Sunday, November 10, 2013

Not Old MacDonald's Farm

Yesterday, we took a trip to our first "farm" here. What's the big deal, you ask? Well, this was not any ordinary farm with cows, goats, pigs, and chickens. This was a snake farm. It's more of a nature center, but it was all about snakes. The "farm" is housed on the grounds and in one of the buildings of the Red Cross Society of Siam in downtown Bangkok. Established in 1929, it is the second oldest snake farm in the world. It provides education to the public on the different types of snakes found in Thailand, treatment for snake bites, and what to do if confronted with various types of snakes (this would've been helpful when we had found that snake in our house a couple of months ago!).
The Red Cross Society of Siam building.
Entrance to the snake farm.
Grounds of the snake farm.
Would never have guessed that snakes are crawling all over such a pretty place like this!
Some snakes that were kept outdoors:
A python.

A pile o' snakes.
Another python.
This one was trying to climb up the wall of its habitat.
This snake was trying to get at us through the glass.

Inside the Red Cross building:
So the information sign said that this was the type of snake that we found in our house a couple of months ago, though this snake didn't look at all like the snake in the picture or the one we found. It may have been a baby.
It was trying to get a frog that was in the tank. We watched for at least 10 minutes while the snake ever so slowly maneuvered itself closer to the frog. I have to hand it to the snake for being so patient and persistent. All the frogs held completely still and waited to see what the snake would do. Finally, the frog in this picture moved and the snake actually changed directions and attempted to go for another frog, but it failed and slithered back up the tree.
We had no idea there were rednecks here in Thailand too!

An albino snake.
Learning about the science of snakes:
Specimens of snakes.
More specimens.
A video on how a snake's venom affects a human body and kills.
The science behind how snake venom works.
Snake facts.

Hope I never have a snake fly into me!!
Learning about snake mythology:



Learning about the development of snakes and their bodies:
How snake embryos develop.
The internal organs of a snake.
The skin of a rattlesnake.
The left one is the skull of a king cobra.
The skeleton of a king cobra.
The skeleton of a python.
The highlight of the day was a "snake show." Staff members brought out different types of snakes, both venomous and non-venomous, to show to the audience, sometimes trying to excite and aggravate them. We learned about each snake, what to do if confronted with each type of snake, and how to catch them (yeah, right). Some of the snakes in the show:
First one up was the king cobra, a venomous snake. The man who brought it out would poke it and aggravate it, so it was trying to get at the man. It was quite exciting.
After pooping in front of an entire audience and being laughed at by all the kids, the king cobra just didn't appear as dangerous anymore....
This man showed us how to catch a king cobra ('cuz it's that easy). I was probably just a foot away from the snake here, which was kind of nerve-wracking.
A Siamese python's venom is actually much more potent than a king cobra's. These Siamese pythons kept hissing at this man to warn him.

Man and snake face off.
A banded krait, also venomous.
A wolf snake.
At the end of the show, the staff brought out a gigantic python and invited audience members to go down to the stage area to have the python put around them for photos. My husband did it, but I passed. My son had wanted to do it, but he worried the python would be too big and too heavy, and he didn't want to try it together with my husband. Overall, a fascinating and entertaining place, and an educational experience, but it'll be a long while before I voluntarily go to a place full of snakes again.





1 comment:

  1. Lol re Frednecks. Yes, I do have photos of python and spouse...on his phone, which can be uploaded to our laptop via blue tooth, but we don't have one of those, so who knows when we'll be able to get it off the camera. :-) :-/

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