Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)

Baby

Juvenile

Aged

Scientific classification

Kingdom : Animalia

Phylum  : Chordata

Class : Reptillia

Order   : Squamata

Family   : Iguanidae

Genus : Iguana

Species   : I. iguana

Inexperienced, or widespread, iguanas are among the many largest lizards in the Americas, averaging round 6.5 feet (2 meters) long and weighing about eleven pounds (5 kilograms).

They are also among the many most popular reptile pets in the United States, regardless of being fairly tough to take care of properly. The truth is, most captive iguanas die throughout the first 12 months, and many are either turned free by their house owners or given to reptile rescue groups.

The green iguana’s extensive vary contains the rain forests of northern Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, and southern Brazil. They spend most of their lives within the cover, descending only occasionally to mate, lay eggs, or change trees.

Primarily herbivores, iguanas are lively throughout the day, feeding on leaves, flowers, and fruit. They generally dwell near water and are glorious swimmers. If threatened, they'll leap from a department, often from nice heights, and escape with a splash to the water below. They are additionally powerful enough to land on strong floor from as high as 40 ft (12 meters) and survive.

Iguanas' stout build offers them a clumsy look, but they are fast and agile on land. They've robust jaws with razor-sharp teeth and sharp tails, which make up half their physique size and can be utilized as whips to drive off predators. They'll also detach their tails if caught and will develop one other with out everlasting damage.

Other members of the iguana household include the Fiji Island banded iguana, the desert iguana, and the Galápagos Islands marine iguana. Their appearance, conduct, and endangered standing vary from species to species.

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Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum)

The milksnake is an unusual reptile. It comes in many different sizes and color combinations depending on where it lives. Milksnakes can be found in a wide range of habitats, from humid tropical rain forests to cool mountaintops.

Physical characteristics: Although all milksnakes have smooth, shiny scales, they can look quite different from one region to the next. Some have large red or brown blotches that are often lined in black on a gray to tan background; others have bands of red, black, and yellow or white. A few are solid black. Adults range from 20 to 60 inches (51 to 152 centimeters) in length.

Coral snake vs Milk snake

Color Variations : Most milksnake hatchlings are red with black-and-white stripes. This distinctive color pattern is similar to coral snakes, which are often found in the same places as milksnakes. Coral snakes are venomous, but milksnakes are not. In coral snakes, red and yellow bands meet, while red and black bands meet in the case of milksnakes. An easy way to remember the difference is the following mnemonic: “Red to yellow, kill a fellow: Red to black, venom lack”. For both, the bright color pattern acts as a warning signal to potential predators. The predators recognize the possible danger of being poisoned if they eat the snakes. However, hatchlings and very young milksnakes often fall victim to predators that include bullfrogs, hawks and other birds of prey, raccoons, and other snakes.

Scarlet Milk Snake

Coral Snake

Some milksnakes become darker in color as they grow older. Large adult milksnakes have fewer predators. The darkening happens because black pigment spreads through the red and white scales. One form—the black milksnake from Colombia becomes completely black, but most just get darker. The dark color helps the snakes to absorb heat more easily when basking. It also makes them less obvious to predators and prey.

Geographic range: Milksnakes are found across a wide range. They live in southern Canada and most of the United States, except deserts and high mountains. Milksnakes are also found throughout Central America south to the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador. In general, the largest adult milksnakes are found in warmer, tropical regions farther south. The smallest live in the northernmost parts of the snake’s range. There is one exception, however. The milksnakes found in warm, subtropical Florida are much smaller than milksnakes from the northeastern United States. The reason is that milksnakes in Florida are burrowers and live most of their lives in rotting tree stumps. A big snake would find this lifestyle difficult.

Habitat: Milksnakes are common in forests and fields, desert edges to sandy beaches and sometimes live on rocky hillsides.

Diet: Young snakes seem to prefer eating other snakes, but adults round out their diet with small mammals, lizards, and bird and reptile eggs. A milksnake typically kills mammals and lizards by constriction, which means that it coils its body around the prey animal and squeezes it to death.

