Manchester Museum/Reptiles and more 25th November

Unfortunately Linda, my volunteer driver was not available on the morning of the visit, so I took my courage in both hands and caught the bus. It was a nice dry day and with the help of students, I found my way to the main hall. Mary greeted me when she saw me approach and took me to the other members of the group. There were about 23 or so altogether, a very enthusiastic group all raring to go.

The curator startled everybody by coming in with a python in both hands, I reckon about four foot. He made a beeline for me and said " here hold on to that". The body was quite warm and the markings on the were beautiful. The spine of the python was quite pronounced which was surprising. He was fed only once a month because it takes three weeks for this reptile to digest his food.

The next exhibit was a toad which had been donated to the museum. It was found in a container and was thought to have originated in India.
It was dark and about the size of my palm. It felt very cold and appeared to have a sticky surface. It's feet were gentle when it was placed on my hand and very still.

Another reptile was a chameleon, bigger than the toad. It was brightly coloured, green and turquoise and the keeper told us that if it became angry with us it would become orange. The eyes were quite bulbous, so I am told, and each moved independently swivelling in all directions. The feet were strong and gripped firmly.

The tree frog adopted me and decided to have a stroll up my sleeve. It was quite small and made a strange calling noise which could have been a quiet type of chuckle. The colour was described as good camouflage.
The next reptile was a snub tailed gecko. This creature was able to fool an attacking snake when being attacked by shedding it's tail. The rear of it was very similar to the head and a short sighted snake, if there is such a thing, would be deprived of its dinner.

The next group of creatures to appear were all mounted. We started with the fox, which is beautiful. It was the size of a small sheep dog, pointed face and of course the renowned bushy tail. A great shame to think of it being hunted.

The next was a mink. A wonderfully jet black silky coat. Much smaller than the fox and again a shame to think of it being hunted for fur coats.
The next was an otter, this animal having suffered greatly at the hands of the mink, almost to extinction. Fortunately they are now coming back into the wild as a result of conservation and the mink numbers are decreasing. The otter was about four foot head to tail, with powerful short legs. The otter's coat is short and very smooth, tailored to be water repellent. It's head appeared to be small but overall a powerful looking animal.

The baby penguin was next and we were told that they mated for life.
Posted by Ken Leckie.