RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by MSTT on April 17, 2008
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In retrospect it would have been better for the publicity situation if I had pushed through the crowds to show the little green snake. But as an animal care decision, it was a no brainer. I'm unfortunately a lot better at animal care than I am at publicity or diplomacy.
I was working in the back, the other keeper came in, and here was a rough green snake being handed over that needed to be checked for injuries. And by the way some lady outside thought it was our green mamba. That was all the information I had. I'm afraid I thought that was tremendously funny, and that was about all I was thinking at the time.
I am a licensed wildlife rehabilitator with special permits enabling me to work with the state's endangered snake species. As far as I know I am the only rehabber in the state who holds those permits. All the wild snakes and injury cases that come in are my job to deal with at my own discretion. I release when I can and rehab or rehome when I can't. If it doesn't desperately need my help, and it possibly can be returned to the wild, it certainly will be. If that's to be done, it is best done quickly, minimizing handling and contact with other snakes. My judgment call was immediate relocation and no more stress for the snake.
I had no way of knowing that anyone would be so obstinate as to continue to insist they had seen a "six foot long green mamba" in the face of a positive ID by an expert. So I simply didn't take the situation at all seriously. My bad; but when you have a "six foot long green mamba" in your hand and it's a rough green, it's kind of hard to take seriously. :/
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by MSTT on April 17, 2008
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"It is interesting that the article says that the cages are locking, and that the keepers are taught to lock the cages when they shut them. This would make me think that cage doors could be shut and left unlocked ?"
The keys are the handles, and if you don't actually lock them they hang open. You can try to push them shut without locking them, but it won't "catch" and it basically does not work as they will just swing open again.
"Was the Green Mamba cage opened for feeding or cleaning that day before this incident ?"
All cages are opened every morning before the Serpentarium is open to the public. The rolling metal lockdown doors are shut at this time, so even if a snake did take unauthorized walkies, it would have nowhere to go in the sealed off building. Only one cage is opened at a time, and a snake would have to physically get past a keeper to get out and hit the floor. A keeper who was dense enough not to notice a 4' Eastern green mamba moving past him would not have a very long life expectancy here.
The green mamba cage could be clearly observed to be closed and locked with the snake inside its cage all day. The green mamba is not part of the 3PM feeding show. It would be obvious to all were that cage not locked, as the door would be partly open and swinging on its hinges. At no time was that door open during the facility's business hours. That was never even suggested by anyone.
"It is also interesting that the Rough Green Snake chose the Green Mamba cage to perch on top of. Out of hundreds of cages, it picks that one ? What is the statistical chances of that ? Perhaps Murphy's Law, or perhaps the Green Snake saw the Green Mamba and just wanted to play ?"
Actually the structure encompassed several different exhibits including a pair of melanistic boomslangs. Had the animal in question been a black racer I'm sure there would have been a similar result. There are only a few tall structures on the bottom floor, with the rest of the exhibits being built into the wall. So statistically speaking, assuming the snake did have a choice, the odds were pretty reasonable.
We're also kicking around the notion that we may have been pranked on purpose. I don't really know the answer to that question yet.
"And the question as to why the zoo did not bring out the Rough Green Snake to show the folks and to assure them that they saw was a harmless snake is also an interesting one. How difficult would that have been ?"
When the wildlife rehabber whose job it was to take custody of the animal was already off work and headed out the door, and not interested in dragging a physically delicate and stressed-out snake through a street festival crowd, pretty difficult.
Looking at it from the perspective of hindsight, it's easy to say that we should have done this or that. At the time I was tired and hungry, annoyed with the street festival traffic, concerned for the snake, and not interested in pushing through a rowdy crowd to try to educate people who were not likely to listen anyways. I left the customer service end up to the other keepers who are much better at it, and I went and took care of the snake. That's my job. At the time it didn't even occur to me that anyone could still be concerned once the snake had been positively ID'd by an expert as a local rough green. But I guess it's a much more fun and exciting story when it's really a mamba.
"Of course, if the folks touring the reptile building were inebriated from a beer and wine party as has been suggested, perhaps bringing a snake out would not have been a good idea ?"
Nail. Head. Hammer. Hit.
