My favorite assistant (Brian) and I did a reptile show for a daycare's summer camp today. The kids were mostly between 5 and 7 years of age, and there were very few who were afraid of any of the animals. I tell the audience before we begin that, if they don't feel comfortable touching an animal, they may tell us, "No, thank you," and hold up their hands, palms forward, to make sure we understand. I tell them that it isn't fair to them for anyone to make them touch an animal they are afraid of, and that we will not tease them, pester them, or otherwise give them a hard time over it.
Once they realize they have a choice in the matter, the majority of initially fearful children will ask to touch the animal once they have seen some of their peers doing so. It's absolutely rewarding to see a terrified kid become brave and curious, especially when dealing with a snake--an animal that they have been conditioned to fear by their culture. I make sure that all the snakes we use are very even-tempered so they don't make sudden moves to frighten people. I also tend to choose some of our more "cuddly" snakes that enjoy being held--Tez, my Honduran milk snake, will often slide himself into the pocket of his handler and contentedly rest in there for as long as we'll let him.
The most fearful people we encounter are adults. They have had a long time to build their phobia, and, unfortunately, when their phobia is revealed to certain types of people, those types will worsen the phobia by tormenting the fearful person with it. Whether it's attacking them with rubber snakes, making hissing sounds, or just describing unpleasant encounters with snakes, the tormentor delights in freaking out the phobic, so that by the time I get to them, they are desperately afraid that I am going to shove a snake in their faces, chase them around with it, or make them hold it against their will.
We will do none of those things--my preferred method for dealing with phobic people is to allow them to watch me handling the snake, talking to the snake, and demonstrating that it is harmless to me. I tell them the snake's name, since names tend to make them more personable and less scary. I talk about how long the snake has been in captivity, and where it came from. I also explain that almost every one of my ill-tempered snakes (which never go to shows) was abused by a human, and they learned that our species can't be trusted to do anything except cause them suffering. Most people don't even think about a snake being abused, but when they are faced with that notion, are better able to relate to them.
So today's show involved two snakes, two lizards (including Spinner, the legless lizard), Blinky the frog, and our redfoot tortoise. There were two fearful teachers, one of whom was so afraid that he couldn't even look at snakes on television. We had a handful of kids that were initially afraid, but once they saw their classmates touching the animals without fear, they mostly came around and wanted to have that experience too.
I feel it's important in what I do to give young people a familiarity with these animals so that they don't get saddled with an irrational phobia. It's absolutely delightful when they overcome their initial anxiety to reach out to one of these creatures. If what I do in these shows prevents at least one young person from killing snakes on sight out of fear later, I will have done good to the future snakes of the world.
Showing posts with label snakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snakes. Show all posts
Friday, July 18, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
For the love of snakes
A few days ago, a gentleman in Texas had his beautiful boa contrictor stolen from his car. After searching high and low, and offering a reward for her return, he received an anonymous phone call that led him to her destroyed body. She had been bludgeoned with rocks, then torn in half.
I'd imagine that whoever swiped her had no idea what they were stealing when they grabbed the bag from the seat of the man's car. He'd left the window open as he went into the Circle K to get a coffee. Less than two minutes passed betweent the time he parked and the time he came back to his vehicle. It was probably some stupid piece of shit looking for guns, money, or drugs. Instead, the thief opens a bag containing an 8-foot-long albino boa constrictor. I suppose for a non-snake-lover, that is probably shocking.
However, no matter how much you fear snakes, the entitlement a person feels to kill someone else's beloved pet simply because they didn't know what they were getting into when they ROBBED that someone's car, is really galling. They had choices they could have made at that point--they could have closed the bag and dropped it somewhere, snake intact. They could have anonymously left it on the doorstep of a pet store. Instead, they CHOSE to torture and kill it, for no reason except perhaps their own fear, or their own amusement.
