# Sonoma County Reptile Rescue, CA



## arachnocat (Jul 23, 2008)

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!  )







Some lovely snakes













And this crazy serval kitteh.


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## crpy (Jul 23, 2008)

umm...Ocelot


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## arachnocat (Jul 23, 2008)

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


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## crpy (Jul 23, 2008)

lol, yeah they are little wild butts


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## allforstone (Jul 23, 2008)

Any of these animals up for adoption.. id love to help


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## Texas Blonde (Jul 24, 2008)

allforstone said:


> Any of these animals up for adoption.. id love to help


Seriously!  Ill take the albino Crote!  



Thanks for sharing the pic!  Its always nice to see that there are people out there helping with exotic rescues.


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## arachnocat (Jul 24, 2008)

I'm not sure which ones are for adoption, but you can check out their website http://www.nbherps.org


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## myrmecophile (Jul 26, 2008)

Sad but if those rattlesnakes are ever released they will almost certainly die.


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## arachnocat (Jul 26, 2008)

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.


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## myrmecophile (Jul 27, 2008)

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.


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## arachnocat (Jul 27, 2008)

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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