Where are the best giant boa exhibits and can zoos help demystify giant snakes?

[DavidBrown]

There are some recent photo comments on anaconda exhibits mentioning that many anaconda exhibits seem quite small for their inhabitants. I imagine that this applies to python and boa constrictor exhibits too.

Where are the best exhibits for giant snakes in the zoo world that are models for what an anaconda or other giant snake species should look like?

The best anaconda exhibit that I have seen is at the California Academy of Sciences Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco. It has a cool interpretive exhibit where you can stick your arm in a simulated python coil and feel it squeeze you.

Speaking of interpretive exhibits, much of what the public "knows" about giant snakes seems to come from idiotic Hollywood movies like "Anaconda" that portray them as monsters. Are there any giant snake exhibits in zoos that explicitly interpret well that these are animals with important roles in their ecosystems, not Hollywood monsters?

The best example that I have seen of this is a sign in the San Diego Zoo reptile house that explains anacondas and pythons are not monsters.

Zoos and aquariums help show people that gorillas and sharks are not monsters as shown in the movies. Can they do the same thing for giant snake species?

 

[Chlidonias]

There are some recent photo comments on anaconda exhibits mentioning that many anaconda exhibits seem quite small for their inhabitants. I imagine that this applies to python and boa constrictor exhibits too.

this applies to pretty much all snake tanks in the majority of zoos. Very very often the tank is only one or two lengths of the snake's own body length -- in fact in the case of giant boids the tanks are quite regularly shorter than the snake's body length. (Have a search through the gallery and you'll see endless numbers of tiny snake tanks). Private hobbyists are quick to point out their own self-serving opinion that snakes don't need room -- one person on this forum a while back even went so far as to say that a particular species of python needs to be kept in small tanks! Anyone who's ever seen a wild snake in active mode knows how fast and far they can travel. Just because they are still for long periods doesn't mean they don't need room.

In case you haven't realised, poor reptile husbandry is a real bug-bear of mine!

The best anaconda exhibit that I have seen is at the California Academy of Sciences Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco. It has a cool interpretive exhibit where you can stick your arm in a simulated python coil and feel it squeeze you.

I like the sound of that a lot.

 

[chizlit]

If my memory serves me right Prague has a good sized anaconda exhibit.

 

[Stefka]

If my memory serves me right Prague has a good sized anaconda exhibit.

You´re absolutely right, just wanted to post that

Here´s a great picture of a photographer in the tank with the anaconda and river stingray - it gives you the right scale of the exhibit (I think it´s even wider)

http://www.zoopraha.cz/cs/o-zoo/novinky/okenko-reditele-nova-celebrita

Not sure if this exhibit helps to improve anaconda´s image, but at least they share the exhibit with another species, so "they can´t be that bad".

 

[Javan Rhino]

Private hobbyists are quick to point out their own self-serving opinion that snakes don't need room -- one person on this forum a while back even went so far as to say that a particular species of python needs to be kept in small tanks!

I think this is referring to me as I remember saying something similar to this, but not 'needs.' I stated that I had been told by others that it was beneficial to keep young bredls pythons in a smaller enclosure for feeding, as they can get quite stressed defending too large a territory - I can't remember the details exactly, but it was along those lines. Somebody I was told of had a stressed individual that was a non-feeder, and it only calmed down enough to eat when it was put in a smaller vivarium/faunarium

I could be wrong, I'm just stating an example and what I've been told by others, it isn't my own husbandry techniques, just second hand info

 

[Chlidonias]

I think this is referring to me as I remember saying something similar to this, but not 'needs.'

the direct quote was "(Bredls Python is a prime example of a snake that needs a tiny tank)" [I wasn't going to name who said this, but it wasn't you directly ]

 

[Javan Rhino]

the direct quote was "(Bredls Python is a prime example of a snake that needs a tiny tank)" [I wasn't going to name who said this, but it wasn't you directly ]

kk - I've just re-read through that part of the thread and I think it was just a misuse of the word 'need' - I think hatchlings can benefit from smaller tanks, but with plenty of hiding it isn't a necessity

 

[DavidBrown]

Thanks for the opinions and feedback. Does anybody have an opinion on whether there are any good giant boid exhibits that help debunk the popular perception of them as monsters? Is this a role that zoos can or should play?

 

[reduakari]

Thanks for the opinions and feedback. Does anybody have an opinion on whether there are any good giant boid exhibits that help debunk the popular perception of them as monsters? Is this a role that zoos can or should play?

I would say that for the most part zoos play up the size and "menace" of giant snakes, a practice with origins including the Bronx Zoo's long-standing but never redeemed offer of $25,000 for a snake measuring 30 feet long. Then again, there was the ridiculous but effective PR campaign by Columbus Zoo to get people to come see the very large captive (in)bred mutant Reticulated Python by naming it "Fluffy."

 

[Javan Rhino]

Thanks for the opinions and feedback. Does anybody have an opinion on whether there are any good giant boid exhibits that help debunk the popular perception of them as monsters? Is this a role that zoos can or should play?

Zoos should certainly be working to get the general public more interested and less scared of not just giant snakes, but all reptiles, amphibians and inverts.

Fear of these is an unreasonable taught behaviour, and it's one that shouldn't still be standing today. People should learn to respect them, as yes many are dangerous, but they shouldn't be viewed as monsters.