Behavior and reproduction: The milksnake is a secretive animal during the day and usually stays under the bark of a tree, beneath boards, or in other small hiding places. It becomes active at night, when it feeds. Milksnakes live slightly different lives depending on where they live. Milksnakes from tropical areas are always active because the temperature is very warm throughout the year. Milksnakes from temperate regions avoid the cool winters by entering a sleeplike state called hibernation. Milksnakes hibernate for several months. They find dry, sheltered places such as woodland rabbit burrows, holes in trees, stone walls, and the cellars of buildings. Eastern milksnakes often hibernate in groups of up to twenty-eight snakes. They mate in the spring. Females lay between 4 and 15 eggs at a time, and the eggs hatch after 40–60 days. When they reach three to four years of age, the young snakes are old enough to reproduce, or have their own young.

Milksnakes and people: Although the milksnake is not dangerous, people often kill it because it defends itself by shaking its tail, striking, and biting, the type of behavior that can make people think that it is a dangerous rattlesnake. Because the snake is sometimes found in barns, people at one time had the mistaken idea that it milked cows, and so they named it the milksnake. It is sometimes collected for the pet trade.

Honduran Milk Snake

One or many : There are about 25 forms of milksnake. They differ in size, color, stripe pattern, and where they live. The forms include the Mexican, Honduran, Ecuadorian, Pueblan, and eastern milksnakes. The eastern milksnake (shown below)â•‹is gray with brown blotches down its back. This coloration camouflages the snake against the leaf litter in which it is found. Some scientists think that milksnakes should be named as a different subspecies (types within the same species). Subspecies are isolated from each other because they live in different places. But the different milksnakes often overlap in range. The variations in size and pattern between forms are gradual so it is very tricky to say when one form ends and another begins.

Eastern Milk Snake

Conservation status: The milksnake is not endangered or threatened.

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Galápagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra)

Some facts of Galapagos giant turtle :

Where do they live?: Galápagos Islands in the South Atlantic

Habitat: Upland areas

Size: Shell length from 29 in. (74 cm) to more than 4 ft. (1.2 m); weighs 500 lb. (227 kg)

Coloration: Dull brown; males often have a yellow area on the lower jaw and throat

Diet: Wide range of vegetation— even cactus shoots

Breeding: Females lay 2–10 eggs that hatch after 3–4 months

Life span: Up to 200 years

Status: Vulnerable

The largest tortoises in the world live on the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. These reptiles probably drifted across the ocean from Central America, perhaps on floating tree trunks. The biggest Galápagos tortoises weigh as much as three men and may live for 200 years.

The Galápagos Islands were formed when volcanoes erupted through the seafloor about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador in northern South America. The first giant tortoises washed up on the beaches of the island of Española. Later, more giant tortoises landed on the islands of southern Isabela, Volcan Darwin, and Volcan Alcedo. A third batch of tortoises landed on other islands in the group. It may seem unlikely that tortoises could just drift across the ocean for hundreds of miles and end up on some remote islands. Yet tortoises are often carried far from land during floods and they can survive very well at sea. They stay afloat with little effort, bobbing along on the ocean waves. They can survive for long periods without eating. They use the stores of body fat to supply them with energy. A giant tortoise can live without food for up to 14 months.

One female is all that is needed to start a new population of tortoises if she already carries a male’s sperm inside her body. Female tortoises can lay eggs for up to four years without a male being present. The young giant tortoises on the Galápagos Islands would have hatched in a safe environment, with plenty to eat and few predators, allowing their numbers to build up very quickly.

Three Types of Tortoise

Dome-shaped shells

Saddleback

Scientists put the different groups of Galápagos giant tortoises into three separate groups based on the way in which they have adapted to their environment. The first group is the saddlebacks. They are named for the way the front of their shells rise up above their necks, similar to a horse’s saddle. These tortoises live on dry islands where they need to stretch up to feed on taller plants. The smaller plants on these islands die back during dry periods. Saddlebacks have long legs and long necks, so they can stretch as high as possible. The second group is the tortoises with dome-shaped shells and short necks. This group lives on upland areas of the islands, where there are plenty of lush plants at ground level. The third group includes tortoises with characteristics partway between the saddlebacks and the dome-shelled tortoises.

