martinzoo

Sunday the Reptileman came to our neighborhood clubhouse.

GB has been looking forward to this for weeks. And let’s just say that he was not disappointed.

RM started his program with a Florida Box Turtle. We learned that the FBT is the only turtle that can pull into his shell totally. Usually this is a distinction between turtles and tortoises. Only tortoises can pull head and legs totally under the shell, with the FBT being the only exception. We all got to feel the hard shell on this turtle.

Next, was the Leopard Lizard. He, obviously, gets his name from the spots on his hard armor-like protective layer.

The Blue-tongue Skink was next. He gets his name from the fact that he HAS a blue tongue! LOL… He was unreal looking. It was explained to us that the Skink is a lizard, and that all lizards let go of their tails as a defense mechanism. Not to worry, though, they grow back.

The Black King Snake was pretty big, and pretty creepy. I will go on record here saying that I did not partake of ANY petting. My child, and most of the other children were happy to touch, but not me… They call this snake a “king” snake because he will eat other snakes… even if they are bigger than he is. Some people like having these guys in the yard because they will even eat a venomous snake…. But, once again, not me.

The piece de resistance was the Burmese Python. He was so big and scary, that the guy kept him in a huge, zippered duffel with a padlock! He explained that this was a constrictor snake. That it will wrap itself around you (and he was making sure that this guy did not make himself comfortable around his neck area), and squeeze until you can no longer breathe. He will use his teeth only to keep his prey in place.

The truly weirdo thing about this snake was that he actually had TOES! Amazing! I hope they show up in the picture.

You will be happy to know that GB represented homeschoolers very well. He knew more than any other kid there, and his Daddy was very proud of his knowledge. It’s funny, but before we started homeschooling he wouldn’t have said a word in a crowd that large. But he was so happy to know the answers that his hand shot up at each question. I heard several gasps when he told everybody that a snake was not being aggressive when it flicked his tongue out, but that he was smelling, or “tasting” the air. It was a proud homeschooling day!