pythons live in rain forests, farmlands, and fields.

Natural Diet: Burmese pythons will eat just about any mammal or bird they can fit into their stomach.

Size: Burmese pythons are one of the biggest snakes in the world.   Their average length is 9-13 feet, but the record length is 23 feet.  They can weigh over 200 pounds.

Lifespan: Burmese pythons can live over 40 years.

Reproduction: Female Burmese pythons can lay up to 100 large eggs, but typically lay 12-36. Unlike most snakes,  mother pythons will coil around eggs and twitch their body to raise the temperature and help incubate the eggs. She will not leave the eggs until they hatch.

Conservation: Burmese pythons  have become an invasive exotic species in southern Florida.  People keeping pythons as pets either illegally released their unwanted animals into the wild or the snakes escaped improper caging.  Either way, no one knows for sure the impact these giant snakes will have on the south Florida ecosystem as they reproduce and consume native animals, including alligators.

Cool Facts: Sunshine, Moonlight, and Starlight are all albinos, born without the black or brown pigment called melanin. The brilliant yellows and whites you see on our albino pythons would otherwise be covered over by the brown and black pigments  found on normally patterned snakes.

Corn Snake or Red Rat Snake

Elaphe guttata

Reptiles Alive Name: “Pink & Anakin”

Hissstory: Indiana was an unwanted pet that came to us from a reptile rescue group in 2009. Anakin was an unwanted pet that also came to us in 2009.

RA Diet: Indiana likes to dine on frozen mice that have been warmed up.  Yum!

Natural Diet: In the wild, corn snakes will eat mice and other rodents, birds, eggs, and sometimes, bats.

Range: Corn snakes can be found from New Jersey to Florida and west to New Mexico and Colorado.  They are very rare in some parts of their range, and even listed as endangered in certain states.  They are native to the Washington DC area, but they are very rare and thought to be extirpated from the city and close in suburbs.

Habitat: These gorgeous snakes like to hide in woodlands, meadows, and along springs.  They spend most of their time hidden underground or in rock crevices.

Size: Corn snakes average a length of 24-48 inches, the record is 72 inches long.

Lifespan: Corn snakes can live over 20 years old.

Reproduction: Corn snakes breed from March to May. Females lay 3-21 eggs in May to July. Babies will hatch in late summer to early fall.

Conservation: Due to their beautiful colors and patterns, corn snakes are a popular snake pet.  Because of this, many of them are captured each year to be sold as pets.  The over-collection of corn snakes combined with the urbanization of much of their range  has caused them to become a threatened species in many areas.

Cool Facts: Corn snakes don’t eat corn – in fact, no snake eats vegetables.  All snakes on Earth are carnivores.  So why name a snake after corn?  It is due to the “corny” pattern on their belly.

SOME NEW ENCLOSURES

I was called in to be an extra pair of hands last week for the delivery of some new enclosures from Animal Plastics.  Why was the help needed you ask?  These babies were being delivered from a semi truck!

We have a very long winding driveway with some sharp curves up a hill here at Reptiles Alive.  There was no way, no how that semi was going to make it up that driveway.

We had three ways of getting this very large and heavy package up that driveway.

1. Slide the whole thing into Caroline’s Van and drive it up the hill
2. Strap that bad boy on to my wheeled cart and pull it like a couple of mules up the driveway.
3. Take out the knifes and cut the package open and carry it up piece by piece. (My least favorite option.)

The van was driven down the hill for plan #1. The side doors were slid open and… That was SO not going to happen!  The box was enormous! Ok, how about the back door?  HA!  Are you kidding me?

Ok… now what?  I was getting psyched up for plan #2 when who happens to be walking by with his dog?  Jeff our neighborhood life saver!  This good Samaritan offers his work truck to haul our dilemma up the hill for us.  Hooray!

Jeff, my man, if it were not for you we would have been schlepping that thing up the hill all afternoon.  My legs would have fallen off!  Many thanks.

We had no problem transferring the cages into the building from the smaller truck.  As soon as we have some time to do some massive rearranging in the reptile room, we will be tackling the assembly of these beasts.  I have to say, even in pieces the cages sure look like beauties.  Thank you Animal Plastics!

Look for a future posting with assembly and drama when we construct new homes for an iguana and water monitor!