I know that many people do not understand that some of us really love and have relationships with our snakes. Maybe you're afraid of them, and you don't like them, but we do not feel the same way you do. We have invested time, and love, and care into making these animals a part of our lives. We know their individual quirks, their personalities (yes, they DO have personalities), and the physical things that make them different from others of their kind. I look into Julian's yellow eyes, and watch his black tongue flicking, and I feel warm and fuzzy inside. I watch someone hold Tez, my Honduran milk snake, and they soften from anxiety to delight, as they enjoy his gentle movements over their arms, and they realize that they have overcome some of their deepest fears. I have seen Gregor go from terrified face-biter to simply wary and mildly trusting, after he learned that we, unlike his previous owners, meant him no harm.
They do have personalities. We DO love them. Even if you can't imagine that, at least respect it--snakes don't deserve abuse and destruction any more than other, more "charismatic" pets, and their owners don't deserve to suffer their loss, no matter how weird or creepy you think liking snakes is.
I'd imagine that whoever swiped her had no idea what they were stealing when they grabbed the bag from the seat of the man's car. He'd left the window open as he went into the Circle K to get a coffee. Less than two minutes passed betweent the time he parked and the time he came back to his vehicle. It was probably some stupid piece of shit looking for guns, money, or drugs. Instead, the thief opens a bag containing an 8-foot-long albino boa constrictor. I suppose for a non-snake-lover, that is probably shocking.
However, no matter how much you fear snakes, the entitlement a person feels to kill someone else's beloved pet simply because they didn't know what they were getting into when they ROBBED that someone's car, is really galling. They had choices they could have made at that point--they could have closed the bag and dropped it somewhere, snake intact. They could have anonymously left it on the doorstep of a pet store. Instead, they CHOSE to torture and kill it, for no reason except perhaps their own fear, or their own amusement.
I know that many people do not understand that some of us really love and have relationships with our snakes. Maybe you're afraid of them, and you don't like them, but we do not feel the same way you do. We have invested time, and love, and care into making these animals a part of our lives. We know their individual quirks, their personalities (yes, they DO have personalities), and the physical things that make them different from others of their kind. I look into Julian's yellow eyes, and watch his black tongue flicking, and I feel warm and fuzzy inside. I watch someone hold Tez, my Honduran milk snake, and they soften from anxiety to delight, as they enjoy his gentle movements over their arms, and they realize that they have overcome some of their deepest fears. I have seen Gregor go from terrified face-biter to simply wary and mildly trusting, after he learned that we, unlike his previous owners, meant him no harm.
They do have personalities. We DO love them. Even if you can't imagine that, at least respect it--snakes don't deserve abuse and destruction any more than other, more "charismatic" pets, and their owners don't deserve to suffer their loss, no matter how weird or creepy you think liking snakes is.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
What's that smell? It's the Stinking Goddess!
So, I had a new addition to our serpentine family this weekend, when my friend called me up to say that he needed to make room for his Woma python and a couple of other new additions (including some rare variant of tree boa or whatnot). Far be it from me to stand in the way of his $700 snake (boy, they've come down in price...I remember when they were 3x that), I agreed to take on a King rat, a pair of gorgeous snow bullsnakes, and a handful of corns and Jungle corns.
I'll post about the others later, but I wanted to talk about the King rat here, Elaphe carinata, AKA "Stinking Goddess" or "keeled rat snake".
First of all, I want to note that this is an absolutely gorgeous snake. Bright eyes, incredible yellow on black pattern, and strongly keeled scales combine to create a snake that my husband described thusly: "He looks like a toy!" Indeed, he has an almost plastic look about him, but he's a very quick, active creature who does not seem the least bit toy-like when in motion.
