Sonoma County Reptile Rescue, CA

arachnocat

Arachnoangel
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Nov 27, 2005
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I went to my first North Bay Herp Society meeting last night at the Sonoma county reptile rescue.
This is an awesome place to visit. I could only take pics inside because it was at night, but the backyard has palm trees with huge iguanas living in them. They also have box turtles, giant tortoises and sugar gliders. Hope to get some pics of that area next time.
The reptile rescue re-locates rattlesnakes and finds homes for unwanted herps and amphibians. They also have some sick animals that they are nursing back to health. It's always a fun place to visit.

Rattlesnakes (was cool to get this close to an angry rattlesnake):






A prehensile-tailed skink



Leopard Geckos



Cute little newborn rubber boas (I want one! :D )



Some lovely snakes





And this crazy serval kitteh.



 

arachnocat

Arachnoangel
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Ah, that's prolly what it was. Knew it was one of them spotty kittehs.
 

myrmecophile

Arachnolord
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Dec 22, 2006
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Sad but if those rattlesnakes are ever released they will almost certainly die.
 

arachnocat

Arachnoangel
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The rattlesnakes are native they will be ok if they are released. They end up in people's yards sometimes so the rescue gets called to remove them. They are released far away from people in protected areas.
They do keep some of them though to use for education.
 

myrmecophile

Arachnolord
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Unfortunately not entirely true. Being native does not automatically guarantee their survival. There a number of studies which show that rattlesnakes and presumably other snakes have very tight and distinct home ranges. The studies show that any snakes moved more than a relatively short distance do not settle in to their new areas, they constantly prowl looking for familiar scent trails and land marks. They do not feed or adapt. Ultimately they die. Additionally the studies show that the snakes remember the spot where capture occurred and only very rarely return to it.That said, I understand relocations are needed, but they need to be done with care otherwise the animals still end up dead.
 

arachnocat

Arachnoangel
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Nov 27, 2005
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792
That's interesting. I'll have to ask them how they deal with that next time I go. I think it's worth it to try to put them back in the wild. Otherwise they would be killed.
 
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