Reptile Zoo News!

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Reptile Village

Hi Everyone!

So it has been a while since we’ve shared some Reptile Zoo News, and now is as good a time as any, because we’ve got lots of great offers and exciting things happening around here right now!

FREE TEA/COFFEE FOR EVERYONE IN JANUARY

Yep that’s right, beat those January blues with a visit to the Reptile Zoo and receive a free cup of tea or coffee with every adult admission! We know its miserable out there and if it’s not frosty it seems the wind is wrecking the place so why not visit us? Don’t forget we are a fully indoor Zoo so no matter what the weather is like, we’re always open AND lets be honest, who doesn’t like something for FREE

Ps, We also have FREE wifi!

SENIOR CITIZENS/OAPS SPECIAL OFFER

Attention all OAP’s/ Senior Citizens we have a great new offer just for you because we know that its not just little kids that love to visit our Zoo but you do too!

Every Wednesday throughout January and February we are offering OAP’s a special discounted admission of just €6 each!

So why not visit us on a Wednesday for just €6 and still receive your FREE tea or coffee, we also have copies of the Kilkenny Reporter newspaper for you to read and take home!

OUR TEAM IS GROWING!

As you may have seen on our blog over the past month or so, we have been on the lookout for someone new to join our ever expanding team!

We had tonnes of applications and this week we whittled them down to about 20 people or so, and our interview process has begun! We will be contacting our chosen candidate on Monday afternoon and as soon as they are settled in, they will do a guest blog post to tell you all how they are getting on!

AMBASSADOR PROGRAMME!

The Reptile Village Team love partnering up with the young people of Ireland for projects and fund raising initiatives and this year will see the launch of our very own Zoo Ambassador Programme!

I can’t give away too much about it as we’re not quite ready to launch it just yet, but what I can say is if you think you can raise money for conservation, become a vital member of our team and would love the chance to go on a herpetology expedition in a tropical jungle somewhere, then keep your eyes peeled, more info coming soon!

COMMUNIONS AND CONFIRMATIONS

This year we are fortunate enough to once again be very busy for the Communion and Confirmation season, BUT that’s exactly why we’re mentioning it here!

We don’t want you to miss out and we are booking up very quickly so if you are thinking of having the Reptile Zoo team visit your home or venue for your child’s big day, please get in touch ASAP as we don’t want to disappoint!

VALENTINES DAY COUPLES OFFER

Okay lads now don’t panic, V-Day is still a few weeks away (February 14th for those of you that may be unsure) but we are offering couples a special TWO FOR ONE ADMISSION OFFER on February 14th, 15th and 16th so why not have a date with a difference?

Valentines Day will mark the second wedding anniversary of our Yellow Foot Tortoise Michelle and Michael and we are happy to report that they are still as madly in love as ever!

That’s all for now folks, but be sure to check out our next blog post in the coming weeks and as always if you have any questions or would like to make a booking please let contact us on info @ reptilevillage.net or by phone on 056 77 26757!

The Reptile Village Team

Images:

www.nywaterway.com

www.chicagonow.com

www.fotosearch.com

www.degrassi.wikia.com

www.fcc-stillwater.org

www.partyworld.ie

www.nationalhrabor.com

Project Chicchan Guatemala (part 2)

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Reptile Village

It’s been a while (as we’ve hit our peak season here!) but here’s the updates from Zoo Director James Hennessy on the rest of the Guatemala expedition!

I’ve now returned from expedition and have been settling back into the hectic Summer season here in the zoo. The last week of the expedition turned out to be as fruitful as the start! The final count for the completed survey was 17 species of snake, 19 species of lizard, 14 species of amphibians, 4 species of turtle and 1 species of crocodile! Not only that, a lot of the finds are new range extensions and we even have a new species record for the country! A species of snail eating snake that hasn’t been recorded in Guatemala previously! Of all the expeditions I’ve been on, all over the world, this one has been one of the most successful as regards species number and diversity.

