I was particularly excited for this show because I was able to pick up my new girl from Heather Wong (Heather’s Herps). She was part of a partial trade that I did with Heather last fall and I’ve been anxious to travel south to pick her up! She is a Crystal ball python (Mojave + Special). I have coveted this morph since I first saw one of  Tom Baker’s pictures. Thanks for producing such a sweet girl for me, Heather!

Last year, at this same show, we picked up our first Rhacodactylus leachianus from Philippe De Vosjoli (Giant Geckos). She turned out to be a female, so this year I was in search of a future boyfriend for her. I knew Julie Bergman from Gecko Ranch had a few males, so I sent my daughter on a mission to choose our boy. He is such a little cutie! Our girl was tiny like this last year, I can’t believe how much she has grown this first year! I just love these guys – they are incredibly cool geckos! Thanks, Julie, for helping my daughter choose this wonderful little guy!

I’m already looking forward to the next show and the chance to talk reptiles with everyone!

The tomatoes got a late start and with this weather they are growing very slowly, and the deer keep pruning them, but we might get some tomatoes yet.  The Sungold cherries that I started from seed are finally flowering like crazy, but no tomatoes yet. The Green Zebra and Oregon Spring that I bought as fairly large plants in June have some mid-sized tomatoes on them. Dare I hope for full sized tomatoes ripening in my garden?

There are still a couple of volunteer California poppies in with the veggies – I can’t seem to bring myself to rip them all out.

I love to grow lots of different kinds of pumpkins and winter squash to decorate with in the fall. So now there are lots of little pumpkins coming along! I have a few new varieties this year, and I’m noticing several of them are white. Wasn’t I going to try to grow more orange pumpkins this year?

Lots of yummy winter squash coming along, too!

There were many honeybees out working busily among the flowers. A few even stayed still long enough for me to take their pictures! These are my favorite shots of the day!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Here’s the list of possibilities:
Normal het Hypo
Pinstripe het Hypo
Mojave het Hypo
Hypo
Hypo Mojave
Hypo Pinstripe
Mojave Pinstripe (Jigsaw)
Hypo Mojave Pinstripe (Hypo Jigsaw)

Wow! I can’t wait to see what I end up with!

On Tuesday, a couple more had pipped. They were very shy, hiding in their eggs when I tried to take pictures. I managed to catch one with it’s head out!

By Wednesday evening, the first two were out. The last little straggler waited until Friday morning to make it’s appearance. They had their first photo shoot on Saturday:

This has been such an exciting week! I can’t wait to do it all again! Maggie should be laying her eggs sometime this week – hoping for a good clutch!

Here are some pictures that I’ve taken throughout the season to document our first attempts at breeding ball pythons!

Delilah and Lono Lock

Delilah & Lono Lock closeup

Delilah bowl wrapping 1-20-10

Delilah progressing nicely! 2-25-10

Delilah Gravid 3-10-10

Sunday, March 14, 2010 was a huge day for us! We had to leave early for my daughter’s horse show, but I ran up to the reptile building to check on everything before we left. I found that Delilah, our pied ball python, had laid one big beautiful egg already with more to come! It was probably best that I was forced to leave her alone, but was sad that I couldn’t take pictures of her laying. When we returned home, I found that she had laid 4 eggs and a little slug. My daughter helped me get the eggs set up and Delilah set up in a new, clean bin.

Delilah on Eggs 3-14-10

Delilah's Eggs 3-14-10

My Daughter with Delilah's Egg

At the Reptile Super Show in January, I was ready and planned to bring home a leachie! I had an extremely hard time choosing, but finally settled on this little guy (we don’t really know if it is male or female yet). Unfortunately, his label was lost at some point, so Philippe could not tell me about his background, but I really liked the pattern with the pink bars on this guy.

He’s small now, but someday he’ll be a giant!

No more new species for a while now – really!

I have been remiss in introducing her anywhere because I have had a very hard time getting pictures of her. I did get a couple of pictures a week or so after we brought her home. Whenever I try to take pictures, she is either hiding, shedding, or she runs away as soon as she sees the camera. She was up front yesterday, so I took a couple pictures even though she’s currently shedding. As I was formatting the pictures from yesterday, I went back to the ones from Jan 20. Wow! She sure has grown over the last month!

Here she is on January 20. Look at how tiny she was!


February 22 – all fired up because she hates the camera! Look how big she’s gotten!

And Yesterday, just finishing up that shed.

This is her typical response to the camera – run, run away!!

We’ve been having beautiful spring weather here – both the sunny kind that is great for gardening (these days seem to fall on the days that I have to teach) and rainy days that keep everything green. I am not a fan of California’s brown-dead season, so I do love the rainy days! This year’s heavy rains did beat up my daffodils, though. I thought I’d share a few pictures of some of the things that are blooming here now.

