Lauren Augustine

• MS
• Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians at Philadelphia ZOO

Populations of Ozark hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi, Grobman 1943) in Missouri and Arkansas are federally listed as endangered. The Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute's Ron and Karen Goellner Center for Hellbender Conservation, in collaboration with the Missouri Department of Conservation and US Fish and Wildlife Service, has dev...

Ozark hellbender ( Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi , Grobman 1943) populations in Missouri and Arkansas have been federally listed as endangered since 2011. As part of the comprehensive recovery plan for the subspecies, the Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute's Ron and Karen Goellner Center for Hellbender Conservation, in collaboration with the...

Populations of Ozark hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi, Grobman 1943) in Missouri and Arkansas are federally listed as endangered. The Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute's Ron and Karen Goellner Center for Hellbender Conservation, in collaboration with the Missouri Department of Conservation and US Fish and Wildlife Service, has dev...

Endemic to only three known provinces in South Central Vietnam, Cuora picturata have faced extensive collection pressures for the food, medicinal, and pet trades. Further exacerbating their decline is the lack of protected areas where wild populations exist, with only one known population occurring within a protected area. With threats to wild popu...

We report hematology and biochemistry reference intervals (RI) for the critically endangered Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer). In November 2019, we sampled 43 adult crocodiles (6 male, 37 female) under human care at the Zapata Swamp Crocodile Farm in Matanzas, Cuba. These crocodiles are part of a breeding program for the species registered by...

Captivity places various constraints on the lives of reptiles, and despite the best efforts by caretakers, captive environments will never offer the same degree of complexity or range of choices available to free-living individuals in nature. Efforts to improve the lives of reptiles in human care may focus on increasing environmental complexity and...

Appropriate nutritional husbandry for captive reptiles is inherently challenging. The health and welfare of all reptiles, like any other animals, is linked to the role of nutrition, which should be regarded as a continuum, beginning with selection or gathering of food sources and ending with elimination of waste products. Reptiles have evolved to r...

Simple Summary Behavioral and physiological measures can be used in tandem to evaluate the impacts of animal care on snake welfare in zoological institutions. Herein, we evaluated the impacts of disturbance in the form of changing the newspaper, or ground covering, in animal habitats on seven snakes. Increased paper changes resulted in increased gl...

Modern herpetoculture has seen a rise in welfare-related habitat modifications, although ethologically-informed enclosure design and evidence-based husbandry are lacking. The diversity that exists within snakes complicates standardizing snake welfare assessment tools and evaluation techniques. Utilizing behavioral indicators in conjunction with phy...

We describe cranial biofluorescence in the Cuban false chameleon (Dactyloidae: Anolis barbatus) and its similarity to analogous structures in Old World chameleons (Chamaeleonidae), highlighting the first putative example of evolutionary convergence of biofluorescence in reptiles.

Conservation strategies for crocodilians often include captive breeding to create stable assurance populations. Evaluating adrenal and gonadal hormone patterns can provide animal managers with data to more effectively monitor animal welfare and reproductive status. This study evaluated the effects of season (breeding, nesting or off), sex (male and...

Conservation strategies for crocodilians often include captive breeding to create stable assurance populations. Evaluating adrenal and gonadal hormone patterns can provide animal managers with data to more effectively monitor animal welfare and reproductive status. This study evaluated the effects of season (breeding, nesting, or off), sex (male an...

As wild population threats for the endangered false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii) persist, conservation breeding programs, including developing semen collection techniques for subsequent artificial insemination, are becoming important species conservation measures. Developing reproductive biology understanding of a species is important to developi...

Reptiles show varying degrees of facultative parthenogenesis. Here we use genetic methods to determine that an isolated, captive female Asian water dragon produced at least nine offspring via parthenogenesis. We identified microsatellites for the species from shotgun genomic sequences, selected and optimized primer sets, and tested all of the offsp...

Despite their historic commonality in the pet trade, there is still relatively little information published on the care and reproduction of the Cuora galbinifrons complex. Now recognized as three distinct species – Indochinese box turtle Cuora galbinifrons, Bourret's box turtle Cuora bourreti and Southern Vietnam box turtle Cuora picturata – this c...

Advanced reproductive technologies (ART's) are often employed with various taxa to enhance captive breeding programs and maintain genetic diversity. Perivitelline membrane-bound (PVM-bound) sperm detection has previously been demonstrated in avian and chelonian species as a useful technique for breeding management. In the absence of embryotic devel...

The relationship between amphibian immune function and disease susceptibility is of primary concern given current worldwide declines linked to the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). We experimentally infected lowland leopard frogs (Lithobates yavapaiensis) with Bd to test the hypothesis that infection causes physiological stress...

Zoos and private herpetoculturists have both played crucial roles in advancing the keeping and breeding of varanid lizards (Genus: Varanus) in captivity. From a historical perspective, herpetological husbandry in zoos and private collections has often differed due to various factors including, but not limited to differences in their keeping philoso...

The Smithsonian's National Zoological Park (NZP) has a long history with Cuban crocodiles, Crocodylus rhombifer, beginning in 1900's when the first animals arrived at the NZP. Today, the Zoo has two breeding groups of C. rhombifer and has observed and analyzed reproductive behavior and fertility rates over the last three years. Fertility rates were...

Operant conditioning with false water cobras

In addition to being a large component of most zoological collections, reptile species are becoming more popular as family pets. Reptiles have the cognitive ability to be trained to facilitate daily husbandry and veterinary care. Desensitization and operant conditioning can alleviate some of the behavioral and physiological challenges of treating t...