Reptiles Definition

On our third day in the Galápagos Islands, we traveled to the highlands for our first look at some of the most majestic creatures on the planet. Galápagos giant tortoises make their home half the year in a higher elevation. These areas provide water in the dry season for the tortoises. A Galápagos giant tortoise on the move (KPRC) It's cool, damp and cloudy at the Montemar Eco-Villas. What is striking is how many tortoises there are here. They are literally everywhere you turn. It's estimated there are 20,000 roaming the island of Santa Cruz. We found 38 soaking in one small pond. Dozens of giant tortoises rest in a small pond (KPRC) Like the sea turtle program we learned about on day 2, the Houston Zoo provides conservation grants along with an array of experience to a team working with giant tortoises in the Galápagos Islands. Representatives from the Houston Zoo and KPRC 2 talking with conservation partners on the third day of our trip to the islands (KPRC) This work is v...

Is your pup on this power list? A veterinarian on TikTok broke down the five best dog breeds that he would "personally consider getting" and the list has gotten some viral attention online. The animal expert — known on the platform as the UK's Ben the Vet with more than 103,000 followers — made it clear that the chosen canines come only from his own opinion. "And I am also not saying that these are the five possible healthiest dog breeds because every dog breed has some issues that they are prone to," he said. "These are also not the only five I would consider," Ben added, expressing that his choices mainly come around the dogs' probable healthcare needs. 5. Greyhounds Fifth on his list are greyhounds, a breed Ben describes as having "strong attachments with people'" and often in need of homes after their racing careers end. "They may not look ver...

The Aussie Shiba is a mixed breed, so they don't have history as their own breed. Both parent breeds, however, are well known and loved. Despite the breed's name, the Australian Shepherd is actually of American origin. The Australian Shepherd was originally developed to herd livestock for ranchers and farmers in the western U.S., and the breed is still a popular and time-tested herding dog today. Despite their popularity as a working dog, the breed wasn't recognized by the American Kennel Club until 1993. Today, many Aussies are still used for herding. However, they can find many other purposes: service dogs, agility dogs, or just dedicated companions. The Shiba Inu's origins are in Japan along with the Akita , Shikoku, Kai Dog, Hokkaido and Kishu, all of which are larger than the Shiba Inu. The Shiba Inu was first used primarily as a hunting dog to flush out small game and birds for hunters, but due to their strength and fiery attitudes, they gradually became used for ...

They may be the geniuses of the dog world, but two collies mistaking song lyrics for commands—and performing tricks accordingly—has the internet in hysterics. In a video shared by TikTok user Carrie Bailey (@everythingspiritual) on October 22, a Border Collie and an Australian shepherd can be seen "turning around" to Bonnie Tyler's '80s hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart." "When the smartest dogs in the world (Border Collie + Aussie) think the song is giving them commands," wrote Carrie alongside the cute clip, with the darling duo receiving almost 995,000 likes and 4.5 million views in just two days. 'Remarkably Intelligent' A 1994 study by canine psychologist Stanley Coren attempted to break down exactly what made a dog "intelligent." In his landmark book The Intelligence of Dogs , Coren used three measures—adaptive intelligence (problem-solving), working intelligence (ability to follow orders) and instinctive intelligence (natur...

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Frogger was among the most popular video games of its day and it recently got the live action treatment in the form of a gameshow streaming on Peacock. In both the show and the video game it's based on, a frog — or a human contestant — attempt to navigate the many perils of modern life. Navigating an obstacle course of lily pads and floating logs, like navigating the real world, provides countless opportunities for failure. In the game of life, failure often results in death. While digital frogs and human contestants have hopped their way to high scores and big prizes, real world amphibians aren't having as good a time of things. Loss of habitat, invasive species, pollution, and disease all conspire against our affable amphibian friends, driving their numbers down and in some cases ending in extinction. We often think of population decline or species loss as something which happens outside of our own experience. Species disappear and it's sad b...

Abstract Erymnochelys madagascariensis is a Critically Endangered turtle endemic to Madagascar. Anthropogenic activity has depleted the wild population by 70% in the last century, and effective conservation management is essential to ensuring its persistence. Captive breeding was implemented to augment depleted populations in the southern part of Ankarafantsika National Park (ANP), when no genetic data were available for E. madagascariensis . It is unknown how much of the natural population's diversity is encapsulated in captivity. We used eight microsatellite loci and fragments of two mitochondrial genes to identify the genetic structure of E. madagascariensis in the wild. Captive bred turtles were compared with wild populations in order to assess the representativeness of this ex situ conservation strategy for ANP. Six microsatellite clusters, ten cytochrome b, and nine COI haplotypes were identified across wild populations, with high genetic divergence found between population...