Reptiles
This is one of my biggest and lasting passions from my childhood. I use to do research in taxonomy and biology of some of them in the past, traveling and collecting specimens from all around the world. I also kept a huge live collection to make more observations. At one time (my record) between reptiles and amphibians I had about 100 species, with over 700 live specimens living with me. That time is over and now I only enjoy taking their portraits, both in nature and in captivity. Lots of people are afraid of them or have very bad feelings toward them. The main reason for that (in my humble opinion) is the lack of knowledge about those creatures. Once you start to study them and begin to know more about their behavior, get used to the close contact, and learn how to safely handle them, the fear will disappear and you may even start to like them. Give it a try and you may start to be fascinated with their world.
I remember my first real contact with a reptile. It was a small lizard and I was maybe eight or nine years old. Before that, I only made observations from a distance, as they were much faster than me, and no adult wanted to give me a hand in catching one. Not to mention, I was born and raised in a big city, so my daily contact with nature was very limited and people around me had neither knowledge nor experience in handling reptiles. Now, coming back to my first lizard I caught myself. From reading books I knew that no poison lizard species lived in Europe and the only poison species in my area was a viper. So I decided it was time to hunt and collect this specimen. Without thinking too much about it, I jumped on it and to my big surprise I caught the lizard under the palm of my hand pressing it gently to the ground. Then the fear came to me. What if this lizard is venomous? I tried to gently grab it behind the head but surprise again, the lizard was much stronger than I thought, the small creature turned its head around and bit me!! Now despite my book knowledge I felt that I could really die from the venom. I already read about some venomous lizards in the tropics. Maybe this one is venomous too. Maybe this is a species nobody knows about yet. Thousands of thoughts were crossing my mind but I still held a firm grip on the lizard afraid I may lose it. It already bit me and probably is non-venomous and I really want to take it home and keep it. You should have seen the face of my Mom when I proudly showed her my new pet. We both were out of the door (that time I lived in the big city flat) in the matter of seconds with the warning that I can only come back alone or stay outside forever. Well it wasn't time yet to educate my parents. In fact my Mom never even wanted to talk much about the reptiles. Years later when my hobby started to grow into serious work, my father helped me to rent a big room in a basement and my collection started to grow very fast. This was one of the best times in my life. I was traveling a lot and doing field research. I did not need much more to be 100% happy. My biggest success then was collecting specimens of snake Coluber rubriceps in Bulgaria - species new of the fauna of this country. In Europe that snake was found before only on the European side of the Bosfor in Turkey. Also having a big collection of live animals and catching even more in the wild, opened the doors for me to many zoological gardens, a very fruitful way to gain a lot of contacts with interesting people and as well generating quite nice income to finance my expeditions.
When you are growing up surrounded by snakes it is a whole different issue. My son use to play with newborn boas (Boa constrictor) when he was about one year old. He was about three or four years old when we moved to Houston from Europe. One day walking on the street he 'dove' under a parked pickup truck and came out with the small Gardner snake in his hand. People around were terrified. "What are you doing?" was a first question. "Catching a snake for my Dad" was a simple answer. Even though, he did not show an interest in reptiles when he grew up to his teens he never feared them. I remember a really funny situation. He was about seven when he caught a green anole lizard on the golf course grounds and was examinating it very closely. A couple of ladies from the country club were walking by. Seeing my little son playing with the lizard they ask him about his catch. He started talking about the lizard as 'him'. One of the ladies asked the question (I think she had regretted that at once) how he knows it is a male. 'Because he has two dicks' was my son quick reply. Who told you that? - asked the lady with the little red color on her face. "My Dad" was a simple answer. The ladies were shocked and shared this info with the rest of the club members. Well, no reason for jealousy, the male reptiles have two penises but they need them. Having love affairs in the coil position they never know from what side they will have luck to approach the female. They have to be ready for both situations (positions) - from the left or from the right side : to not lose a chance.
Venomous snakes can be your best allies. I remember when doing research on reptiles in south Bulgaria, the girl that was with me had a lot of problems with native men. Many of them are obsessive with chasing all women and if one is attractive she cannot be left alone for a minute. A big cloud of men would follow her every step trying to impress her with all kinds of propositions. In this area also lives a long-nosed viper Vipera ammodytes which is not really very deadly but still has one of the strongest venom of European species. For some reason the local people are horrified of this viper. When left alone, my companion finally found the way to get rid of all the local men. She told them that she came with me and I am a person who catches the 'pepelyanka' (vipers' local name) alive. They all started to giggle and not believe her completely but kept a little distance waiting for me to come back and confirm this information. When I finally came back the horde of men was waiting, making some remark about us trying to trick them. Their confidence was growing, as I said nothing at first but just listening to my friend's report. Then, without a word I went to my tent and came back with a large cotton bag tied at the top. They lost some confidence but still were making jokes, some of them not too polite. Well, I was alone and there were about a dozen of them so the power balance wasn't quite equal. Again without too much talking I just untied the top of the sack and exposed a few beautiful viper heads with the tongues coming in and out to check the new surrounding. That was it. You would have loved to see all of those men running. They never came too close to the tent. They greeted me friendly, but from a distance. They left my companion alone. I will tell you the snakes can really be on your side when you need their help.
They (snakes) also can help you to travel in comfort. One time I was traveling with my friend in a very much 'overloaded' train. We were lucky to grab seats and not to travel several long hours standing in the hall. But there was absolutely no comfort there. I can't sleep when I sit. Trying to find a comfortable position was out of the question. But our luck was with us. One fat lady made a mistake. With a strange impression on her face she made the mistake to ask me a question what is making noise in my luggage on the top shelf. I was more then happy to tell her there are live snakes traveling with me, a lot of them. She did not believe and ask me to show it to her. "With the great pleasure, Madam" I said and took one of the bags from the luggage. There were about fifty small and medium size water snakes in that bag. After I opened it, many heads were out. That did it. In the couple of seconds we had a whole compartment for ourselves for the rest of the trip. I was so thankful to my snakes for that nice trip.
In fact keeping live snakes can bring you some enemies. I used to keep some south European species of the dice snake Natrix tessellata including a few very young, small specimens. Those little ones were especially hard to keep in terrarium as because of the small size they can utilize any minute opening to escape. Because they are non-venomous I did not give them enough attention and they did escape. The room I kept them in was located in the basement of the residential building. People at wintertime were keeping supplies of potatoes there. Every few days or so they came down to the basement to get a fresh supply for dinner. It was customary for women to do that. When my snakes escaped, it was winter and one unfortunate woman almost stepped on a few of them in semi-dark. I will let you use your imagination about the horror scream and consequences later. All the women in the building refused to bring potatoes from the basement after that accident. Angry husbands had to do it from then on. They all started to hate me.
I don't keep live snakes any more. It has been replaced by only photographing them in nature and Zoos. Still the sentiment to the past is there.
