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HerpDigest: The Latest News on Herpetological Conservation, Science and Husbandry
Saturday, November 18, 2006____________________________________________________________________



Table of Contents

1) Dates for 2007 Turtle Survival Alliance Conference
2) MEDASSET IS pleased to announce that the following publications and technical
reports are now available (in pdf format) online.
3) Environment Leaders Discuss 2007 Priorities With Media
4) Congress Passes Animal Terrorism Bill - Legislation Gives Additional Legal
Protection To Scientists And Companies That Provide Services And Support For
Animal Research
5) Pressured By Predators, Lizards See Rapid Shift In Natural Selection
6) Loggerhead Turtle Numbers Slide On Florida Nesting Beaches
7) Wild Animals As Pets Discouraged - State Urged Not To Issue Permits (Indiana)
8) Should F&WS Give Permission To The Applicant To Take About 3.7 Acres Of Sand
Skink (Neoseps Reynoldsi)-- Occupied Habitat Incidental To Constructing A
Shopping Center And Associated Amenities In Lake County, Florida Receipt Of
Application For An Incidental Take Permit Request For Comments.
________________________________________________________________________
“The World of Turtles: is still available,
by Franck Bonin, Bernard Devaux, and Alain Dupré and Translated by
Peter C. H. Pritchard

$50.00 hardcover, copyright 2006 416 pp. 300 color photos, 320 color maps
Just $57.95, (S&H) within the U.S. Outside of U.S. please email us at
asalzberg@herpdigest.org for shipping instructions.

To order send check made out to HerpDigest to HerpDigest c/o A. Salzberg 67-87
Booth Street –5b, Forest Hills, NY 11375, Via PayPal our account is
asalzberg@herpdigest.org. Or send us your Visa or Master Card number, exp. date,
shipping and billing address (use two emails supposedly safer that way, or fax
the info to 1-718-275-3307
____________________________________________________________________
1) Dates for 2007 Turtle Survival Alliance Conference

The 5th Annual TSA Conference will be in Atlanta July 25th-28th, 2007.
A hotel has not been selected as of yet but as soon as the information
becomes available we will put the information on the web site. It is
the greatest wish of everyone involved to build on the results from
the efforts in the excellent 2006 meeting
_____________________________________________________________
2) MEDASSET IS pleased to announce that the following publications and technical
reports are now available (in pdf format) online.

1.) Cross, H. & S. Bell. 2006. Sea Turtle Monitoring and Public Awareness in
South Lebanon 2005. Testudo, The Journal of the British Chelonia Group
6(3):13-27\\Gama\medasset documents\Projects\Lebanon\Final TESTUDO\FINAL
Testudo.doc

2.) Venizelos, L., V. Kouroutos & P. Robinson. 2006. Update Report on marine
turtle conservation in Zakynthos (Laganas Bay), Greece 2006. 54pp. MEDASSET
Report to the European Commission and the Convention on the Conservation of
European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention).
http://www.medasset.org/PDF/EC_Zakynthos2006.pdf

3.) T-PVS/Files (2006) 13. Commisioned by MEDASSET, prepared by Dr. Max
Kasparek. Follow-up Recommendation No. 95 (2002) on the conservation of marine
turtles in Kazanli (Turkey). Report to the Convention on the Conservation of
European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention). 9pp.
http://www.medasset.org/PDF/UpdatedKazanliReport.pdf

Also
The SECOND EDITION of our Turtle Dives MEDASSET ‘s e-newsletter at:
http://www.medasset.org/newsletter02.htm is avaiable

MEDASSET-Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles
1c Licavitou St., 106 72 Athens, GREECE
Tel.: + 30 210 3613572, + 30 210 3640389, Fax: + 30 210 3613572
E-mail: medasset@medasset.gr
www.euroturtle.org
www.medasset.org
www.medasset.gr
_________________________________________________________________________
3) Environment Leaders Discuss 2007 Priorities With Media

Energy, Global Warming, Farm Bill, Land Conservation Top ListAudubon –
Washington, D.C. -- November 13, 2006 With a vastly different Congressional
landscape in 2007, environmental leaders discussed their priorities with members
of the media on a November 13 teleconference call. Among the topics covered were
energy, global warming, a massive farm bill, conserving national forests, parks
and other public lands, and protecting endangered species. Speakers included:
Betsy Loyless, Senior Vice President, National Audubon Society, moderator; Anna
Aurilio, Washington DC Office Director, U.S. PIRG, on energy issues; Mike
Daulton, Director of Conservation Policy, Audubon, on public lands and
endangered species; Phil Clapp, President, National Environmental Trust, on
global warming and energy; and Ken Cook, President, Environmental Working Group,
on the farm bill. Click HERE to listen to the MP3. For more information, contact
Audubon’s Tony Iallonardo at 202-861-2242 Ext. 3042. Or, if!
you choose, a briefing is available at:
http://www.audubon.org/campaign/index.html
___________________________________________________________________________
4) Congress Passes Animal Terrorism Bill - Legislation Gives Additional Legal
Protection To Scientists And Companies That Provide Services And Support For
Animal Research
Science Daily, 11/16/06 by Ted Agres

