December 2009

After taking responsibility for the eastern Lost Reptiles Home in October we have had a flood of displaced and lost pet reptiles come in, some have been in very bad condition and have needed serious medical care to bring them back to full health. Others have been obviously well cared for and much loved; a perfect example of this is Hervey the water dragon. Hervey was found running around on a cold rainy night and then made his way to us through the LRH, after leaving all our contact details with the gentleman who found him and also doing a mail drop we received a call from Hervey’s owner. 

What is interesting about this reunion is that Hervey is not only 10 years old but is by far
the biggest and well cared for water dragon we have ever seen, this devotion has made
him as docile as a kitten and therefore great with children such as our daughter Sandy (pictured). Needles to say pet and owner and happily reunited and it’s another happy ending for a Lost Reptile


Spring 2009

With the weather warming up and summer on its way we at Black Snake Productions have our hands full with eggs and babies left right and centre. Some of the new members to our family include white lip and growling grass (endangered) tadpoles and morphing frogs, baby eastern and central bearded dragons, water pythons, over 100 bird eating spider lings, baby geckos and more python, monitor eggs about to hatch as well as a couple of pregnant stumpy tailed lizards, tiger and copper head snakes. Let us know if you’re interested in a pet reptile as we are more than happy to go over it with you.

 

Alpine Copperhead gives birth over night while another 2 try and eat each other

Over the month of February Black snake productions removes huge amounts of snakes from houses and business around Melbourne, but as we are based in the beautiful Yarra Valley we sometimes find species that other snake catchers don’t. Alpine copper heads are generally only found in the southern part of the great dividing range and in Melbourne the Warburton area is the closest you find them.

One very small female that was caught late at night in a garage was not able to be released until the next day, it was obvious to us she was gravid (pregnant) but we didn’t expect her to give birth to the 9 beautiful baby’s that she had that night. All where released separately that morning.

That same week we went to a job at big pats creek to find another two alpine copperheads in the act of eating and getting eaten. The snakes that where exactly the same size (3 feet or so) had been wrestling around for a long period of time before we where called and arrived, when we did arrive we found them almost drowned in the pond! The 2 snakes where separated with great care and released the next day.

Reptile Expo

The 2009 reptile expo held at the show grounds was a great success with huge crowds and hundreds of reptiles for sale including Mangrove monitors, albino carpet pythons and albino blue tongues as well as many common but beautiful species.

The Black snake productions stand was the largest stand at the 2008 expo and was almost half the length of the entire expo building. Having one of the safest venomous snake protocols around we were the only stand with venomous snakes such as Chappell island tiger snakes, copper heads, western browns, tiger snakes red belly’s and more. We also had tree snakes, frill necks, baby crocodiles and juvenile spencers monitors on display.

Following the Darwin theme for this year’s expo, all displays had live plants such as the croc tank with tropical water lily’s and milfoils. During the day we also did 2 talks on keeping crocodiles as pets, although there is not many who have kept crocodiles in the past it is increasing as they become more available and affordable as well as people realizing that the right husbandry and methods can make freshwater crocodiles great pets. It was a great feeling to know so many people appreciated our displays and where talking about them for weeks afterwards, a couple of pictures of the stand can be seen in the back of the May 2009 scales and tales magazine.

Black Saturday

As we are based in the Yarra Valley a large amount of our friends and customers were affected in various ways by the devastating and horrific fires. We hope now that the actual fires have passed that everyone is doing well and we want to let everyone in the affected areas know that our thoughts are with you.

During this time Black Snake Productions received a huge amount of calls for reptiles and other wildlife fleeing the fires, most of these injured animals would have died if not for the care they received from ourselves and more importantly all the hard working vets and wild life volunteers in the region.

All snake removals, wildlife rescues done for this area where on a voluntary basis by Black Snake Productions as we where only to happy to help.

Whittlesea Fire Relief Center

During the week following black Saturday Black snake productions traveled up to a number of relief centers and donated $600 worth of groceries and goods as well as spending a day at the Whittlesea relief center helping to keep the children’s (and adult’s) minds of the disaster. After this experience we are proud to say that we live
in a country full of people who will drop everything to help others in need, it was amazing to see the compassion and generosity of others at these relief centre’s.


Sugar Loaf Pipeline Project

For the last 6 months Black Snake productions has been working with the Sugar loaf pipe line to help remove reptiles such as tiger snakes, red belly blacks, copperheads, blue tongues, lace monitors and legless lizards out of harms way as the construction of the pipe line took place. The critically endangered striped legless lizard (Delma impar) was one of the reptiles that the pipe line and ourselves was very care full to remove as well as preserving habitat for. These lizards are being pushed out of their habitat every day around Melbourne’s north and west as housing development continues without regard for the environment