Sciensational Sssnakes!! provides hands-on education about reptiles and amphibians for the young and the young at heart. Our shows feature an informal lecture about the animals, their ecology and conservation issues as well as a session in which participants are able to interact, touch and hold the animals. Our displays, which can be combined with one or more shows, feature animals in terrariums with interpretive signs and backdrops, and are suitable for public spaces like parks, malls and fairs.
Our programs feature live animals that are safe, friendly and easy to handle. Many of them are native Ontario species, some of which are now endangered in the wild, and rarely seen. Sciensational Sssnakes!! maintains the most complete collection of Ontario reptile and amphibian species in the province, which allows unparalleled opportunities to learn about these animals and the challenges we face to ensure their survival in the future. We are authorized by the Ministry of Natural Resources to maintain these animals in captivity.
Contact us today for more information and rates. By increasing public knowledge and appreciation, we hope to help sustain wild populations of these animals. Together, we can make a difference!
The Latest News from Sciensational Sssnakes!!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Crystal and I have returned from the prairies, after seven weeks on the road! It is great to be back! I've been neglecting this blog a bit since it has been hard enough to keep up with the one on our prairie tour site,
http://www.reptilesatrisk.org, while we've been on the road- internet access has been somewhat limited! I'll be sure to catch things up now that I'm back. Jenny, Amanda, Sean, and Britney will also get back late tonight from Ottawa, where they've been doing the Ottawa SuperEx for the last 11 days, and Megan returned from her Algonquin field course yesterday (just in time to do a program in Toronto with Graham!), so tomorrow we should all have a great day off together, before Graham and Amanda head back to the maritimes!
Posted by Jeff Hathaway at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
Monday, July 24, 2006
Sean has volunteered with us for about 4 years now, and this is his first year on staff. We've been telling him for a year now to get started on learning to drive so we could hire him, but we've got so many programs booked for this summer that we simply couldn't wait! I suspect he'll be well on his way to his driver's license by the end of the summer, though!
Sean lives in Burlington, and attends high school there where he is going into Grade 11. He is bright, considerate, and always helpful. He is also very knowledgeable about reptiles- recently he's gone to a couple of programs with Graham and Amanda, and he's answered most of the questions from the public at the end of the show!
Here's a picture of Sean-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/189578833/
Posted by Jeff Hathaway at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)
Thursday, July 20, 2006
What a busy time! I'm north of Lake Superior, at Pukaskwa National Park today, and Jenny and crew are doing lots of programs in central Ontario as well. Last week turned out to be much busier than anticipated- good thing we've hired Sean to help out. I'll try to get a profile up for him soon!
Don't forget to check out our Reptiles at Risk on the Road Prairie Tour blog at
http://www.reptilesatrisk.org for regular updates from Crystal, Megan, and I as we head west!
Posted by Jeff Hathaway at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
Friday, July 14, 2006
Amanda also joins us this summer from the Maritimes on a Young Canada Works grant. She hails from Fredericton, New Brunswick, where she is studying law at UNB. Her friends say they never would have expected her to get a job teaching people about snakes, but she's been doing fabulously so far! Amanda's adventurous spirit is up for any challenge, which I'm sure is a great attribute for a future lawyer! You can see a photo of Amanda at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/188152634/
Posted by Jeff Hathaway at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)
Thursday, July 13, 2006
We're doing a show right now at the Copper Cliff branch of the Sudbury library system- actually Graham, Amanda and Megan are doing it without me while I'm writing this update! After rotating through various portions of the program, today they have started to take on the challenge of performing the entire program. The afternoon show went very well, and I'm sure this one will, too!
In between shows today we stopped in at Home Depot to get some plywood cut for shelving in the back of the van. We continue to customize things here and there to improve it for our trip out to Saskatchewan. We also created a ceiling-mounted fishing rod rack!
Amanda took yesterday off to visit a life-long friend who has moved to Sudbury, so Graham, Megan and I did the two library shows and then headed up to Halfway Lake Provincial Park for the evening program. Good thing we got there in time to have a swim before the show, since it has been very hot for the last few days.
Tomorrow should be interesting. In addition to the two library shows (which should be big ones, last year nearly 300 people showed up for the Valley East branch), we will be picking up a new snake from the local OSPCA shelter. We did a reptile training workshop for their staff last year, so when the snake came in this week, they decided to contact us to see if we could adopt it. Handily enough, they discovered that I was already in town!
Posted by Jeff Hathaway at 6:34 PM | Comments (1)