The other, very obvious quality of this creature is its odor. It is unlike any other snake I have ever smelled. Most snakes have musk glands by their vent, which they use to squirt foul-smelling stuff onto potential predators. If you're a fox, and you pick up a potentially tasty snake snack, your first instinct when it exudes foul-tasting and -smelling stuff in your mouth and/or on your face is to, of course, drop that sucker. I suppose this would be more useful against mammalian predators, which rely heavily on smell and taste, than on avian ones, who mostly do NOT have strong senses of smell.
Now, I have rat snakes, milk snakes, and a kingsnake, all of whom are capable of shitting and musking all over me when I startle them--or, in the case of a couple of particularly neurotic ones, whenever I pick them up at all. It's disgusting, and it smells pretty bad. It can be hard to wash off, but I manage. Garter snakes are worse, and catching them in the field during herpetology field labs was an unpleasant experience, especially since we had nowhere to wash our hands until we returned to the lab (woe unto us if we were expected to eat lunch in the field). So I'm accustomed to snake musk, and its lovely qualities.
This snake, however, was unlike any other in its strength and quality of stink. It is, indeed, the Goddess of Stinking. Or, in my King's case, the God of Stinking (he's a male; he was shipped to my friend with a female as part of a potential breeding pair, but he ate her, and this is why you keep potentially ophiophagus snakes singly, especially when young). The odor is something along the lines of rotting meat, combined with burning cabbage, with a hint of freshly cut grass, the latter of which does not, strangely enough, improve the smell, but instead serves as an awful reminder of just how bad the rest of it is. You pick up the grassy smell first, thinking, "Hmm, maybe it's not so bad," but before you can finish that thought, the rest of it hits your olfactory senses like a creeping miasma from a sewer in a town full of people with rotting colons and only cabbage to eat.
And then, when you try to wash it off, it doesn't go. It penetrates and sticks to your skin like a dye pack from a bank robbery. I scrubbed, scrubbed some more, and used stronger and stronger soaps. I finally lucked out by using my brand new Scrubbie from Mama V soap--it exfoliated the stink out, and replaced it with the Scrubbie's coconut/cocoa butter scent. But oh dear GOD did I want to cut my hands off at first.
He's just a yearling now--a big one, as snakes go, but he's still got a long ways to grow (no pun intended). He's calm, and fairly handleable, but even without musking me deliberately, he has the odor clinging to him at all times, ready to rub off onto my hands. I have to say, he's lucky he's cute!
I'll post about the others later, but I wanted to talk about the King rat here, Elaphe carinata, AKA "Stinking Goddess" or "keeled rat snake".
First of all, I want to note that this is an absolutely gorgeous snake. Bright eyes, incredible yellow on black pattern, and strongly keeled scales combine to create a snake that my husband described thusly: "He looks like a toy!" Indeed, he has an almost plastic look about him, but he's a very quick, active creature who does not seem the least bit toy-like when in motion.The other, very obvious quality of this creature is its odor. It is unlike any other snake I have ever smelled. Most snakes have musk glands by their vent, which they use to squirt foul-smelling stuff onto potential predators. If you're a fox, and you pick up a potentially tasty snake snack, your first instinct when it exudes foul-tasting and -smelling stuff in your mouth and/or on your face is to, of course, drop that sucker. I suppose this would be more useful against mammalian predators, which rely heavily on smell and taste, than on avian ones, who mostly do NOT have strong senses of smell.
Now, I have rat snakes, milk snakes, and a kingsnake, all of whom are capable of shitting and musking all over me when I startle them--or, in the case of a couple of particularly neurotic ones, whenever I pick them up at all. It's disgusting, and it smells pretty bad. It can be hard to wash off, but I manage. Garter snakes are worse, and catching them in the field during herpetology field labs was an unpleasant experience, especially since we had nowhere to wash our hands until we returned to the lab (woe unto us if we were expected to eat lunch in the field). So I'm accustomed to snake musk, and its lovely qualities.
