Reptile Theft. A frightening trend is becoming more common in our hobby. Recent months have brought to light quite a few circumstances of this happening, most notably the break and enter into Neil Sonnenman's building where his collection was held in Victoria, and more recently the midday armed robbery/home invasion of Darren Boswell's collection in South Australia. In both thefts, the burglar went to extreme trouble to steal these animals. In Neil's case, a large hole was cut out of his shed where the animals were contained whilst he was attending a publicised herp meeting, clearly showing the perpetrator knew the collection, had been there before and knew exactly when to break in. Taken from Neil Sonnenman was 8 juvenille snakes: 2 x Northern Territory Woma pythons, 2 x South Australian Woma pythons and 4 x Black headed pythons, total value stolen $10,000.
In Darren Boswell's case, at 2:30pm on 3rd October, his wife was confronted at the front door by an armed man demanding 12 yearling green tree pythons. He put the snakes in a bag, tied up the woman and her two children, and left. Total value stolen was approximately $110,000. Suspect is aged in his 30s with a dark goatee beard, solidly built and a deep voice.
There also have been other unconfirmed reptile thefts in recent months, but details have not been made public of these alleged thefts and therefore they remain unverified. Reptile theft is no longer a bizzare happening, it's a very real and not uncommon occurance. There has been discussion on ARK about the many ways people do and can keep their reptiles safe in regards to security.
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If you have any information relating to the theft of Darren's collection in SA, please contact any of the following people:
CrimeStoppers in South Australia on 1800 333 000, Hannah Dridan, NPWS Investigations 0417010353 or Elizabeth CIB, 08 8207 9447 with any information. There is also a $10,000 reward or a pair of GTPs for information leading to their recovery.
ARTICLESAll views expressed in the following articles are the author's alone, and do not necessarily represent ARK or the site owner's opinions.
It's that time of the year! - By Naomi
TThe 2006 reptile breeding season is well under way, with many herpers having animals mating, incubating eggs, and even some early arrivals for the season. The average time per species that hatchlings can be expected to be seen on the market varies. These are some of the average times of the year that pythons begin to hatch in captivity.
Aspidites: October - December
Antaresia: late October - December
Morelia: January - March
If you are in the market for hatchlings this season or wanting to sell some, a great place to check out is
www.aussiereptileclassifieds.com. For FREE you can place adds in the wanted or for sale section for an Australia wide viewing audience.
Spring is here and the snakes are appearing - By Peter Buckley
I am with a Sydney native wildlife rescue and rehab organisation. Sydney Wildlife or SMWS (Sydney Metropolitan Wildlife Services Inc). Our license covers the area from the Hawlesbury, Nepean Rivers down to the Royal National Park and west. We do all native animals including venomous snakes. We do not care for koalas, marine mammals or marine reptiles.
This year has seen the return of the tiger snake. Considering its a species endemic to the area outlined it hasn't been seen in any numbers for some years. There have been a larger number of browns reported while red bellies are always high. The probable reason for the higher numbers of browns and tigers is the constant expansion of Sydney's residential belt. This is always encroaching on the habitat.
A major problem that arises is what to do with the removed snakes. NPWS alllows for them to be relocated within a 20 kilometer radius. From experience to date, this usually doesnt help in the longevity of the removed animal. Release it again in the same area and you'll be back to pick it up again. It's there for a reason and unless you mitigate that reason, the snake has no reason to move on. Those reasons usually revolve around climate and food. In times of poor rain snakes will follow the rodent populations to residential areas. Frogs will find more water in residential areas also and they are fodder for snakes.
While Sydney appears to get a good share of rain, the creeks have been low or dry and many animals that rely on these habitats have had to move to survive. We get numerous calls from Sydney's North Shore and Northern Beaches in regards to water dragons taking up residence in peoples swimming pools. When we pick up a snake ideally it is just dropped of a little way from where it was caught and failing that its generally not released. There is still the old school in ours and other groups who can't see the rational behind this and continue to release animals far from there home territory. We are often asked if reptiles are territorial and the answer is yes. They may not exhibit territorial proprietry but they have a home range that they tend to stay in and are accustom to. Move them from this and it is a very high likelihood they will perish or become a nuisance to another household.
