The Staten Island Zoo Reptile House

Old herpers will remember this place as the home of Carl Kauffeld, one of the founding fathers of modern herpetology.  Or at least his stories in books kept us all awake nights wondering when we'd ever be able to see some of the wonderful animals he had experience with.    He was the Curator of Reptiles for many years.

When we first went to the zoo, we saw the old reptile house.  They have completely remodeled it,  (it was quite dark and dank) but kept some of the very interesting elements, such as the tile work as shown below.  If you look closely you can see Kauffeld's name on the glass plaque underneath the tile of the gaboon viper. 

And of course, Dennis.

These tile "pictures" are above the various entrances to the various hallways of the reptile house.

The last relic from Kauffeld's days is a mock-up of his office, when he was curator, and it houses many of his personal belongings and momentos.

Many apologies for the poor quallity of this particular photo.  To see the room is to appreciate how Kauffeld's memory has been preserved.

The rest of the herpetarium has some very nice displays, and collection of animals, but the history of the building and it's human inhabitants cannot be denied.  This history is as meaningful to a herper as Gettysburg is to a Civil War buff.  It's only about 120 miles from Hamburg, so if you go to one venue, you can easily make a side trip here!

Hamburg!

Every fall (and an occasional spring) we go to Hamburg, PA for the Northwestern Berks Reptile Show.    We used to just rush to the show, but we fell in love with eastern Pennsylvania, so we now make a total week's vacation out of it. 

Here's a shot of me, just getting there on Saturday morning, at the October show...I'm excited!

Have to wear those darn glasses to read the fine print on the deli cups!  And there were lots and lots of deli cups!

The weather could not have been better.  The show opened up at 9:00, and the line went from the building, down along the chain link that separates the old cemetary from the field house, and back to the main road.  At 10:00, even after the doors had been open for an hour, with people flowing in, the line did not seem to be getting much shorter.

Each show is different in that the variety changes some year-to-year, and season-to-season. We go primarily to see and/or purchase some of the "hot" animals, but there are always plenty of other herps, many quite unusual, to see and enjoy.    I cannot remember what kind of snakes these were; appear to be Epicrates ssp., nonvenomous, for sure, but look at the color difference in the pair.  Breeding these two would be fun to see what popped out!

If you like lizards, ya gotta love this guy!

We left him and his offspring there, but we did pick up a few odds and ends, made it back to the motel, and called it another successful trip!

Salmonella...what do YOU know about it?

I knew it was caused by a bacteria, and that turtles under 3 inches in carapace length, could not be sold, except for educational purposes, because it was thought that small children would put them in their mouths, and thereby possibly get salmonella.

So here are some facts that you probably didn't know.  First, the bacteria was named after an American Scientist, Dr. Salmon.  Approximately four hundred people a year die, from salmonella.  Probably thousands of people have undiagnosed salmonella in some form every year.   Young children, older people, and those with compromised immune systems are most at risk.   Samonella can have lasting effects, in the form of severe arthritis. 

We usually call salmonella "food poisoning" as it seems to happen after we've eaten something that may have been compromised.  But it can also come from contact with animals, and waste water.  The most obvious symptoms are cramps and diarrhea.  Severe dehydration can go hand-in-hand with the diarrhea. 

We've had salmonella around here, most likely due to food choices at restaurants, though not bad enough to require hospitalization, or even a trip to the doctor.  We did have one incidence that we caused ourselves, when (Dennis was) syphoning some water from the croc enclosure, and in trying to get the syphon running, inhaled some of the water.  Big lesson learned here!

But in keeping reptiles for over 50 years (yes, that's a long, long time) that was the only incidence we can contribute directly to the animals.   So what do we do different than other people?  We wash our hands a lot!  We are lucky to have two, actually three, sinks in our reptile building.  We also keep sanitizer on hand.   We encourage anyone who comes to visit, that they wash their hand continually, and/or use the sanitizer.  But we also encourge them to do that because if they have mouse or rat scent on their hands, and want to hold an animal...well, you get the picture! 

Do we worry about salmonella?  Nope!  Do we warn new herp owners?  Yep!  Or rather we counsel them on what to expect, and how to properly take care of their animals.  Think about it.  It's all hygiene.  As the old saying goes "Cleanliness is next to Godliness", and if you don't want to meet God any time soon, you'll keep your animals and yourself clean, and hopefully salmonella-free!

