Last night I was asked to present to a local yacht club about Virginia's native amphibians and reptiles. I use mostly PowerPoint and some embedded videos to demonstrate some of the activities and behaviors of various herps. The only native herp I have in my collection is an eastern hognose that was "rescued" late last fall from a school building. I am keeping it only through the winter and will release it in the spring. This hognose, since it is freshly wild caught exhibits the stereotypical behavior of hognoses you would expect. If I'm not careful, I'll almost always get pooped and musked on, not to mention the hognose will rarely settle down and relax. He will typically continue to hiss up to 20 minutes after I have put him down.
So I am thinking this guy is going to be a big hit for this crowd where they can see some interesting snake behavior. I packed him in a cooler with a warm water bottle for heat for the trip to the presentation, so he had to spend three or four hours in a pillow case. I get to the part of a presentation where I talk about hognoses and I whip him out and what does he do? NOTHING. All he wants to do is crawl off the side of the table! No amount of tapping on the table, or gently pinching the tail will elicit a response out of this guy. I got him to hiss for maybe two seconds during the whole time. It was a big let down, but at least he allowed several people to handle him for up to 30 or 40 minutes with no problems and no stinky stuff.
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Virginia Herping
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VaHS
Virginia Herpetological Society
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS
... nature has ceased to be what it always had been - what people needed protection from. Now nature - tamed, endangered, mortal - needs to be protected from people. When we are afraid, we shoot. But when we are nostalgic, we take pictures.
Susan Sontag