At the start of its post-election "lame duck" session, the US House of
Representatives has passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (S 3880), a bill
that expands protection for scientists by outlawing economic damage against
"animal enterprises," including organizations involved in academic and
commercial research and testing. President Bush is expected to sign the bill
soon.

The House adopted by voice vote on Monday the legislation that the Senate passed
by unanimous consent in September. The measure provides a graduated scale of
prison time and fines for people found guilty of harassing, intimidating,
trespassing against or vandalizing the property of anyone associated with animal
research. The bill also affords protection to so-called "tertiary" targets:
third-parties such as customers, bankers, accountants, insurance providers, and
other service providers, who have been targeted by militant animal rights
activists in the US and UK.

"It's terrific," said Frankie Trull, president of the National Association for
Biomedical Research, which supports responsible use of animals in research.
"This bill was desperately needed because a number of researchers have been
under significant attack. The original law needed to be updated and improved,"
she told The Scientist.

The original law, the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, was passed in 1992 and
expanded in 2002 to equate acts of harassment and intimidation with terrorism.
The first prosecution came in September, when a federal judge sentenced six
animal rights activists associated with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA Inc.
(SHAC-USA) to up to six years in prison for crimes against employees and
officers of Huntingdon Life Sciences in East Millstone, NJ.

Between January 1990 and June 2004 SHAC, the Animal Liberation Front, and other
extremists committed more than 1,100 acts of terrorism, causing more than $120
million in damage, said Rep. John Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) during debate on the
House floor. Current federal law "is inadequate to address the threats and
violence committed by animal rights extremists," he said.

The new bill makes it a crime to trespass, harass, vandalize, or otherwise
threaten anyone associated with an animal enterprise, including scientists and
their families. Similar legislation was enacted in England last year. To address
First Amendment concerns, the new bill specifically permits peaceful picketing,
demonstrations, and "lawful boycotts" against animal enterprises. "This bill
does not satisfy everyone, but it does represent a reasonable compromise," said
Rep. Robert Scott (D-Va).
________________________________________________________________________
5) Pressured By Predators, Lizards See Rapid Shift In Natural Selection
Press Release , Harvard University, 11/16/06

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Countering the widespread view of evolution as a process
played out over the course of eons, evolutionary biologists have shown that
natural selection can turn on a dime -- within months -- as a population's needs
change. In a study of island lizards exposed to a new predator, the scientists
found that natural selection dramatically changed direction over a very short
time, within a single generation, favoring first longer and then shorter hind
legs.

The findings, by Jonathan B. Losos of Harvard University and colleagues, are
detailed this week in the journal Science. Losos did much of the work before
joining Harvard earlier this year from Washington University in St. Louis.

"Because of its epochal scope, evolutionary biology is often caricatured as
incompatible with controlled experimentation," says Losos, professor of
organismic and evolutionary biology in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences
and curator in herpetology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. "Recent
work has shown, however, that evolutionary biology can be studied on short time
scales and that predictions about it can be tested experimentally. We predicted,
and then demonstrated, a reversal in the direction of natural selection acting
on limb length in a population of lizards."

Losos and colleagues studied populations of the lizard Anolis sagrei on
minuscule islands, or cays, in the Bahamas. They introduced to six of these cays
a larger, predatory lizard (Leiocephalus carinatus) commonly found on nearby
islands and known as a natural colonizer of small cays. The scientists kept six
other control cays predator-free and exhaustively counted, marked, and measured
lizards on all 12 isles.

Anolis sagrei spends much of its time on the ground, but previous research has
shown that when a terrestrial predator is introduced, these lizards take to
trees and shrubs, becoming increasingly arboreal over time. Losos and his
colleagues hypothesized that immediately following a predator's arrival,
longer-legged -- and hence faster-running -- Anolis lizards would be favored to
elude capture. However, as the lizards grew ever more arboreal in habitat, the
scientists projected that natural selection would begin to favor shorter limbs,
which are better suited to navigating narrow branches and twigs.

