Earning Badges
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…
Handling Dead Snakes
“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…
Instilling Fear
“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…
Desert Dangers
“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…
When is a Snake not a Snake?
“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…
Facts about rattlesnakes
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…
Welcome Rex
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…