When wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded 18 seconds of footage to YouTube, he thought little more about the small, pale cat seen digging a hollow in the sand in the remote dunes of south-west Libya. The video, however, posted in 2017, turned out to be the first material evidence that the sand cat (Felis margarita), the world’s only […]
Tag: venomous snakes
“It has incredibly potent venom, causing catastrophic internal bleeding and horrifying consequences – with the body coming apart from within.”
Long, arboreal and often dazzlingly green, the boomslang looks more like a vine with eyes than a killer. Yet this member of the Colubrid snake family carries an incredibly potent venom, capable of causing catastrophic internal bleeding. It is shy and much less likely to bite than some other more aggressive venomous snakes, such as the saw-scaled […]
“An attack can be fatal, due to their venom and bacteria…” The 3 deadliest, most lethal lizards the planet
When we think of dangerous animals, lizards might not seem as though they’d be top of the list – but a few scaly species prove that reptiles can be just as lethal as big cats or venomous snakes. From venom that has been transformed into trailblazing diabetes treatment to toxins that inhibit blood clotting, lizards have some of the most […]
Secrets of the karst: new species found in Cambodia’s limestone caves – in pictures
A survey has revealed the vast array of wildlife – some never seen before – living within the south-east Asian country’s karst ecosystems. The work was led by international wildlife conservation charity Fauna & Flora in collaboration with Cambodia’s environment ministry and field experts This article was first published by The Guardian on 23 March […]
Snakes, sheilas and a backblocks shed: learning how to wrangle Australia’s most venomous reptiles
In the backblocks of the Lockyer Valley, more than an hour’s drive west of Brisbane, is a dead end track thick with scrubby eucalypt regrowth. It is a Saturday morning in late spring and, in this quiet neck of an area which bills itself as Australia‘s salad bowl, a car turns down the no through […]
The number of venomous snakes removed from this Australian yard will make you shudder
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – A man described feeling “the shudders” as more than 100 venomous red-bellied black snakes were removed from a pile of mulch in his Sydney backyard. David Stein called Reptile Relocation Sydney last week after watching around six snakes slither into the mulch. He learned from an internet search that pregnant, known […]
Snake Bites Texas Woman Sitting on Toilet in Dark: ‘Very Scary’
In something straight out of a horror movie, a Texas woman had a very unexpected fright when she went to the toilet in the middle of the night. The woman, named Maria Jaimes from Cedar Creek, Texas, sat down on the toilet in the pitch black, only to find a snake lurking in her toilet. […]
Snakes in the city: Ten years of wildlife rescues reveal insights into human-reptile interactions
A new analysis of a decade-long collection of wildlife rescue records in NSW has delivered new insights into how humans and reptiles interact in urban environments. Researchers from Macquarie University worked with scientists from Charles Darwin University, and the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to analyze over 37,000 records of […]