Fish and Amphibians

A fisherman in Texas caught what he thought was a lake-record smallmouth bass, but it turned out to be a world record for something different and very unique. The 7-pound, 9-ounce smallmouth bass that Wyatt Frankens caught at O.H. Ivie Reservoir in March was actually confirmed by Texas Parks and Wildlife as a smallmouth-largemouth hybrid, commonly referred to as a meanmouth bass. This information instantly made the hybrid fish not only a lake record but a state record. Then, earlier this month, the International Game Fish Association confirmed it as a world record. The IGFA is the official recordkeeper for sportfishing catches. "At first I thought it was a big smallmouth," Frankens explained to USA Today/For The Win Outdoors. "O.H. Ivie has some big largemouth in it, but it also has big smallies. "After I got her weighed, some guys mentioned that it could be a hybrid. Meaning, it could be a largemouth-smallmouth mix. After scale samples were s...

LOCAL NEWS 2021-05-20 "Here Be Dragons" – No Longer a Warning. An Invitation from The Museum of Discovery and Science In medieval times unexplored areas were labeled on maps with the words "hic sunt dracones" – "Here be dragons". This was meant to deter people from daring to move past the known to the unknown. Danger lurked there. People needed to stay away. The very words those mapmakers used as a warning, the Museum of Science and Discovery proudly proclaims to draw people in. "Here Be Dragons" is the latest offering in the Museum's series of traveling exhibits and is sponsored by Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital., The exhibit runs from May 22 to September 6 with a Members Only Preview on May 22 from 9 am to 10 am. All members receive a free gift. There will be a wide variety of exciting and educations activities. Here are some examples: See 10 Species of live lizards, including the albino green iguana, ...

The diversity and double life of frogs There are more than 7,300 species of frog found all over the world and they show a remarkable diversity in life history and ecology. Frogs can live in water, in trees, under the ground and on top of the ground. There are two distinctive stages in a frog's life. The first is its larval form, which can look like eggs or tadpoles, before they change into their adult form through a process called metamorphosis. In different species of frog, the tadpole will either stay in their eggs for the entire larval stage and go through metamorphosis within the egg, or the larvae can hatch and feed themselves as free-swimming tadpoles. The team of researchers thought that because frogs have needed to adapt to specific environments to survive, the behaviour of their larvae might have impacted the evolution of their skulls. This is because feeding as an aquatic tadpole is quite different from feeding as an adult on land and the team wondered how this mi...

A massive shark seen on video lurking around a tall ship off the coast of Massachusetts has social media in an uproar. The prehistoric-sized shark was filmed swimming slowly alongside a ship full of research students as they all screamed and gawked in awe. Alex Albrecht, a marine biodiversity student and musician, captured the sighting from the mast of the SSV Corwith Cramer just over 100 miles off the coast of the Woods Hole section of Falmouth. The now-viral video has been viewed more than 37 million times [note: the video has explicit language] since Albrecht posted it Tuesday on TikTok. "Is that a megalodon," one person jokingly questioned in the comments along with many others. A megalodon is an extinct species that is believed to be the largest shark – and fish – to have ever lived. Some scientists estimate that an adult megalodon could have been more than 30 feet in length. Others contest that the species could have be more than 80 feet long. So, was that...

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.VA. — New regulations making it unlawful to take or possess most native reptiles and amphibians for any reason are now in effect in West Virginia. "Reptiles and amphibians are a valuable wildlife resource and unfortunately we've had several large poaching cases involving these animals," said Kevin Oxenrider, amphibian and reptile program leader for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. "When it comes to the illegal wildlife trade, people don't think about turtles, snakes and salamanders. But these animals call West Virginia home, so we want to make sure we're doing everything we can to protect them so they can continue to serve their ecological function in the environment." Prohibited Native West Virginia Amphibian and Reptile Species – The new regulations prohibit the taking and possessing of 26 salamander species, 13 frog and toad species, six lizard species, 23 snake species and 12 turtle species. Salamander...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Something peculiar showed up at the Santa Barbara Harbor this weekend, and it has many residents and wildlife experts scratching their heads. A group of five black swans with bright red bills have been seen gliding past boats, docks and kayakers in the harbor since Friday. While their appearance alone is striking, many residents and organizations are left baffled as to where the birds came from. "The only reason they would be seen here is if a bird escaped from captivity—they are often kept as pets in ornamental lakes," said Rebecca Coulter with Santa Barbara Audubon. Local wildlife experts explained that these swans are not normally seen in North America. In fact, according to SeaWorld, the birds are native to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. "They have been known to travel hundreds and hundreds of miles from their native Australia, New Zealand area," said Jim Hurnblad, volunteer rescuer with Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Net...

Fiancés Crystal McWilliams and Kelvin Thorne have opened up a seafood restaurant like no other in Thomasville, called Cosmos Cuisine & Cocktails. It's not just the menu offerings — such as shrimp and grits, seafood boils and homemade flavored sauces for the boils — that make it unique, but also their business model that sets this restaurant apart from others in the Chair City. Their business at 615 E. Main St., is really a private bar with a restaurant attached. "We are a private bar that happens to have a restaurant beside it," said McWilliams, a Michigan native who is engaged to Thomasville native Thorne.  "You have to have a membership to come in, but it's only $1 a year. It just made sense businesswise to set it up this way as a private bar with a restaurant instead of as a restaurant with a bar with how the ratio is of how we have to sell food to drinks and other things." Cosmos Cuisine & Cocktails, which opened with a ribbon-cutti...

