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Monthly newsletter of the Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society
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January 2012 volume 27, issue 1
Patrick Viehoever** will be speaking about
“Adventures in Field Herping.”
** Note: Patrick Viehoever generously volunteered to fill in for scheduled
speaker Dr. Robert Sprackland, who sends his sincere apologies for unex-
pectedly being unable to attend. Thank you, Patrick!
Next Meeting:
January 15, 2012 Upcoming Events…… 2
General information 3
Letter from the
President………………..
4
Welcome 2012
PNHS Board of Di-
rectors………….…...….
6
Cold-Blooded Cog-
nition………………..……..
7
Classifieds………………..
10
Contacts & Vets 11
Membership Application. 12
Inside this issue:
February PNHS
Newsletter Deadline:
Jan. 31, 2012
Pacific Northwest
Herpetological Society
Meeting Location:
Highline Community College Board Meeting 4 p.m.
2400 S. 240th St., Des Moines, WA General Meeting: 6 p.m.
Speaker Presentation:
PNHS:
Come to hear a
fascinating
presentation!
“Herp of the Month” for January:
Large Lizards
Pa g e 2
Upcoming PNHS Events
January 15, 2012: PNHS Regular Meeting
2012 Board Members officially sworn in.
Herp-of-the-Month: “ L arge Lizards ”
Speaker: Patrick Viehoever
Topic: “ Adventures in Field Herping ”
January 17, 2012: PNHS Outreach, Location: Wallingford, WA Time: 6-8 p.m.
“ S cience Night: ” Dinner for participants: 5-6 p.m.; Set-up 4 p.m.
Contact VP/Outreach Coordinator to participate.
February 10, 2012: PNHS Outreach, Location: Edmonds, WA Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Set-up after 5 p.m. Contact VP/Outreach Coordinator to participate.
February 12, 2012: PNHS Regular Meeting
Herp-of-the-Month: “ Chelonians ” ( Turtles, Tortoises & Terrapins)
Speaker: Jerry Novak of Pacific Northwest Turtleworks
March 3, 2012: Leap Year Event at Woodland Park Zoo
“ L eaping Ahead of Extinction: A celebration of good news for amphibi
ans in 2012, ” sponsored by the Amphibian Ark. For more information,
go to www.LeapDay2012.org or www.zoo.org .
March 11, 2012: PNHS Regular Meeting
Page 2
Come be a part
of our biggest
show ever!
Save The Date!
June 2nd—3rd, 2012
Emerald City
Reptile Expo
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
General Information
The Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society (PNHS) is a non-profit organi-
zation registered with the State of Washington. PNHS is dedicated to the
education of its members and the public, as well as the conservation, ecol-
ogy, and captive care and breeding of reptiles and amphibians. The society
also takes an active role in legislative and environmental issues affecting
these animals and their habitats.
Meeting Information
PNHS holds its general meeting on the third Sunday of every month (with
exceptions for holidays) at 6:00pm at Highline Community College in Des
Moines, Building 12 Room 101. The Board meeting begins at 4:00pm.
Doors open at 5:30. Other business and socialization occurs between 5:30
and 6; then the General Meeting starts. Meetings are open to the public,
and the society encourages anyone with an interest in herpetology to at-
tend. Please purchase a membership to show your support for the society.
Animal Donations
Looking to adopt, release an animal or donate cages and equipment?
Please contact the Adoptions Committee by email at adop-
[email protected], or by voicemail at 206- 583-0686. We will contact you
and make arrangements.
Other Donations
The Adoption Committee receives minimal financial support from the Soci-
ety, so donations of money, food, cages, and equipment are always needed
and appreciated. Please contact the Adoption Chair to make a donation.
Adoptions
To adopt an animal that is in the care of the Committee, you must be pre-
sent at the meeting, be a current member (of at least one month), and be
over 18 years of age or have parental consent. For more details see the
web site or contact the Adoption Chair.
Newsletter Information
A monthly newsletter absorbs the lion’s share of the price of a PNHS mem-
bership. In order to keep it interesting, we encourage contribution of origi-
nal articles, book reviews, letters, ads, and cartoons for publication.
Items for incorporation into articles are also welcome, though with no guar-
antee of their use. Submissions may be sent to the Newsletter Committee
or to the Society through the contacts listed on the following page.
Editorial Policy
The views expressed in this publication are solely the views of the authors
and not necessarily the views of the Society, its members, or the Newsletter
Committee. The Newsletter Committee reserves the right to edit all submis-
sions including advertisements.
General information &
guidelines
re PNHS’ Monthly Meetings
are a great place to learn
something new, purchase
feeders at a discount, and
meet new people
V o l . 2 7 N o . 1 Pa g e 3
Above: Both Green Tree Python
Photos courtesy of the Adams’
Family.
