We’ve got snakes!

Don’t worry though. They’re not scary, just misunderstood! Most of them just want to lie around all day and stay up all night instead! Brendon, our Bredl’s Python (Morelia bredli) is from Australia and enjoys hunting birds, rabbits, and even domestic cats! Phillip, our Northern Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucas) is from right here in the United States. His favorite food is eggs. He likes to eat them whole! This snake can even climb up trees! Our Reticulated Python (Malayopython reticulatus) is named Rebecca, and she’s from Southeast Asia! She’s our biggest reptile at the zoo by far and loves swim. She can’t see very well but uses smell (through her tongue!) to sense her surroundings, slithering through the grass of her enclosure, flicking her tongue out to taste the air, to begin to hunt. To be a snake is not to be nefarious as your ecclesiastical sources would tell you, but to be forward-thinking. Bending one’s body – not to conform – but to stretch beyond the limits of previous days, of previous lives. Rebecca’s belly glides through the dirt and the muck that stands in her way. She opens her maw like the gates of hell that we have banished her to; she rises up to consume the lowest urchins of the Earth; she gently nips at the ankles of her keepers, playing with the ready hands that feed her; she commands her visitors with her swaying form, and they should listen closer.

Written by Jeffrey Holmes, MFA – June 15, 2024

Did Ahanu’s animals always have names?

Quinn Johnson 06/15/24

How is Ahanu addressing the recent outbreaks?

Katie Court, Fairless Times 06/15/24

How will your animals remain safe? Could they be already infected?

Katie Court, Fairless Times 06/15/24

My son and I liked the other stories better. This is inappropriate for children.

Delia Manson 06/16/24

😂

Brian Vincent 06/17/24

How do you do the smiley faces? Thanks in advance!

Delia Manson 06/17/24