In the past few months in my area - Inner West Sydney, there has been a number of red bellies seen and caught. A bit of investigation revealed a large townhouse development next the old railfreight line and an old disused factory site and a subsequent grading along the line adjacent to it. Red bellies are a common snake in Inner West Sydney but are rarely seen until their habitat is disturbed.
So are snake numbers on the increase in Sydney? I would have to say they are not. It's just that we are moving in on them. Though, we are helping to make sure there's always plenty of rodents around for them. What should you do if you encounter a snake in your place of residence? If it’s a problem then call one of the wildlife rescue groups in your area. The SMWS phone number is 02 94134300..
Don’t expect miracles. We all have real jobs so there is not always someone available to come out but you will get to talk to someone who can advise you. Don’t approach it, don’t attack it and keep an eye on it till someone either gives you advice or arrives to intervene. Personally, I’d leave it there but I’m biased.
Introducing Reptiles To Small Children - By Judith
From my personal experience, small children tend to get very excited when introduced to anything new and different. So far, reptiles in captivity, aren’t as common as dogs, cats and birds so it is understandable that they will get excited when introduced to the new family pet (even if you have had it for a year).
Here is a list of a few things you need to take note of when introducing reptiles to young children.
* Make sure their hands are clean and that their clothes are clean (haven’t been
playing with the wild skinks out back, etc)
* Make them keep their hands in their laps until you say that they can touch the
reptile
* Ask the child to sit on the floor, this way there is less chance of injury related to the animal being dropped.
* Hold the reptile side on to the child
* Tell the child, in basic terms, about safety and hygiene around the reptiles (e.g.
wash hands, never pick it up without a parents permission, etc)
* Stay with the child while they are holding the reptile
* Ask them to be quiet, reptiles can hear their squeals
* Be prepared for ‘accidents’ from the reptile, especially if it has just eaten or
woken up
* Only ever leave a child alone with a reptile if you are confident that they can be
responsible (I wouldn’t recommend under 10yrs)
* Only allow the child to touch suitable areas on the reptile (e.g. it’s back, or top of head)
* Make sure all limbs of the reptile are supported so it doesn’t struggle while being
observed/touched/held.
* If in doubt, place the reptile in a plastic tub so they can observe without touching.
The Truth about UVB - By Paul Kirby
Every body has questions about UVB, and its usefulness, and I’m here to spread some light on some of these common questions. UVB is necessary in the synthesis of vitamin D3 which is needed for calcium metabolism, it aids the prevention and treatment of metabolic bone disorder, it allows turtles to maintain healthy shell growth, UVB also helps to increase appetite, activity, and induce reproductive behaviour.
These questions might include, what is the lifespan of my UVB bulb? Which type of UVB bulb is best for my animal? How far away should the basking site be? And what comparison does the percent of UVB in the tube and wattage have to do with the height of the basking site? For starters all these are common questions and the abundance of answers you may get may have a great deal of myth and conspiracy to them. So once again im here to brighten up the situation.
What is the life span of my UVB bulb? Most websites, care sheets, and common herpers suggest replacing the UVB every six months, but when in actual fact this is not correct. The average life span of a UVB bulb is 3000 hours, before it depletes of all UVB value. Say on average the bulb inside your vivarium or enclosure is on for 10 hours a day, it would take 300 days until the bulb would be considered useless, which is approximately 10 months. As over time the UVB delete slowly, I would say it would be safe to replace the bulb every 9 months. REPTISUN 10.0 UVB bulb instructs that the replacement of the bulb, yearly will be sufficient.
Which type of UVB bulb is best for my animal? Desert reptiles for example a bearded dragon, require a 10.0 UVB bulb, which means they hold 10% UVB which is usually the highest amount of UVB in a bulb on the market. A reminder that UVB bulbs are not a full replacement of the beneficial values of natural sunlight. Rainforest animals usually do not need as high a percentage of UVB, as the natural sunlight in there natural ecosystems is much lower because of foliage and the shade of trees, but with lower percentages and wattage, the beneficial value will be lowered, and in actual fact your animal may not even be benefiting from your current UVB bulb (covered further on).