Their hypothesis was borne out. Six months after the introduction of the
predator, Losos found that the Anolis population had dropped by half or more on
the islands with the predators, and in comparison to the lizards on the
predator-free islands, long legs were more strongly favored: Survivors had
longer legs relative to non-survivors. After another six months, during which
time the Anolis lizards grew increasingly arboreal, selective pressures were
exactly the opposite: Survivors were now characterized by having shorter legs on
the experimental islands as compared to the control islands.
The behavioral shift from the ground to higher perches apparently caused this
remarkable reversal, Losos says, adding that behavioral flexibility may often
drive extremely rapid shifts in evolution.

"Evolutionary biology is by its nature an historical science, but the
combination of microevolutionary experimentation and macroevolutionary
historical analysis can provide a rich understanding about the genesis of
biological diversity," the researchers write.

###
Losos's Science co-authors are Thomas W. Schoener and David A. Spiller of the
University of California, Davis, and R. Brian Langerhans, a graduate student in
Harvard's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of
Comparative Zoology, formerly of Washington University. Their work was sponsored
by the National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society.
________________________________________________________________________
6) Loggerhead Turtle Numbers Slide On Florida Nesting Beaches
St. Petersburg, Florida, November 16, 2006 (ENS) –

The largest remaining loggerhead sea turtle rookery in the United States is in
steep decline, according to the latest Index Nesting Beach Survey compiled by
the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The analysis shows that nest counts have slumped 22.3 percent from 1989 to 2005.
There has been a 39.5 percent decline since 1998.

An average of 14,423 loggerhead turtles nested on Florida beaches between 2001
and 2005.

The index uses nest counts made by hundreds of trained participants who survey
turtle tracks and nests at certain Florida beaches, following a rigorous
protocol to ensure nest counts reveal unbiased trends. Scientists at the
Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute coordinate the counts.

Although loggerhead sea turtles nest at many locations around the world, the
Commission says nearly 90 percent of the world’s population nests on the beaches
of Florida and the beach at Masirah in Oman on the Arabian Peninsula.

Florida accounts for more than 90 percent of loggerhead nesting in the United
States. Loggerhead turtles have been federally listed as threatened since 1978.

The U.S. nesting season extends from about May through August with nesting
occurring primarily at night. Each loggerhead nests from one to seven times
within a nesting season at intervals of approximately 14 days.

A preliminary assessment of data from the 2006 season suggests another poor year
for loggerheads, with the second lowest nesting in the history of this program.

David Godfrey, executive director of the Florida-based Caribbean Conservation
Corporation, the world's oldest sea turtle conservation group, said, "We have
known loggerheads were declining, but this thorough analysis of data dating back
nearly two decades paints a far grimmer picture of the status of loggerhead
nesting in Florida and the U.S."

"The results are alarming," said Godfrey, "and it is urgent that state and
federal agencies strengthen conservation efforts to address the root causes of
this decline."

The Commission's report does not identify any conclusive cause of the decline
but states that the severe hurricanes of the 2005 season are not to blame.

Loggerheads that hatch on Florida beaches take 20 to 30 years to reach maturity,
so recent storm impacts would not be seen in the nesting population for decades,
the Commission explains.

The report suggests that loggerheads are dying before they reach the nesting
beaches - drowning in fishing trawls or taken as by catch by the long line
commercial fishing industry in the open Atlantic Ocean.

Once near the nesting beaches, the loggerheads must contend with a booming
coastal human population and coastal development.

Artificial lighting on nesting beaches causes hatchlings from nests to crawl
inland rather than toward the water, says the Commission. On developed beaches,
coastal armoring meant to protect buildings from erosion has resulted in the
loss of nesting habitat near natural dunes.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced 70 percent
staffing cutbacks at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, established to
protect the most heavily nested loggerhead turtle nesting beaches in the Western
Hemisphere.

The refuge occupies a 20 mile section of coastline from Melbourne Beach to
Wabasso Beach in Florida. Twenty-five percent of all loggerhead sea turtle and
35 percent of all green sea turtle nests in the United States occur on this
stretch of beach where nesting densities of 1,000 nests per mile have been
recorded.

According to Godfrey, the federal government appears to be abandoning support
for the Carr refuge just when sea turtles are in desperate need of increased
protection.

"These turtles are being hammered in the open-sea fisheries," Godfrey said.
"While addressing this serious threat, we must also make sure reproductive
turtles find healthy nesting beaches when they return home. Right now, they are
returning to find miles of sea walls and new beachfront development."

