This months we have three Full Member articles:


It's a love thing

Author: Sue Knight

Photographic guide to reproductive behaviour in Elaphe dione with notes on courtship rituals. Including a glossary of common terms used when describing breeding behaviour in snakes.





Asian Rat Snakes of the Genus Elaphe - Elaphe davidi

Author: Klaus-Dieter Schulz

Amongst herpetologists, David’s Rat Snake is an absolutely unknown species as is the case with almost all Asian Elaphespecies. Even professional herpetologists have had to refer to the various literature sources in order to be able to give exact details of this species. Unfortunately this snake is only known to me from literature and from a few bad photographs.






Clutch and Incubation Parameters for Ratsnake species and subspecies

Author: Sue Knight

This is a guide to the incubation temperatures, incubation duration and clutch size of most Ratsnake species and subspecies with notes on eggs and incubation. Also included is data on some common name ratsnake clutches.

BENEFITS OF JOINING THE RATSNAKE FOUNDATION (online non profit Society)

The use of this site is three tiered. The first tier is that of guest with limited access, the second is that of registered user with certain privileges and lastly, for £8 (GBR) per annum, as a subscriber with complete interactive access to all parts of our site. All tiers are described further below.

Guests
1. Access to a General Ratsnake Forum.
2. Access to Ratsnake News.
3. Access to our Distribution Maps of species included in the Monograph. This will be expanded on in the future to include other species often referred to as 'ratsnakes'.
4. Access to the Photo Gallery (viewing only).
5. View only to the 'General Ratsnake Forums'.
6.. Access to the Introduction to Ratsnake Species.
7. Access to Article summaries.


Non subscribing registered members
1. All the benefits of Guests as outlined above.
2. Occasional articles that will become available to non-subscribers.
3. Access to read and make posts on the 'General Ratsnake Forums'.

4. View and Post classified adverts.
5. Access to Ratsnakes Digest our monthly newsletter containing articles and much more.

Subscribing registered members
Many of these features are seen as ever growing, with new content being added to the site on a monthly basis, which will include at least two new article features. Feel free to make suggestions for any additions via email, PM or on the Suggestions forum to any of the Admin or Committee members for future inclusion.

1. All the benefits of the non-subscribers as outlined above.
2. The facility to participate in species specific forums for all species included in the Monograph.
3. The facility to participate in forums for all other species not included in the Monograph, depending on its popularity, this may be added to for the discussion of specific species.
4. Access to the Photo Gallery (viewing, uploading pix and able to post comments).
5. Access to links of pdf articles.
6. Articles written and submitted by our members, providing an ever increasing body of reference for our subscribing members.
7. Book reviews, again constantly added to.
8. Etymology Dictionary.
9. Polls & Surveys - participation & their results, also ever growing.
10. Classified section for members' sales or wants regarding ratsnakes.
11. Herpetological Events.
12. Your very 'Own Page', where you may inform fellow members about yourself, perhaps place non-ratsnake related classifieds or for anything else you wish. So long as it's not deemed offensive, libellous or otherwise unsavoury, we wish this to be your platform and we will not interfere here.
13. The ability to 'Bookmark' internal pages for your easier reference.
14. Glossary, which again will be added to as we go along, ever expanding to provide an increasingly useful reference for users.

For queries about membership, please contact us by email membership AT ratsnakefoundation.org or post at: The Membership Secretary, The Ratsnake Foundation, P.O. Box 810, Taunton, TA1 9EA.

WELCOME TO THE RATSNAKE FOUNDATION

Welcome to the Ratsnake Foundation, we are an online society for those interested in all aspects of this fascinating group of animals described as ratsnakes.

We hope you enjoy your stay, find the content of the site to be of interest to you and hope you will engage in discussion about these animals. No one knows everything; we can all learn a little something from each other, we hope you come away from the site at least slightly richer in knowledge.

Please remember that this site is in its infancy, the more people contribute, the more our potential shall be realised. If you have any material, time to write something for us or wish to discuss something on our forums that you feel will be of benefit to fellow ratsnake keepers/enthusiasts, feel free to do so. It’s why we are here. Individuals submitting three articles or more (totaling three thousand words) throughout the year, will be granted free subscription for the following year.