Buy one, get a bunch free!

We got a call this afternoon.  Someone opened up a bag of potting soil and found a bunch of baby snakes inside!  They tried to identify them and thought they were corn snakes.  We assumed they were probably baby prairie kingsnakes.  We were both wrong...see below...

Baby Black Ratesnakes (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta.)  A few!!!

Of course they were delivered in the obligatory plastic jug.   The interesting part is that this was they were found in an UNOPENED bag of potting soil, which had been sitting  (and we can identify with this) on this man's front porch for over 2 months!

The potting soil company, which shall remain nameless, is headquartered in Ohio.  So we believe that these guys may have originated in Ohio.  We're going to keep one or two, and see how they grow up, if their color is the same, or slightly difference from our local variety, even though they're the same genus/species.

We're just glad we didn't have to identify a bunch of "dead" baby snakes!

Came home and found this...

In case you can't make it out, it's a snake bag, tied, so obviously there's a snake inside!  (Cute bag huh?  But DO excuse the messy desk!)  Now I can discern that it's NOT venomous, as it would not have been left so "randomly."   Although upon opening it, I couldn't see so well, and it looked a bit like a pigmy.  It's not...it's a baby Black Ratsnake.  Don't know where it came from, as I haven't talked to hubby yet.  We work different shifts.

Do YOU get little presents like this when YOU come home from a hard day at work???!!!  Don't you wish you did???!!!  (Oh, and this says "posted by Dennis" but obviously it's not his writing!)

Updates around the house...

Early morning, going to get coffee, the mail, and the newspaper, and this is what we spied on our back door:

                                                    Grey tree frog

We then went to see how the Morelets crocodile  was doing.  Found him basking in the morning sun, looking quite at ease with his new surroundings.

He's not as big as this picture would indicate, probably around 6 feet at the most.  But if you ever want to make something look bigger in a picture (attention fishermen) hold the object out in front of you!

Keep crocs?

They can be a handful.  They grow big.  They are mean (for the most part).  They require space!  But to own one is to love one, I suppose.

We have a couple, and we've been working on building outside enclosures so they can bask in natural sunlight in the summertime.  Of course everything takes time and money...the former we have enough of, the latter, not so much!  This project is ongoing.

Anyway last year we put our Morelets crocodile outside and he had a tendency to crawl out of his pond, and get behind it.  He scuffed himself up a bit, and we didn't want that to happen again, so we had to reinvent his enclosure.

First we had to get a new pond.  We had been using large Rubbermaid horse troughs, which we were quite fond of, until they sprung leaks/cracks, and rendered themselves useless.  After researching how to fix them, on the internet, and finding no good answer, we did find that Rubbermaid seemed to just shrug off complaints.    Since these ponds can cost upwards of over $300, we were not amused.  We did find a suitable pond, made by Tuff Stuff, Glenco, MN, in the US of recycled materials (!), at a reasonable price, that seems quite adequate for the Morelets.

We then made a platform for him to get up on, and covered any "holes" he might try to dive down, to get behind the tub.  We have been using dog enclosures made by PetSafe, from Lowe's and they worked quite nicely, but since we saw the Morelets climbing the side of the enclosure last year to get into his tub (even though there was a ramp), we decided to put a cover on it, of chain link.  He does have a grassy area he can get to, if he wants to.

So we finally got him out there this summer.  No pictures of the struggle as we were both occupied.  Here are a couple of shots after we got him situated.

Of course if you're not up for all this work and cost, you can always get yourself one of these, and the effect sometimes, on the neighbors, is just as dramatic! (He's actually "longer" than the Morelets!)

Small world...

As a follow-up to our adventure at the Nature Center, showing off our animals, and fielding questions, we had one woman who came through and asked about the "tools" we use.  (We had a hook and a pair of tongs on the table, for show.)  She said she thought they were "invented around here" in her words.  I said there were "Pillstrom Tongs" that were invented by Dr. Larry Pillstrom in Arkansas.  She said indeed that was the man she was talking about and that he was her children's pediatrician!  She knew the whole family!  We then discussed Dr. Pillstrom for a short while. 