This snake, however, was unlike any other in its strength and quality of stink. It is, indeed, the Goddess of Stinking. Or, in my King's case, the God of Stinking (he's a male; he was shipped to my friend with a female as part of a potential breeding pair, but he ate her, and this is why you keep potentially ophiophagus snakes singly, especially when young). The odor is something along the lines of rotting meat, combined with burning cabbage, with a hint of freshly cut grass, the latter of which does not, strangely enough, improve the smell, but instead serves as an awful reminder of just how bad the rest of it is. You pick up the grassy smell first, thinking, "Hmm, maybe it's not so bad," but before you can finish that thought, the rest of it hits your olfactory senses like a creeping miasma from a sewer in a town full of people with rotting colons and only cabbage to eat.
And then, when you try to wash it off, it doesn't go. It penetrates and sticks to your skin like a dye pack from a bank robbery. I scrubbed, scrubbed some more, and used stronger and stronger soaps. I finally lucked out by using my brand new Scrubbie from Mama V soap--it exfoliated the stink out, and replaced it with the Scrubbie's coconut/cocoa butter scent. But oh dear GOD did I want to cut my hands off at first.
He's just a yearling now--a big one, as snakes go, but he's still got a long ways to grow (no pun intended). He's calm, and fairly handleable, but even without musking me deliberately, he has the odor clinging to him at all times, ready to rub off onto my hands. I have to say, he's lucky he's cute!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
BABY SNAKES!
Today, we found a pile of yellow rat snake eggs! They are Cornelia's, and I doubt that they are viable, but it's nice to see that my girl is healthy and happy!
Cornelia is one of four yellow rat snakes in this household. Rat snakes are a fairly easy snake to keep, and they are relatively intelligent snakes. My experience with them is that they are very good for handling, as long as they are raised well.
One of my rat snakes, Gregor, was abused, so he is defensive, fearful, and bitey. He's better than he was when we got him, but he still occasionally gets upset and nippy. All other rat snakes in this household, though (We have seven total*) are very friendly and easy to handle.
We've taken Cornelia's eggs and put them in the incubator. They didn't look terribly good because we found them too late, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
* Cornelia, Lucius, Marcus, and Julian: Yellow rat snakes
Claudia and Gregor: Everglades rat snakes
Elanor: Baird's rat snake
Cornelia is one of four yellow rat snakes in this household. Rat snakes are a fairly easy snake to keep, and they are relatively intelligent snakes. My experience with them is that they are very good for handling, as long as they are raised well.
One of my rat snakes, Gregor, was abused, so he is defensive, fearful, and bitey. He's better than he was when we got him, but he still occasionally gets upset and nippy. All other rat snakes in this household, though (We have seven total*) are very friendly and easy to handle.
We've taken Cornelia's eggs and put them in the incubator. They didn't look terribly good because we found them too late, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
* Cornelia, Lucius, Marcus, and Julian: Yellow rat snakes
Claudia and Gregor: Everglades rat snakes
Elanor: Baird's rat snake
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
My menagerie
In case anyone was wondering, these are the creatures currently in my household. If you have any questions about them, please let me know--I love talking about them. Also, if you want to see what they look like, I'll be happy to snap a recent photo.
male.female.unsexed
0.1 Baird's rat snake (Elanor)
3.1 yellow rat snake (Julian, Lucius, Marcus, Cornelia)
1.1 Everglades rat snake (Gregor, Claudia)
1.0 Honduran milk snake (Tezcatlipoca)
2.1 ball python (Prowler, Renenet, Jerry)
0.1 Central American boa constrictor (Luna)
1.0 Jurassic milk snake (Hobbes--Cali king/Honduran milk hybrid)
0.1 Chinese smooth green snake (Yu-Mei)
0.0.1 rough green snake (Olive)
0.1 speckled kingsnake (Sophia)
0.1 rubber boa (Hecuba)
0.1 eastern milk snake (Seska)
1.0 Malayan box turtle (Fig)
1.1 diamondback terrapin (Toby, Nate)
0.0.1 house gecko
0.0.2 Argentine horned frog (Blinky, Inky)
1.0 human (Brian)
1.2 domestic shorthair cat (Teya, Morgan, Dom)
1.0 ocicat (Aakhu)
0.0.lots Lobster roach colony (want some? I give them away for free!)
