|
Jonathan's Jungle News
Last updated on 10th August 2008
News and important events in the lives of the
animals of Jonathan's
Jungle Roadshow are reported and updated here
from time to time - feel free to check back in the
future to
see what is happening in Jonathan's animal
collection!
10th
August 2008
It has been a very
exciting week for me this week! On Wednesday I
drove to south east London especially to buy a new
snake, and I am now the very proud owner of a
Boa constrictor called Boaz
who is more than 7 feet or 2 metres 20cm long!!
He is
absolutely beautiful and very friendly, having been
used to being handled regularly by both his previous
owners and their young children. He weighs 5
kg and is easily the largest snake I have ever
personally owned, which is why I have such a happy
expression on my face in the picture below!
To see
more pictures and for more information about the
wonderful Boaz please click on the blue link above
or simply click here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As well
as Boaz I also bought a lovely new tarantula this
week, this one is called Emilia and she is an adult
female Mexican redleg tarantula.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was
also lucky enough to be able to photograph another
new baby leopard gecko emerging from its egg!
This one is the very last of the leopard gecko
babies for 2008 so it was good to see it hatching,
and another beauty it is too!
Whilst
all the leopard gecko eggs have now hatched for this
year, I still have quite a few crested gecko eggs in
my incubator and will report on these hatching as
and when it happens...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28th July 2008
It's been a quieter fortnight than usual in terms of
animal news since I last updated this page, but I
have acquired a few new animals during this time.
Before I show you those I thought you might like to
see some nice new pictures of
Boris, my bearded
dragon, enjoying the bright sunshine and hot
temperatures in my back garden today!
As is
mentioned on the page of the website devoted to
Boris (follow the link above to find it), bearded
dragons love to bask in the sun. Despite
having the freedom of my back garden today he chose
to sit in just one place and take in some rays!
Here he is enjoying the sunshine:
Being
outdoors in the sunshine also gave me the chance to
get a nicer than usual picture of one of his eyes,
as you can see below:
A
bearded dragon's eyes are very beautiful and they
also provide extremely good all-round vision which
enables them to spot danger quickly. This was
brilliantly demonstrated today when a light aircraft
flew overhead and Boris immediately reacted to it by
looking straight up at it and going into his threat
posture. He flattened his body, opened his
mouth and puffed up his 'beard', all of which are
done to make him look much bigger and more scary
than he really is to potential predators! I
took a photograph as quickly as I could once I
realised what he was doing, but as it only lasted a
few seconds I sadly didn't quite catch him in
full-on 'threat display' mode. Despite this,
the picture below still gives you at least some idea
of his reaction:
Boris
almost certainly saw the aircraft as a threat as it
probably resembled a large bird, some of which would
be the bearded dragon's predators in the wild and
would themselves cause this reaction, in an effort
to scare them away. Once the aircraft was out
of sight he completely relaxed again and enjoyed a
while longer lazing in the sun!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In terms
of the new animals I have acquired in the last
couple of weeks, first up is a new species of
scorpion commonly known as the Israeli gold
scorpion. As well as being native to the
deserts of Israel they are also found in many other
Asian and also north African countries such as Iran,
Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia to
name just a few. They are also sometimes known
as the large-clawed scorpion because relative to
their small size (they only reach about 8cm as
adults) they have quite large claws as you can see
below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have
also acquired a new species of stick insect this
week. This species originates from Vietnam
(although these were bred by a friend of mine in
Somerset!) and does not have a common name, which is
a shame as their scientific or Latin name is a bit
of a mouthful - it is Pharnacia jianfenglingensis
!
I have
acquired seven small nymphs (babies) which as you
can see are quite small at present:
However,
even though they are quite small now they will
definitely not stay that way! When they are
adult, Pharnacia jianfenglingensis can reach
35cm with their front legs outstretched! Watch
this space to see how these little ones grow and
change in the coming months...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14th
July 2008
During the last 72 hours
crested gecko numbers 8, 9,
10, 11 & 12 for 2008 have hatched! These five
are all beautiful and as you can see below they are
also quite variable in both their colour and pattern
which, as I have said before, is the main reason why
they are such a fantastic species of gecko to keep
and breed as you never know what you will get!
The gecko in this bottom
picture has just caught its first ever cricket!
Baby geckos can take several days before they start
feeding, this is because they absorb the remainder
of the yolk sac of their egg shortly before hatching
which then provides them with enough energy for the
first few days of life.
During recent weeks I have
also had a number of leopard geckos hatch and I took
some photographs of some of them this evening to
show you how some of them have changed already.
When leopard geckos hatch they are, as I have shown
on this page previously, typically banded in yellow
and dark brown, with a black and white banded tail
like this one which I found hatched when I woke up
this morning!:
However, within a matter of
a couple of weeks their pattern can change
dramatically, as the dark coloured bands break up to
produce a more irregular and lighter spotted
pattern. These are four geckos which hatched
in June, once again you can see that they too are
very variable in colour and pattern!
As you can see from this
bottom picture they can become quite pale in colour
compared to how they are when they hatch, and when
you consider that the gecko above is still only six
weeks old it is already looking very beautiful,
especially with its lovely bluish coloured eyes!
When they are fully grown
leopard geckos typically, but not always, have a
spotty appearance which is why they have the name
'leopard' gecko, as they resemble the pattern of a
leopard. This is a fully grown adult male
called Blotch, named because of the unusually big
and dark spot on his back, and he is the father to
most of the babies I have had hatch this year!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like to check back on any 'old'
news please use the links below!
News from June 2008
News
from April and May 2008
News
from January - March 2008
News from
December 2007
News from
October and November 2007
News from August and September 2007
News
from June and July 2007
News
from April and May 2007
News
from January - March 2007
 |
