Reptile & Amphibian Forums

....wow, I just got back from an awesome (& exhausting) day. By chance, the father of a student at my school works at the state science museum in downtown Raleigh, NC. He coordinates the annual Reptile & Amphibian Day for the museum. He found out that I was a boa enthusiast and invited me and my Reptile Club at school to create an exhibit on boa constrictors. We set up an exhibit with a tri-fold poster display, lots of shed skins, and six boas. I knew this was a popular event and it got some good press in the local paper but I was not prepared for what happened. 14,500 people (by unofficial count) showed up! In one day!! It turns out that we were the only exhibit allowing some serious hands-on activity which made our exhibit all the more popular. I wish everyone could have seen how these people responded to the boas. We turned on incredible numbers of people to these beautiful animals. The most telling thing for me was I kept seeing familiar faces......kids were making their parents bring them back to the top floor to experience our animals again and again. One kid showed up five times, but his Mom would never get closer than 25 yards. I know we have created some serious problems for parents. So many kids kept mentioning their birthdays! I wish I had recorded everything but I was so busy that I all I got was a small number of mediocre photos. I had three students from my Club helping me and we worked 8-5. They were terrific working with the young kids. There were literally thousands of people who touched or handled a snake for the first time. We got so busy, we couldn't even see down the hall in either direction. At one point, I looked to my right and left and saw kids that we had turned onto the animals earlier in the day demonstrating the animals to new kids that were arriving. I could go on and on...but right now, my bladder hurts. I only got away once to use the restroom.
gray

Gray,

It is great to see you teaching others about reptiles.....Many people fear snakes for no reason what so ever and for that reason we hear stories of people running them over with cars or killing them with shovels.....Congratulations on a job well done!!

Russ Lockenwitz
Http://www.visioncages.com

Thanks to efforts like yours, our hobby will gain a greater acceptance with the general public. The only down side as I see it is that we're going to need a bigger venue in Daytona! Now I've got to get to work on that NABA thing!
denny

THAT is what herping is all about. I do presentations at some of the locale schools, I love opening the minds of young kids.

Take Care,
Kemper

Gray,

That is fantastic!! Isn't it a neat feeling when you realize that you have made what could be a profound DIFFERENCE in their lives??? That is the reason I teach, and it is the reason I do rescue, and it is the reason I do educational outreach programs like what you did today. That feeling is pure empowerment, and it is incredible.

Congrats on a job very well done. Now start planning for next year!! And, if you need some extra hands next year, let me know, I'll drive down. You're about 3 hours from me, and I know the Science Museum well...
-----
Bonnie Keller
VA Reptile Rescue
www.vareptilerescue.org

GOOD press is a good thing.....great job!

Way to go Gray! I wish I had been there to help. I have a boa who would have been perfect for show like that.
-----
0.1 BCI
1.1 Okeetee
2.0 Motley Sunglow, Bloodred
0.2 Motley Sunglow, Ghost

That is really awesome! I am finishing up my masters to be a h.s. biology teacher and have used my snakes many, many times for hands-on learning in the classroom. Unfortunately, during my student teaching experience, my co-op would not even consider it an option for me to bring them in. It was very sad & frustrating. It's not like biology is 'the study of life' or anything....I mean honestly....LoL. Well, I got through it and swore to use herps whenever I can in the classroom since I have yet to see a dissappointed student unwilling to learn more about them.

In fact, last year I brought my snakes into an urban middle school classroom and OVER a year later, a student brought in a snake that he had found in his grandmother's basement. His grandma was going to kill it with a shovel and he saved it. It was only a garter snake but it could've been something rare. His teacher just recently told me this and it made me feel great knowing that I helped impact a kid's perception about reptiles.

just my 2cents

>>....wow, I just got back from an awesome (& exhausting) day. By chance, the father of a student at my school works at the state science museum in downtown Raleigh, NC. He coordinates the annual Reptile & Amphibian Day for the museum. He found out that I was a boa enthusiast and invited me and my Reptile Club at school to create an exhibit on boa constrictors. We set up an exhibit with a tri-fold poster display, lots of shed skins, and six boas. I knew this was a popular event and it got some good press in the local paper but I was not prepared for what happened. 14,500 people (by unofficial count) showed up! In one day!! It turns out that we were the only exhibit allowing some serious hands-on activity which made our exhibit all the more popular. I wish everyone could have seen how these people responded to the boas. We turned on incredible numbers of people to these beautiful animals. The most telling thing for me was I kept seeing familiar faces......kids were making their parents bring them back to the top floor to experience our animals again and again. One kid showed up five times, but his Mom would never get closer than 25 yards. I know we have created some serious problems for parents. So many kids kept mentioning their birthdays! I wish I had recorded everything but I was so busy that I all I got was a small number of mediocre photos. I had three students from my Club helping me and we worked 8-5. They were terrific working with the young kids. There were literally thousands of people who touched or handled a snake for the first time. We got so busy, we couldn't even see down the hall in either direction. At one point, I looked to my right and left and saw kids that we had turned onto the animals earlier in the day demonstrating the animals to new kids that were arriving. I could go on and on...but right now, my bladder hurts. I only got away once to use the restroom.
>>gray
>>

Kudos! Its always nice to hear from other people who do outreaches. I wish we had more locally to me (WA) but unfortunately, ours only happen a few times a year.