Daffodils! A few of them are somewhat ragged after the rains, but still pretty!




Fruit Trees! The apricot (pale pink) almost always flowers too early and frost ends up ruining our chances at fruit. The apricot did start flowering early this year, but only a few flowers opened. The rest of the flowers opened at the same time as the nectarine (bright pink). Perhaps this year we will be lucky?


Finally, one of our lemon trees!

We’re expecting lots more rain this weekend, but with any luck I’ll have a chance to work in the garden!

This bill is based on a poorly executed study done by Rodda et al. (2009). The authors noted that the breeding population of Burmese pythons in the Everglades might be able to expand their range if the climate changes due to global warming. They created a model using only mean temperature and precipitation to predict what portions of the U.S. might provide suitable habitat. This model also lacks true presence records – they got their climate data from weather stations in the general vicinity of the natural range of the snakes. They concluded that in 100 years, given the currently predicted global warming scenario, Burmese pythons could expand their range over much of the continental U.S.

Ecological niche modeling can be a valuable tool used to identify areas that might be suitable for invasive species to become established. However, the model presented by Rodda et al. (2009) is severely flawed. Pyron et al. (2008) published a paper that illustrates the problems with the USGS report. Essentially, Rodda et al.’s (2009) model is too simplistic (only mean temperature and precipitation were used) and it generated results that are extremely unlikely. Pyron et al. (2008) generated their own model that incorporates multiple (19) climatic variables. Pyron et al.’s (2008) model for the current distribution of the Burmese python closely matches what we actually find in the native habitat and in the US. Importantly, Rodda et al’s 2009 model does NOT. This should have been a red flag to the authors that they had done something wrong. Pyron et al.’s (2008) model showing potential habitat in 100 years (using the same global warming scenario used by Rodda et al., 2009)suggests that the area that would provide suitable habitat actually SHRINKS rather than growing to expand over much of the U.S.

The niche of a species incorporates all of the various abiotic (physical) and biotic (biological) factors that are important to the survival and reproduction of a species. The total area where an organism can live is called the fundamental niche. Often, due to biotic factors such as competition or predation, an organism only occupies part of its fundamental niche. This is called the realized niche. The Everglades contains a subtropical marshland ecosystem that may be similar to what the pythons find in their native environment, but this habitat is not found anywhere else in the U.S. Predictions of what climate will be like in 100 years call for an increase in mean temperature and precipitation over much of the U.S. But, Pyron et al. (2008) point out that mean temperature and precipitation are not the only important factors. If they were, the continental U.S would already be occupied by Boa constrictor. Boa constrictor occurs only 145 km (90 miles) south of the Texas border. If mean temperature and precipitation were all that mattered, Boa constrictor would have naturally expanded its range into the U.S. over the last few thousand years. However, they are not here because there are other aspects to their niche that are missing. This begs the question of why Boa constrictor was added to the bill in the first place.

This bill would hurt the reptile industry. Tens of thousands of people would be economically impacted by this bill. For this reason, the Department of Commerce has opposed S373. I would hate to see so many friends & acquaintances hurt by this bill. I would hate to not be able to ship baby Pearl Island boas out of state (assuming I am someday successful in breeding them). I would especially hate the door that this bill would open for further banning. But, to me, the biggest factor making this bill a candidate for the shredder is that it does not provide any solution for the problem of invasive species in the Everglades. It doesn’t even offer a solution to the problem of the Burmese python in the Everglades. Instead of wasting time and money on such a flawed series of bills (S373, HR2811, HR669), it should instead be spent on research so that we can understand the various invasive species and work to eradicate them.

Please oppose S373!
http://www.kill-s373.com/
http://www.natpet.org/index.php/legislation/federal-legislation/154-python-ban-fact-sheet
http://saveoursnakes.org/
http://www.pijac.org/governmentaffairs/s373forum.asp

Pyron RA, Burbrink FT, Guiher TJ (2008) Claims of Potential Expansion throughout the U.S. by Invasive Python Species Are Contradicted by Ecological Niche Models. PLoS ONE 3(8): e2931. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002931

Rodda GH, Jarnevich CS, Reed RN (2009) What parts of the US mainland are climatically suitable for invasive alien pythons spreading from Everglades National Park? Biol Inv. 11(2): 241-252.

Simberloff D, Schmitz DC, Brown TC (editors) (1997) Strangers in Paradise: Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida. Island Press. Washington DC.

For those of you wondering how Pyron et al.’s 2008 paper is a response to Rodda et al.’s 2009 paper: Rodda’s paper apparently existed as a USGS report for quite some time before finally being published. In Pyron’s list of references it is listed as “in press” meaning that it had been submitted to the journal, but had not yet been published.