Reptile Encounters

 Today we went to visit the Reptile Discovery Center in DeLand, which houses hundreds of poisonous snakes and is also a venom extraction laboratory.  The owner breeds and maintains the snakes and harvests their venom--the venom is sent to outside laboratories to be used for making anti-venin and for research purposes.  The wife of one of John's coworkers suggested it, thinking Will would enjoy it.  She was right!

First we toured the serpentarium, which houses a variety of snakes.  My pictures of them were not great, but if you click on this link and then click on the first slide show, there are some better photos.  We saw mamba snakes, a puff adder, a king cobra, an enormous python (see below), and a variety of rattlesnakes.  

We also took a walk on their nature trail to view various lizards and a few alligators.  This is a little alligator....(you may need to click on the picture to enlarge it)...

....and this is his bigger friend:

I took those pictures on our first walk-through, but when we passed by later, only the little one was visible.  We were standing close to the fence to see the little guy in the distance when WHOOSH--the big one came up out of the water right in front of us open-jawed, snapped his mouth shut, and went back under the water.  I don't know if that was just in defense, or if he thought Anna might make a nice appetizer--either way, I was freaked out and scooped Anna up and made a bee-line back to the museum.

The highlight of this trip was the venom extraction program.  The owner/director and his helper (Carl and Denise) do this twice daily for public viewing.  Before the extraction, they brought out a few non-venomous reptiles for the kids to touch.  (Did I mention we had the place to ourselves?)

Will holding a teeny alligator:

Anna was more leery of this little guy (maybe because she was nearly lunch for his friend outside).  Anna pointed at him, then did a gator chomp and said "Chomp!  All gone."

The director asked Will if he wanted to hold the snake and Will was thrilled.  He has been begging to have a snake as a pet lately (not going to happen) so this made his day:

"Can I keep him??"

Anna wouldn't touch the albino one at first, so I held him for a bit and she slowly petted him.  Once I gave the snake back, though, she ran up and tried to pick him up.

I found out quickly in residency that kids do not have an inborn fear of snakes, through taking care of a few snakebite victims in the PICU.  Every last one of those patients got bitten by trying to pick up a snake, usually to keep it as a pet.  So John and I kept repeating over and over to Will that it is never okay to pick up a snake outside--I just hope that message sinks in!

After Will reluctantly gave the ball python back, they proceeded with the extractions.  First up--a coral snake:

Red on yellow, kill a fellow!

A copperhead was next:

Ugh, my worst nightmare (which unfortunately have been spotted in our neighborhood, maybe because of the retention ponds?):

Even the museum display called the water moccasin "pugnacious" and "disagreeable."

Next, an eastern diamondback rattlesnake.  These also seem to like our neighborhood. :-(

This guy was big and quite testy.   We could hear him rattling like crazy through the glass.

And last, a couple of cobras:

Both handlers worked quickly and efficiently, removing the snakes from their boxes, pinning their heads down, and enticing them to bite the extraction vessel.  But it looked like there were close calls, too--quite a few snakes slid onto the floor, and that first cobra did a little dancing that made me nervous.  John also noticed the "Venom Extraction Checklist" posted on the extraction table.  It had a list of items, including "1. Two cars  2.Two sets of car keys  3. Two cell phones 4. Epinephrine 5. Inhaler 6. Antivenin 7. Snake information"--obviously the "emergency plan" in case of a bite.  I asked the owner how many times he'd been bitten, and he said "only" 11 times in 20 years--but the last one was quite a while ago, so he's optimistic that it was his final one.

We had a fabulous time and Will did leave with a snake....a wooden toy snake, that is. :-)