Jan 8 2009

This was a snake day. I was on my way to my mid-morning assignment at the Wildlife Rescue center when one of the other volunteers came in looking for one of the Thai staff. There was a snake in the field right near the Volunteer center, and our room, and it was potentially a poisonous one! I immediately went for my camera and got there just as a staff member was noosing the 2 foot skinny, green snake with a red collar. He got it behind the head and displayed it for us before placing it in a bag. It would be transported into the forest outside the center, away from potential human victims.

In the late afternoon I went to meet up with Lonnie, a Danish girl who was teaching me the ropes for primate duties. We had to delay our chores. The promised pythons from Bangkok had arrived and were being processed in the Clinic area! Lonnie and I both grabbed cameras and ran over to witness the unloading of 30 snakes. Whenever Bangkok residents find an unwanted python guest in their home, they phone to have them taken away. The snake removers bring them to a dog shelter and when they have collected a number of them they contact the Wildlife Rescue Center. The founder, Edwin Wiek, and some of the Thai staff drive to Bangkok to collect them and bring them back to the center. Those are the lucky ones. Most urban snakes would simply be killed.

Edwin and his staff unloaded a large 4 X 4 cage filled with a mass of large, intertwined snakes and were several bags of smaller ones onto the paved driveway in front of the clinic. The large pythons were processed first. One by one they were noosed, extricated from their neighbours and lifted out onto the driveway where they were inspected for injuries or health problems, injected with fluids to fight dehydration and measured. One was 4 M long and several were just a bit shorter. There was even one rare Burmese Python. Obviously the snakes were nervous and showed it by pooping all over the driveway. The handlers had to be careful not to let the snakes get into a dangerous squeezing act. One managed to coil around Edwin's arm. He freed himself and offered some of the observers to find out how strong they were. Lonnie tried it out and were surprised at the strength of the snake. I got to stroke one of the larger ones. The beautifully patterned snake was smooth and cool to the touch.

Jeanne calms the python

The snakes are rehydrated after their journey

Each snake is measured

Edwin gets Lonnie to test the strength of the python's squeeze

I had to rush away to do my chores before they were all processed. Lonnie and I were refilling water cans at several of the Gibbon enclosures. The water cans are cleaned and filled first thing in the morning and then refilled or topped up three times a day. This was their last chance for fresh water before the night. Edwin told us that he would be driving back towards Bangkok with the pythons once they were all processed and deemed healthy. Edwin would be releasing them into several wild areas on the way, hopefully in a place where they would not wander into a town and scare the inhabitants.