We've had a few people call up The Garden Clinic this week with snakes in their backyards, we called up the Australian reptile to see if they had noticed the same thing.
They had this to say:
The Australian Reptile Park has received a high number of enquiries from people living in Sydney and Central Coast area who have sighted snakes in their back yard. Venomous snakes commonly found in the Sydney basin and on the Central Coast are Red Belly Black snakes, Eastern Brown snakes, Death Adders, Brown Tree snakes, along with non-venomous Diamond Pythons and Green Tree Snakes. Australia is home to the ten most venomous terrestrial snakes in the world including the world’s deadliest, the Inland Taipan.
The Australian Reptile Park’s Senior Curator, Tim Faulkner explains: “It takes just one warm day to bring snakes out looking for food and looking for a mate. I stress that finding a snake is not a bad sign, it’s actually the sign of a healthy eco-system. Don’t believe that a good snake is a dead snake – good education is the best way of dealing with them.”
With this in mind, the Australian Reptile Park has developed a brand new Snake & Spider Safety Seminar launching the first one on Saturday, 26th November 2011. The seminar will be run by the Park’s Head of Venom, John Mostyn, who has 15 years’ experience as a snake handler. It’s designed to educate people living in local areas about where and when they’re likely to find snakes, ID snakes, teach people how to keep their home safe and what to do if they encounter (or are bitten by) a snake. It will also de-myth a lot of incorrect snake tales including what attracts snakes, whether or not snakes hypnotise their prey, do Tiger snakes really chase people and whether snakes milk cows!
Participants will also witness a snake milking in the restricted venom room. The Australian Reptile Park has run a venomous snake milking program since 1950 and on average saves over 300 lives a year in Australia alone. We manage a population of Australia’s most dangerous snakes and currently house 300.
The seminar will also cover Australia’s deadly spiders the deadly funnel web and red back spiders. Participants will be educated about their habits, myths, first aid and observe a funnel web spider milking. The Australian Reptile Park is the sole provider of venom to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, where it is manufactured into lifesaving anti-venom. The milking program celebrates its 30 year anniversary this year and there have been no recorded deaths by funnel web spider bites since its initiation.
The seminar will run for 2 hours, from 10am – 12noon. The cost is $99 per person, which includes Seminar, Park entry and a take-home information kit. The seminars will run every month throughout summer and group or individual bookings can be made by calling the Australian Reptile Park on (02) 4340 1022.
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