REPTILE JOURNAL NEWS

As a courtesy of Brill, the first issue of 2010 of Amphibia-Reptilia is currently freely available on Ingenta website: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/amre/2010/00000031/00000001


For more information to become SEH members and receive Amphibia-Reptilia in print and/or online, please look at: http://www.seh-herpetology.org/structure/joinseh.htm

The society webpage is at: http://www.seh-herpetology.org/

Submission of manuscripts through Editorial Manager: http://www.editorialmanager.com/amre/



Best wishes,

Mathieu Denoël



Mathieu Denoël F.R.S. - FNRS

Research AssociateCo-Editor of Amphibia-Reptilia

Behavioural Biology Unit

University of Liege

22 Quai van Beneden

4020 Liege (Belgium)



Tel: (+32) 04.366.50.84

Web site: http://www.etho.ulg.ac.be/denoel/home.html

Orbi (publications): http://orbi.ulg.ac.be/simple-search?locale=en&query=denoel+mathieu

CAN YOU IDENTIFY THESE FOOTPRINTS?

Glen Vaudrey sent these: they were taken on 1/12/10 in snow the depth of the snow was around 1 inch, the prints appeared to be webbed and the animal had dragged its tail in the snow. The photo was taken on a pathway at the edge of a nature reserve and between two large expanses of fresh water the trail cuts strait across the path into undergrowth on either side.

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1952 the miasma of filth known as the Great Smog descended upon London causing the deaths of 12,000 people.
And now, the news:

Oceana calls for the expansion of three marine pro...
Project to protect 7,000-year-old haven for wildli...
Increase in otters offers proof of a cleaner river...
Vow to help preserve rare vole
Red deer released onto Surrey heathland to restore...
Badger vaccine partial success – But culling still...
Two tuskers killed in Sri Lankan centre of human /...
Feral cats kill 480 million birds in US every year...

Hooray, more cats. Ninja cat this time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbwpgyRUv5g

QUESTION: Do You Like Kipling? ANSWER: I don't know, I've never kippled..

Once upon a time, best beloved, there was a bloke who wrote exceedingly good stories. Any well brought up young gentleman or lady will have read the Just So Stories, which were published about a century ago, and include the story of how the elephant got its trunk. I was looking for a copy of the illustration from the original book (because my copy originally belonged to my grandmother, and was bought about the time of WW1, andis therefore a little faded and tatty. Much to my horror I found a copy on a Creationist website, from whence I stole it. However, I digress.

According to Kipling (and I see no reason to disbelieve him) the elephant's trunk first came about as a result of a piece of elephant/crocodile interaction on the banks of the greasy green Limpopo river. BBC Africa news showes a true-life event in which science and art mirror each other remarkably closely.

And if art and science are windows upon the world, this blog is the confessions of the windowcleaner...

The BBC photo-story (courtesy of Richard Freeman, pictured Kippling below)
For those who have had a deprived childhood, herewith `The Elephant's Child`.