What an awesome week!
It is shameful how little I have blogged lately.Last week I had the privilage of attending a 3 day BIAZA (British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria) conference on venomous snake management and handling at ZSL London Zoo. Several of my personal heros were there giving lectures and talks and it was a thoroughly mind expanding and inspirational time, as well as a fab networking opportunity for us herpers from zoos 
across the country! I got some great writing advise from Mark O'Shea, who is going to do the foreword for a book about gharials I am in the process of writing, and Wolfgang Wurster advised me on items for my first aid kit while in Peru, as precaution to any allergic reactions I may have to the ant bite out there (very useful!!). I am also now equipped with first aid and action skills to deal with a variety of venomous snake bites... always good to know!!
I stayed with my good friend Chris just outside of Oxford, in his caravan (no electricity!) on his little farm, with guinea fowl, geese, turkeys, goats, a great dane (left), loads of cats, a couple of rhea and a wallabey all runing about, which was great fun. There is something rather special about being joined for a group pee by a large nanny goat while having a squat in the dark before bed!! (and again in the morning by a flock of guinea fowl!) The day off we shared after the conference we spent doing a bit of local "herping" (visiting nature reserves to turn over logs and rocks attempting to find reptiles and amphibians). We were quite successful, catching 2 baby grass snakes(top left), and later while we did PYO raspberries, Chris found a baby toad!! RESULT!!
Training update: As you may have noticed I have fallen off the wagon somewhat as regards the diet and training. Especially r.e. running, which I have decided to stop on the grounds that I hate it so much and I was knackering myself to the point where my job was getting difficult! So I figure my zoo job is going to provide me with enough stamina, strength and fitness to survive the Amazon- well I can dream! I am however still swimming twice a week and doing the crunches, pressups and weights every day.
across the country! I got some great writing advise from Mark O'Shea, who is going to do the foreword for a book about gharials I am in the process of writing, and Wolfgang Wurster advised me on items for my first aid kit while in Peru, as precaution to any allergic reactions I may have to the ant bite out there (very useful!!). I am also now equipped with first aid and action skills to deal with a variety of venomous snake bites... always good to know!!I stayed with my good friend Chris just outside of Oxford, in his caravan (no electricity!) on his little farm, with guinea fowl, geese, turkeys, goats, a great dane (left), loads of cats, a couple of rhea and a wallabey all runing about, which was great fun. There is something rather special about being joined for a group pee by a large nanny goat while having a squat in the dark before bed!! (and again in the morning by a flock of guinea fowl!) The day off we shared after the conference we spent doing a bit of local "herping" (visiting nature reserves to turn over logs and rocks attempting to find reptiles and amphibians). We were quite successful, catching 2 baby grass snakes(top left), and later while we did PYO raspberries, Chris found a baby toad!! RESULT!!
Training update: As you may have noticed I have fallen off the wagon somewhat as regards the diet and training. Especially r.e. running, which I have decided to stop on the grounds that I hate it so much and I was knackering myself to the point where my job was getting difficult! So I figure my zoo job is going to provide me with enough stamina, strength and fitness to survive the Amazon- well I can dream! I am however still swimming twice a week and doing the crunches, pressups and weights every day.
Labels: BIAZA, grass snake, great dane, PYO, venom
posted by Grace at 8:45 pm
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