Loggerhead strandings of dead or debilitated turtles documented by the Florida
Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network between 1980 and 2005 have increased
over the period from 1989–2005, with the two highest yearly totals occurring in
2003 and 2005.

Throughout Florida waters, the Commission finds that collisions with boats
provide the most common identifiable cause of trauma in sea turtles that wash up
dead on beaches.

To help protect and manage Florida’s sea turtles outside of Florida waters, the
Commission provides nesting data to the National Marine Fisheries Service and
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Both federal agencies have management
oversight beyond Florida.

The Commission has also presented this information to an international group of
scientists, resource managers, and conservationists, with the hope that threat
reduction actions could be identified throughout the multi-national range of
Florida’s loggerhead sea turtles.
______________________________________________________________________
7) Wild Animals As Pets Discouraged - State Urged Not To Issue Permits (Indiana)
By Harold J. Adams, The Courier Journal 11/15/06

The Humane Society of the United States is urging the state of Indiana to stop
issuing permits that allow people to keep wild animals as pets.
The move comes after an Indianapolis man was charged with keeping 15 venomous
snakes.

Dangerous animals such as snakes, lions, tigers, wolves, bears and alligators
may be kept as pets in Indiana if the owner gets a permit from the state
Department of Natural Resources.

Kentucky began banning ownership of such animals as pets in July 2005.
Michael Fillenwarth of Indianapolis was taken to the city's Methodist Hospital
on Saturday after a green mamba snake bit him.

Indiana conservation officers searched Fillenwarth's home Sunday and found 15
venomous snakes of various species for which he did not have a permit, according
to Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Angela Goldman.
Fillenwarth was charged with possession of a dangerous reptile without a permit.

Permits are issued to people who notify neighboring property owners about the
animals, keep them in proper enclosures and meet other requirements.
But Diane Webber, director of the Humane Society's Central States Region, said
the animals should not be kept as pets at all.

"Exotic animals kept as pets, let's just say it's ludicrous. They're exotic
animals, they belong in the wild, not in our backyards and our basements," she
said.

"They pose a safety threat to the public as well as their owners" along with the
threat of disease, she said.

Webber said the same ban should be applied to non-venomous snakes, which are
allowed as pets in Indiana without a permit.

One such snake, a 14-foot reticulated python, killed its owner by constriction
in Lanesville in September.

Kentucky last year joined what Webber described as a growing list of states that
ban exotic animals being kept as pets. The Humane Society lists 23 states with
bans on large cats, 10 states that ban keeping reptiles and 10 that ban nonhuman
primates.

But only California and Georgia have broad multi-species bans, according to the
organization's Web site.

Goldman said a ban is not under consideration in Indiana.

Linnea Petercheff, the Department of Natural Resources specialist in charge of
permits, said there are 71 active permits under the classification of dangerous
wild animals in the state.

The list includes 16 permits for bears, 21 for large cats, 12 for venomous
snakes, eight for alligators and 14 for wolves.

Petercheff said there is only one state-issued permit for a dangerous wild
animal in the four-county area of Clark, Floyd, Harrison and Washington. But
there may be other animals under permits issued separately by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.

New Albany resident Jeffrey Huncilman holds the lone state permit in the area.
Huncilman keeps a 1-year-old serval at his home on Wildwood Lane.

"Radar," his long legged spotted wildcat, stands about 22 inches tall at the tip
of his long ears, Huncilman said. He described it as "kind of a poor man's
cheetah."

He doesn't consider it a wild animal. "It couldn't kill you if it tried,"
Huncilman said.

But he agreed with the Humane Society position.

"My view on people having wild animals is they shouldn't have them either," he
said.

Huncilman said a ban that would include animals such as his would be too broad,
but added, "If it has to be one way or the other, I'd say deny them all."
___________________________________________________________________________
8) Should F&WS Give Permission To The Applicant To Take About 3.7 Acres Of Sand
Skink (Neoseps Reynoldsi)-- Occupied Habitat Incidental To Constructing A
Shopping Center And Associated Amenities In Lake County, FloridaReceipt Of
Application For An Incidental Take Permit
Request For Comments.


Posted in Federal Register: November 17, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 222)]
[Notices]
[Page 66970-66971]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr17no06-73]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service

Construction of a Commercial Development in Lake County, FL
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice: receipt of application for an incidental take permit; request
for comments.