How far away should the basking site be? Compared to the percentage of UVB and wattage. For example, a bulb of 20 watts, and a UVB percentage of 5.0, will only reach you reptile with beneficial value if the reptile of basking spot is within 30cm (12”) where as a bulb of 20 watts, and a UVB percentage of 10.0 will reach your reptile with beneficial value if the basking spot is with 51cm (20”) A bulb of 18 watts and emits 10% UVB will only reach your reptile successfully if the basking spot is within 30cm (12”) These measurements will vary between wattage, and a little between brands, remember to read the packaging as it holds useful information. It is important to know how far the UVB will stretch, because if you have an animal that does not climb, you need a bulb that will sufficiently produce VUB that will reach the animal, or the bulb will be almost useless. WARNING- fine screen covers and mesh top caging can filter out up to 50% of the UVB, and 10.0 UVB bulbs should be used and an appropriate wattage.
Good luck and I hope this information has lit up those dark hall ways around your reptile’s sufficient UVB light source.
(editors note: An Australian alternative to these bulbs is available as the Compact Max from
Ultimate Reptile Suppliers at around half the price)
Wildlife ARC - Over the past few weeks reptiles have started coming out of the woodwork once again. Here on the Central Coast of NSW, Wildlife ARC have been operating for some time rescuing all sorts of native animals. It seems ARC are having trouble finding experienced people to rescue non-furry animals (reptiles) this season. Over the next few weeks we'll be talking about Wildlife ARC a bit on the site to try and drum up a bit of support for the organisation. If you live on or near the Central Coast of NSW and have a little bit of time to help out (there are a number of ways to do this), consider joining or giving a donation, our native animals need you! The ARC membership form is available from our downloads section.
WHAT'S NEW AT ARK
New ARK Admin Team. New ARK Admin Team. Peter Buckley and Jayson Marquet have stepped up to the challenge of taking over the running of ARK membership, as ARK owner Shane Hunter takes a back seat to work on improvements behind the scene. We also welcome member Moloch as part of the site moderator team. David (Moloch) is known for posting up some amazing pictures and stories of his numerous herping trips around the country and is a much-welcomed addition to the moderating team at ARK. We hope all members will get behind Peter and Jayson in this difficult task as through their selfless contribution they continue to make ARK a great community.
ARK is currently running a Best User Avatar Competition, our site rules only allow herp related avatars so hopefully this will encourage people to have a go. We've decided to have 2 categories, one for resised non-modified avatars and the other for modified avatars which should suit people with photoshop etc. Ultimate Reptile Suppliers have once again come through to sponsor our comp with a first prize voucher of $50 for each category. Maximum avatar size at ARK is 120 x 120 pixels with a Maximum file size of 12kb. Entries for this competition closes on 30th November so there is still plenty of time to enter.
ARK Server Upgrade. On friday 29th of September our main webserver (aussiereptilekeeper.com) was upgraded to an Intel Dual Xeon 3.2 Ghz with 4GB RAM and 750GB SATA Hard drives. The new server has significantly increased the quality of our service in the following aspects:
**the new hardware is more reliable and reduces the chance of failure;
**the new server is more powerful and our site loads faster;
**the server configuration will allow future upgrades of space and traffic;
**the new hard drives are larger and faster.
Southern Cross Reptiles - Everybody knows who Simon Stone and Southern Cross Reptiles are, if you don't Simon is responsible for producing some of the best quality animals in Australia and just recently gave away an albino darwin python worth quite a few thousand dollars in a competition on the Southern Cross Reptiles Website (congratulations to the winner). We're happy to announce that Simon has become the major sponsor of our community, this will make a lot of new features and some needed improvements possible in the very near future, thankyou Simon.
Shane gets Broadband. After creating and maintaining ARK for over a year on a slow dial-up connection, Telstra finally upgraded the lines in my area. This has made a world of difference in the way I run/maintain ARK, backups were taking up to 6 hours overnight and quite often timing out on dial-up. Without exaggerating, over ten hours a week is saved since the upgrade from dial-up, time I can now put to much better use here at ARK.
ARK Gallery moving to new server. By the time you read this our user gallery will be real close to having a server of it's own. This will cut back the load on our main server and make everything easier to manage and give me some space to play and add other options.
ARK 2007 Calendar. Rumor has it that a professionally produced Aussie Reptile Keeper calendar might be in the works.
New themes. A new site theme has been added at ARK - fiblack3d. Feedback has shown that this is the best theme yet! You can change themes in your account which changes the whole look of the site for when you log in and you can change them as much as you like. It's easy, you just go to YOUR ACCOUNT and click on THEMES and click the drop down box and choose the theme of your choice. Also, back by popular demand is the ARK dial-up theme, designed to use less resources and take less time to upload if you are on a dialup internet connection.
