So I was out grocery shopping today and ended up buying more than I could carry. I queued for a taxi, right behind a family of two kids and their mom. To attract taxis to this mall, one had to regularly press a button that triggered a sign somewhere on the highway, letting taxis know that people were waiting. The annoying thing was that the button remained activated only for a few seconds. The two kids watched me intently as I pressed the button a few times whenever the light went off. Being curious creatures, they quickly took over the job from me as I sat back and felt smug about having trained two little baby monkeys to help me.
This morning, I was very touched by Arunachalam Muruganantham's story on the BBC news. There was a time, long ago when even I couldn't afford the luxury of a pack of sanitary pads every month. Now, when buying a pack off the shelf, I don't even give it a second thought because it's taken for granted. But to think that so many girls and women out there are still resorting to unhygienic and inconvenient means of managing their period because they simply can't afford it (as reminded by this article) made me sad. That is also why I was amazed by this "uneducated" man's determination to dare to go where no man went with only his self-belief to guide him until he turned an idea to a practical application. His story sounded more like a successful PhD project with a beneficial outcome to the general public! Not many people (regardless of income level) will walk away from a patent like that and not use it to accumilate as much money as they can.
Yesterday at the zoo, I joined a group of five other Docents for station duty. In addition to visitors, we expected a new batch of volunteers who went around the zoo, visiting various stations i.e., "Reptile Realm" (that's us!), "Fragile Forest", "Tame and Touchables", "African Adventure", "Conservation Cove" and "Primarily Primates" to help them decide which station they wanted to volunteer at. So we put out some of our best specimens at the station, including a live Kingsnake, hoping to attract enthusiastic new recruits.
I remember my first time as a trainee having a look at all the stations, trying to pick one. It wasn't that difficult. From a very early age, my likes for snakes were mixed with both fear and fascination. I felt that more of us had to speak up for the unpopular animals which are easily shunned by the public before giving them any chance of survival. Reptiles are incredibly adapted, diverse and useful in this web of life which we are part of.
The trainees came in all sorts with various intentions. Some were fascinated by reptiles, others were averse to reptiles. Some had many stories of reptile encounters to tell and wanted to learn more. Others wanted to know if we handled live reptiles because to them, it was associated with thrill and bravery perhaps. For the record, we do get to occasionally handle snakes and lizards under the supervision of the zoo keepers, but we had to make it clear to them that if handling live reptiles was their sole intention, it won't be long before they became disappointed and unable to keep up with the required commitment levels. Our job primarily was to engage visitors with facts and try to instill in them an appreciation for reptiles in hopes that they will go back and play a part in conservation.
On this day at the station, we got a California Kingsnake from our keepers. Kingsnakes are commonly kept as pets due to their docile nature and ease of care. He was named Bob and was a favourite of the keepers, having been with the zoo for nearly a decade. Kingsnakes, like King cobras prey on other snakes. However, while the King cobra is venomous and belongs to the family of elapids, the Kingsnake is nonvenomous belonging to the family of colubrids and it kills prey by constriction. It is also not fussed about having a primarily snake diet unlike the King cobra.
King Cobras are not true cobras, instead belong to its own genus.
Source: A snake blog
A California Kingsnake
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