Aquarium:
2 Leopard ctenopoma
3 red-tailed chalceus
3 Synodontis eupterus
1 Synodontis angelicus
1 Synodontis alberti
1 Synodontis ocellifer
1 Synodontis longirostris
1 grey leopard/Sultan (L-264) pleco
3 clown botia
5 weather dojo
3 ropefish
3 Neolamprologus brichardi
1 crown jewel cichlid (one-eyed)
1 yellow labidochromis
1 Frontosa (one-eyed)
2 gold gourami
2 opaline gourami
1 festivum cichlid
2 Arulius barb
1 ruby shark
1 spiny eel
1 brown African knife
male.female.unsexed
0.1 Baird's rat snake (Elanor)
3.1 yellow rat snake (Julian, Lucius, Marcus, Cornelia)
1.1 Everglades rat snake (Gregor, Claudia)
1.0 Honduran milk snake (Tezcatlipoca)
2.1 ball python (Prowler, Renenet, Jerry)
0.1 Central American boa constrictor (Luna)
1.0 Jurassic milk snake (Hobbes--Cali king/Honduran milk hybrid)
0.1 Chinese smooth green snake (Yu-Mei)
0.0.1 rough green snake (Olive)
0.1 speckled kingsnake (Sophia)
0.1 rubber boa (Hecuba)
0.1 eastern milk snake (Seska)
1.0 Malayan box turtle (Fig)
1.1 diamondback terrapin (Toby, Nate)
0.0.1 house gecko
0.0.2 Argentine horned frog (Blinky, Inky)
1.0 human (Brian)
1.2 domestic shorthair cat (Teya, Morgan, Dom)
1.0 ocicat (Aakhu)
0.0.lots Lobster roach colony (want some? I give them away for free!)
Aquarium:
2 Leopard ctenopoma
3 red-tailed chalceus
3 Synodontis eupterus
1 Synodontis angelicus
1 Synodontis alberti
1 Synodontis ocellifer
1 Synodontis longirostris
1 grey leopard/Sultan (L-264) pleco
3 clown botia
5 weather dojo
3 ropefish
3 Neolamprologus brichardi
1 crown jewel cichlid (one-eyed)
1 yellow labidochromis
1 Frontosa (one-eyed)
2 gold gourami
2 opaline gourami
1 festivum cichlid
2 Arulius barb
1 ruby shark
1 spiny eel
1 brown African knife
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Picture Post
My husband and I took a friend to the Landis arboretum this past weekend. I managed to photograph a kingbird and a northern water snake! They are taken from pretty far away, so forgive the blurriness.
Click the thumbnails to see the larger images:
Click the thumbnails to see the larger images:
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Lucius the Lovely
"He needs to find someone else to bite!" read the ad on kingsnake.com. A picture of a beautiful sub-adult yellow rat snake accompanied the ad. The snake, named Gamma (because gamma radiation penetrates the skin), was a foul-tempered picky eater, and his owner was just tired of the abuse.
How could I resist? I contacted her, and before long, a small white box of snake was headed my way.
"Sometimes, when he's HANGING from my nose like some piece of malicious jewelry, it's all I can do to pry him off and put him back in his enclosure!" she wrote. I couldn't wait to meet him. I can't explain my attraction to the snappish ones. Gregor, whose story will come another time, was love at first bite. The nippy gopher snake in the herpetology lab at school was my favorite.
The box arrived while I was teaching a program at the museum. It almost killed me to keep teaching for another twenty minutes, but I managed. As soon as the kids filed out of the room, I used my keys to cut the tape on the box, opened it up, and pulled out a snake bag.