Page 4
Letter from the President By Aimee Kenoyer
Continued...
Hey PNHS! This month is a bit of a milestone for me. Janu-
ary’s meeting marks the end of my second term as PNHS
President, where I’ll be passing the reins off to the lovely and
capable Ms. Brenda Huber. First of all, thank you ALL for your support through the
years, and for making the effort to read my silly letters!
I initially joined this group five and a half years ago. At that time, we had about half as
many members as we do now. Our Adoptions program has also doubled in the interven-
ing years (does anyone recall the bust that resulted in us taking in over 30 fosters in a
single day?). We are busier than ever with Outreaches and have been invited to more
pet events and expos in the last year than in the prior four years. PNHS has tried some
new things…some have worked (can you say Emerald City Reptile Expo? Woot!) …
and some haven’t (the calendars, while fun, have not been financially beneficial).
Along the way, I have learned so many things about so many different kinds of animals,
and I’ve had the opportunity to work with some really incredible people. While I have
been involved with other non-profits over the years and have even held office, this
group is unique and very different. We are on the verge of being a real force for change
in public perception of exotic pets – and exotic pet ownership – for our region. As
PNHS grows, we are gaining ever more notoriety. More people know that we are here
as a resource than ever before, leading directly into growth of the society as well as
helping more animals in need. This is truly a grass-roots effort and has only been possi-
ble because of you, the membership of PNHS.
I firmly believe that any organization will only benefit you as much as you are willing
to invest – you get out what you put in. This is particularly relevant when you consider
all of the potential legislative changes as well as vilification by groups such as the
HSUS, and most media outlets. Currently, our hobby/interest/love is threatened by a
number of sources. This makes it more important than ever before to: 1. educate the
V o l . 2 7 , N o . 1 Pa g e 5
public about herps so that there will be less fear due to ignorance and misinformation; and
2. to share information amongst ourselves so that we as a community are keeping proper
and responsible care of our herps.
So, if you think these things are important and you also would like to get more out of
PNHS, there is one easy way to accomplish all of this:
GET INVOLVED!!
…. I did. Through fostering, outreach, and volunteering at a higher level, I have gained valu-
able knowledge, a sense of pride for the positive changes in which I’ve been involved, and
some really incredible friendships. It was one of the better choices I have made in my life. This
is a great group with some amazing people and enormous potential—help it along.
Aimee Kenoyer
PNHS President
Letter From The President Continued….
Above: Aimee Kenoyer shares her knowledge at the Pacific Science Center,
April 2009. Photo courtesy of Suyama Images.
P a g e 6 Page 6
Vol. 27, No. 1
Welcome 2012 PNHS Board
Nominations were announced in November 2011; all positions were unopposed so no
ballots were mailed.
Your 2012 PNHS Board of Directors:
President: Brenda Huber
President-Elect: Rachel Shirk
Vice-President: Brandon Winter
Secretary: Teresa Montoya
Membership Secretary: Geoff Sweet
Treasurer: Dale Drexler
Members-At-Large: Ted Adams
David Brunnelle
Carol Dean
Matt Lee
Julie Sharkey
Adoptions Coordinator: Rachel Shirk
Event Coordinator: Norm Hill
Newsletter Editor: Marian Huber
Webmaster: Geoff Sweet
Thank you for all that you do for PNHS!
V o l . 2 7 , N o . 1
Cold-Blooded Cognition:
Tortoises Quick on the Uptake
By Jeff Hecht, New Scientist
Tortoises aren’t noted for their speed but they are surprisingly quick-witted.
"IT ALL stems from Moses," says Anna Wilkinson. Moses is her pet red-footed tortoise and a bit of a celebrity in the science world. Why? First, he outsmarted rats in a maze. Then he was the inspiration for a new lab studying reptile intelligence and the evolutionary origins of cognition. Now he has helped Wilkinson win an Ig Nobel prize. Victory for slow and steady.
This fruitful partnership began in 2004, after Wilkinson, now at the University of Lincoln, UK, started graduate school at the University of York, also in the UK. She was studying bird cognition but had earlier become fascinated by tortoises while employed in education and re-search at Flamingo Land zoo in North Yorkshire, UK. Although working with primates, she found herself drawn to the tortoise enclosure. Even when most of the group was basking in the sun, she recalls, at least one tortoise was exploring or feeding, and when a person walked in they all perked up, sensing that food was likely to follow. "They were always just fascinat-ing," she says. So, a tortoise was the obvious choice as a pet.