SUMMARY: We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the availability
of an Incidental Take Permit (ITP) Application and Habitat Conservation Plan
(HCP). Hancock Commons, LLC (applicant) requests an ITP for a duration of 5
years under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The applicant anticipates
taking about 3.7 acres of sand skink (Neoseps reynoldsi)-- occupied habitat
incidental to constructing a shopping center and associated amenities in Lake
County, Florida (Project). The applicant's HCP describes the mitigation and
minimization measures the applicant proposes to address the effects of the
Project to the sand skink.

DATES: We must receive any written comments on the ITP application and HCP on or
before December 18, 2006.

ADDRESSES: If you wish to review the application and HCP, you may obtain a copy
by writing the Field Supervisor at our Jacksonville Field Office, 6620
Southpoint Drive South, Suite 310, Jacksonville, FL, 32216, or by making an
appointment to visit during normal business hours. If you wish to comment, you
may mail or hand deliver comments to
the Jacksonville Field Office, or you may email comments to
paula_sisson@fws.gov. For more information on reviewing documents and public
comments and submitting comments, see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paula Sisson, Fish and Wildlife Biologist,
Jacksonville Field Office (see ADDRESSES), telephone: 904/232-2580, ext. 126.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:Public Review and Comment
Please reference permit number TE132462-0 in all requests or comments. Please
include your name and return address in your email message. If you do not
receive a confirmation from us that we have received your email message, contact
us directly at the telephone number listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. Our practice is to make comments, including names and home addresses of
respondents, available for public review during regular business hours.
Individual respondents may request that we withhold their home address from the
administrative record. We will honor such requests to the extent allowable by
law. There may also be other circumstances in which we would withhold from the
administrative record a respondent's dentity, as allowable by law. If you wish
us to withhold your name and address, you must state this prominently at the
beginning of your comments. We will not, however, consider anonymous comments.
We will make all submissions from organizations or busines!
ses, and from individuals
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or
businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.

Background: Due to the reduction in quality and acreage and the rapid
development of xeric (bare, scrub-like areas with sandy soils, open canopies)
upland communities, the sand skink is reportedly declining throughout most of
its range. By some estimates, as much as 90 percent of the scrub ecosystem has
already been lost to residential development and conversion to agriculture,
primarily citrus groves.

Applicant's Proposal: The applicant is requesting take of 3.7 acres of
occupied sand skink habitat incidental to the construction of a shopping center
(Hancock Commons) on 13.96 acres in Lake County, Florida. Hancock Commons is
located south of State Road 50 and East of Hancock Road, in Section 27, Township
22 South, Range 26 East, near Clermont.

The proposed Hancock Commons development will consist of approximately
38,100 square feet of shopping center space that will support a bank, a
fast-food restaurant, a sit-down restaurant, and retail sale. Currently, the
property consists primarily of xeric oak forest with scattered open patches of
sand and a disturbed area along
the western boundary.

The Applicant proposes to mitigate for 3.7 acres of impacts by purchasing a
43-acre parcel in Polk County, FL, within the boundaries of the Lake Wales
Ridge. This property is being referred to as the Eddinger Mitigation Property
and is located south of State Road 60, west of Walk-in-the-Water Road, in
Section 6, Township 31 South,
Range 29 East. This property consists of three tax parcels, the northern two of
which are being utilized to mitigate for the impacts associated with the Hancock
Commons development.

The Service has determined that the Applicant's proposal, including the
proposed mitigation and minimization measures, will have a minor or negligible
effect on the species covered in the HCP. Therefore, the ITP is a ``low-effect''
project and qualifies for a categorical exclusion under the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as provided by the Department of the Interior
Manual (516 DM 2 Appendix 1 and 516 DM 6 Appendix 1). This preliminary
information may be revised based on our review of public comments that we
receive in response to this notice.

Low-effect HCPs are those involving (1) minor or negligible effects on federally
listed or candidate species and their habitats, and (2) minor or negligible
effects on other environmental values or resources.

We will evaluate the HCP and comments submitted thereon to determine whether
the application meets the requirements of section 10(a) of the Act (16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq.). If we determine that the application meets those requirements, we
will issue the ITP for incidental take of the sand skink. We will also evaluate
whether issuance of the section 10(a)(1)(B) ITP complies with section 7 of the
Act by conducting an intra-Service section 7 consultation. We will use the
results of this consultation, in combination with the above findings, in the
final analysis to determine whether or not to issue the ITP.

Authority: We provide this notice under Section 10 of the Endangered Species
Act and NEPA regulations (40 CFR 1506.6).

Dated: November 6, 2006.David L. Hankla, Field supervisor, Jacksonville
Field Office. [FR Doc. E6-19442 Filed 11-16-06; 8:45 am]