#reptiles · Cascadity

GSGlobal Stewardship #cites #ecuador #galapagos #marine-iguanas #reptiles #wildlife-trafficking

Scientists ask Ecuador to crack down as smugglers are caught with dozens of Galápagos marine iguanas

Mongabay explains how the world's only sea-swimming lizard ends up stuffed in boxes bound for collectors.

What happened: In a letter in Science, researchers led by Juan José Alava of Simon Fraser University urge Ecuador to audit airport checks and break up smuggling networks targeting Galápagos marine iguanas, Mongabay reports. In August, authorities in Quito caught a Russian woman with 32 live iguanas packed in eight plastic boxes headed for Iceland; in May, three Thai nationals were arrested with 12. Nearly 50 have been seized this year.

Why it matters: The marine iguana is the only lizard that swims in the sea and eats algae; trafficking piles onto climate change, plastic and pollution pressures.

How much agreement is there? Broad agreement that the trade is harmful and illegal (the species went on CITES Appendix I in 2025). Open questions are how big it is, since more seizures may mean better enforcement or more smuggling, and whether corruption at airports plays a role, which the authors suspect.

Could someone help? Never buy wild-caught reptiles or 'captive-bred' endemics of doubtful origin; the authors also ask CITES countries to close the loophole that lets offspring of smuggled animals be sold legally.

Read it at the source

MongabayScientists call on Ecuador to stop the rising trafficking of Galápagos iguanas Independent ↗

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Marine iguana

After exploring Scientists call on Ecuador to stop the rising trafficking of Galápagos iguanas, the animal itself is profiled in Marine iguana.

The marine iguana lives only on the Galápagos and, unique among modern lizards, forages in the sea for the algae that make up almost all of its diet.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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WThe Wild #animal-behavior #locomotion #reptiles #science #snakes #southeast-asia

Tiny Southeast Asian snakes escape by rolling, four times faster than they slither

Snakes that roll like a wheel while keeping their heads steady: worth the click for the video link alone.

Dwarf reedsnakes of the genus Pseudorabdion can roll across the ground to escape danger, reaching peak speeds of 1.72 to 3.69 meters per second, about four times their top slithering speed, according to a Toho University release on ScienceDaily.

Filming the snakes from several angles, researchers found that they alternate between rolling on one side and swinging a curved part of the body down beside the head, a move they call a "stroke." The rear of the body spins while the head stays pointed forward at a nearly constant height. The snakes held a 20 cm-wide racetrack, so the rolling is controlled rather than tumbling.

Rolling is hard for animals because, unlike a wheel, they have no axle to separate a spinning body from the head and senses. The researchers say the snakes manage it through coordination alone.

Read it at the source

ScienceDaily (Toho University)These tiny snakes roll four times faster than they slither | ScienceDaily Independent ↗

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Rotating locomotion in living systems

After exploring These tiny snakes roll four times faster than they slither | ScienceDaily, to learn why nature almost never invents the wheel, read Rotating locomotion in living systems.

Some organisms roll to get around, but apart from bacterial flagella no organism is known to use true wheels or propellers; the article explains why evolution and terrain work against them.

Wikipedia · Swim · 30 min

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