Reptile-ology 101

POSTED BY: Tristan
UPDATED: Monday, June 19, 2006 10:05
VIEWED: 8046
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EMMARIGBY

Saturday, May 13, 2006 4:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Tristan:
EmmaRigby, thank you again for the information. I look forward to hearing all about your exploits in faraway, steamy jungles hunting elusive prey...alright, it may not beexactly that way, but I still want to hear about it when you have time. I shall be here, waiting!

Holding until you get back, Captain.

Honey, I'm home! Did you'all miss me? It's so nice to be at a computer again!

You really want to hear about my jungle exploits? Wow! All my friends are bored with my rainforest stories!

Well, I was in Tanzania in the Uzumbara mountains back in 1997 before Univerity. Sadly it wasn't as steamy or jungley as I'd expected as it turned out the area we went to was in Tropical Dry Forest, and that had been heavily deforested. In fact after 3 moths of surveying we were reluctantly forced to conclude that it wasn't worth retaining its status as a protected reserve due to the level of disturbance. Although this was very sad at least we could ensure that the money was spent on a different piece of forest that it might just be possible to save. I still had a great time there though, despite the malaria and a real lack of food (I ate nothing but rice and rice gruel for 4 weeks till I cracked and bought 2 scrawny chickens from the local village. I named them after my sisters, which made killing them much easier! Then I shared them out amongst the 13 of us. It was amazing, out of the 7 committed vegetarians we started with, we finished with 1! It's easy to have principles when you have a varied diet!) We weren't really supposed to be taking direct data about the snakes as there wasn't anybody trained in identification there, but if we came across one in a pitfall trap we often took measurements andsamples. I had to be physically restrained from over-enthusiatic grabbing of unknown snakes for this purpose as I was so keen to add to the sketchy reptile info for the area. At one point, in my innocence, I was this close to picking up a green mamba! Luckily wiser and older heads prevailed!

I went out to Peru in 2002 (gosh, it doesn't feel that long ago!), and lived for 3 months in the Amazon Basin, which was just fantastic! Even though I'd never been inside a real rainforest before I still felt like I was coming home! I didn't see many snakes there, except a Bushmaster that had us all holed up for a week whilst it took over our camp (it's a very aggressive, poisonous snake whose venom can kill in 3 hours without the antidote. Since we were at least 6 hours from any medical facility this worried some people a mite!), and a very pretty, irridescent rainbow boa that liked to doze across the path. There was an incident when someone nearly stepped on a fluer-de-lyse in bare feet. I absolutely swear he defied the laws of gravity by levitating about 5 foot in the air and not coming down for several seconds!

One day I want to get back out somewhere where things are steamy and dark. I was offered a job last year working in Tanzania which I would have leapt at had it not been for the fact that they wanted me to pay to do it (covering food and living costs). I'm too poor for that. That's why I'm currently doing my Master's in Animal Science. I'm hoping that with more qualifications I might just possibly get to live my dream someday (and be a penniless Jane living out in the jungle, occassionally coming blinking into the light to tell people about it!)

Fyew! Now I've caught you up on pretty much my life story I'm gonna wander around the boards some, then maybe get down to doing some work!

Thanks for the interest! Chat soon!

TRISTAN

Monday, May 15, 2006 1:26 AM

Emma! Welcome back!
Sorry, I have not been online that much this weekend. It is a pleasant surprise to come back and find your post!

So much to comment on...where to start....
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you liked snakes, and knew what you wanted to do from the day you were able to walk.
Tanzania sounds like it was fun! By deforestation, do you mean by the locals for more arable land, or by companies? Being a student of infectious diseases myself (no, no formal education, but a zeal to learn), I am curious about the malaria. Oh, and green mambas are dangerous, if I remember correctly
Peru sounds like it was even more fun. Where you cataloging snakes there, or was it for some other purpose? I know you mentioned you did not see many (what is a fleur-de-lyse, by the way?), and I was wondering if you were there under similar conditions as in Tanzania.
I hope you do get back out...sounds like you have found your love in life! And don't worry about me getting bored with this; your friends may have heard all these stories, but I haven't yet!

Thank you for sharing with me...looking forward to hearing more!

Holding until you get back, Captain.

PHOENIXROSE

Saturday, June 3, 2006 8:39 AM

Bumpin'!

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EMMARIGBY

Saturday, June 3, 2006 9:17 AM

Is this because you're fed up with me whiffling on about my reptiles on the RForsaken thread?! Wouldn't blame you!

I shall keep a link to this thread and use it to moan/ rejoice about my project. Most useful to have somewhere specific to vent!

I'm staying away from the little darlings today and trying to write up my dissertation, if I can just get my brain to work properly!

________________________________
Hisssssss!

PHOENIXROSE

Saturday, June 3, 2006 9:22 AM

Of course I'm not fed up! The thread just kinda stopped, though, and I thought it looked sad there at the bottom of the page.

I love Dogbert!

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PHOENIXROSE

Saturday, June 3, 2006 9:26 AM

Oops! Doubling up, here...

EMMARIGBY

Tuesday, June 6, 2006 5:42 PM

I found another 3 snakes today and someone else spotted another! I'm up to 28 now! The end is in sight!

Thought you might want to see one of the juveniles I caught. Isn't he cute?

Hisssssss!

TRISTAN

Tuesday, June 6, 2006 6:40 PM

They are cute! In a snaky-kinda way...and sorta on the smallish side, it looks like. A juvenile's head looks almost the size of your finger-tip...how big do the adults get, again?

Thanks for sharing, and congratulations on being up to 28!

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SPACEANJL

Tuesday, June 6, 2006 8:35 PM

I once got RSI from a python - repetitive snake injury. Wrapped itself round both my wrists and wanted to stay there. Kinda kinky.

SpaceAnJL

FLORALBUNNY

Wednesday, June 7, 2006 2:07 AM

Oh, I just love baby pictures. What a little cutie.
So. A breeding population. Does this mean someone will have to keep up annual counts of the little dears?

...And the action with the snake around both wrists sounds suspiciously like love, dunnit?
"RSI" -- LOL! Could stand for Romantic Snake Injury.

bun
~6/23~Serenity/Firefly Summer~9/30~
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