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Moody Gardens seeks vanishing viper
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by tigers9 on July 8, 2008
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http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=100d3e10fda19709
Moody Gardens seeks vanishing viper
By Rhiannon Meyers
The Daily News
Published July 9, 2008
GALVESTON — A venomous snake has disappeared from its exhibit at Moody Gardens, and officials suspect another venomous snake could have eaten it.
A Moody Gardens census keeper first noticed the African bush viper missing from the exhibit it shares with five other venomous snakes in the Rainforest Pyramid early Monday morning, said Greg Whittaker, animal husbandry manager.
Staff members checked the exhibit to make sure the snake didn’t escape and found no breaches in the exhibit walls, prompting Whittaker to speculate another snake ate the African bush viper.
“There’s no way the snake voluntarily got out,” he said.
It’s unusual for snakes in the exhibit to eat one another, but it’s possible, Whittaker said.
The snake, which is native to rainforests in tropical subsaharan Africa, typically hangs out in the tops of trees, Whittaker said.
It could have somehow fallen to the ground and landed on another snake, startling it and prompting the snake to swallow the viper whole, Whittaker said.
The snakes that inhabit the exhibit floor are Gaboon vipers, venomous snakes native to low altitude rainforests throughout Africa.
Gaboon vipers weigh 20 pounds and measure about six feet long — roughly six times larger than African bush vipers, which generally measure 10 inches to a foot in length and are the width of a man’s thumb, Whittaker said.
Moody Gardens staffers have removed all of the snakes from the exhibit and are running tests on them to see whether one of them ingested the African bush viper, Whittaker said.
Biologists are taking X-rays of the snakes and testing their feces for traces of the missing viper, he said. They are also continuing to search the exhibit, where the snake could be hiding, Whittaker said.
The snakes will remain off exhibit until the missing viper is found, he said. At no point were Moody Gardens guests ever in danger of being bitten by the snake, he said.
While it’s rare for an animal to escape from its enclosure at Moody Gardens, it happens.
In 2007, four of Moody Gardens’ 11,500 animals escaped into the wild, according to Moody Gardens’ records.
Often, that means birds flew out from the Rainforest Pyramid, Whittaker said.
The 10-story Rainforest Pyramid houses birds, tropical fish, lizards, sloths, cotton-top tamarins and exotic plants from rainforests in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The snakes are kept behind glass in an attached exhibit.
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RE: Moody Gardens seeks vanishing viper
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by tigers9 on July 10, 2008
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http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=5d6dc2ccb806e22d
Brave soul with a pole finds vanished viper
By Rhiannon Meyers
The Daily News
Published July 10, 2008
A Moody Gardens curator found a venomous viper hiding in the tree tops of its enclosed exhibit late Tuesday after it eluded staffers for almost two days.
The bright green African bush viper blended a little too well into the exhibit, prompting staffers to wonder whether one of the five other snakes in the exhibit had eaten it.
A biologist decided the small viper, which was exhibited with larger vipers, might be missing early Monday morning, and the snakes were pulled from the enclosed exhibit in the Rainforest Pyramid. Staff members made X-ray images of the snakes Tuesday but found no traces of the viper’s skeleton, said spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek.
The curator went back into the cage late Tuesday to search again for the missing viper, which can deliver a bite deadly to humans, Hamachek said.
Armed with a pole, a tool to grab the snake and closed-toed shoes, the curator pushed back brush and uprooted plants. She found the snake nestled in a tree, Hamachek said.
The snakes will be returned and plants repotted so the exhibit will reopen to the public this weekend.
Greg Whittaker, animal husbandry manager, said Tuesday the exhibit had not been breached, so it was not possible for the snake to escape. The public was never in danger.
The African bush viper resides in the “highly secured exhibit” with two other bush vipers and three Gaboon vipers.
Whittaker said Tuesday that it was possible, but unusual, for one of the 6-foot Gaboon vipers to have swallowed the 12-inch bush viper.
All of the snakes are safe and acting healthy, general manager John Zendt said in a prepared statement.
The snakes are kept behind glass in an attached exhibit to the 10-story Rainforest Pyramid, which houses birds, tropical fish, lizards, sloths, cotton-top tamarins and exotic plants from rainforests in African, Asia and the Americas.
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RE: Moody Gardens seeks vanishing viper
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by Cro on July 10, 2008
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What is amazing about this is that the folks at Moody Gardens let this story get out to the press.
They could have just said they were removing snakes from the cage to re-design it, or clean it, etc.
Who went to the press and got the idea of a missing viper stirred up ?????
Just how familiar / competant are the folks there who are keeping the snakes with these animals. Do they not know that arboreal vipers are outstanding at hiding, when they want to be hidden ?
If they knew that the cage was that secure, then why did they uproot the plants and X ray the gaboon vipers ?
Best Regards John Z
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RE: Moody Gardens seeks vanishing viper
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by FSB on July 10, 2008
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That's utterly ridiculous.... for one thing, anyone who works with gaboon vipers should know that they have absolutely no ophiophagus tendencies and tend to be very tolerant of other snakes. It also sounds as if the "rain forest pyramid" enclosure is just far too large and complex for an Atheris.... what's the point of having a snake on display if no one can ever see it?
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RE: Moody Gardens seeks vanishing viper
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by AquaHerp on July 10, 2008
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Gabboons will in fact strike out at other snakes on occasion. I know of an exhibit that is less one mamba from a gaboon. Never known one to eat another snake, but I have seen stranger. Never say never in the animal world.
DH
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RE: Moody Gardens seeks vanishing viper
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by FSB on July 16, 2008
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Well, I never did say "never," (or "always," that being one of the first rules of scientific writing that I learned from my 9th grade biology teacher). What I said was that they have no ophiophagus (snake-eating) tendencies, and that they TEND to be very tolerant of other snakes, which isn't the same as "never." When my brother returned from Ghana in 1973 with 5 gaboons, one rhino viper and two black forest cobras, he put them all in my large python enclosure, since it was the most secure cage I had at the time, and they all stayed in there together for several months until they were distributed to various zoos. I didn't approve of this type of mixed housing then (I had little choice in the matter, and neither did my pythons), and I don't now, but there were no mishaps, and none of them got bitten. (By the way, I did love your crack in another forum about "eating all the poisonous snakes you want").
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