(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Photo Diary: Reptile World Serpentarium, St Cloud FL [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-19 Okay, everybody who knows me knows that I like snakes. So here’s a place that is full of them. The Serpentarium in St Cloud raises venomous snakes for the manufacture of antivenoms for hospitals. There is a venom-milking demonstration twice a day, and an exhibit of venomous snakes from around the world. I was like a kid in a candy shop. :) Some history: George Van Horn first became interested in snakes when his local Cub Scout Troop took a field trip to Bill Haast's Miami Serpentarium. He got his first venomous snake when he was 13--a Pygmy Rattlesnake that he caught in a local swamp. With Haast as his inspiration, Van Horn went on to graduate from Florida Atlantic University and purchased a piece of land in what was then a rural area near St Cloud FL. In a roughly-built cement-block building, Van Horn opened the Reptile World Serpentarium in 1972. At first, Van Horn focused mostly on venom extraction. At that time, the primary use for snake venom was in the manufacture of medical anti-venoms to treat snakebite victims. The Serpentarium kept a collection of several hundred venomous snakes, mostly from the US but also including species like cobras and vipers, which he would "milk" regularly to extract the venom. The milking process was risky. Each snake had to be grasped by hand behind the neck, then induced to bite a thin membrane covering a sterile glass collecting vessel, into which the toxic liquid would flow. This would be collected in vials, refrigerated for storage, and then sent to labs in the US and Australia to be processed into anti-venom. By the 1970s, however, the number of snakebites in the US and worldwide began to decline, and there was not as much demand for snake anti-venom. Fearing that the market might collapse and put him out of business, Van Horn decided to expand his Serpentarium into a reptile zoo. He opened up an outdoors exhibit of alligators, crocodiles, turtles and iguanas, and amassed a collection of almost 80 snake species from around the world, most of them venomous. He also began doing some of his venom extractions in a glass-walled lab for the public to view. Reptile World was one of several such snake exhibits scattered around Florida. When Disney World arrived in the late 1970s, however, these smaller tourist attractions were unable to compete, and most of them folded. Reptile World managed to hang on, barely, and still gets by today on a shoestring budget. Today, Van Horn still sells snake venom to a number of medical labs and research facilities, and he still gets enough tourists to see the snakes (and the venom extractions) to keep paying the bills. Visitors are first greeted by the walled turtle pond, which contains 50-60 turtles from a dozen or so species, mostly Florida natives. There is food available for them, and the turtles will gather round eagerly. In the feeding frenzy an over-excited turtle will sometimes accidentally bite one of his neighbors, and blood flows into the water. That gets the injured party a quick dab of Neosporin. "Turtles are remarkably tough," Van Horn says to me as he’s rubbing the anti-bacterial on the bitten leg. "They can survive almost anything." (I know—I used to do reptile rehab.) Next to the turtle pond is the snake room. Looking somewhat like a low-budget zoo snake house, the cement-block building houses around 80 glass-fronted cages. Many people gather in front of the Burmese Pythons, the famous (and famously-unwanted) invasive species that got here in the pet trade and now infest the Florida Everglades. There are also enclosures for some of Florida's dangerous snakes, including Cottonmouths (also known as Water Moccasins) and Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes. The Pygmy Rattlesnake is not as dangerous, but can still inflict a very painful bite. And an expensive one--the North American Crotalid Polyvalent Anti-Venom, used to treat rattlesnake bites in the US, costs upwards of $7,000 a vial, and a good bite can take a dozen vials to treat. Other glass-fronted enclosures hold some of the deadliest snakes in the world. There is a King Cobra, which is the largest venomous snake in the world. The Puff Adder probably kills more people in Africa than any other snake. Other African snakes on display include the Green Mamba and the Black Mamba. The South American Fer-de-Lance viper is not very large, but bites a significant number of people. And the Taipan, from Australia and New Guinea, has some of the most potent venom to be found in any snake. Most of his snakes, however, some 300-400 of them, are used exclusively for venom production. These include Florida Cottonmouths, Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes, Eastern Coral Snakes, and Monocled Cobras. Each snake is milked about once a month. In addition, the Coral Snakes each have to be force-fed a mixture based on slurried chickens, since in the wild they feed almost exclusively on other snakes. Twice each day, Van Horn, usually assisted by his wife Rosa, does a milking demonstration for the public. During his pre-extraction lecture, Van Horn talks about the ecological roles that snakes play in the wild, and the importance of protecting the wild habitat where they and other species live. During one such show, in June 1995, Van Horn lost his grip and was struck four times in rapid succession by a 12-foot King Cobra that he was milking. It was enough venom to kill a horse, but after dozens of vials of anti-venom and 33 days in the hospital, he survived, though he now has restricted use of his left arm. All told, he's been bitten over a dozen times by various species. He is now allergic to snake venom, and always keeps a hypo of epinephrine on hand in case he is bitten again. Some photos. (I tried getting some photos of the extraction, but alas there were a lot of people and a lot of glare, and I could not get a good shot. But you can see some photos of an extraction taken during a previous visit, here. ) For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and travel around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I visit. I am currently wintering in Florida. The Serpentarium Yellow-Bellied Slider Green Iguana African Rock Python Russian Cobra Northern Pacific Rattlesnake Puff Adder Papuan Taipan Prairie Rattlesnake Feeding the turtles [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/19/2162498/-Photo-Diary-Reptile-World-Serpentarium-St-Cloud-FL Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/