by Rick LoBello

In response to Zoo guests supporting efforts to help rattlesnakes during our Round Up Fund program in 2017, our senior staff met with zoo professionals across Texas and proposed forming a Celebration of Snakes Day Council (CSDC). The council is just getting off the ground in organizing a Celebration of Snakes Day at the El Paso Zoo. The event on July 26 from 10am to 3pm will feature up close encounters with some of the snakes in the Zoo collection and snakes from local snake enthusiasts in El Paso. It is our hope that in future years other Zoos in Texas will want to join the El Paso effort and sponsor a Celebration of Snakes Day on their own.

The objective of CSDC is to establish a foundation that assists individuals in Texas who value snakes and recognize their importance to the ecosystem, while also celebrating and safeguarding them from unwarranted killing. Snakes play an important role as apex predators helping to keep rodents in check that impact agriculture while helping to lower the risk of diseases spread by rodents to people like hantavirus, leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, tularemia and salmonella. Celebrating snakes and educating people without killing the snakes is a better way of building community and raising funds because there is no harm to the environment. Anyone wishing to be a part of this effort can contact me here.

On Saturday, July 26 from 10am to 3pm the Zoo will celebrate Reptilia – Celebration of Snakes.

Zoo goers will get to see a variety of different snakes up close in three different locations in the Zoo including at the 10:15 Wild Encounters program in the Wildlife Amphitheater. The program will begin with a Texas Parks and Wildlife Presentation on rattlesnakes. During the rest of the day until 3pm there will be live snakes in the Kalahari Research Station across from the Upper Savanna giraffe and kudu exhibit, in the Event Pavilion to the left of the African lion exhibit and in the El Paso Water Discovery Center to the right of the Macaw exhibit as you enter the Zoo.

Some of the snakes that will be shown to the public include the following:

Photos:
Cover – Trans Pecos rat snake – Squamatologist, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Feature – Boa Constrictor, Department of Environment, Australia, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Annulated Boa – Andrew Dubois, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Boa Constrictor – Jacob Loyacano, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Burmese Python – Rushen, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Desert Kingsnake -Jerry Oldenettel, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Eastern Indigo Snake – GTM NERR, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Madagascar Giant Hognose -Frank Vassen, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake – Jon Nelson, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Trans Pecos Ratsnake – Ashley Wahlberg (Tubbs), Wikimedia Creative Commons
Tri-color Hognose -Keary Molinaro, Wikimedia Creative Commons