 

Island Races

Several groups of the Galápagos giant tortoise live isolated from each other on the twenty different islands in the Galápagos group. Each group has adapted to the different conditions on the islands. The shape of their shells, their maximum size, and the lengths of their necks and limbs vary according to where they live. These differences helped the British naturalist Charles Darwin to figure out his ideas on evolution when he visited the islands as the zoologist on board the HMS Beagle in 1835.

Tortoise Troubles

In the nineteenth century, many Galapágos giant tortoises were taken from the islands and used to feed the crews of European whaling ships. So many tortoises were taken that three groups became extinct—on Charles Island, Barrington Island, and Narborough Island. Hunting is now banned, and the tortoises are fully protected by laws passed by the government in Ecuador. However, the Galápagos giant tortoises still face many problems. Goats left on the islands by sailors long ago now compete with the tortoises for food and can destroy their nests as well. Other introduced species include pigs and rats, and these eat the tortoises’ eggs.

Saving the Tortoises

Many conservation programs have been set up to help the Galápagos giant tortoises. The introduction of foreign species is being controlled to prevent competition for food or danger to the eggs and young tortoises. These tortoises are also being bred in captivity. Over the last forty years, the Darwin Foundation on the Galápagos Islands have hatched more than 2,500 young tortoises, adding to a total population of about 10,000 individuals. The tortoises are kept safely in pens and protected from predators, such as birds of prey, until they are three years old. Then they are released into the wild.

Mating games

The courtship rituals of the Galápagos giant tortoises are extremely aggressive. The larger male tortoises bash the shells of the females and pin them down by clambering on top of them. The males often make a roaring sound when they mate with the females. The females lay between two and ten hard, spherical eggs from July to December. The young tortoises hatch during the rainy season when there is fresh grass and plenty of other vegetation to eat. The shell of a newly hatched giant tortoise measures only 2.5 in. (6 cm) in length.

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Blue-Tongued Skink (Tiliqua scincoides)

Where do they live?: Eastern and northern Australia, and Irian Jaya in Indonesia

Habitat: Forests, grasslands, and gardens

Size: Head–tail length up to 24 in. (60 cm), males are longer and slimmer than females

Coloration: Gray, tan, or silver with dark bands; bright blue tongue

Diet: Berries, flowers, fruit, insects, and dead animals

Breeding: Up to 25 young born after a gestation period (pregnancy) of 110 days

Life Span: Up to 20 years

Status: Common

The blue-tongued skink is a large lizard that lives in a range of habitats in Australia, New Guinea, and various Indonesian islands. Some live in the desert or dry scrub, but many prefer the tropical forests. The legs and claws of the blue-tongued skink are not strong enough for it to dig its own burrows, so it shelters in the burrows of other animals, as well as in hollow logs, the spaces between rocks, and in leaf litter. When it moves through thick undergrowth, the blue-tongued skink folds its back legs out of the way and wriggles along like a snake. Blue-tongued skinks are active during the day, but they may retreat into their burrows during the hottest periods. During the dry season, when food and water are hard to find, large lizards save energy and moisture by staying in their burrows. They let their own body metabolism (normal body processes) slow down. The slow-moving blue-tongued skink cannot rely on speed to escape from predators. Instead, it puffs up its body, hisses loudly, and sticks out its bright blue tongue to scare them away.

Breeding Behavior

For most of the year, blue-tongued skinks live on their own. They come together to mate. Males usually start to look for a mate when it warms up in spring. The males fight for the right to mate, and many become seriously injured at this time. When a male finds a female who is ready to mate, he grips her neck or shoulder in his powerful jaws, and scratches her back with one of his back legs. After mating, males may sometimes guard females for up to twenty-five days.

