Another great year has slithered on by here at Reptiles Alive. New people, new animals, and exciting new projects are all a part of the past 12 months.
As always, we presented lots of fantastic educational reptile programs. Reptiles Alive wildlife educators presented a total of 790 programs reached approximately 49,400 people from October 2012 through October 2013. We visited schools, scout meetings, summer camps, libraries, and lots of fun birthday parties. Special events that featured our shows included: Celebrate Fairfax; Mason Neck State Park Eagle Festival; Clean Fairfax Earth Day/Arbor Day; Northern Virginia Community College Earth Day Festival; Rockville Town Center Family Night; Reston Association’s Nature Fair; and so many other fabulous festivals and events we can’t list them all here. For a list of all our upcoming public event shows, visit our public event page.
Our director Caroline Seitz was featured along with some native snakes on TV on Fox 5’s Morning News . She took the opportunity to show viewers the difference between adult and juvenile Eastern (black) rat snakes. We hope that at least a few people who saw the TV spot will remember that just because a snake has a pattern, that does not mean it is necessarily a copperhead – and that either way, the best thing to do if you see a snake, is to just leave that snake alone. You can see the TV spot on our homepage.
Two new people have joined the RA team in the last year.
Stephen Maddox (SidewinderStephen) joined our staff in April as an animal keeper and is now also part of our wildlife educator team. He brings with him a love of reptiles and the achievement of being an Eagle Scout! Look for him at birthday parties, camps, and of course — Scout meetings. Read more about him at SidewinderStephen
John White is our new webmaster. He has years of experience building and maintaining websites and, best of all, he has been a reptile expert for even longer. He is currently in the process of developing an entirely new website for Reptiles Alive which we are hoping to unveil at the end of 2013.
New animals that have joined us include:
Two Australian Green Treefrogs were donated to us from a former staff member; a young blue tongue skink and an eastern king Snake which were both donated to us from clients; two marbled salamanders were transferred to us from Long Branch Nature Center; an adorable baby savannah monitor lizard which was rescued and rehabilitated by a veterinary technician who then transferred it to us; and an equally adorable western hognose snake who came to us from our friend and colleague Becky Shore of the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center.
In addition to working on the new website, we are also working on updating our teacher’s guides to each of our assembly programs. With the help of Amaya (AlligatorAmaya) Perez, we hope to have helpful guides for all of our different assemblies coming with the new website. We are also working on expanding the content of our website’s Teachers’ Page and Kids’ Page. If you have any suggestions or requests for what you would like to see on either of these pages we would love to hear them. Email your suggestions to [email protected]
Thank you all sssso much for helping to make reptile education come alive!
| Reptiles Alive! LLC | 2013 | Animal Inventory | |||
| African Spurred Tortoise | 1 | Geochelone sulcata | |||
| American Alligator | 2 | Alligator missipiensis | |||
| American Toad | 2 | Bufo americanus americanus | |||
| Australian Green Treefrog | 2 | Litoria caerulea | |||
| Ball Python | 1 | Python regius | |||
| Bearded Dragon | 2 | Pogona vitticeps | |||
| Blue Tongue Skink | 3 | Teliqua scincoides | |||
| Boa Constrictor | 4 | Boa constrictor constrictor | |||
| Bull Frog | 2 | Rana catesbeiana | |||
| Burmese Python | 1 | Python molurus bivittatus | |||
| California King Snake | 2 | Lampropeltis getula californiae | |||
| Central Asian Tortoise | 1 | Testudo horsefieldi | |||
| Cope’s Gray Treefrog | 3 | Hyla chrysoscelis | |||
| Crested Gecko | 1 | Rhacodactylus ciliatus | |||
| Corn Snake | 2 | Pantherophis guttatus | |||
| Earthworm | 25+ | Eisenia fetida | |||
| Eastern Box Turtle | 1 | Terrapene carolina carolina | |||
| Eastern King Snake | 1 | Lampropeltis getula | |||
| Eastern Rat Snake | 1 | Pantherophis obsoletus | |||
| Eastern Snapping Turtle | 1 | Chelydra serpintena serpentina | |||
| Garden Slug | 5 | Limax maximus | |||
| Green Iguana | 2 | Iguana iguana | |||
| Haitian Brown Tarantula | 1 | Phormictophis cancerides | |||
| Haitian Cockroach | 25 + | Blaberus sp. | |||
| Honduran Milk Snake | 2 | Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis | |||
| House Cricket | 1000 | Acheta domestica | |||
| Kenyan Sand Boa | 1 | Eryx colubrinus loveridgei | |||
| Leopard Gecko | 1 | Eublepharis macularius | |||
| Leopard Tortoise | 1 | Geochelone pardalis | |||
| Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches | 25+ | Gromphadorina portentosa | |||
| Malagasy Giant Hognose Snake | 1 | Leioheterodon madagascarensis | |||
| Marbled Salamander | 2 | Ambystoma opacum | |||
| Mealworm | 1000 | Tenebrio molitar | |||
| Nelson’s Milksnake | 1 | Lampropeltis triangulum nelsonii | |||
| Northern Diamondback Terrapin | 1 | Malaclemys terrapin | |||
| Pacific Gopher Snake | 1 | Pituophis catenifer catenifer | |||
| Prehensile-tailed Skink | 1 | Corucia zebrata | |||
| Savannah Monitor Lizard | 1 | Varanus exanthematicus | |||
| Spiny Softshell Turtle | 1 | Apalone spinifera | |||
| Spotted Salamander | 1 | Ambystoma maculatum | |||
| Spotted Turtle | 1 | Clemmys guttata | |||
| Sudan Plated Lizard | 1 | Gerrhosaurus major | |||
| Tegu Lizard | 2 | Tupinambis teguixin | |||
| Uromastyx Lizard | 1 | Uromastyx acanthurus | |||
| Water Monitor Lizard | 1 | Varanus salvator | |||
| Western Hognose Snake | 1 | Heterodon nasicus | |||
| White Line Gecko | 1 | Gecko vittatus | |||
| Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle | 1 | Podocnemis unifilis |
