{ 69-year-old central Florida woman found an 8-foot long alligator prowling in her kitchen }

On Friday, workers in a restaurant in Brazoria, Texas told police a man there was intoxicated. Police found Johnson with a water moccasin in his Buick. When the officer began looking, he told him there was a water moccasin in the car and to be careful — it’d bite. He said it bit him. Johnson’s left hand was swollen but he refused to be taken to a hospital.

The next day, police discovered a live, 6-foot alligator lounging in his back seat. He said he found it on the road and decided to get out and capture it. Johnson drove with the alligator loose in the back seat. He caught police’s attention upon making a U-Turn. He then made a second U-Turn and almost hit a car at a stop sign.

Johnson is also accused of entering the trailer home of his employer’s son and stealing a Wii video game controller and a hair trimmer, among other items.

{ The Facts | Continue reading }

A fossil animal locked in Lebanese limestone has been shown to be an extremely precious discovery - a snake with two legs.

Scientists have only a handful of specimens that illustrate the evolutionary narrative that goes from ancient lizard to limbless modern serpent.

The 85cm-long (33in) creature comes from the Late Cretaceous, about 92 million years ago.

{ BBC | Continue reading }

{ Rankin }

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In a new study, city health officials found that obesity and diabetes rates in NYC increased 17% between 2002 and 2004. By contrast, there was a 6% increase in national obesity rates during that time, and no significant increase in the rate of diabetes. City residents also gained 10 million pounds collectively during the two-year period, researchers found.

While public health officials said the findings underscored the need for disease prevention programs, others drew a correlation between the rising obesity rate and a smoking ban that took effect in the city’s bars and restaurants in 2003. According to city health officials, about 240,000 New Yorkers quit smoking since the agency launched a comprehensive antismoking campaign in 2002.

Weight gain among individuals who quit smoking has been well documented. According to one study that evaluated weight gain after smoking cessation, researchers found the risk of weight gain is highest during the two years after a person quits.

{ NY Sun | Continue reading }

A tortoise that smokes and appears to be addicted to nicotine has been discovered in China. The animal is the pet of a man, identified by his surname Yun, who is himself a smoker. One day, Mr Yun teased the tortoise by putting a cigarette butt into its mouth, and to his surprise it started to smoke it, according to the news agency. From then on, he shared his cigarettes with his pet, Xinhua said.

{ AFP | Continue reading }

photo { Matt Hoyle }

I’m sorry to disappoint you but pythons are not to be underestimated and they have been known to kill and eat large cats such as adult leopards.

Of course, an adult tiger is too big a prey, and it is unlikely that a python, even a large one, would attack one (it wouldn’t be able to swallow it). But if the tiger attacked the python, then the huge snake (assuming that it is a large, 7+ meter individual) could put up a very good fight in self defense (they do use their coils when attacked).

The strenght of a python is formidable, they are much faster than usually thought, and their bite also has bacteria even more dangerous than a tiger’s. As a matter of fact, a bite from a python can be as deadly as that of a venomous snake.

Of course, conflict between these predators almost never happens, mainly because tigers and pythons avoid each other, tigers having an instinctive respect for snakes, and snakes being too smart to mess with something as big and dangerous as a tiger.

Even so, huge sized constrictor snakes (reticulated, Indian and African rock pythons and green anaconda) are a powerful and deadly foe for any other predator and, believe me (for I’ve been around pythons since I was 7 years old), they are much, much more powerful than they would seem when observed from behind the glass windows of a zoo’s reptile house, boredly digesting their last (and unchallenging) meal.

{ Malcolm B. Sullivan | AllExperts }

photo { Slim Aarons }

In addition to everything else to worry about, now comes the Burmese python.

The giant snakes are slithering from Florida toward the Bay Area, very slowly to be sure, but inexorably. And they can strangle and eat an entire alligator.

The U.S. Geological Survey released a map Wednesday showing that the Bay Area has comfortable climatic conditions for the python. It also said the reptile, which prefers to swallow its prey in one gulp, is “highly adaptable to new environments” and cannot be stopped.

The snakes weigh up to 250 pounds and slither at a rate of 20 miles per month, according to USGS zoologist Gordon Rodda. They are not staying put. In fact, one of them has already slithered about 100 miles toward San Francisco.

“We have not yet identified something that would stop their spreading to the Bay Area,” Rodda said.

If pet pythons were introduced into the wild in California by irresponsible pet owners, as happened in Florida, they could become established here even faster, without need of a cross-country journey.

The Burmese python is one of several nonnative giant constrictor snakes - believed to be former pets - that have been introduced and then established themselves in Florida’s Everglades National Park. Biologists estimate 30,000 nonnative giant snakes live in the Everglades, perhaps more. Some have begun appearing in areas outside the park, alarming biologists and also people who don’t care for snakes.

{ San Francisco Chronicle | Continue reading }

photo { jake the snake }

{ alligator-drawn cart | unsourced }

{ Governor W. S. Jennings in an alligator cart, c. 1901-1905, Florida Photographic Collection }

{ Leah McSweeney, a self-assured 25-year-old dirty blonde with calculating blue eyes and a mischievous smile, is the most official bitch of New York. She is known for her fearlessness and her connections as the entrepreneur behind one of the first and most successful independent streetwear lines for women: Married to the MOB. Right photo: Ms. McSweeney’s sister Sweet 16 rattles things up in this bikini designed by graffiti artist KAWS in collaboration with Married to the MOB. It sold out in preorders before it was available for sale. | NY Observer | full story }

{ New world record: Jackie Bibby in a see-trough bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes, in Dublin, Texas | WTOP/AP | full story }

{ Thierry Le Goués, Helena Christensen, 1993 | related: Dispute over a deck }

{ Michel-Comte, Stern, 1996 }