The Azalea Festival brings a lot of money to the downtown area, and I guess we're glad to have it. It's a family event and of course not everyone drinks, but the street fair part of it is crowded, noisy and rowdy, and that's what we were right in the middle of on Front Street. Not a great environment to do an impromptu session of reptile education.
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by Cro on April 17, 2008
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MsTT, sounds like you and the zoo did everything right.
Too bad that they let a bunch of drunk tourists roam around the town and through your reptile building during your Azalia fest.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by Rob_Carmichael on April 17, 2008
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Matt,
I should have been more clear....you are right, our facilities are far different from each other (although you'll see many new high quality exhibits with a recent donation we received), but, my point was that we both have reptiles on public display and for any facility, large or small, that has to deal with the public, its something that has to be at the forefront of our operations. As much as the animal's needs are first and foremost in everything we do, in actuality, it's public safety and perception that has to be the over riding priority - otherwise, we're all out of "business". We've all had weird situations and close calls and its how you deal with those that sometimes dictate a situation diffusing out quickly, or, becoming headlines in the local paper, or much worse. Tannith, I'm sure, did everything she felt was appropriate at the time and Im sure it wasn't a pleasant moment to make those quick decisions - I'm sure she'd rather tangle with a pissed off green mamba behind the scenes than the people who come and visit.
We all get "dump offs" at public facilities - just part of having places like these. We make sure these animals are taken to another area of our facility far away from our exhibits. Although we turn a lot of people away (NO green iguanas or red eared sliders accepted), we will try to help in every way possible (refer to a herp society's adoption program, etc.). It also gives us a chance to educate folks on responsible ownership and rather than giving them the "sermon", we try to empathize with their situation and come up with some solutions to allow them to keep their animal in a proper manner.
And MsTT, that Jameson's is still alive and well - she's getting ready to go into her beautiful new exhibit in the next few weeks.
Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by tigers9 on April 17, 2008
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MSTT wrote:
<<We're also kicking around the notion that we may have been pranked on purpose. I don't really know the answer to that question yet>>
That was my 1st thought when I read that article, prank/setup, especially considering you are in NC and have API all over the state and hav ebeen active against API.
Do u have video surveillance ? We have it here, even though we r not exhibitors, we have surveillance on the property, in case something 'funky' happens with the big cats...
With todays computer technology and huge memory sticks/flash cards, it is very easy.
Z
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by MSTT on April 17, 2008
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Well, since each and every one of those tourists coughed up eight bucks for the privilege, it does help pay the bills. From a bean-counter perspective the Festival is a good thing. As far as animal care staff is concerned, we wish it to the moon. But not all the tourists were drunk and rowdy by any means. We get a lot of the family groups with kids during the street fairs, and some of them are a pleasure to talk to and educate. And some of them of course are a royal pain in the butt, like kids who don't understand that taking snakes out of the wild and bringing them to us does not make them cool like Steve Irwin.
Of course it's entirely possible that the snake wasn't actually brought in by a kid. Really no way to know at this point, but here's some facts to think about.
One of the things people do during the Azalea Festival in Wilmington is look at azalea bushes and take flowers. Some of the flower-taking is volunteered by the owners of said bushes for festival display purposes, and some of it is definitely of the rude drunken tourist nature.
The "snake hot spot" downtown where most of the snake removal calls come from is bordered by Fourth and Front, Orange and Castle. Not surprising as that is the "garden/historical house sightseeing district" with old plantation houses and some really lovely and extensive arbors and azalea gardens. Guess what species can be commonly found there, hanging around in the arbors. An azalea bush usually needs to be planted a bit higher up than it normally grows to be of direct interest to Opheodrys, and they like the taller arbors better. But they're definitely hanging around the azalea gardens because it's the best (well, really the only) habitat in the immediate area.
Now imagine these azalea gardens becoming a solid wall of people during the annual festival, which is the largest and best publicized event in Wilmington and attracts people from all over the country. Some of these people are quite literally beating the bushes and probing inside the bushes. It's rather a lot of commotion. Could a rough green be sufficiently disturbed to flee inside a building? Hmmm. Can't dismiss the notion.
