This is me at the John Ball Zoo Reptile Day. It is when the Michigan Society of Herpetologists (which I joined) comes to John Ball Zoo in a building with all their reptiles, amphibians and of course I can't leave out the lovely tarantulas! My Grandma and Grandpa took me along! The picture above is of me just before a tree frog almost climbed on me. I had to find two tree frogs in order to get into the building. One was sleeping, and one was awake. They were pretty cute.
This is a baby American alligator. It has large teeth so they had to have tape on his mouth. American alligators are the biggest alligators in America, growing to be over 6 feet! Yes, American alligators are very amazing!
Snake haters - don't look at this that much! This is a python - one of the longest snakes in the world! I'm glad this one doesn't eat people! The snake on the log in the background is not real, it is just a model. :) There were many of those cool models in the building.
The sign on the cage says "Do not put fingers in cage!" I guess this guy just chomps on fingers! It is an iguana and will be defensive by biting if you try to pet him through the cage. Why I'm looking at him is because I'm very curious and wonder why he would do such a thing!
This is a king snake, who has looped inside the nice lady's belt! Talk about a live belt! He is a brown king snake. He eats rodents. Mice, if you're reading this, from now on: Beware of the king snake! They are able to be kept as pets, but there is one snake that is easier to keep than this! That would be my snake, Digger.
Toadstool toad house! I have a friend who visited this at a different time that I think probably liked this a lot! :) This is called Bufo americus or, American toad. I have caught quite a few of these at home. I even know some people who like to keep them for pets!
These are my mom's favorite animals. They are...TURTLES! These little guys could make a mating pair, only they aren't the same type. You would think "hey, they're both turtles, right?" But they have different genes (no that doesn't mean turtles have jeans like the ones you would wear). Their backbone is fused to their shell, so once they die, their body decomposes and if you look in the turtle shell, you will see the backbone along the top of the shell.
If you are my aunt, you will not like this picture! The tarantula seen here is called a pink-toed tarantula. If you were to pick it up and look underneath its foot, you would see some sticky pads on it. This helps with climbing up walls and staying on the area around their web.
You can see that the bigger the shell, the bigger the tortoise or turtle inside! This big guy here was the biggest one I saw at the Reptile Show. The smaller one, on the other hand, would be just the right size for me! :)
"Oh wow! Turtle eggs!" These two turtles have mated (yes, they have the same genes) and the female has laid eggs. In approximately one to two months, they will hatch! Unless they were laid a month ago. ;)
Yes, that's right, that's me...sticking my tongue out like a snake. The sign below me says "consssssssservation," said by the snakes. This was pretty close to the place where we were going to touch stingrays!
The stingrays were pretty pesky on this day! They only wanted to sleep, sleep, sleep on the bottom of the sea. :( But, I still did touch a couple.
These are little rock hopper penguins! :) The one in the background that looks like it is preening is cleaning itself. Then, there were three other animals inside cages with the penguins - a tarantula, a snake, and a weasel. There were also birds flying around the sanctuary.
