Snakes at the Aquarium! 🐟 🐍🐡

Last month we had the pleasure of teaching a Level 1 Venomous Handling Certification Course to the staff at the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island!

They house a number of different native venomous snakes, including the famous and beloved Jeff - a Carolina pygmy rattlesnake! When maintaining a collection of venomous snakes in captivity, it's useful to have more personnel equipped to work with them if the need arises.

The aquarium also has an awesome outdoor native pollinator garden! They sometimes get wild snakes passing through there because of the surrounding habitat, so we trained some of the horticulture staff as well.

The exhibits were super impressive. We especially loved Meatloaf, the pufferfish. He is the semi-official door greeter and will come right up to get a look at you as you enter the facility. He is a curious little fish who likes to take nibbles when they enter the tank for maintenance, so he's been trained to enter a basket when they need in there, for everyone's safety.

We got a special behind the scenes tour including a look at their sea turtle rehabilitation facility!

Of course, Eric and Sean took the opportunity to explore some of the local habitat after class.

A little road cruising turned up a few snakes, including this big plain-bellied water snake eating a large bullfrog. We directed traffic around the snake while it finished its meal.

Last but not least... we were amazingly fortunate enough to see not one, but THREE red wolves! A mother and pup with tracking collars, and then another pup that had not yet been fitted with a collar. With an estimated wild population of only about 20 individuals remaining, these are probably the rarest animals in the United States. This is an encounter we will never forget.

Thanks again to the wonderful staff at the NC Aquarium, we hope to be back soon!

If you're interested in hosting a training for your facility, reach out to Sean McKnight, Training Specialist at smcknight@savethebuzztails.org or 1-800-690-5638 (ext 804).