Silver Scale Awared Winner: Salazar
Silver Scale Award Winner: Salazar


2003
Reptile Beauty Pageant

19 July 2003 - not quite as hot as last year, but still pretty steamy in the afternoon. Pantera was blue, so only Peton accompanied me this year. Much easier with only one snake to handle, I must admit! We arrived early, shortly after 10, and stayed until it was all over. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of everyone, although I did try. And some pictures were better left out of the record - I'm not a "real" photographer, only a person with a camera. ;) Sorry I missed the Emerald Swift - only saw it as I was going down the stairs to the parking lot!

If anyone else took pictures and would like to send them to me, I'll be happy to put them up (with credit). It was a good day, and it's nice to have a record. If there are corrections, please let me know. There were many animals and it was easy to get confused!

This year was completely different from prior years, as it was a Reptile Beauty Pageant, not just for snakes. There were numerous lizards and turtles, and it did add a great deal to the day to see all these other interesting and beautiful animals. Some of the exhibits had educational displays accompanying them, for instance the Box Turtle with a broken shell, the Schneider's Skink, and the Red Eared Sliders. Kernel, Maizey, and Salazar had a video/cd. There were handouts for the Veiled Chameleons.

spur thigh tortoise Spur Thigh Tortoises are popular.
spurs This is how they get their common name.

Two young cornsnakes, very bright and colorful. IIRC, their names were Speedy and Flicker. Flicker won first place for "most likely to escape". :)
grey banded kingsnake A Blair's phase grey banded kingsnake - which won the prize for Longest Indigenous Snake.
Closeup of his face. This is a big snake! Very handsome. :) snake's face

Kernel the cornsnake is always a sight for sore eyes! His friend Maisey did not get into a photo, much to my dismay. I thought I'd caught both of them but apparently not. Maybe next year...
timber rattlesnake Peton and I took a break and went upstairs (into the air-conditioning!) to visit with the Big Timber Rattlesnakes, but there are renovations going on, and they were not on display this year. Instead we saw a smaller Timber Rattler -
and a Copperhead. It's easy to see why folk step on copperheads, they are so cryptic in their environment. :) It's a bit dark in that room, so the pictures are rather dim. I hate to use a flash there. copperhead

red eared slider Reminding me of my childhood - Red Eared Sliders! A big one
and a little one! Mine always got soft shells and died young - but we had no care instructions, only cans of dried flies (really dried fly skins) to feed them, poor little things. Nowadays things are often better. These two were largest and smallest indigenous turtles at the show. baby turtle

Later in the afternoon the spur thigh tortoises were "put out to pasture" to feed on the grass! Very neat!
big spur thigh tortoise grazing The big one -
and the little one. :) young tortoise grazing

This handsome Iguana almost hurt himself - at first he was in a nice wire cage, but he found he could stick his head through the openings and then he couldn't pull back easily. :( He spent the rest of the day in a large dog crate which had much smaller openings. Better for him but not nearly as easy for us to see him.
Here are some lizards I have never seen before: a Schneider Skink (named Digit) who spent most of the day hanging out just like this, Schneider skink
blue tongue skink and a Blue Tongue Skink. The skin on this lizard is smooth and shell-like to the touch, very nice. His legs are quite short so he was not able to get out of his sweaterbox even with the lid off.

One of several Bearded Dragons.
A lady came with two attractively furnished cages, the all-over-screen kind. She brought Veiled Chameleons. Willahmina, a little female. little female chameleon
big male chameleon Arlo, the big male.

This is a box lot of small snakes - my favorite is the Hognose, in the lower right corner. What a face! :) I think they're all feeling the heat. We all were, by this time. ;)
Argentine boa Argentine boas! This large male, Genghis, had recently shed, and he shimmered in the sunlight. :) My photos did not begin to show his beauty.
Candace is headed for a long and happy life in a home where people understand and care. Argentine boa

Peton did some Public Relations work for snakes.
box turtle Of course there were box turtles, they are pretty and popular.
This one, Sprint, shows her nicely healed shell. Since she was found on a roadside, the injury was probably caused by a car. :( box turtle with broken shell

The day was long, and finally Peton got tired. We were glad to be home again. She had a nice bath with soap to remove any odd chemicals or dirt she may have picked up during this full day and then she went to bed.

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19 July 2003
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