World Snake Day, Tuesday 16 July, has become Canberra Snake Week at the Canberra Reptile Zoo.
“We hijacked World Snake Day because it’s school holidays, and we decided, rather than just having a display for one day, we would actually make a full week-long celebration,” says Canberra Reptile Zoo managing director Peter Child.
Running until Friday, the zoo has created a temporary display of seven interesting and not often shown snakes, including:
The Oenpelli Python, the rarest species of python.
The Broad Headed snake, one of the most endangered species.
The Pygmy Python, the smallest python.
The Scrub Python, the largest python.
And The Rough Scale Python, the most recently discovered python.
World Snake Day is dedicated to celebrating, increasing awareness, and ending stigma around snakes.
“What we’re trying to do is shine a light on an animal that otherwise in the media, is often portrayed as a deadly, dangerous animal,” says Peter.
World Snake Day is especially important for Australia given the stigma around dangerous animals that call it home, with over 170 species of snakes and twenty-one of the world’s twenty-five most venomous species.
“We believe very much in normalising their existence in our suburbia. When people in Canberra go into their garden, or when they are moving around in our natural wildlife and in our parks, they need to accept that these animals are there and not feel they have to remove them or call someone to take them away. We need to learn to live with them” says Peter.
To help educate people and celebrate the week, the zoo is putting on daily presentations and snake shows in their brand-new amphitheatre. Where Peter or guest speakers such as Gavin Smith from ACT Snake Removals brings venomous snakes on stage.
“When I first started dealing with venomous snakes, which was only about 14 years ago, I was very nervous. Because I do it every day now, I feel very calm and relaxed, but I never take them for granted. We use all of our safety protocols and procedures. I just know that they are not out to get us,” says Peter.
To find out more about show times head to their Facebook page.
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