I got to pet a python yesterday.No, that's not euphemistic. Sid is an 11-foot, 60 pound Burmese python. I had never touched a live snake before (I had dissected a preserved specimen in college) and it didn't feel at all like I thought it would, though not liking reptiles much in general admittedly I had never given it considerable thought. His scales were very different from what I expected, and the feel of the muscles underneath is just amazing. What power. We also got to watch him crawl on the floor for a bit, which was neat. Sumokid, along with others in our local homeschooling group, attended a presentation yesterday made by Andy Howington of the Georgia Reptile Conservancy. We got to see lots of neat stuff: a velociraptor skull, a T.Rex tooth, an alligator skull, box turtle eggs and rat snake eggs. Among the live animals there were a snapping turtle (large and annoyed), yellow slider turtle, box turtle, baby alligator (about 2.5 feet long), leopard gekko, savannah monitor lizard, king snake, corn snake, rat snake, copperhead, milk snake (the one that looks like the venomous coral snake) and of course, Sid. Sid was the only one offered up for petting, alas, though I would have liked to have petted the alligator and lizards. I got a chance to talk to the presenter about the National Geographic special about pythons and alligators in the Everglades. Turns out he was supposed to participate in the filming of that special but wasn't able to because of scheduling and work conflicts. Which he said may have been just as well as the order is to kill pythons on sight and that would be difficult for him. I thought the pythons in question were reticulated pythons (the longest snake, followed by Anacondas who are the heaviest snakes), but they're Burmese. (Sid's girlfriend btw is a 300 pound darling who I imagine is quite formidable when necessary.) We also had a chance to compare the temporal fenestra on the two skulls. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to talk to him about the new research showing that some Anaconda mothers are taking care of their young, which would change the belief that the crocodiliads are the only social reptile family.Yeah, for someone who doesn't necessarily like reptiles, I know a lot about them. Sumokid shined, answering questions about omnivores, diurnal animals, terrestrial animals, desert adaptations and metamorphosis, and spent more time petting Sid than any of the other kids.
Post je objavljen 28.07.2009. u 23:11 sati.