MARTINSVILLE BULLETIN (Virginia) 27 July 08 Reptile Day seeks to dispel fears (Mickey Powell)
Nine-year-old Bryson Leffel said he feels less afraid of poisonous snakes — but still somewhat wary of them — since he saw some up close Saturday at the Virginia Museum of Natural History.
He was one of many people who stopped by the museum’s Second Annual Reptile Day. A large number of both poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes, as well as turtles, lizards and even a small alligator, were on display.
Snake experts were happy to let visitors touch and even handle some of the nonpoisonous snakes.
Leffel, son of Jamie and Ottie Leffel of Martinsville, said he petted most of the snakes that experts were handling. He said the snakes felt “kind of cold” — after all, they are cold-blooded animals.
He said he found out there are “some very neat snakes” in the world.
Leffel’s grandmother, Frances Martin of Martinsville, said she does not like snakes and came to Reptile Day because her grandchildren wanted to come.
However, Martin said she realizes “you really need to be educated about snakes” to avoid having bad encounters with them.
“Most snakes are totally harmless,” said Lynette Farmer of Wilmington, N.C., with L & K Reptile Programs, as she had nonpoisonous corn snakes wrapped around both of her wrists.
But if someone encounters a snake and does not know what type it is, he may place himself in danger, she said.
Farmer said snakes are like dogs in that different breeds tend to have different temperaments. She said that corn snakes generally are friendly.
Yet a snake can sense that a person nearby is nervous and become nervous itself, Farmer said. She said that anyone handling a snake should move slowly.
Zach Ryder, a museum marketing associate, said Reptile Day is designed to “educate the public about a group of misunderstood animals. There are a lot of misconceptions” about reptiles.
Yet people tend to be fascinated by reptiles because “there are so many of them around us,” and often as close as someone’s backyard, said Carolyn Seay, the museum’s events manager.
Mark Kilby of the Luray Zoo showed museum-goers a 5-year-old alligator that was so small he could hold it in his hands. As he allowed people to come by and touch it, he said that reptiles seem to feel more comfortable being touched, not stroked.
Alligators, which are not common in southern Virginia, have a reputation for being extremely dangerous. But they actually are “terribly afraid of humans” and try to avoid people, Kilby said, adding that alligators generally are dangerous only when people try to enter their habitat and feed them.
Then they become accustomed to people and not as afraid.
“Never feed them,” advised Kilby. “Don’t habituate them to people.”
Kory Steele of the Virginia Herpetological Society showed people some nonthreatening reptiles that may be in their backyards, including a green snake and a turtle.
“Not everything has to be risky,” he said of reptiles.
Still, the largest crowds seemed to gather around a long line of cages of snakes in the museum’s Great Hall. Some small nonpoisonous snakes were housed in plastic containers lined with air holes, while larger or poisonous snakes were kept in aquariums or wood-and-glass enclosures.
Some of the caged snakes seemed to be asleep. Some lay coiled up looking at the people who looked at them, and some moved around their cages.
Museum employee Brice Stevens brought his 4-year-old female Burmese python, Diablo, which he constantly kept comfortably wrapped around his body. People stopped by Stevens’ table to see and touch Diablo, which seemed slightly shy yet comfortable around strangers.
A snake is “a lot easier to care for than a cat or dog,” Stevens said. Snakes don’t shed, can be left alone when their owners go on vacation and only eat about once every two weeks, he said.
When raised in captivity, such as Diablo, “they can become very docile,” he said.
But a lot is involved in keeping large snakes such as pythons, Farmer said. For instance, a person must have a large enough space to confine the snake, and the space must “have a lot of heat” since snakes are cold-blooded.
Also, large snakes must be fed relatively large animals such as rabbits and that tends to turn off a lot of people, she added.
Reptile Day seeks to dispel fears