[Little Ray's] All about micro-dinosaurous creatures and reptile cubs

Warning:

there are some grotesque pictures.

So, if you are not curious enough about cold-blooded vertebrates which are characterized by skin covered in scales and/or scutes, you'd better not seeing pictures of this post.

We went to Little Ray's last weekend.

I had purchased a Goupon in March, which offered 50% deal for Little Ray's, a reptile zoo in Ottawa.

We already knew that the zoo was uncomparably small, compared to the Reptilia in Toronto, where you can see one of the biggest Crocodile in North America, where we went almost 4 years ago. Nonetheless, we wanted to refresh our memories about some extraordinary venomous and non-venomus cold-blooded vertebrates.

 

The first thing we saw/attended as soon as we got there was a "feeding session."

It was showing a phython swallowing a whole mice.

We have all known already that a snake swallows a prey whole, unlike many other animals.

But, knowing it from a textbook is one thing, and witnessing it is another thing.

Well, here the python was given a mice already dead.

So it was only slightly(!) better than watching a python suffocating a prey to death.

Snakes have highly mobile jaw bones, which facilitate ingestion of large prey items.

I can tell you that it was a shocking scene.

Compared to this, crocodile feeding session in Toronto where a zoo-keeper was feeding whole chickens to the crocodile, was rather charming. :(

 Pythons are fed once every two weeks.

I'm sometimes amazed by the surprising ability of animals, such as hibernation and once-in-every-two-week meal time.

Then, we moved to see other interesting ecothermic vertebrates.

You might also want to see these unusual creatures. :)

Here go the some of our abberant co-habitants on earth:

These tortoises looks almost normal.

Aldabra Tortoise.

Bearded dragon~

 What a pointed beard

  

Emerald tree boa which lives exclusive on a tree.

Panther Chameleon

I wish I have seen it changing the colours, but I had no such luck.

Chameleon's eyes were seeing two different directions, just like fish's

African Rock phython

 Lavender Albino Ball Python

Leopard gecko

 Crocodile monitor

Alligator mississippiensis

 We saw mountain horne dragon before we were led to the nursery.

 Most of the eggs in the nursery were snakes' eggs.

These python "infants" hatched 2 weeks before.

They are not fed for first couple of weeks.

 The proposition "Babies are cute" seems applying to any species/animals.

One-week-old geckos.

This tiny baby gecko was very cute indeed.

This python egg is due in about a week.

You can see developed veins and shadow of the python in the egg.

On the way to the "reptile patting" session,

we saw a non-reptile creature.

 Great horned owl.

Could you tell me since when the owls are categorized into reptiles?

 The first reptile friend we met was a crocodilian

 Its mouth was tied.

 It looked very small, but it has all the characteristics of a crocodilia.

Look at its hard skin.

 We were told to pat the tail.

 The next one to pat was one of the smallest tortoise on earth.

Its shell is made with the same(similar) type of keratin of human nails.

It is attached to the tortoise's organs and grows as its body grows.

 It really feels like a huge toenail. :)

 The third and last thing to pat was a 6-year-old python albino.

 The zoo keeper put down the snake on the ground and and asked the audience to come forward and touch.

I always find a snake's head too small for its body.

Oh how smooth its skin was~

It was impressively smooth.

Kids just kept their hands on the snake.

After the session, Remi was watching the zoo keeper put the python back in the box where it had been.

It was an interesting visit.

I don't think I will ever have a pet.

But, still I love seeing/observing many different animals on earth.

If you want to see cold-blooded vertebrates, a reptile zoo is worth visiting. :)

Sorry for the grostesque photos.

Reptile Zoo