          Pillstrom tongs came in varying sizes; we have two shown here. 

For you younger herpers, Dr. Larry Pillstrom invented the Pillstrom Tongs in the early 1950s.  He even had a paper published about them in, I believe, Herpetologica (publication of the SSAR).  Pillstrom tongs were the snake handling equipment for the ages, along with a good snake hook, usually made from a golf club.  We were lucky enough to have Dr. Pillstrom come to a herp show/sale we held years ago, and it was quite exciting for everyone there to meet this legend.  Unfortunately he was in poor health, and has since passed away, but we treasure our tongs.  His sons were trying to find someone to keep manufacturing them, but to no avail.  There are many other tongs available now, good substitutes,  but not of the same configuration.  Suffice it to say, our original set is over 40 yeas old, and work as good as new.

As for Dr. Pillstrom, I never knew he was a pediatrician!  Never asked actually, always assumed he was in the scientific world of herps and/or biology in general.  So herpers come in all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds, with one common interest...the welfare of their animals.  Let's hope Dr. Pillstrom delivered a whole lot of baby herpers, or at least herp-loving individuals!

Civic duty

We were invited to the Nature Center, in Springfield, to show off some of our animals, namely the local venomous and non-venomous, to coincide with the Venomous Snakes of Missouri program, put on by one of the naturalists.  For a variety of reasons, they do not have their own venomous animals for display.

The naturalist, Kim Banner, gave a wonderful power-point presentation to a packed auditorum, and then we ushered interested parties to a separate room to view the animals, ask questions, and gather literature.  We had well over 200 people come to the program, and afterwards even more, who just came to see the snakes.

We like doing this to try to persuade, even if its just one person, to not kill each and every herp they see.  We try to show the extreme difference in patterns between prairie kingsnakes and copperheads.  We try to differentiate between watersnakes and cottonmouths, although when in the water, that's a close call for a non-herper, but the majority are just watersnakes.

Is it time consuming?  Sure!  Is it a hassle, as outside temps were in the 90s?  Sure!  Do we get paid?  No!  Would we do it again next year?  Yes!  If it saves one snake's life, it's worthwhile!  And if it brings us one customer who wants to buy some rats or mice to feed their own herps, well, we're there for that reason too!

Accident or not...

On the news this evening, there's a story about a "pet Burmese python" that got out of it's cage and strangled a toddler.  We've probably all heard about this sort of incidence before; a true tragedy, but totally avoidable.

Of course if you have venomous snakes, your cages should be absolutely, positively escape proof.  There are some out there!  Of course you have to close the cage to make it escape-proof; however, when it comes to non-venomous, we all tend to be a little more lax or nonchalant.   How many of us would raise our hands if someone asked if we kept them in sweater boxes? 

This particular snake was obviously a large python, and should have been housed properly.  After a certain size, they can be dangerous, even to adult humans, and kept in appropriate cages.   Those cages should be absolutely escape-proof, and checked to see they're locked, each and every time we work around them.

We don't breed or sell large pythons any more.  We own some, but they are all rescues, save for one African Rock python who, after 17 years, is only about 10 feet long!   Part of the reason is that when these snakes get big, we get them back, and we don't "rent" snakes!  Another reason is that we would hear stories like the above (not from our customers), or hear that people were letting these snakes "sleep" with them, or "run loose" in the house as they didn't "have a cage big enough."   We decided we wanted to sell to people who wanted a snake because they like the animal, knew how to properly hosue it, and not interested in the sensationalism that a big python might give them.

I feel sorry for the couple, but either they were not given proper information on how to take care of such an animal, or they chose to think they knew more than the "experts."  In the above mentioned story I believe they were charged and convicted, of child endangerment, and third-degree murder. Their lives have been changed forever, and not for the better.

Voyeurism...

We have a "man-made" pond next to our house, or actually attached to our house.  Long story about an addition that's taking longer to finish than we anticipated.    Anyway the foundation holds water!  We had tadpoles in there earlier in the year, and just as they were getting legs, something waded in and ate all of them.  Probably a raccoon? 

