Reptiles!

Amongst all of the theoretical work we are constantly doing with our aspiring field/Safari guides, we like to add a level of practicality to the work we have been covering to see how they can apply the information we went through with them in a effective way.

For the Reptiles section of our work we decided to head off to our closest reptile park to go have a look at the various cold blooded critters they have on display.

We were thoroughly impressed with the entire setup they had there.

They emphasised that they have a huge mixture of local and alien species, of course we were more focused on the endemic species, and we were surprised to find that they even had some crocodiles too.

We were escorted by one of the knowledgable guides that they had on staff, and the info given was concise and accurate. The boys all had in interest in the animals and had some questions lined up about some of the reptiles we had discussed in passing, like the type of venom the snakes have or the type of locomotion they use, ect.

The highlights were the black mamba and, the handling of some of the more placid snakes that they had on display, like the brown house snakes. The boys were a bit nervous at first, but eventually they all tried handling the gentle snakes. And at the end of the tour, we all enjoyed holding the humungous python!

After the tour from the park we settled down to have our in depth lesson and discussion about the animals we saw and how it fits in with the module for the guiding course.

This was a fantastic outing and the boys learned a lot. They mentioned that the “practical” outings always help them the most with making the lessons stick, which why we do as many of these as funding will allow. We are so thankful to our donors who make these excursions possible, and the continuation of our project a success for the teens who needed hope and a future to strive towards.