Venomous Visit!

[diamondlil]

On Bank holiday Monday I made an epic journey into the wilds of the South-west, for an open day at Reptile Zone. As well as being a superb shop, it houses a private collection of DWA species. I'll have to load the pictures into photobucket before I can show you but I fell in love with a baby red spitting cobra!
There was a barbecue laid on, the staff and volunteers were great, and plenty of members of RFUK were there. A great day out, except I fell asleep on the train home and was too late to get back on track and reach home, so my chap had to rescue me from Worcester!
Gaboon vipers, black and green mambas, red spitting, forest, black and king cobras, a baby alligator and did I mention the KING COBRAS! I'd not want DWA species myself, but seeing them expertly handled from behind a viewing window and learning about them was a brilliant treat.

[diamondlil]

Cobras



Mambas


Vipers


Monitors


Alligator

[A.J]

Must have been a great day out .
NOW me on the other hand would have wanted to at least been in the room with them even have a go at handling them and would jump at my DWA but the mad wife says i am daft enough with non venomous and the insurance would not pay out when i got bitten cause I'm silly
AJ

[joneill60]

oh yes please, that looks like a great day out. not as adventurous as AJ though, happy to see from a distance. were they black mambas? i would like to see inside their mouths from behind the glass.

[diamondlil]

The black mambas did open up to show their lovely inky mouths, but I didn't get any pictures of that. The green mambas were too quick during their handling to get anything but green blurs, but here's a green mamba in its viv

[joneill60]

is the second cobra a king? its a fair old length

[SnakeyPete]

stunning Lil , looks a great day out

that KC is awesome ( yup Jimmy you correct )

[Jack]

they are stunning snakkeesss

[diamondlil]

I think the aspect I really enjoyed was the way the snakes were handled so calmly and the emphasis on keeping stress for the animals to a minimum. No showboating or showing off, just a chance to see beautiful animals and learn about their husbandry.

[joneill60]

thats the way it should be. you are there to see the snakes not the keepers bravado.

[kev_p1]

I would so love a gaboon viper why they have to be so bloody dangerous



kev

[joneill60]

i would like a black mamba if they weren't dangerous

[diamondlil]

It was the baby red spitter that I fell in love with, as well as tiny forest vipers with angry faces

[Janos]

Aww, they look amazing. I'd probably be way to scared of getting bitten to handle them, but I'd still appreciate the gawk value ^^