So it rained hard last night (for a change as it's been very dry lately) and the frogs were calling like mad.  When we went out this morning, we found these two in amplexus!  Do frogs breed more than  once a year?  We thought not, but we'll watch for eggs.  Unless this was purely recreational sex, and/or a "rain dance."

 Sorry for the poor shot; it's hard to take pictures under water!  Or rather, when the subjects are under water!  These are grey tree frogs.

Gotta keep your eyes peeled!

Going down the road, for morning coffee at Mickey D's, when we spotted what seemed to be just too perfectly symmetrical to be a rock!   Stopped, looked, and sure enough, this is what we found!



This is a baby three-toed box turtle.   Already has a growth ring, so probably last year's hatch!  Approximately the size of a 50 cent piece!  We just had a friend say he'd never seen a baby box turtle.  We'll keep this guy to show him, and then repatriate him (the turtle) somewhere on our 20 acres.

Talk about expensive...

I used to think horses were the most expensive "pet" a person could own.  And I suppose, pound-for-pound, that still holds true.  But in my mind, and pocketbook, tortoises run a close second!

Or sure, one tortoise won't break the bank, but what if you have 8-20 at any given time?  Add the fact that three are sulcatas, and eating machines in their own right, plus a few onmiviorous land/water turtles, and your fresh produce grocery bill will skyrocket!

Oh sure, I go to the farmer's markets, and the tortoises (at least some of them) are outside during the summer months, grazing, but even then, if you want to feed them so you don't think they're perpetually hungry (although that may be true), you could easily spend $5-$10/day for produce!  Multiply that times 30 days in the months, and you'll spend between $150 and $300 all year long!  Our horses are on pasture during the summer months, so the cost of hay is not considered.  And even with grain, veterinary care, etc, etc, they probably don't cost us much more than $1,000 a year.  (We do have 20 acres, so we don't have to board them, or those costs would of course skyrocket.)

Oh sure, we could: grow our own garden; beg the supermarket people for the scraps they take off the produce and throw away; cut down on the number of mouths we feed...but then what would we have to talk about?  And not everyone has the time or effort to do some of those ideas we mentioned.  So let's just face the fact, that tortoises can be wonderful, albeit expensive, pets!  Because you can't own just one!

Who would you turn to if...

...you had venomous snakes, and needed to rehome them as soon as possible, due to whatever circumstances?  Do you have friends and/or family close by that could help with the transition? 

I bring up this point because in the recent weeks, we have been asked to take on a few venomous snakes, from friends, due to circumstances they had not intended.   The reasons are not important.   It could happen to any of us through weather-related problems; family problems; financial problems, etc, etc.  But I am talking about things that happen in a hurry; not months in the making so one could find new homes for the animals if need be.

We are fortunate that both people living in this household have almost equal experience and expertise with venomous animals.  Can you say that about your immediate family?  Can you even say that about your immediate friends.  On that score, we cannot.  We do have friends who are capable, but not close by, and even then, we have some rather exotic species that even the most trained would be wary or skeptical.  (Think Black Mamba!)

We wouldn't even think about the zoo, as they have limited space, and they're not interested in a lot of venomous snakes, as they have their own animals, plus the added liability issues.  The same holds true for those extra alligators, crocodiles, or whatever else you might be harboring.  Just because you wanted them doesn't mean anyone else wants them, needs them, or even appreciates them!

So as food for thought, maybe a little planning ahead would be a good thing.  If push comes to shove, where will your animals end up?

More fun finds!

It would be an all-day, every-day task to keep up on the herps we've been finding around here.  We've tried to highlight the more interesting ones, or just herp life in general.  We do try to take pictures of all the critters we come across.

The next animal we took pictures of just for fun, but a week later we found something that may have been "left behind" so we thought we'd share the fun and intrigue.

Just your usual ringneck snake.  Extremely hard to take a picture of as they do curl their tails in a defense, but they also thrash their heads around.  This was the only shot that put him in focus.  Speaking of focus, those "eyes" on Dennis' shirt are of a crocodile.   Probably 95% of his t-shirts (of which he wears nothing but) have herps on them. 

If you're read previous posts you know we have a retaining wall of railroad ties next to the house, where we've been finding things.  So then there was this...

Look closely at the little holes in the ties.    We were surprised to find this...

