Rotterdam Mall Earth Shop Day
On July 28th, several UHA members displayed their favorite reptiles at the Earth Shop in the Rotterdam Mall. All day long, shoppers and passers-by were lured in by Greg Cooper who sat at the front of the store with a Monkey-tailed skink which attracted a lot of attention. A square ring of tables was set up in the back of the store where most of the animals were housed in Neodesha cages or glass aquariums.
Charlie Petersen brought along a Pipa-Pipa Frog which was probably the most unusual looking animal there---looking for the most part like a floating leaf. A big hit was hit 11 foot amelanistic burmese python which easily caught everyone's attention. Charlie also brought along a snake necked turtle and jungle carpet python . As viewers circled the table, they were next brought to attention by the buzz of a yellow timber rattlesnake which shared it's cage with a 4' black rat snake brought along by Matt Harris. Sitting next to them in an aquarium was a 2' juvenile crocodile which was separated by an Eastern box turtle on loan from Kenny Barnett. The crocodile entertained the crowd by snapping up crickets which would swim around when dropped into the crocs pool.
Moving on, next encountered was a beautiful desert terrarium housing a Leopard Gecko brought by Katie Edwards. This was sitting next to Buddy---the world's tamest Tokay Gecko(and a huge one at that!!!!!). Katie also brought her prized Gray tree frogs which eat right out of her hands. These were so cool to watch!.
Moving along the back of the tables, the next serpent displayed was a 2 year old South American Bushmaster brought by Matt. This animal tended to hide under some fake vines since they don't like to be out in the daytime. Ironically, a lady originally from Brazil where this snake is found identified it immediately as she had "seen one as a child!" The next snake, also brought by Matt, drew quite a few comments from folks because it is NY's only endangered rattlesnake---the Eastern Massasauga.
Next in line was a huge gray rat snake brought by Clark and Greg Cooper. This snake wasn't happy though as it was opaque and was a little grumpy. Also brought by Clark and Greg was a beautiful Argentine Boa Constrictor. Clark mentioned that this snake was given to him by a veterinarian. Also along for the ride was a tarantula.
While we were only scheduled to be there for 3 hours, Charlie Petersen stuck around because people kept calling the earth shop to see if the reptiles were still there!!! Thanks Charlie for sticking around. UHA would like to thank Diane at the Earth Shop for inviting us back as this has become an annual event for them!
Charlie Petersen and Katie Edwards with a boa constrictor.
EXPO PICS 2
Venomous Snake Display
Keynote speaker Dean Ripa
Rod Sutton lectured on "Gators"
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