Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 30 December 2017
Above: Desert warthog
Copyright De Jong & Butynski
Learning more about lesser-known wildlife
There’s more than the Desert Warthog that we’re learning about in Lolldaiga and why it’s important to know all that makes for Kenya’s biodiversity.
“To be able to protect biodiversity,” states Yvonne de Jong of Lolldaiga Hills Research Programme “you need to know which taxa are where.” Continue reading “Landscapes of Lolldaiga”→
Four amazing women make a career of working with snakes. Attending the tenth international snakebite seminar at Bio-Ken snake farm in Watamu recently, each narrates the path taken.
Handling live venomous snakes is an extra-ordinary noble but extremely dangerous profession.
One reason for handling venomous snakes is to milk them – which is the only way to obtain snake venom to produce supplies of anti-venom. Without anti-venom being readily available and administered, a bite from any venomous snake can be deadly. Ironically, anti-venom can only be produced from ample supplies of venom from live venomous snakes. And it takes some dexterity to do that.
Diana Barr
Diana Barr keeping a keen eye on her students as they perform venom extraction from a Papuan taipan under her instruction at the Charles Campbell Toxinology Centre in Papua New Guinea. (Left: Owen Paiva, right Benjamin Wawagu Bande). The venom is sent to the Instituto Clodomiro Picado in Costa Rica where it is used to produce lifesaving antivenom. This highly venomous snake has a nervous temperament which coupled with its speed and agility make it an extremely dangerous snake to work with. It is responsible for around one thousand deaths per year in Papua New Guinea. Picture courtesy: Barr
Diana Barr working with an Indian cobra. This beautiful snake is one of India’s ‘Big Four’ and is responsible for thousands of deaths every year in India. Picture courtesy: Barr
Young and dynamic, Barr’s job as technical support officer at the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne and Global Snakebite Initiative, an Australian non-profit organisation working to reduce snakebite deaths and disability around the world, puts her in very close contact with the most venomous snakes in the world.
Learning about the Reptilian World of Snakes and Scorpions
Main picture: Nancy Njeri and Kyle Ray – profesional snake handlers at Bio-Ken Snake Farm Watamu, Kenya
Copyright Rupi Mangat
A gorgeous tropical blue snake is twined around a twig. It’s a speckled bush snake and not venomous. Nancy Njeri, the professional snake handler is giving the grand tour of the snake farm that was started in 1980 by the late and very amazing James Ashe and his wife Sanda. Sanda still handles the snakes and other injured animals and return them to the wild. She has the reputation of being the finest snake-handler – especially the venomous green mamba.
Njeri on the other hand is working her way up to the gold-level –when she will be allowed to handle the really venomous snakes like black mambas – alone.
“Speckled bush snakes come indifferent colours,” tells the young woman and continues to take us around, giving tit-bits about the reptiles in residence. “This is the twig snake,” she points to another thin, long snake that really looks like the paler cousin of the speckled bush snake only that as Njeri tells us, it is a venomous snake that has no antivenom manufactured for its bite. I’d hate to be bitten by this one (or any other) as it means going to hospital for a blood transfusion.
“Anyway,” continues the young woman nonchalantly, “snakes don’t bite to kill. They bite to defend themselves.”
That’s so nice to know.
Winnie Bore – activist and founder of Snakebite-Kenya – http://www.snabirc-kenya.org/ to provide anti-venom in rural areas, help rehabilitate victims disabled or visually impaired by snakebites and develop a research programme simply because there is very little information on snakebites in Kenya. Copyright picture Rupi Mangat
Jackson Mwamure is the Snake Man of Mida Creek Watamu Kenya. He has a genuine love for these amazing reptiles, who are more friend than foe to humans. Sita Snake Park is a collection of a variety of reptiles are found in this beautiful UN Protected Biosphere Area. The Park is open to the public and everyone can appreciate the snakes, tortoises and a chameleon, in a safe environment, approved by Kenya Wildlife Service.
Learn more about reptiles – and visit Sita Snake Park when in Watamu.
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