I just sold my male mandarin phase for 350 euro! Cheap as chips and he is a cracker of almost 8ft. If you are preparred for a shite load of rondvok, CITES I shipments can be done. For this species its worth the hassle.

They'ld have very stiff necks if they had to live here in Ireland!

I remember seeing loads of them in the Sandrift area before the likes of Century City, Canal Walk, Summer Greens, Victoria Palms (etc...) developments. I wonder what happened to all of those? I shudder to even think!

I suggest that you look at doing the Tortoise Trust Foundation Course (online correspondence - Cost: ~ £40). Its a UK-based organisation geared to keeping torts indoors. There's an interesting piece on microclimates and their importance in long-term health of torts (incl. S. pardalis) in indoor envi...

I spoke to a colleague of mine about this the other day and he recommended putting the feeder earthworms in peat moss and feeding them with bran (sprinkled atop the peat) to clean them out, much the same as you would do with mealworms. I guess you could mix a multivitamin suppliment with the bran be...

I don't want to be the drol-in-die-drink-water, but I've worked with these enclosures before and found some short-comings that you could keep in mind. They sometimes don't close properly (although they appear to be secure) and snakes will escape over the back of the container (particularly corals in...

I stimulate my Gilas to feed in summer this way. A light misting with a spray pump and they're doing laps for a mouse!!!!

Reply is a tad late perhaps, but if you have a couple of grand lying around you can get one from SKULLS UNLIMITED in the states. Better still is its a museum quality replica so TOPS won't apply! I have bought stuff from these guys before and they're class!

I'm busy building a similar habitat display for a Chillean Rose-haired tarantula at work. I'm using thick polystyrene sheet and a soldering iron to burn the burrow shape and then cover all except the actual burrow with black silicone and sand on top of that. The sheet is fitted against the front vie...

Bitis albanica

Got this via email from a colleague. Someone has a vivid imagination... "Snakes also known as Garter Snakes (Thamnophissirtalis) can be dangerous. Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes. Here's why. A couple in Sweetwater , Texas , had a lot of potted plants. During a recent cold spell, the wife w...

I remember taking the director of Singapore Zoo to George to a certain well-known location to photograph Knysna Dwarfs. I had never looked for them there and I purely followed directions from my boss. It was astruggle at first to find one, but when we eventually found one, we started picking them up...

BV as far as I've heard from the man himself, he was busy with memoires some years back. Whether they materialized or are tucked away in abookshelf somewhere...who knows.

I've seen on several occasions, a tiny little species of cricket which at first I thought where baby veld crickets, but on closer inspection I saw an adult female with a well developed ovipositor. She was about 4mm long. On closer inspection they are totally different looking to velds or browns. The...

Thanks for that BV. I'm sure there a few disappointed faces after hearing that.