Moses's first big academic break came in 2006. Wilkinson was attending a lecture on how rats remember their paths through a maze, when she started thinking: "Moses can do that." After-wards, she asked the lecturer, Geoffrey Hall, if anyone had tried putting tortoises in such mazes. A literature search indicated that reptiles in general have proved pretty dim when sub-jected to cognitive tests. Undeterred, Hall and Wilkinson decided to see what Moses was ca-pable of. The pair set up a tortoise-sized test maze similar to the eight-armed radial structure used for rats and mice, then put Moses through his paces. As with the rodents he was placed in the centre of the maze and given eight chances to retrieve food from the arms - each of which had a morsel at its end. Moses quickly learned to find his way around so that he didn't revisit arms where he had already eaten the food. Like the rodents, he seemed to create a "cognitive map" from the objects he could see in the world beyond the maze. However, when Wilkinson and Hall obscured these landmarks, Moses took up a different strategy - he systematically vis-ited the arm next to the one he had just left, allowing him to retrieve all eight food scraps (Journal of Comparative Psychology, vol 121, p 412). This flexibility of behaviour has never been seen in mammals, which seek new landmarks when old ones are removed. Clever Moses.
Reprinted with permission from HerpDigest.org; Vol.12 No.1, Dated 1/2/12
Pa g e 8
Cold-Blooded Cognition, continued...
Wilkinson and Hall were now interested in why reptiles had performed so poorly in previ-ous cognitive studies. Taking a closer look at the reports, they found the problem. The ear-lier research had been done at cool temperatures, which left the cold-blooded animals feel-ing sluggish. Moses, by contrast, had performed at 29 degrees C, near the average tempera-ture of the red-footed tortoise's native habitat in Central and South America. The warmer temperatures boosted Moses's metabolism, making him alert, lively and ready to conquer a maze.
Having finished her dissertation, Wilkinson started postdoctoral research at the University of Vienna, Austria. There, her supervisor Ludwig Huber encouraged her to pursue her in-terest in reptiles. In 2007 they set up the cold-blooded cognition lab. With seven more red-footed tortoises - as well as some jeweled lizards - they were ready to find out just how smart reptiles are.
One skill Wilkinson and Huber were keen to explore was gaze-following. The ability to look
where another individual is looking is important because it can alert you to potential preda-
tors, or food. It is also a complex behavior, which requires understanding that another ani-
mal's gaze can convey useful information, working out where it is looking and turning to
focus on the same spot. Gaze-following has long been thought of as a talent exclusive to
primates, but recently it has been found in goats and a few birds. It turns out that red-
footed tortoises can do it too.
When Huber and Wilkinson shone a laser pointer at an overhead screen to attract the atten-
tion of one tortoise, they found that another individual, behind the screen, also looked up
(Animal Cognition, vol .13, p 765).
Gaze-following had never been tested in reptiles before. The fact that red-footed tortoises
can do it was surprising, given that they are usually solitary in the wild so may not be ex-
pected to evolve the ability to take cues from others.
Their performance on a second task was even more intriguing. The researchers found tor-
toises can learn to find hidden food by watching another tortoise walk around a wall to col-
lect a treat (Biology Letters, vol 6, p 614). This indicates that tortoises are capable of social
learning, a trait thought to have evolved as a special cognitive adaptation in social animals.
The discovery raises the possibility that social learning may simply be an extension of gen-
eral learning capabilities rather than a specialist skill.
Moses and his pals have done much to raise the intellectual standing of tortoises, but there
is one test they famously failed. Contagious yawning is thought to arise from empathy, but
Vol. 27, No. 1
Pa g e 9
Cold-Blooded Cognition, Continued...
Wilkinson doubted this theory. She spent six months teaching one tortoise to yawn in
the hope that others would learn the trick - even though tortoises lack empathy. The
yawns stubbornly refused to spread, Wilkinson and Huber reported in a paper that
earned them the Ig Nobel prize earlier this year (Current Zoology, vol 57, p 477).
Wilkinson's work is helping revive interest in reptile cognition, says Gordon Burghardt
at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. This is important because most research
on animal cognition has been on mammals or birds. Reptiles split from those groups
more than 250 million years ago, so studies of how they think can shed light on the
evolutionary roots of animal intelligence. Burghardt recently found "surprisingly ad-
vanced" social learning in pond turtles, a more social group than tortoises. Meanwhile,
Manuel Leal and Brian Powell at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, have
found that tree-dwelling anole lizards from Puerto Rico can solve simple problems to
find food - a behaviour previously seen only in birds and mammals.
Reptiles are clearly far smarter than we thought. Wilkinson has one explanation - at
least for Moses and his ilk. Tortoises receive no care after they hatch, so they have to
learn on their own, she points out. And with a very high attrition rate, there is strong
natural selection for intelligence. "They learn things very fast because they have to do
so to survive," she says. "They are learning machines."