I carefully untied the bag and pulled out a pale yellow creature who was about three feet long. He curled around my hands, looked at me for a while, then settled down and stayed put. No musking, biting, or tail-buzzing. I figured that maybe he was just chilled, so I put him into a container and gave him a heat pad while I finished the rest of my work day.
I took him home, and over the next few days, he did not react with fear or aggression when I changed water, spot cleaned, or otherwise invaded his space. To this day, he has not bitten me or behaved aggressively. He was named Lucius, in keeping with my Roman Emperor rat snakes naming scheme (we have Julian, Marcus, Cornelia, and Claudia as well).
So what was Lucy's problem? Why was he so angry and ill-behaved for Ms. S.? Do I have some kind of magic snake-whisperer ability? I don't really think so. Prior to his life here, Lucius was kept in a sweater-box type enclosure. Many snake breeders use racks with translucent sweater-boxes as a matter of convenience. Usually, the snakes don't care.
Lucius, though, is different. We use glass enclosures here, because we like to watch our snakes. And, it seems, sometimes they like to watch us! Lucius spends a lot of time looking at the people in the room. He watches me most of the time, and he explores his enclosure, looking all around him. He's a very visual creature, and I think that he was possibly driven mad with boredom being stuck in a translucent enclosure.
He also has roommates here. He lives with Cornelia and Julian, and they spend a lot of time curled up together. Ms. S. had mentioned that he was less aggressive when housed with another snake, so perhaps he just needed some company.
Lucius is a beautiful, adorable creature, and he has the happiness he deserves now that he is with me.
Lucius is the one in the bowl; Julian's on the edge of it.
How could I resist? I contacted her, and before long, a small white box of snake was headed my way.
"Sometimes, when he's HANGING from my nose like some piece of malicious jewelry, it's all I can do to pry him off and put him back in his enclosure!" she wrote. I couldn't wait to meet him. I can't explain my attraction to the snappish ones. Gregor, whose story will come another time, was love at first bite. The nippy gopher snake in the herpetology lab at school was my favorite.
The box arrived while I was teaching a program at the museum. It almost killed me to keep teaching for another twenty minutes, but I managed. As soon as the kids filed out of the room, I used my keys to cut the tape on the box, opened it up, and pulled out a snake bag.
I carefully untied the bag and pulled out a pale yellow creature who was about three feet long. He curled around my hands, looked at me for a while, then settled down and stayed put. No musking, biting, or tail-buzzing. I figured that maybe he was just chilled, so I put him into a container and gave him a heat pad while I finished the rest of my work day.
I took him home, and over the next few days, he did not react with fear or aggression when I changed water, spot cleaned, or otherwise invaded his space. To this day, he has not bitten me or behaved aggressively. He was named Lucius, in keeping with my Roman Emperor rat snakes naming scheme (we have Julian, Marcus, Cornelia, and Claudia as well).
So what was Lucy's problem? Why was he so angry and ill-behaved for Ms. S.? Do I have some kind of magic snake-whisperer ability? I don't really think so. Prior to his life here, Lucius was kept in a sweater-box type enclosure. Many snake breeders use racks with translucent sweater-boxes as a matter of convenience. Usually, the snakes don't care.
Lucius, though, is different. We use glass enclosures here, because we like to watch our snakes. And, it seems, sometimes they like to watch us! Lucius spends a lot of time looking at the people in the room. He watches me most of the time, and he explores his enclosure, looking all around him. He's a very visual creature, and I think that he was possibly driven mad with boredom being stuck in a translucent enclosure.
He also has roommates here. He lives with Cornelia and Julian, and they spend a lot of time curled up together. Ms. S. had mentioned that he was less aggressive when housed with another snake, so perhaps he just needed some company.
Lucius is a beautiful, adorable creature, and he has the happiness he deserves now that he is with me.
Lucius is the one in the bowl; Julian's on the edge of it.
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