Another keeper from The Netherlands

[Xenior1976]

Hi all,

I've been reading here for a while now but never posted untill now.
I'm Ro from The Netherlands, 32 years old and my main interest are Elapidae and crocs.
I'm keeping snakes for about 11 years now and still hooked. Other interests are herping, not only for reptiles but also for amfibiens and insects.

Any questions, shoot.

What I'm currently keeping is;

0.0.1 Atheris squamigera

0.1.0 Bitis gabonica gabonica

0.1.0 Crotalus adamanteus 50% HET ALBINO
1.2.0 Crotalus atrox ALBINO + ALBINO (black eyes) + 100% HET ALBINO
1.3.0 Crotalus durissus unicolor

1.1.0 Dendroaspis viridis

1.1.0 Naja annulifera
1.1.0 Naja haje
1.2.0 Naja haje legionis
0.1.0 Naja kaouthia ALBINO
1.1.0 Naja kaouthia suphan ALBINO
1.1.1 Naja melanoleuca
1.0.0 Naja mossambica
1.1.0 Naja naja polyocellata
1.3.0 Naja nigricollis nigricollis
1.3.0 Naja nivea spotted
1.0.0 Naja pallida
0.1.0 Naja samarensis

Crocs;
1.0.0 Paleosuchus palpebrosus
0.0.1 Osteolaemus tetraspis

I've posted some of my animals in this topic... viewtopic.php?f=86&t=14193

Cheers, Ro.

[froot]

Welcome Xenior1976, sounds like a great collection. I'd love to see photos of the D. viridis.

[insaniac]

Quite the collection indeed...

Welcome !!!

Hope you enjoy the forum !

[Bushviper]

You will be very interested in this article from herpdigest
African Dwarf Crocodiles Split Into Three Species Eureka Alert.

You'd think that if scientists were to discover a new species, it would be in some remote, uncharted tropical forest, not a laboratory in New York. But a team from the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History has done the unexpected. Looking at the genes of the African dwarf crocodile, researchers found that the group—genetically speaking—comprises three distinct species rather than one. This not only ends a long debate about the taxonomy of this group, previously thought to consist of two closely related subspecies, but also defines a new, distinct species from genetic samples.

"In the past, the two morphologically distinct crocodile populations were believed to be different genera, then later different species, and then finally different subspecies,"
explains first-author Mitchell Eaton. Eaton conducted the research at the Sackler Institute and is finishing his doctoral degree at the University of Colorado. "We collected samples in Africa to explore this taxonomic question, and we found a great deal of evolutionary divergence between populations in the Congo Basin and on the west coast of Central Africa. We also—quite unexpectedly—found a completely new species from far West Africa; there may be even more species that we haven't sampled yet!"

African dwarf crocodiles, genus Osteolaemus, live in the tropical forests of Central and West Africa. Adults typically grow to no more than 5 feet in length and are the smallest living members of the crocodilian family. The three groups identified in this current research include a species from the Congo Basin (O. osborni), another from Central Africa's Ogooué Basin (O. tetraspis), and the new, yet unnamed species from West Africa.

All of these crocodiles look very similar, and all are widely hunted by local people as a source of food. In fact, these animals provide up to a quarter of the non-fish bush meat consumed in some areas of Central Africa, but over-hunting to supply commercial 'bushmeat' markets may threaten many populations with extinction. Dwarf crocodiles are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.

In the laboratory, the researchers sequenced more than 4,000 base pairs of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from as many as 82 individuals sampled across Central and West Africa. The results confirmed species-level separations between three different groups of dwarf crocodiles. Crocodiles from the Congo Basin appear to be the oldest of the three species, with some morphological characteristics placing them closer to a shared ancestor of the Nile crocodile. The dwarf crocodiles of the Ogooué and West Africa, on the other hand, are more recently evolved and are more closely related to each other than either is to the Congo Basin species.

"These species have been on their own evolutionary trajectory for a long time," says George Amato, Director of the Sackler Institute. "They are diagnostically distinct—every individual in one species has characteristics that are not found in the other species, and the number of diagnostic characteristics is large."

The new taxonomic discovery has implications for the conservation strategy of African dwarf crocodiles. "Without these genetic results, the level of biodiversity was cryptic, hidden," Amato continues. "Accurate taxonomy is necessary for conservation management of each species, and now we can calculate subsistence hunting levels that are manageable."

In addition to Amato and Eaton, coauthors include Andrew Martin of the University of Colorado and John Thorbjarnarson of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The research was funded in part by AMNH, the National Geographic Society, WCS, Lincoln Park Zoo, the Rufford Foundation, and the University of Colorado's Natural History Museum and Rozella Smith Fellowship. It is published in the early online edition of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.

[Xenior1976]

Welcome Xenior1976, sounds like a great collection. I'd love to see photos of the D. viridis.

I probably have some photo's somewhere, will add them later. I have a yellow and a green one.

Thanks for the kind words and @ bushviper; Yes, I know, I already read this. Very interesting.

Cheers, Ro.

[Xenior1976]

1.1 Dendroaspis viridis





She already produced CB a couple of times but not with this new male. Hopefully I have a clutch this year.
I seperated them and will introduce them this spring again and keep my fingers crossed. As always, the male is ready but it all depends on her.

Pics made by Niels btw, also a member on this forum.

Cheers, Ro.

[Bushviper]

Now that picture would make me back away slowly.

Do you know if the babies will be 1. slightly yellow, 2. some yellow and some green babies, or 3. green but will produce yellow babies in future?

[Mitton]

Wow, what beautilful snakes, thanks for the pics.

[Xenior1976]

Now that picture would make me back away slowly.

Do you know if the babies will be 1. slightly yellow, 2. some yellow and some green babies, or 3. green but will produce yellow babies in future?

She (the yellow one) is actually pretty calm most of the time when being hooked and tailed. I never do it alone though, always with back up and a big net. She's well over 2 meter.

She produced yellow and green/blueish ones. The male was the same color as this one so it's really exciting what will come out of the eggs. Hopefully at least a couple yellow ones again, will def. keep a pair myself if I have enough eggs.

@mittone_79; Fangs!

Cheers, Ro.

[Xenior1976]

Pic made by Rob Olivier, snakes are from Harold vd Ploeg.
This is offspring of my yellow female so you can see for yourself.
(The female, the green/blueish one is in shed though on this picture.)



Cheers, Ro.

[Bushbaby]

Wow, that's really stunning. Thanks for sharing.

Oh, and welcome

[froot]

Absolutly stunning Xenior! Their beauty is just out of this world, the way their scales are shaded just grabs me. Are the insides of their mouths black like D. polylepis?

Thanks for posting those photos.

[Xenior1976]

Thanks! Allthough I did not make the pics and I did not create these snakes so the credit goes to the photographers and evolution.

No all the other Dendroaspis sp. have a plain white mouth.

Cheers, Ro.

[Bushviper]

Ro

We have D. angusticeps with black inside their mouths here as well.

[Xenior1976]

Never knew this, very interesting and now there's another snake on my wantinglist...
I called some peeps overhere and nobody knew about this so I wasn't the only one.

Cheers, Ro.