WHAT THE RATSNAKE FOUNDATION IS ALL ABOUT

We hope to provide a platform for open discussion and a cross flow of information about all aspects that exclusively concern 'ratsnakes'.

The term 'ratsnake' is obviously one of dubious taxonomic value, an artificial pigeon hole that certain groups of animals may fall into. Some people would describe some animals as racers while others would happily proclaim them to be ratsnake. The Foundations definition of 'ratsnakes' are all animals that are currently or have been described as such, primarily concerning all species formerly described as Elaphe in the tome written by Schulz, 'A Monograph of the Colubrid Snakes of the Genus Elaphe (Fitzinger)'. We are however, also open to the discussion of any other snake commonly described as 'ratsnakes', such as Rhynchophis boulengeri (Rhino ratsnake), Ptyas, Spilotes & Spalerosophis species etc. in our eyes these snakes are also 'ratsnakes'.

If you have a desire to learn more about these species, we believe the Foundation will be a benefit to you. If you have experience, data, observations of captive husbandry, taxonomy, field work or anything to do with ratsnakes that you wish to share with like-minded people, we hope this site encourages you to do so. We hope to learn from your experience whether via posts on our forum or by submitting an article. Knowledge is power!

After the second year, any money raised over the annual running costs that aren't required for future projects by the Foundation, shall be donated to a specific ratsnake conservation project decided on by our membership. This we feel is a way we may give back a little something to the natural world.

Honorary Membership shall be a awarded to a select few every year for outstanding contributions in taxonomy, conservation, any herpetological discipline or herpetolculture concerning ratsnakes. Committee members nominated five individuals each, that they considered had contributed to the understanding of ratsnakes or for their role in ratsnake conservation. We believe these people should be acknowledged for their achievements but moreover, it is their important work that should be recognised.

A poll was then conducted, where each member voted for five individuals out of a list of all the nominations. It should be noted that all of these people’s efforts are to be credited along with their collaborators, unfortunately, we can’t grant Honorary Membership to the Ratsnake Foundation to a limitless number of people. It has been decided by the committee therefore that Honorary Membership shall be bestowed upon five individuals only, on launch and an additional one annually, to be nominated and decided upon by the subscribing membership thereafter. Honorary Membership permits all the privileges that a subscribing full member would receive and lasts for life. We hope this proves useful to both those awarded with the accolade and to our membership.

The list below will be added to annually, as more Honorary Memberships are granted.

Honorary Membership has been awarded to the following individuals;

Accepted - Frank T Burbrink (Personal Site) – Nominated for his considerable work on ratsnake taxonomy, including his study of North American ratsnakes, describing and identifying the various clades and species, in preference of subspecific status and not least for the bigger question of historical ratsnake distribution addressed in his new paper.

Accepted - Urs Utiger – Nominated for his molecular systematics and phylogeny of Old and New World ratsnakes, for the shake up that was desperately needed to further understand these animals’ relationships with each other and contribute to the revision of the then artificial Elaphe genus.

Accepted - Notker Helfenberger – Nominated for his work on European and Asian Elaphe, some 30 Old World species were analysed. His ‘phylogenetic relationship of Old World Ratsnakes based on visceral organ topography, osteology, and allozyme variation’ is a major contribution to a new understanding of these animals.

Accepted - Klaus-Dieter Schulz – Nominated for his contributions on further understanding the captive requirements of ratsnake species and making available through breeding some of the rarer ratsnakes. Also for his contributions in describing and identifying the various Oreophis porphyraceus subspecies. Last but not least, for his contribution of the Monograph of Elaphe species, a monumental work and THE reference book for ratsnake species.

Accepted - David Bird – Nominated for his contribution to the conservation of Zamenis longissimus (the Aesculapian snake) and for co-authoring the paper ‘Action Plan for the Conservation of the Aesculapian Snake (Zamenis longissimus) in Europe’. It is acknowledged that this is a collaborative (The Herpetological Conservation Trust) work but also accepted that only a limited number can practically be granted the status of honorary membership and David was chosen as a representative of this effort in this respect.