When a ball python gets nervous, instead of lashing out and biting, he curls up into a little ball. The human-friendly snake will be one of thousands of reptiles for sale during the Colorado Reptile Show at Colorado Springs Event Center Saturday and Sunday. Also up for adoption are leopard geckos, bearded dragons, many varieties of snakes, lizards, frogs, chameleons, tortoises and tarantulas. And if you're lucky, some exotic animals will show up, too, such as sugar gliders and hedgehogs. "You can touch them or talk to someone who breeds them or deals with them every day," says Jason Cruse, owner and operator of Cold Blooded Expos, which puts on the event. "There are a lot of people scared of snakes, but they've never held one. They're scared because they were taught to be scared." Elvis impersonator from 'America's Got Talent' to perform in Colorado Springs Cruse has been passionate about helping people discover ...

Jeanine Pirro and Newt Gingrich discussing Pride flags on U.S. embassies Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called a decision by the Biden administration to allow U.S. embassies to fly LGBTQ Pride flags "idiotic" and "deliberately anti-American." The former Republican politician, who now serves as a conservative commentator, made the comments during an interview with Fox News' Jeanine Pirro on Saturday. Gingrich slammed the Secretary of State Antony Blinken's decision to reverse a Trump-era policy preventing embassies and outposts from flying Pride flags on flagpoles. Read more: Biden administration reverses Trump's ban on embassies flying Pride flags The failed presidential candidate and Trump supporter said the Biden administration was "attacking people of traditional values" by allowing embassies to show support for LGBTQ people. "If you listed every idiotic thing that the Biden administration has done in the first 100...

THE EVERGLADES, FLORIDA Gillian Hicks and her boyfriend, Michael Litersky, were sitting on the porch of Hicks's apartment in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, when they noticed a strange animal slinking along the fence. It looked a bit like a raccoon, but its color was too mustardy, and a bit like a cat, but its tail flexed and gripped with remarkable dexterity. A Google search suggested the mysterious beast might be some type of primate, maybe a lemur. Whatever it was, it was cute—with the big, imploring eyes and rounded ears of a teddy bear—and seemed friendly. The internet says lemurs eat fruit, so Litersky set out some watermelon. As the sun dipped into the Gulf of Mexico on that muggy summer evening in 2019, the couple watched the maybe-a-lemur grasp the melon chunks in its clawed forepaws and nibble away at them. The next morning, Hicks awoke to screams. Sprinting out of bed, she discovered Litersky and the little animal doing battle in the kitchen. As Hicks would later explain ...

Matt Pool describes himself as a "dead-eye" with a shotgun. On a recent hunt his talents and enthusiasm were evident in the field, dropping a jake in its tracks. But it wasn't until he retrieved his wild Merriam's turkey that he noticed something odd.   The gobbler was jet black, only revealing different shades when viewed in the right light. Pool and hunting partners Ron Adams and Gil Vining didn't know what to make of the unusual color. So they took it to Nature's Design, in Cody.   "I'd never seen one like it," said owner Ray Hatfield, who's been a taxidermist for area hunters for 50 years. He had seen a few "very rare," oddly colored turkeys and figured this must be what is commonly called a color morph. After some checking, he found the turkey was born with one of the rarest color variations, known as melanism.   According to Mark Hatfield (no relation) of the National Wild Turkey Federation, melanism is the rarest gene...

LOCAL NEWS 2021-05-20 "Here Be Dragons" – No Longer a Warning. An Invitation from The Museum of Discovery and Science In medieval times unexplored areas were labeled on maps with the words "hic sunt dracones" – "Here be dragons". This was meant to deter people from daring to move past the known to the unknown. Danger lurked there. People needed to stay away. The very words those mapmakers used as a warning, the Museum of Science and Discovery proudly proclaims to draw people in. "Here Be Dragons" is the latest offering in the Museum's series of traveling exhibits and is sponsored by Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital., The exhibit runs from May 22 to September 6 with a Members Only Preview on May 22 from 9 am to 10 am. All members receive a free gift. There will be a wide variety of exciting and educations activities. Here are some examples: See 10 Species of live lizards, including the albino green iguana, ...

Dead fish on store shelves, feces piling up in cages, sick animals suffering inside severely crowded containers, reptiles deprived of proper heat, dead animals being cannibalized in small tubs, and animals gassed, frozen alive, and left for dead—that's just the misery that PETA undercover investigators, whistleblowers, and government officials were able to note. Imagine the pain and suffering that goes undiscovered at Petco stores and in its suppliers' mills. Petco treats the sentient beings it sells as disposable merchandise, but the buck can stop with us, the consumers. For all these 👇 animals' sakes, please don't buy into the pain that Petco peddles. How Much Does a Bird at Petco Cost? Ultimately, the cost of buying a bird at Petco may be that animal's very life. We've been pushing Petco to end live-animal sales since the early 2000s, when we first owned stock in the company, which saw it end the sale of large birds in its stores and recommend and p...