Fish and Amphibians

Photography by Jessica Turner A ood news: It's spring. Iffy news, depending on your level of ophidiophobia: The numerous snakes of East Dallas are waking up.     Oh, and they're hungry and looking for love. Not to worry. Lakewood Hills neighbor and snake educator Kevin "Poppi" Rudy would argue that it's no time to panic, merely time to be aware and cautious. Given that our area is in range of four types of venomous snakes and a fair number of nonvenomous ones, a little education and insight might be handy. Rudy's just the person for the job. He earned a master's in biology, served as past president of the North Texas Herpetological Society and has been an educator at several nature centers, including the Dallas Zoo and Audubon Center. Rudy and snakes go way back. His mom would tell you they've fascinated him since the age of 2.  "I always liked snakes, lizards, toads, frogs, spiders, scorpions, etc., but my favorite was always snak...

Part of The Animals Issue of The Highlight , our home for ambitious stories that explain our world. The most emotionally difficult moment in Michelle Graham's life was when five snakes in her lab died. She had started a doctoral program studying jumping and flying snakes. There are several species of snakes that not only live in trees but can leap heroically from one to the next. Scientists still aren't totally sure why they jump, but what Graham wanted to know was: How? How can an animal with no arms and no legs jump at all? In hopes of observing them fly, her lab purchased from a reptile dealer several snakes collected in southeast Asia, then placed them in an improvised snake jungle gym fitted with GoPro cameras. The team wanted to learn how the snakes could curl up and then launch themselves toward tree branches and other targets, adjusting how they're coiled to land each jump. Graham loves animals. Horrified at the treatment of animals in factory farms and...

Populations of nationally important reptile species have been protected and moved to specially designed and bespoke new habitats at Tarmac's Bellhouse Quarry in Essex, as part of the company's ongoing commitment to supporting wildlife and biodiversity across the UK. Tarmac's team had previously identified a population of reptiles in an area to the north of the active quarry that was due to be extended into and has been working to create and enhance specialised habitats as a new home for the animals as a fundamental part of the design for the restoration for the site. A section of the quarry has since been specially dedicated to housing the populations of these species that include common lizards, slow worms and grass snakes, which have been successfully 'translocated' and moved to these new habitats. The reptile habitat creation works originally began in 2016, which created almost three hectares of ideal habitat for reptiles including ponds, tussocky grass...

It is an old-standing theory in evolutionary ecology: animal species on islands have the tendency to become either giants or dwarfs in comparison to mainland relatives. Since its formulation in the 1960s, however, the 'island rule' has been severely debated by scientists. In a new publication in Nature Ecology and Evolution on April 15, researchers solved this debate by analysing thousands of vertebrate species. They show that the island rule effects are widespread in mammals, birds and reptiles, but less evident in amphibians. Dwarf hippos and elephants in the Mediterranean islands are examples of large species who exhibited dwarfism. On the other hand, small mainland species may have evolved into giants after colonizing islands, giving rise to such oddities as the St Kilda field mouse (twice the size of its mainland ancestor), the infamous dodo of Mauritius (a giant pigeon), and the Komodo dragon. In 1973, Leigh van Valen was the first that formulated the theory, based o...

Barrett Mudgett Jr  |  Devils Lake Journal Fish have been on the earth for over 450 million years. There is an estimate that there are over 15 thousand species of fish that have not yet been discovered. The Rougheye Rockfish can live up to 200 years old. The largest fish in the world was the whale shark, being about 41 feet long. The smallest fish in the world is the Stout Infant, which can be ¼ of an inch long. I like aggressive fish that eat other fish. The fish I currently have are two baby oscars. They can grow up to be 12-14 inches long and have a mass of 3.5 pounds. They need to live in a 55 gallon tank or they will be too large and die. Did you know that they can live up to 20 years and are omnivores? They also come in many different colors, colors ranging from dark green to a vibrant pink.  Most fish that I don't like are wide-eyed fish. They weird me out, but they can survive most things. Did you know that they can live from 10-30 years long? In the wild they ...