A nice little shed, going into one of those holes.  We can only surmise that it's from the aforementioned ringneck snake.  Of course we have also found garter snakes, worm snakes, etc in this general vicinity, and their food sources, such as more 5-lined skinks than we could count, and various forms of frogs.  Quite the little biosphere at our doorstep.

We do need to replace the railroad ties with something more substantial as they are beginning to lean and we don't want the dirt wall behind them covering the walkway, but we wonder when and how to do it, so as now to disturb the denizens therein. 

Another "find" around the house!

We have been spotting herps all over our property.  We live in the country, obviously, and we have woods and pasture, about 25 feet from the back door.  We also have a railroad tie wall/flower bed next to the hooue, and with the rotting wood, there are plenty of places for herps to live and hide.  In the past week, we have spied several skinks, leopard frog, garter snake, ringneck snake, etc.  And that's just outside our back door.

We have been rearranging our pastures, etc, to better accomodate the horses, and grass.  (Less grazing in one spot helps pasture improvement.)  With that in mind, we decided to empty one of the stock tanks that wasn't in use, and just being used as a mosquito-breeding operation(!)  (As an aside, if you do have stock tanks for animals, you can use "dunks" available at any farm/garden/hardware store.  They're an organic way to keep down the mosquito population.  They are safe for fish too!)

So to prevent rain water from starting the cycle all over again, we turned over the tank, and lo and behold, found the following critter underneath!  We can only hope that there are more, as these guys are fascinating, and really rather uncommon!   Obviously the picture was taken in a staged setting, as these guys do not settle in for their portraits, very easily!

EASTERN NARROW MOUTH TOAD

(Gastrophryne carolinensis)

Not a toad at all,  but in the frog family.  Very cute, about 1 inch long, and their cry sounds like a sheep bleating!  The first time I heard one calling was in a field near a pond, and I could not, for the life of me, figure out what it was, and recorded the call to ask a naturalist at the Nature Center.

Stay tuned!!!

...in the neighborhood...

...well, not really... 

We have a friend who lives in an area that is known to have timber rattlesnakes.  He had some friends stop by his place, and they saw this snake.  He wanted it moved to a safer area, as his "neigborhood" is seeing more and more traffic, in the form of cars, dirt bikes, four-wheelers, etc.   We were glad to oblige.  We're going to keep it until after a venomous snake program at the local nature center, and then release it further into the wild.

As you all should know, if you hold a snake (and fishermen know this about their prize catch) away from your body and closer to the camera, it makes them look MUCH bigger.  This particular animal is about 4 to 4-1/2 feet long.  Nice coloration, a male, and has been eating well before we got him!

Treading water

Just got through soaking some of our baby leopard tortoises.  They do seem to have good poops on their own, in their cage, but a good soak now and then seems justified.  I fill half of a double wash basin with lukewarm water, to about 1 inch at the deepest end.  The water would feel more cool than warm to your hand.  Then I put the little guys in, and they can move around as they feel necessary.  Occasionally they will poop immediately.  Sometimes you just see little air bubbles rising to the top, probably a small fart, on their part!  I usually leave them in there for 15-20 minutes at the longest,  and check them often, as I don't want any of them turning over, and drowning, if they can't right themselves.

These guys are a bit bigger than a golf ball, but not as big as a league ball.  The next picture shows what two of their adult siblings look like.   We sold these guys about 6-7 years ago, and got them back.  Amazing change of color from what you see above to now!  We have to thank Judy Hume of Texas, for raising and selling us these darlings (the babies)!

Catch of the day!

If you live in the country you should expect to see herps on the roadway occasionally, especially during the spring.   We always carry a cardboard box, for turtles, and a snake bag and/or small plastic cage, for snakes.  The following pictures are of this morning's catches. 

If you're curious, that's 4 three-toed box turtles and a snake.  More on the snake later.  The box turtles were crossing the roads.  We could have put them on the other side, in the direction they were going (some recommend this) or we could take them home to our 20 acres (with over 200 vacant adjoining acres open/wooded) and keep them further away from an asphalt road.  We choose to take them home.  We figure if we just left them,  they'd try to cross the road again, and it may be their last time.  The patterns are interesting as the turtles are obviously all sizes and ages, but all the same species.

