AUGUST MEETING - TUESDAY 8/26/08 @ GATEWAY PARK EDUCATION CENTER
Written by Harvey Bird
This is a reminder that the August meeting is coming up tomorrow night, Tuesday, August 26th. The meeting is being held at the Gateway Park Education Center at 7pm. The education center is located approximately in the middle of the park. To get to the center, take the main road and go towards the Ranger building. The ranger building is on the right, across from the large parking lott halfway through. Make the next right after the Ranger building (a small gravel road between the ranger building and boat launch parking lott). The education center will be on the left when driving down the gravel road. A little past the education center on the right is a dirt parking area.
The meeting will feature a discussion on the importance of hibernating a reptile, and how to go about doing it. We will discuss the pros to hibernating reptiles in captivity, and the different techniques that can be used with different types and species.
If anyone has any questions regarding the meeting, feel free to email me or give me a call at
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or (917)992-1847.
Biologist Kevin Zippel discusses Amphibian Ark - Leonard Lopate Show
Written by Harvey Bird
Amphibians are going extinct faster than any other group of organisms. Now zoos and other institutions all over the world are working together to create an Amphibian Ark to help save species in captivity and keep them breeding even as they disappear in the wild. Biologist Kevin Zippel is program director of the Amphibian Ark.
Take a listen to this very informative interview regarding the continuing decline of amphibian species and factors that are causing their decline.
The July 2008 meeting for the Metropolitan Herpetological Society was an exciting meeting. Ted Thompson of Susquehanna Ectotherms (www.s-ecto.com) gave a lecture on snakes of North Carolina. He spoke about many species including: corn snakes, Eastern chain kings, coastal plains milksnakes, mole kings, scarlett kingsnakes, pygmy rattlesnakes, etc. He also brought a wide variety of captive bred baby snakes that he has bred and offered them up for sale. The members were excited to see the variety of snakes found in North Carolina and even more excited to get to purchase some snakes. We thank Ted for being so kind as to come all the way out to Staten Island to do the talk for us. If you have not checked out Ted's site before, we urge you to check it out. He breeds a lot of beautiful snakes and is a great reputable guy.
The Metropolitan Herpetological Society's 1st annual club picnic was a success. It couldn't have been done without the members coming out and contributing. The day was full of great conversation as well as some really great foods and desserts.
The weather was scorching hot, but it still didn't stop everyone from coming out and spending the day at Blue Heron Park. We did take a walk around the park, but it was really way too hot to find anything. We did find two large green frogs keeping cool in the mud underneath a pallat.
So to beat the heat we spent the day sitting under the shade of the trees, and eating a wide variety of foods, and just shooting the breeze. A big thank you to all the members who made the day a success.
The upcoming July meeting has been changed from Monday, July 21st, to Tuesday, July 22nd. The start time and place will be the same. Ted Thompson of Susquehanna Ectotherms will still be conducting the lecture. If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me at (917)992-1847 or
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. I am sorry if this is an inconvenience for anyone.
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