The Young Naturalists had another great turn out for our April excursion when 30 children met at the Western Australian Reptile Park in Henley Brook, to learn about reptiles.
Gane Doyle Jnr started the afternoon with a brief instruction on what to do in the event of a snake bite. Gane told us his own stories of being bitten by snakes, most recently a Tiger Snake. We learned how the commonest venomous snakes around Perth, the Dugite and the Tiger Snake, can choose whether to give victims a “dry bite”, in which no venom is used, and how this is one of the reasons that very few people receive lethal bites despite the extremely venomous snakes in our bushland areas; the other main reason being that snakes are very good at avoiding people.
Our group then went on to the part of the afternoon we were all looking forward to: holding reptiles themselves. This began with the children sitting patiently on the floor while Bobtail Skinks were passed around. We learned the differences between Blue-tongued Skinks and Bobtails, and what to do if you one bites your finger (don't pull it out!).
We then saw a beautiful Olive Python, which would have been far too big for most of the children to hold even if they had the chance. This snake, which is found in the Pilbara and is big enough to swallow a Rock Wallaby, probably weighed more than most of the children!
We then passed around some very patient Stimson's Pythons and Carpet Pythons, both non-venomous snakes found in W.A.
For the rest of the afternoon, the children were free to explore the Park on their own, where they found, among other things, Euro's, Freshwater Crocodiles, and Dingo's. This gave the adults a chance to chat and to hear more stories from the Doyle family. Particularly fascinating, was the story of how a Wedge-tailed Eagle arrived at the Park after an eye-witness saw a Peregrine Falcon strike the bird and break its wing.
After an exciting afternoon, I was pleased to hear that a few new families were planning to join the club and hope to become regular Young Nats.
Steve Page