Then there was the snake.  This was not a road find, but yet another that showed up at the house of the friend I mentioned in an earlier post.  This time there was only the one, a rather gravid-looking female.  With an attitude.  Can you see the way she flattened her head while staring us down?  This was taken after we let her go at our house, in the same vicinity as the others we caught last week.

Yesterday, we found  a red-ear slider, and an ornate box turtle at the intersection where a two-lane highway crosses over a four-lane highway.    Both displaced by the rain, and construction that had occurred.  Of course we relocated these two because they were surely doomed otherwise.  I also forgot to mention the box turtle found attempting to cross 6 lanes of traffic in town.  We rescued it too. 

Can't get them all, but we try to help those we can.  We hope you'll all do the same!

Save the snakes (breeding ball!)

Got a call this morning from a frantic, former co-worker, that there were snakes basking in the bushes outside her bedroom window, and she wanted them GONE!!!  When I asked her to describe them, I was sure they were going to be garter snakes.  Of course that's exactly what she described, since she lives within the city limits, and that's about the only type that still co-exist with humanity in an urban setting.

When I got there, the bush looked to be vacated, but indeed while we waited, a couple little heads showed themselves above the foliage.  Grabbing them proved to be a bit more difficult.  After I figured out their potential plan of action (like where they were disappearing to) I got the hang of it, and caught 6 all together.  She thought there were 5, so I'm one ahead of her.  I told her I'd come back tomorrow morning, to see if there were any more.

I believe it may have been a potential "breeding ball", as they're known, when some snakes gather in a large group (usually a pack of males to one female) to try to impregnant her.  This has been documented in garter snakes, and anacondas.  A breeding ball of anacondas would definitely be something to behold!   Indeed one of the garter snakes was visibly larger than the others.

This is the bush that housed the snakes; the evergreen, NOT the larger broadleaf to the left.

Can you find the snake?  Great camouflage!

Two small handfuls of the squirmin vermin!

Cameo shot of the big six.

Dumped them all out at home.   The majority split before I could get a good shot!  They'll be safer on 20 acres, rather than a bush in front of an apartment building.  And with luck they'll make more baby garter snakes!  All in a day's work!

New and different finds, plus an old friend...

Don't know if it's the weather (rain, rain, more rain) or just plain dumb luck, but we've found a few herps on the road, and at home, at times we least expected them, and unusual finds...for us, that is.

The first is our very own Rough Green Snake.  Saw him crossing the road, as we were going to town one morning about 9:00.  Believe me, they are hard to spot on the road!   We know they are around, but we haven't personally seen one in the wild for probably at least 20 years!

The next little guy/gal (size is deceiving in these pictures), was a Red Bellied Snake, caught just outside the back door of our house.  Looked to be a gravid female, but we're not keeping her around just to see.  She was photographed in the same spot as the Rough Green Snake, and if you look, you can see some of the same detritis, which you can use for comparison purposes.  Suffice it to say "she" was as heavy or heavier than the RGS, but about 1/4 as long!

And last is a prairie kingsnake we picked up along the road, of course, during the hot part of the day, and we donated her to the local Nature Center, as they were looking for one.  Unfortunately they did not think she would make a good specimen, as she "rattled her tail" and looked as though she was going to bite them.  So she gave up a life of leisure and easy food, and we brought her back home.  We think she may be gravid, so we're going to keep her a bit longer and see if she lays eggs.  If so, we're going to hatch them out, and donate one of the offspring to the Nature Center.  They want a young one they can raise up to be tame and gentle!!?

With all the rain we've been having, we also expect to find a few more misguided water turtles...stay tuned!

Nice finds...

Went road cruising the other night and picked up these two little guys.  We just take pictures, and let them go, but it's always fun!

Copperhead

Pigmy Rattlesnake



The best intentions...

...can often lead to poor results.  Witness the snapping turtle's shell in the picture below.  This poor animal was "caught" as a baby, and was not housed properly.  It must have been fed enough, as it didn't get this big by eating nothing, but it was not fed corretly, meaning it did not get the benefits of UV to assimilate calcium  and so it's shell is compromised.  This animal cannot be released back into the wild as it cannot swim correctly.    A sad outcome for this guy, by someone who meant well, but just didn't know better.