We were joined on the expedition by Barbara and Julian from Conserv-Action, who were making documentarys on various conservation projects in Central America for French television. This made for lots of fun with cameras strapped to our heads running through the jungle chasing snakes! Made for very interesting footage though and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product. The guys are continuing their travels through the rest of Central America until September and you can follow their updates online on their website.

Before the expedition ended, we were joined by some senior members of CONAP. This is the Guatemalan equivalent to Ireland’s Parks and Wildlife Service. After a very positive meeting between CONAP, Rowland from Project Chicchan, the management of the Biological Station, the guys from Conserv-Action, and myself, we have made a constructive, long-term relationship between Reptile Village Zoo, CONAP and Project Chicchan.

As well as helping to back Project Chiccan through the supply of equipment and volunteers, we shall also be training local educators to conduct outreach programs, similar to our “Zoo to You” program so they can travel to Guatemalan schools and teach children the difference between harmless and more dangerous snakes, how to deal with them, and how important they are to their ecosystem. We’ll also be producing an identification poster which will be distributed to schools and public buildings in a bid to help the locals better understand the animals which they have to live along side.

It’s busy times ahead for us! If you’d like to get involved, either as a volunteer to help with the surveying in the field, or to help with some of the organisational end of things here in the zoo, just get in contact!

James

Project Chicchan Guatemala

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Reptile Village

So as some of you may know, our Zoo Director, James Hennessy, travels abroad as much as he can to take part in research expeditions.

His past adventures have included carrying out King Cobra research in India and studying Anacondas in Venezuela to name but a few (we admit it, we’re jealous too)!

This year he chose to travel to Guatemala for almost 3 weeks of research and trekking through the jungle, here is his first report from Project Chicchan Guatemala!

Ok so this is the first report from the field here in Guatemala on Project Chicchan. A little background info first though. Reptile Village Zoo have teamed up with Project Chicchan to offer support to the herpetofauna survey of Laguna del Tigre National Park in Guatemala, where at the moment, we’re trying to find suitable survey sites to set up a long term survey of the reptiles and amphibians of the area, about which, very little is known. The area is incredibly rich in biodiversity and habitat types.

The biological research station, Las Guacamayas, is our base camp here for the expedition. Life is pretty good here with running water and electricity a lot of the time. A luxury compared to the stations I’m normally used to! From here we conduct both day and night surveys, heading into the jungle catching snakes, lizards, turtles and frogs. All the animals except the snakes are processed in the field. We take details like size, weight and sex of the animal, along with some details like the temperature. where it was basking etc.

We bring the snakes back to the station to process for both convenience and safety reasons. A large percentage of the snakes here are venomous so it’s much safer to process them in a controlled environment.

It’s been a really successful expedition so far and we’ve been catching species such as the Central American Lance Head Viper (Bothrops asper), Helmeted Iguanas (Corytophanes cristatus), Neotropical Wood Turtles (Rhinoclemmys annulata) and Marine toads (Bufo marinus).

We’ve also found a species of Mexican snake-eating snakes (Clelia scytalina) which hasn’t been recorded before in this area, and not to mention the species of coral snake (Micrurus sp.) which we found last night that we still haven’t identified! So it’s turning out to be a very exciting place as regards species!

Most of our main surveying takes place at night, which is when it’s cool enough for most of the species to become most active. Day time temperatures get up to the mid thirties with the humidity reaching 100%. In the mornings we process the animals from the night before, before the day gets too hot. I tend to spend most of the hotter parts of the day in a kayak on the river checking out the local population of Morelet’s Crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii).

That’s all for now. I’ll hopefully have another update next week if I can piggyback along on one of the locals wifi again! I’ll also have some better pictures when I return. Time to head back into the jungle again now though but first, I’ve to remove an over friendly parasitic tick from my upset thigh…!

James

We know the hardest part of the whole experience for James is having little to no phone service and internet access so he can’t update his Facebook profile!!

Hopefully we will have another report before he returns to Ireland next week!