More Snakes

When we came across the snake who lives under our front step, I emailed pictures to a local expert who was very helpful. He emailed back and confirmed that it is an Eastern King Snake. His organization is called to remove unwanted reptiles such as snakes. From his website, I learned that of the 41 snakes which are native to our state only 6 are venomous.

If you watched the video of our front yard snake encounter, you are probably aware that I had no idea which we had. It is also very obvious on the video that Aaron has a love for these creatures. Since then I have been trying to educate myself on snakes. Aaron will probably have one as a pet in the future and I want to be ready.

I am now on our local expert's email list and he sends out an email when he is going to be giving an educational presentation in the area. He had one last week, but it was a bit far away. Today he had one at a mall, so I loaded up the kids and headed over. It was awesome. He had one of each of the six venomous snakes and showed how to recognize each. He also debunked some stereotypes such as believing some species are naturally aggressive. He demonstrated the lack of aggressiveness with live snakes. He showed which ones are aggressive.

Some of the animals he had with him are not native to our state. Many are pets that people could no longer handle and either passed on to the organization or set free in the wild and were later captured.

Aaron would be the child smiling from ear to ear as he helped hold a 14 foot 100 pound Albino Burmese Python.

Rachel got to help too. She thought it was neat, but she was over it. Aaron hasn't stopped talking about it. He is now helping Hannah make paper snakes and they are pretending that the snakes are hunting for food.