Teeth and Feeding

Blue-tongued skinks are omnivores. This means that they feed on a wide range of animals and plants. They prey on animals that move more slowly than they do. Favorite foods include insects, fruit, flowers, leaves, fungi, snails, eggs, small vertebrates, and the remains of dead animals (carrion). The teeth at the front of the mouth are smaller than those farther back and are used to pick up insects and bite off pieces of plants. Snails and insects are crushed in the hard jaws before being swallowed. The strong jaws of the blue-tongued skink are also useful in defense, biting predators such as brown falcons, kookaburras, dingoes, monitor lizards, and snakes. Blue-tongued skinks were once thought to be poisonous. In the past, many were killed by people. But the fact is this lizard is not poisonous but can give a sharp bite to defend itself.

Mother and Babies

Four different species of bluetongued skinks give birth to live young instead of laying eggs. The number of young produced tends to increase with the size and age of the female. While young skinks develop inside their mother’s body, they are nourished by a body part similar to the placenta through which a human baby receives food from its mother.

Live Young

There are many advantages to producing live young instead of laying eggs. The female is less likely to be attacked and eaten by predators than the eggs would be. This gives the young a greater chance of survival. Blue-tongued skinks do not rely on speed to escape from predators or to catch food, so the pregnant females are not affected too much by the weight of the developing young inside them. The pregnant females bask in the sun because the warmth speeds up the development of their young. They tend to rest with their back legs and tail raised off the ground because of the size and number of young inside them. There are also disadvantages to giving birth to live young. If a pregnant blue-tongued skink is killed, all the young die with her. Basking increases the danger of attack by predators, as the bluetongued skink is out in the open, away from the safety of her burrow. Also it is not possible for a female to give birth to several lots of young lizards each year in the same way that many egg-laying lizards lay several clutches a year. In many parts of their range, female blue-tongued skinks may not breed every year, especially if there is a shortage of food.

Parental Care

After the baby skinks are born, they have to fend for themselves. The parents play no part in looking after their young. Young skinks take three years to develop into adults.

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King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah)

                         Facts

Type                                 : Reptile

Diet                                  : Carnivore

Average life span in the wild: 20 years

Size                                  : 13 ft (4 m)

Weight                              : Up to 20 lbs (9 kg)

Group name                       : Quiver

Did you know?

Synthetic cobra venom is used in pain relievers and arthritis medication.

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

Regional Distribution

 Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Squamata

Suborder: Serpentes

Family: Elapidae

Genus: Ophiophagus

Species: O. hannah

It seems unfairly menacing that a snake that can literally "stand up" and look a full-grown person in the eye would also be among the most venomous on the planet, but that describes the famous king cobra.

King cobras can reach 18 feet (5.5 meters) in length, making them the longest of all venomous snakes. When confronted, they can raise up to one-third of their bodies straight off the ground and still move forward to attack. They will also flare out their iconic hoods and emit a bone-chilling hiss that sounds almost like a growling dog.

Their venom is not the most potent among venomous snakes, but the amount of neurotoxin they can deliver in a single bite—up to two-tenths of a fluid ounce (seven milliliters)—is enough to kill 20 people, or even an elephant. Fortunately, king cobras are shy and will avoid humans whenever possible, but they are fiercely aggressive when cornered.

King cobras live mainly in the rain forests and plains of India, southern China, and Southeast Asia, and their coloring can vary greatly from region to region. They are comfortable in the trees, on land, and in water.

King cobra's genus name, Ophiophagus, literally means "snake-eater", and its diet consists primarily of other snakes, including rat snakes, sizeable pythons and even other venomous snakes (including kraits, cobras and smaller members of its own species). When food is scarce, they may also feed on other small vertebrates, such as lizards, birds, and rodents. In some cases, the cobra may “constrict” its prey, such as birds and larger rodents, using its muscular body, though this is uncommon. After a large meal, the snake may live for many months without another one because of its slow metabolic rate. The king cobra's most common meal is the ratsnake; this leads them near human settlements.

They are the only snakes in the world that build nests for their eggs, which they guard ferociously until the hatchlings emerge.

King cobras may be best known as the species of choice for the snake charmers of South Asia. Although cobras can hear, they are actually deaf to ambient noises, sensing ground vibrations instead. The charmer's flute entices the cobra by its shape and movement, not by the music it emits.

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