Don't handle poisonous reptiles and don't catch reptiles outside if you're not sure what species they are.
In "Robo-Snake," an episode of the series "Dangerous Encounters," Brady Barr, that program's featured doer of idiotic things in pursuit of scary animals, tries to develop a robot that he can send into snake holes to catch the reptiles so that he doesn't have to crawl in himself.
(To catch the reptiles, hunters sometimes spray gasoline into burrows made by tortoises. Such dens are a common hideout for snakes as well as more than 350 other species, ranging from insects to small mammals, that often die as a result).
According to the global monitoring network Traffic, some 88m wild orchids, 6.2m wild-caught live birds, and 7.5m live-caught reptiles were traded globally between 1996 and 2001.
While several reptile species sold as pets are bred in captivity, others are taken from the wild or are the offspring of wild-caught reptiles.
In order to receive as broad an endoparasite spectrum as possible it was attempted to collect samples from a multitude of different reptile species and include captive bred animals as well as wild-caught reptiles.
About 90% of wild-caught reptiles die in the first year of captivity because of physical trauma prior to purchasing or because their owners cannot meet their complex dietary and habitat needs.
White-bellied sea eagles caught fish, water-dwelling reptiles such as the eastern long-necked turtle and Australian water dragon, and waterbirds such as ducks, grebes and coots.
No reptiles were caught in either the live pitfall traps or under artificial covers during the sampling period.
A San Bernardino County reptile museum caught fire Thursday, killing 18 animals inside, authorities said.