RuPaul's Drag Race has grown into a global empire with nearly two dozen seasons (and counting) across several countries. The Emmy-winning American version pioneered many of the things that are emulated in its international counterparts, including the famous Lip Sync For Your Life. Performer and winner of 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Aquaria visits the SiriusXM Studios on July 23, 2018 in New York City | Cindy Ord/Getty Images 'RuPaul's Drag Race' is centered around the Lip Sync For Your Life Every episode of RuPaul's Drag Race has ended with a lip sync battle between the two lowest-performing queens of the week. Depending on the song choice, whether it's a high-energy pop number or a ballad, the queens need to embody the music and deliver a showstopping performance so they can stay. Artists who have been featured include Lady Gaga, Prince, and Cher. Over the years, plenty of gagworthy moments have happened during the lip sync. One of the most...

By Rafael Alvarez Photos by Jennifer Bishop E lwood "Don" Clark of Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood has long loved his life as a dealer of fishing equipment and fresh seafood. Now 84, he's been at it since Jimmy Carter was president, from his store on South Hanover Street, not far from the Beaux Arts cantilever bridge where people have used chicken necks to catch crabs for more than a hundred years. "We sell everything there for fishing and crabbing, but when I first went into the business there wasn't enough [trade] to make a living, so I started selling seafood," says Clark, who still lives in the rowhouse just off of Patapsco Avenue where he was born and raised. "Been there all my life," he says. "Might as well stay now." In the past 12 months, a most unusual and troubling year, the veteran fishmonger has come to a conclusion: "With the pandemic, everybody in the world had nothing to do. So they went fishing." ...

Online sales of newts, including a near-threatened species, have skyrocketed in Japan, raising concerns about overhunting and potential ecological damage, according to an environmental activist and researcher. More than 20,000 online transactions involving newts were carried out over the 11 years through last year. The amphibians are easily found in ponds and rivers across the country, and more people are keeping them in tanks at home. Shigeharu Terui, who is involved in the preservation and research of salamanders and other animals, is urging the public not to causally buy newts through online auction sites. "Awareness of the issue needs to increase among consumers, and measures should be taken against websites trading in living creatures," Terui said. "Legislation may have to be introduced to stop the move as well." Terui monitored wild newt transactions on Japan's largest auction site, Yafuoku (Yahoo! Auction), from 2009 to 2019. The results, publishe...

The effect of protection in a lineup is often overstated, mostly because the times a slugger was denied a chance to drive in a run looms larger than all the opportunities he had to swing away. Tuesday night provided such a refresher. After launching a cannon shot 458 feet deep into the Progressive Field bleachers in the fourth inning, José Abreu came to the plate with a runner on second and nobody out in the sixth inning of a 4-2 game. With first base open and Leury Garciá hitting behind him due to a defensive swap at first base, Terry Francona could've had Zach Plesac pitch around Abreu in order to face a guy who looks scared to swing the bat. Instead, Plesac went after Abreu with a slider in the zone, and Abreu shot it back through the middle for an RBI single that extended the White Sox's lead to 5-2. Francona pulled Plesac for Cal Quantrill, who both threw and caught his first pitch to García, because García did what he's been doing all year: bunting for no good r...

Annually on April 22, Earth Day recognizes environmental and climate-changing events that have affected the ecological system, while also advocating to help the planet by introducing alternatives to preserve oceanic and land-based wildlife. "Restore our Earth" was announced as Earth Day's 2021 campaign theme and emphasizes that "together we can prevent the coming disasters of climate change and environmental destruction," according to the event's official website. For the second time, Earth Day will be celebrated through a livestreamed event due to the coronavirus pandemic and focus on topics such as climate and environmental literacy, reforestation efforts and cleanups. Encompassing 71% of the Earth's surface and sustaining the lives of billions of people, the ocean is home to many ecosystems and forms of wildlife. It also "regulates our climate and produces half the oxygen we breathe," according to World Wildlife. Chris Lowe, Shark La...

Bill Murray and Wes Anderson have a friendship and collaboration that spans over 20 years, but that doesn't mean the actor is all caught up on everything the director has made. Anderson has directed 10 feature films to date, including the upcoming "The French Dispatch," and nine of those movies have featured Murray in some capacity. Only Anderson's 25-year-old feature directorial debut "Bottle Rocket" lacks Murray's presence, and Murray has still not seen it as of April 2021. "I kept getting these notes from my agent, who kept sending me cassettes of his first film, 'Bottle Rocket,'" Murray recalled at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (via Collider) this month about how his relationship with Anderson started. "I probably have the largest collection of 'Bottle Rocket' of any man on the planet, and I still haven't seen the movie. I just never got around to watching it." When the scrip...