467 replies to this topic

[Voodoo]

nice malawiman!! thats a big ass snake!! haha

[Jules]

redevilz - thanks mate, I love her, ill post a couple photos of my other snakes out the viv this weekend. she's quite a nice little bhp but you get different variants, colours and markings between different locale specimen.

id go snakes over lizards any day, far less work and more rewarding IMO.

 

as for them pics, that's awesome, if only we could keep boas, heck id be super happy with a pair of green tree pythons.

[malawiman85]

Malawiman - does your old man own a reptile park/zoo?

 

Yes... Back in Tas.

 

Me with one of the white lions.

Edited by malawiman85, 25 June 2014 - 10:41 AM.

[Peckoltia]

Seems like an appropriate thread. I am an Environmental Advisor, part of my job involves animal relocating (the fun part). It is mostly venomous reptiles, including; dugites, tigers and crowned snakes. Every once in a while we get some turtles when excavating and other bits and pieces, here are a few pics of a couple relocations I've done in the last few months -

 

 

 

 

Edited by Peckoltia, 25 June 2014 - 10:36 AM.

[malawiman85]

Id love to keep turtles again... Thing is I really dont go much on oblongs or flat shells.

[Peckoltia]

Oblongs are filthy stinkin' things, I'm not a massive fan.

 

I'm going to go off on a tangent here...

 

The western swamp tortoise is said to be one of the most endangered species on the planet. It is my understanding that the Perth Zoo has the absolute bulk of captive specimens, and are in fact doing well with breeding them. Why not offer them to hobbyists? Animal hobbyists are a resourceful bunch, offer them at say $20k a pair to breeders that can proove that they have experience breeding other turtle species. This would be beneficial on a number of levels; more people would get to see and enjoy these animals, the chances of going extinct would be absolutely minimal, the money raised from the initial purchase could potentially go into buying a couple small patches of remnant habitat. What would happen if heaven forbid the Perth Zoo burnt down? or the small number of people who deal with these animals on a daily basis left/passed away etc? the knowledge base is far too localised to one facility and a select group of people. Get them out there and get people breeding them, in no time there will be thousands and thousands of them. Granted these animals will not be in the wild.

[Redevilz]

Peckoltia that's awesome! I'd love to do something like that as a career, like a reptile/fish conservationist kind of thing.

MM that lion is stunning!

[Voodoo]

oh shit i missed the lion pic...WOW!!!

[malawiman85]

Oblongs are filthy stinkin' things, I'm not a massive fan.

 

I'm going to go off on a tangent here...

 

The western swamp tortoise is said to be one of the most endangered species on the planet. It is my understanding that the Perth Zoo has the absolute bulk of captive specimens, and are in fact doing well with breeding them. Why not offer them to hobbyists? Animal hobbyists are a resourceful bunch, offer them at say $20k a pair to breeders that can proove that they have experience breeding other turtle species. This would be beneficial on a number of levels; more people would get to see and enjoy these animals, the chances of going extinct would be absolutely minimal, the money raised from the initial purchase could potentially go into buying a couple small patches of remnant habitat. What would happen if heaven forbid the Perth Zoo burnt down? or the small number of people who deal with these animals on a daily basis left/passed away etc? the knowledge base is far too localised to one facility and a select group of people. Get them out there and get people breeding them, in no time there will be thousands and thousands of them. Granted these animals will not be in the wild.

 

Have often thought the same thing about WST... Very cute little things. Similarly, In Tas there are arrangements made with private parks and citizens to captive breed devils to assist Parks and Wildlife in their attempt to stave off extinction of the devil.

[Peckoltia]

Peckoltia that's awesome! I'd love to do something like that as a career, like a reptile/fish conservationist kind of thing.

MM that lion is stunning!

Relocating reptiles is the fun part of my job. I also have to do a lot of groundwater, vibration, noise and dust monitoring that you won't see any pictures of!  

 

Moved some ducks on monday, including a mother sitting on a nest of eggs. Nasty nasty bird she was!

[ice]

Jealous of your job bro! I'd love to work with animals. You must see plenty of habitat destruction though.

[Fox]

Zoodoo! Awesome stuff MM. Your dad did the right thing with opening that park a few years back.
Fantastic place.
Good on him!

Does he still do the pony races? Lol they were great kids loved them.

[Peckoltia]

Jealous of your job bro! I'd love to work with animals. You must see plenty of habitat destruction though.

Yeah I see a bit of land clearing.

I recently did my venomous snake handling course at the Armadale Reptile Centre. Even though i was already competent you need it in writing that you are.

 

Was a great day, if anyone needs to do a ben course go see Klaus out at Armadale, got to play with all sorts of snakes including pythons and gens. The gens were all very tame, as they are all long time captives, the only ones that tried to inject venom into me were the tiger snakes.

 

 

Mulga

 

 

Gwadar

 

 

Dugite - this thing was like a big puppy dog.

 

 

Tiger - notice this photo was taken further back than the rest?

 

 

Death Adder

Edited by Peckoltia, 26 June 2014 - 07:22 AM.

[ice]

I love how the tigers hood up like wanna be cobras.

 

Been wanting to do a ven handling course for a while now, I might have to go and see Klaus... what did it set you (or the company) back?

[Jules]

Maybe they can do a group session? id be interested in ven handling, more for the experience and skill.

[Peckoltia]

To be honest, I can't remember my company paid for it. From memory it was around $150-200ea.

 

Good course, theory in the morning. Then into some handling. I wanted to handle the big Boa, but he is off limits these days due to his age and wanting to preserve him. Which I completely understand. 

 

Other than the Ven's we got to play with; woma, carpets and pygmys. Also a couple lizards including one of the albino bob-tails.

[ice]

Sounds pretty awesome

[malawiman85]

Zoodoo! Awesome stuff MM. Your dad did the right thing with opening that park a few years back.
Fantastic place.
Good on him!
Does he still do the pony races? Lol they were great kids loved them.

Zoodoo! Awesome stuff MM. Your dad did the right thing with opening that park a few years back.
Fantastic place.
Good on him!
Does he still do the pony races? Lol they were great kids loved them.

Hey Az, yeah it was an interesting career choice for him.
Dont do pony races any more... too many hippies complaining that it was somehow cruel. Morons!

[Voodoo]

damn hippies - always ruining a good day out

[Redevilz]

Wow Peckoltia those are some stunning snakes.

I was sitting in the park one day and I saw a nice size tiger swim across this lake, great swimmers.

It's a shame to read that a few snake species are endangered, Such as the critically endangered mangshan pit viper, they are beautiful snake, I wonder if there are any charities that you can donate to to help snakes...