2006 Footy Tipping Comp Winner. Congratulations to Jayson for remaining undefeated and coming out the winner of our 2006 ARK footy tipping competition! He was followed by Spence for a close second. Jayson will receive this year's first prize, a nine month old blonde spotted python donated by Shane. Thankyou to all members that put in their tips every week. ARK will be running another footy tipping comp next year. To give all members and moderators a chance, we run the competition through OzTips.com and competitors register and place their tips in there. The results are published weekly on the ARK website. Remember to keep an eye out next year when the season comes around again for details of how to join up, have fun and a chance to win some great reptile related prizes.
Footy Tipping Comp
WHATS IN THE PIPELINE
Photo Competition #2 We'll be running another photo competition over summer. The last competition offered some great photos for the members to vote on and first, second and third prize were generous vouchers from
Ultimate Reptile Suppliers to spend at their online store. Keep an eye out for the next competition for your chance to enter your best reptile shot and win some great prizes.
Photo Comp #1
UPCOMING EVENTSLook out for these events coming soon at ARK!
Sunday Night Herp Chat
Come in and chat with other ARK members on Sunday evenings at 8pm A.E.S.T. Details of how to join our chatroom can be found on our
Chatroom Page
Herp Getaway weekend 2007 Herp Getaway weekend 2007 will be held on Thursday, January 25th through to Sunday, January 28th (Australia Day Long Weekend). This time around it will be held on a private property at Canungra, which is the base of Lamington National Park situated west of the Gold Coast. You can sign up and/or view more information in our
Getaway Weekend Forum
MEMBER PROFILE - Moloch
First name: David
Age: 53
Gender: Male
Occupation: I.T.
When did you join ARK? Jun 19, 2006
Interests other than reptiles: Birding, adventure travel
All time favourite animal: Resplendent Quetzal, a spectacular trogon from Central America. This is the bird with ornamental green plumes that was sacred to the Aztecs in Mexico.
Do you keep reptiles? No. When I was in high school and university in California, I always had a number of lizards and snakes such as Rosy Boas and Lyre Snakes. I don't have any desire to keep reptiles as pets any longer.
What is your favorite herp? Moloch. I first learned about this amazing dragon while at uni in the early '70's. Its bizarre appearance and life history made it my favourite reptile for many years.
Is there any reptile you aspire to own one day without restrictions? Not now. My passion now is photography of the reptiles as discovered in the wild.
How long have you been interested in reptiles? I have been interested since year 11 in high school. I moved to a new high school and met several others who were interested in herpetology. I soon gained this interest and we spent many weekends searching the deserts of southern California for various reptiles. In a couple of years, we had found nearly all of the species that lived there at least once.
What do you think is the most important issue affecting our hobby today? For me, loss of habitat is critical. I am always saddened when travelling through the interior and seeing so little habitat that is not overgrazed or cleared.
Is there anything you wish you could change about this hobby? I don't have any comments here since my hobby is field herpetology rather than keeping reptiles as pets.
Dave, you are most well known on ARK by the awesome photos and stories you post about your herping trips that you have been on around Australia. How many herping trips have you gone on? I only returned to this interest last year. Since then, I have gone on 5 trips to different parts of Australia.
What was your favourite place to go herping and why? I think that the Warrumbungles would be one of my favourite places. The scenery is so beautiful and there are so many herps to see.
What was your most exciting find on your trips? Seeing a Moloch for the first time in Kalbarri National Park last November will always be a highlight to me. It was so exciting to round a bend of the red, sandy road and see this incredible lizard on the shoulder. My avatar was built from a photo of this animal.
Who usually accompanied you? My 19 year old son, Nicholas, accompanies me on many adventures. Sometimes I work in herping while travelling with my wife. My wife loves to travel but only along the coast. She is neither interested in birds nor reptiles but she tolerates my obsessions. Otherwise, I travel alone.
Do you have any future trips planned?I hope to head out to Fowler's Gap area next week for a few days. Otherwise, one of my herping friends from my high school days is coming over from Arizona in February and we will head to the southwest corner of Western Australia for look for reptiles. It will be great fun to re-live the type of trip that we made so often in our youth.
Thankyou Dave for an interesting look into your herping life :)
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ARK Newsletter Team
