Odatria_14_NOV13 - Victorian Herpetological Society

VHS MEETING REVIEWMichael Taylor - September 18 th , 2013By Elaine BrockBefore we knew it, the next Victorian HerpetologicalSociety meeting of 2013 was upon us. Prahran RSL hasbeen our venue for some time now and has become ahomely place for us meet and exchange stories and goodcheer. The date of the 2014 Expo was confirmed as 22ndFebruary 2014. A number of sponsors have been signedand it is shaping up to be our biggest and best Expo todate. It will also be held for the first time in the Expo Hallwith full climat control functionality.The meeting proper began with the auction, which wasa great success. Auction items included a Children’spython, Coastal carpet python, several Eastern waterdragons, reptile multi-vitamins and calcium, a dimmingthermostat, a snake hook and several herp related booksand magazines.MIKE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDED:• 2 x pairs of Bearded dragons and Centralian Bluetongueskept together in a 1600 X 1300 x 1800 cm exhibitwithout any conflict (which works so long as there are nottoo many males kept together - otherwise they fight)• The ‘Rainforest Display’, housing a Green treepython, 1 x male Boyd’s forest dragon, 5 x Green tree frogsand one pair of Leaf-tailed gecko’s. All animals get alongwithout intimidation, ‘nervousness’ or predator and preyrelationships. Also, viewers need to really look closely tosee the Green tree frogs, which creates interest.It was then time to call on Michael Taylor (Senior ReptileKeeper - Zoos Vic), who describes reptile keeping as his‘first love’.VHS was grateful to Michael for stepping in on short noticeto talk about his experiences (both successes and failures)over his many years as a reptile keeper at HealesvilleSanctuary.Guest Speaker - Michael TaylorThe first part of Michael’s presentation was about thecreation of ‘Mixed species exhibits’ at the ‘Reptile House’.This type of exhibit became necessary at HealesvilleSanctuary due to lack of physical space, competingpopularity of animals (i.e. mammals and birds - being morepopular than reptiles) and the desire to present exhibitswhich capture public imagination whilst providing the‘maximum number of species on display’.Michael spoke openly about what did and didn’t work duringhis experience as a keeper (working with Mike Swan) andof the research and complexity behind planning these typeof exhibits.• Keeping a Brown tree snakes with White-lippedtree frogs and Splendid tree frogs. Since the Brown snakewas a juvie it was raised on mice - not frogs. The snakehas never attempted to consume the frogs - ‘they sit onthe snakes’.... However, large frogs were selected for thisexhibit as Brown snakes generally eat frogs.• The Python exhibit = ’Centrepiece of the ReptileHouse’, which measures 3300 x 2200 x 2500 cm andhouses 2 x Scrub pythons, 1 x Jungle carpet python, and 1x Land mullet. The exhibit was ‘tested’ firstly with a Majorskink without any problem, and later replaced with a Landmullet. The Land mullet appears ‘cautious of the snakes’but not overly disturbed. There is a lot of ground coverprovided for the mullet and when it was firstly introduced