Betty 
When two young girls entered the Visitor Center recently sporting vests laden with Junior Ranger badges from National Parks, I assumed they had worked hard to earn those badges. But after an earlier encounter with a 14-year-old boy trying to earn a Junior Blue Goose Ranger patch from the National Elk Refuge, I didn’t know …
“My father brought the head of a rattlesnake to our classroom one time,” a student once told us. Not knowing why this father presented a venomous snake head to an elementary classroom, we cringed at the thought because a dead rattlesnake can still envenomate a victim. Dead Snakes “If you find a dead snake,” says …
“That was really cool!” a student announced after our recent reptile program where we showed his class our DVD of different snakes eating. The DVD consists of four different snake species recorded at the Denver Zoo as they were offered a mouse, a rat, or a rabbit during their weekly or monthly feeding. While some …
“Don’t touch that! It’s like poison ivy!” the person behind me on the hiking trail cautioned as I plucked a stem of scorpion weed from the plant. I’d handled scorpion weed before, so I wasn’t concerned. As I squished it in my fingers and held it to my nose, I recalled the hike several years …
“Don’t tell anyone,” a man said with a smirk as he sidled toward me, “but you’re holding a snake!” “No, I’m not,” I replied. The man turned serious and scowled. “You sure are!” “No,” I said again. “This is a lizard.” Volunteering Chuck and I were volunteering with the Phoenix Herpetological Society (PHS) at the …
The following article was written by Fred Tarnaski of Pennsylvania (also known as Fred the Snakeman on Facebook, a name bestowed upon him by children who have attended his snake presentations). Because it contains good information regarding a feared reptile, we have reprinted it here with his kind permission: 1. Rattlesnakes do not lay …
Everyone who has worked hard deserves to retire at some point. And this, we feel, goes for snakes as well. Our kingsnake, Spike, is approaching 24 years old, and we feel it’s time to give him a well-deserved rest. Spike has been instrumental in converting people from fearing snakes to respecting snakes. For many, just …