The far back door of the Serpentarium is a staff only entrance that butts up against the parking lot of the complex in back. There is a patch of excellent habitat within 10 feet of that door where we can readily harvest anoles in season for rehab animals that won't take mice. You can't stick your head out the door without spotting at least one anole and usually two or three within seconds. This door is the one that gets propped open for airing when the pythons take a giant dump in their pond overnight and we have to drain, bleach and flush it before opening. I have never personally seen a green snake directly outside that door, but I've never spent more than five minutes looking since it takes less than that to net about as many anoles as a rehab snake needs. The bug population in there is booming, to the point that if I actually get down from the concrete area to climb into the thick jungle of tall plants, I will come out wearing them. I don't usually have to do that until later in the year as the anoles get thinner on the ground.
So that's what is directly outside our back door, the one that gets opened for airing during python pond maintenance. Said door is right on the border of the "snake hot spot" corridor, and there is non tourist trafficked, only semi human accessible habitat within 10 feet. You don't normally see rough greens inside human habitation. Opheodrys don't like to travel very far on the ground. But with the habitat layout out back, they wouldn't have to. And with people literally beating the bushes in mass crowds, that's a whole lot of provocation to move.
I'd have to say that no herper knowing about the habitat layout and the bush-poking during the festival could dismiss that as a possibility. My money is still on the kid, because I was the one who talked to him, and I got left with the definite impression that he wasn't at all happy with being told to let the snake go, or the mini-lecture on why zoos really don't want people to bring in wild snakes. He walked away in quite a sulk. Definitely not putting it past a ticked-off kid to take me literally and let the snake go inside our facility in a manner calculated to annoy.
Apparently still another possibility has turned up, which is to say we got set up by someone who has political reasons to want to see us shut down. My guess is that it was still just the kid in the first place and the animal rights nutters are using it as a giant conspiracy platform. *sigh* I really, really prefer animal care to playing stupid politics.
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by MSTT on April 17, 2008
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My best guess is that it really was the kid I turned down a few days earlier. I tried not to be too mean, but he was pretty insistent, and I was pretty busy, so I was probably a bit short with him. Definitely the #1 suspect.
I don't think it would make a ton of sense for AR to send a 15 year old kid to offer us a green snake, because they would assume we would say yes since we are of course evil and greedy to exploit all wildlife. That wouldn't leave them much of anywhere.
I guess it's possible that the kid really did go away with his green snake, and the animal inside was brought by a different person with a different agenda. It's not like anybody couldn't get their hands on a rough green in pretty short order if they knew where to look.
Much more likely is that it was still the kid's snake, AR heard about the incident on the news, and is now having a field day using it to their advantage.
Now if the lady who called it a "six foot green mamba" on television was investigated and found to have an AR background, we'd have them nailed. But unfortunately it's not the least bit hard to find someone who will swear up and down and sideways that a juvenile rat snake was a six foot long rattlecoppercoralmoccasin. They'll genuinely believe it too; they aren't consciously lying. I don't find it at all hard to believe that at least one of the people who saw the rough green in a dark reptile house building (the light is only from inside the cages) sincerely believed it was a six foot long green mamba.
And given the insanity of the festival and the proximity of the free wine tasting table, I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if it also had glowing red eyes and fangs dripping human blood. A whole lot more six foot long venomous snakes crawl out of a bottle than crawl out of securely locked museum cages.
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by LarryDFishel on April 17, 2008
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Here's why I don't particularly suspect a setup from the beginning. It was probably reasonable to assume that someone would have just caught the snake and brought it out to show everyone.
Now, could someone with an agenda have made use of the situation by making sure it ended up on the news after it became clear that you had released the evidence? Sure.
My guess is either the kid released it or it wandered in on it's own, someone got scared are reported what should not have been a real story, and the local media pounced on their chance to cach in on the current hype about exotic snakes/animal issues.
Sort of like the "rash" or construction crane accidents around the country... When the media finds something that will get them ratings without having to actually work for a living...
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by KingCobraFan on April 17, 2008
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****If Tanith says that it was a rough snake, then that's the gospel truth.****
Indeed it is. TT's a pro.
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RE: NC serpentarium snake at large
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by Cro on April 17, 2008
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Not only that, if a Green Mamba had actually gotten out, they would have locked down the building and would have checked all of the other cages and would have had a real serious meeting with all of the other reptile keepers. That would have taken hours to do.
The fact that they were able to open the building again after 10 minutes reinforces the fact that it was a wayward Rough Green Snake that was found, and was nothing to be concerned about at the time.
Best Regards JohnZ
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