-Cat
-----
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://chaoscat.lowerground.net/herps/
My collection and herp photography

www.lowergroundreptiles.net

I love doing educational shows, the herp group in the bay area
does them quite a lot and I helped out twice, the kid's reactions
and their willingness to learn is so wonderful. I always thought
it was cute when one kid would explain something to the new
kids who come over.
Keep up the good work!

How did the animals respond to so much attention?

It is really good to hear some successful stories about spreading GOOD word about the herps we love to those that usually only hear about the "headlines"...

GOOD JOB!!!!

Did you have the display with the Ivory and the Salmon Boa? They were awesome! I wanted to check out your display more in depth but as you stated it was very popular. Great job! Let me know how I can be involved next year.
Pete

very self satisfied for a job well done!! Thank you for taking the time to expand people's horizons.

That's so cool. I think that, the more nonvenomous snakes are shown to the public and seen as nonthreatening and interesting, the better place the world will be!
-----

....for the kind comments. After having some time to reflect on this event, I added the following paragraph to my web site:

"Education is the Key:
Our hobby is constantly threatened by government regulation & bans, shipping company policies, and the general devaluing of these animals by humans. In my opinion, our only real hope is to change people's minds one at a time. We know how special these animals are but we need to to the work necessary to educate others. It is hard work and takes lots of time but it is very rewarding and we (knowledgeable hobbyists) are the only people who can do it. Despite deeply entrenched cultural and personal biases against them, snakes have long fascinated humans. If you can get someone past their innate (or trained) fear of snakes, we will have one more person in the community who is willing to speak up for the rights of snakes and our rights as hobbyists."

As a career teacher, I am certainly biased towards the importance of education in general. I would encourage anyone who hasn't done this to give it a try. Start small. Volunteer to do one short presentation for your child's class (or a child in the neighborhood). If you're not comfortable allowing them to handle the animal then make this off limits until you reach that comfort level in future presentations.

I will say that I learned something important from yesterday's big event. You have to give the animals some rest. Have you ever seen a boa that has completely run out of energy? Until yesterday, I had not....but now I have. After 5 hours of attention and handling (which they certainly seemed to enjoy), one by one, the boas began to shut down and stop moving. They turned into limp rags. So, one by one, they went into their tanks for naps. In the future, for large events, I will bring enough animals so that I can rotate them, 2 hours on then 2 hours off. Here is a photo gallery that I completed of yesterday's events. The photos are lousy but you get the idea.
gray
Link to photos of big event

>>....wow, I just got back from an awesome (& exhausting) day. By chance, the father of a student at my school works at the state science museum in downtown Raleigh, NC. He coordinates the annual Reptile & Amphibian Day for the museum. He found out that I was a boa enthusiast and invited me and my Reptile Club at school to create an exhibit on boa constrictors. We set up an exhibit with a tri-fold poster display, lots of shed skins, and six boas. I knew this was a popular event and it got some good press in the local paper but I was not prepared for what happened. 14,500 people (by unofficial count) showed up! In one day!! It turns out that we were the only exhibit allowing some serious hands-on activity which made our exhibit all the more popular. I wish everyone could have seen how these people responded to the boas. We turned on incredible numbers of people to these beautiful animals. The most telling thing for me was I kept seeing familiar faces......kids were making their parents bring them back to the top floor to experience our animals again and again. One kid showed up five times, but his Mom would never get closer than 25 yards. I know we have created some serious problems for parents. So many kids kept mentioning their birthdays! I wish I had recorded everything but I was so busy that I all I got was a small number of mediocre photos. I had three students from my Club helping me and we worked 8-5. They were terrific working with the young kids. There were literally thousands of people who touched or handled a snake for the first time. We got so busy, we couldn't even see down the hall in either direction. At one point, I looked to my right and left and saw kids that we had turned onto the animals earlier in the day demonstrating the animals to new kids that were arriving. I could go on and on...but right now, my bladder hurts. I only got away once to use the restroom.
>>gray
>>

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