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VANCOUVER SUN (British Columbia) 08 July 04 Egg-snatching a touchy job: Potential brood must be taken from an aggressive mother -- an African rock python (Nicholas Read)
As egg-gathering goes, it leaves a lot to be desired.
Some time within the next 90 days -- and the sooner, the better -- Paul Springate, curator of the Rainforest Reptile Refuge in Surrey, has to remove a clutch of 30 or more eggs from a mother African rock python, considered, he says, to be the second most aggressive large snake in the world.
(The most dangerous is also the largest, the reticulated python.)
The 15-foot new mother, named Curvy, laid her eggs on Sunday after mating with the eggs' father, Nigel, who is only 10 feet long.
But unless Springate, who helps run the refuge for animals discarded by the pet trade, wants a lot more little snakes scurrying around, he has to remove the eggs and destroy them.
"If they were allowed to hatch, there would be baby rock pythons everywhere, and this is a nasty, dangerous snake that is known to eat people, especially children," he said Wednesday.
In view of that, he intends to be very careful removing the eggs. His plan is simply to go into the snakes' enclosure and remove them by hand from under the mother snake. Sometimes snakes can be sluggish after giving birth, Springate says. He hopes this is one of those times.
"It can be dangerous," he said. "It could go like clockwork -- or not, if she should choose to defend her eggs."
Curvy once belonged to a snake owner in B.C. who kept her for breeding purposes. Springate can't understand that, given the African rock python's reputation for being such an aggressive snake.
Nevertheless, he says it's a pity the eggs have to be destroyed because under different circumstances, he'd like to help propagate the species in the wild.
But not in Surrey.
"It's difficult to do," he says of his pending assignment, "but somebody else created this problem, and we're trying to solve it."

>>VANCOUVER SUN (British Columbia) 08 July 04 Egg-snatching a touchy job: Potential brood must be taken from an aggressive mother -- an African rock python (Nicholas Read)
>>As egg-gathering goes, it leaves a lot to be desired.
>>Some time within the next 90 days -- and the sooner, the better -- Paul Springate, curator of the Rainforest Reptile Refuge in Surrey, has to remove a clutch of 30 or more eggs from a mother African rock python, considered, he says, to be the second most aggressive large snake in the world.
>>The most dangerous is also the largest, the reticulated python.)
>>The 15-foot new mother, named Curvy, laid her eggs on Sunday after mating with the eggs' father, Nigel, who is only 10 feet long.
>>But unless Springate, who helps run the refuge for animals discarded by the pet trade, wants a lot more little snakes scurrying around, he has to remove the eggs and destroy them.
>>"If they were allowed to hatch, there would be baby rock pythons everywhere, and this is a nasty, dangerous snake that is known to eat people, especially children," he said Wednesday.
>>In view of that, he intends to be very careful removing the eggs. His plan is simply to go into the snakes' enclosure and remove them by hand from under the mother snake. Sometimes snakes can be sluggish after giving birth, Springate says. He hopes this is one of those times.
>>"It can be dangerous," he said. "It could go like clockwork -- or not, if she should choose to defend her eggs."
>>Curvy once belonged to a snake owner in B.C. who kept her for breeding purposes. Springate can't understand that, given the African rock python's reputation for being such an aggressive snake.
>>Nevertheless, he says it's a pity the eggs have to be destroyed because under different circumstances, he'd like to help propagate the species in the wild.
>>But not in Surrey.
>>"It's difficult to do," he says of his pending assignment, "but somebody else created this problem, and we're trying to solve it."
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DarkWave Exotics

Currently keeping:
1.2 southern scrub pythons
1.0 reticulated python
1.0 albino burmese python
1.2 jungle carpet pythons
1.0 irian jaya carpet python
0.1 sumatran blood python
1.0 ball pythons
0.1 green anaconda
1.1 emerald tree boas
2.2 colombian redtail boas
1.0 sonoran boa
1.0 cancun boa
1.2 normal and albino whitewater rosy boas
1.1 false water cobras
1.1 greyband kingsnakes
1.1 albino and het chinese beauty snakes
1.2 taiwan beauties
2.1 cornsnakes(Opal, okeetee, anery, stripes)
1.1 albino and multi het emory ratsnakes
0.1 albino checkered gartersnake
1.1 california kingsnakes
0.0.2 tiger leg monkey tree frogs
1.0 paddle tailed newt
0.1 foam nest tree frog
2 bearded dragons
9 leopard geckos
1.1 central american banded geckos
0.1 nile monitor
1.0 savannah monitor
0.1 russian tortoise

and lots of bugs, furry critters, fish and birds

Sucks to hear them say that. But all their animals are hand-me-downs and rescues. Last I was up there they had 3 Afrocks caged together. Don't remember seeing one as small as 10 feet tho. Now I'm thinking of going up there and bringing the eggs home with me. If he hasn't already destroyed them. They've got an 18ft Retic that they've had since it was a baby that was found coming out of a toilet in a large hotel in Surrey too. I'm surprised they've still been able to afford their facility too.
Josh