Vol. 26, No. 12
Left: Red-footed Tor-
toise, Geochelone carbon-
aria., courtesy of
Wikipedia Commons.
Classifieds
Join the Global Gecko Association Today!
The GGA is a six year old international organization dedicated to the needs of all people interested in geckos.
Members receive the twice-yearly, full-color journal, “Gekko”, plus “Chit-Chat”, our quarterly newsletter.
Annual Membership is $32 US, $34 Canada/Mexico, $36 Overseas.
Email: [email protected] (503)-436-1064 or www.gekkota.com
Pa g e 1 0
Advertise in the PNHS Newsletter!
Business Card .............................$5
Quarter Page................................$10
Half Page ....................................$15
Full Page .....................................$25
If you would like to place an ad
in the PNHS newsletter, please contact:
GET PUBLICITY FOR YOUR BUSINESS
& SUPPORTING PNHS!
Feeder Insects & Rodents
I have superworms, giant mealworms, and lots more!Plus, I now carry frozen rodents.
Order in advance: special pricing for PNHS
members,,as well as quantity discounts!
For pick up and PNHS meeting delivery.
Jennifer Sronce (425) 750-0477
Bean Farm’s Creative Habitats
Slide-Top Aquariums
Various sizes available.
We can deliver the cages to the meetings, as well as any other item from the Bean Farm catalogue.
Please contact us by the Friday before the meeting in order for items to be delivered. Thank you!
Paula & Giovani Fagioli (877) 708-5882
Email: [email protected]
www.beanfarm.com
PNHS would like to thank “Animal Talk Pet Shop” & “Animal Talk
Rescue” for their generous donations of feeders for our foster animals!
Are you a Fluffy Foster? Kitten season is upon us &
Animal Talk Rescue is urgently looking for foster homes
for kitten(s).
Animal Talk Pet Shop 6514 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 526-1558 Find us on Facebook!
A full-line pet
store...and so
much more!
Contact Information
PNHS
P.O. Box 66147 adoptions:206-583-0686
Burien, WA 98166 email: [email protected]
www.pnwhs.org general information: 206-628-4740
Area Representatives
Greater Seattle Aimee Kenoyer 206-200-1240 [email protected]
N King & Snohomish Brenda Huber 206-334-7168 [email protected]
S King & Pierce Dale Drexler 253-606-4328 [email protected]
Oregon Elizabeth Freer 503-436-1064 [email protected]
Peninsula, Skagit, Whatcom & Island, Thurston, Lewis, Spokane—need volunteers!
Officers for 2011
President Aimee Kenoyer [email protected]
Vice President Dave Alverson [email protected]
President-Elect Brenda Huber [email protected]
Treasurer Dale Drexler [email protected]
Secretary Mel Kreachbaum [email protected]
Membership Secretary Vivian Eleven [email protected]
Members-At-Large Rachel Shirk [email protected]
Julie Sharkey [email protected]
Geoff Sweet [email protected]
Heather Shipway [email protected]
Amanda Perez [email protected]
Adoptions Coordinator Rachel Shirk [email protected]
Newsletter Editor Marian Huber [email protected]
Webmaster Geoff Sweet [email protected]
Find us on
FACEBOOK!
V o l . 2 7 , N o . 1 Pa g e 1 1
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Bird & Exotic Clinic of Seattle
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(206) 783-4538
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Kamaka Exotic Animal Vet-
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The Center For Bird & Exotic
Animal Medicine
11401 NE 195th St.
Bothell, WA 98011
(425) 486-9000
www.avianandexoticanimalhospit
al..com
To join PNHS, please print & complete the following application,
enclose your yearly or multi-yearly membership fee and return to:
PNHS Membership Secretary
P.O. Box 27542
Seattle, WA 98165
Membership applications and fees may also be received at the monthly meetings by the Membership Secretary. With your yearly or multi-year membership fee you will receive the monthly PNHS E-Newsletter, access to membership pricing for adoption ani-mals, and the opportunity to participate in the many outreaches and special “Members Only” events held throughout the year.
Please select one of the options below:
Please select your preferred membership category:
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(One person) (2 parents + Children)
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(Institutions/Organizations) (E-Newsletter Only)
Please select the format in which you would like to receive your newsletter:
Name(s) (please print clearly): ______________________________________________
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Email Address: ________________________________________________________
Phone: _______________________________________________________________
Above: Kids are
intent on every-
thing Board Mem-
ber Geoff Sweet
has to say at an
outreach in Duvall,
2005.
