# Huge Collection of Snake Specimens Destroyed in Brazil Lab Fire



## elapid68 (May 16, 2010)

*Published On:* 5-16-2010
*Source:* Latin American Herald

SAO PAULO – A fire destroyed on Saturday 82,000 snake specimens, considered the largest collection of tropical serpents in the world, as well as thousands of other reptiles, spiders and scorpions at Brazil’s prestigious Butantan Institute laboratory in Sao Paulo.

*Go to Original Article*


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## moosenoose (May 16, 2010)

No...Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! I bet it smelt like chicken!

(why was there 82,000 specimens in the one building???)


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## elapid68 (May 16, 2010)

One of the corridors at the facility (photo - Dr Bryan Fry)


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## Dipcdame (May 16, 2010)

Imagine the years it would have taken to get a collection like that together, it must be heartbreaking for the researchers! All that work gone, all those years!


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## justbecausewhy (May 16, 2010)

i feel sorry for the poor guy who did the feeding...


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## syeph8 (May 16, 2010)

justbecausewhy said:


> i feel sorry for the poor guy who did the feeding...


 
i think they were all dead by the looks of it..


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## H.bitorquatus (May 16, 2010)

Thats how my specimen collection ended, though it was deliberate.... also it was outdoors....


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## H.bitorquatus (May 16, 2010)

syeph8 said:


> i think they were all dead by the looks of it..


 
Don't say that, DON'T SAY THAT, THEY ARE JUST SLEEPING :cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:


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## Londos1990 (May 16, 2010)

That looks cruel as how they are housed...


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## syeph8 (May 16, 2010)

H.bitorquatus said:


> Don't say that, DON'T SAY THAT, THEY ARE JUST SLEEPING :cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:


 
in their nice snug airtight pickle jars full of liquid (what is that? oil? vinegar? alcohol?)


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## elapid68 (May 17, 2010)

Londos1990 said:


> That looks cruel as how they are housed...



I don't think the specimens really care how they're housed, they're all dead.



syeph8 said:


> (what is that? oil? vinegar? alcohol?)


 
Some sort of perserving solution but I'd be unable to tell you what.


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## syeph8 (May 17, 2010)

elapid68 said:


> Some sort of perserving solution but I'd be unable to tell you what.


 
something flammable


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## AM Pythons (May 17, 2010)

famaldahide...(not sure of spelling) i used to have a collection of human heads, thats what they were in..


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## Gekambi (May 17, 2010)

Shrunken heads or normal ones??


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## AM Pythons (May 17, 2010)

Gekambi said:


> Shrunken heads or normal ones??


 
normal ones, in perpex boxes, i had 1 human head(h.bartle was his name died in 1966) & i had 2 x 20 month old fettuses(unborn baby's) a liver, a kidney... all sorts of body parts, a friend stole them from sydney uni,i payed $100 for them, unfortunily the fedral police took them...


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## spanna_spamload (May 17, 2010)

yeh its formaldihyde or formalin, will kill you if you drink it and used to preserve things


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## Snake Catcher Victoria (May 17, 2010)

:cry:What a tragic loss, lots of these specimens were irreplacable extinct animals.
I would have loved to see it.
Now it's all gone


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## Pythoninfinite (May 17, 2010)

They are probably in 70% ethanol - formaldehyde (formalin) is used to 'fix' the tissues for a few weeks before permanent storage in alcohol. Leave them in formalin for too long and they become useless for dissection or further work because the tissues become very hard.

J.


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## syeph8 (May 17, 2010)

tatt2tony said:


> normal ones, in perpex boxes, i had 1 human head(h.bartle was his name died in 1966) & i had 2 x 20 month old fettuses(unborn baby's) a liver, a kidney... all sorts of body parts, a friend stole them from sydney uni,i payed $100 for them, unfortunily the fedral police took them...


 
...thats an interesting collection... and no disrespect intended here (especially towards someone who doesnt mind having severed heads on display).. but why?


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## Chris1 (May 17, 2010)

tatt2tony said:


> normal ones, in perpex boxes, i had 1 human head(h.bartle was his name died in 1966) & i had 2 x 20 month old fettuses(unborn baby's) a liver, a kidney... all sorts of body parts, a friend stole them from sydney uni,i payed $100 for them, unfortunily the fedral police took them...



sounds futuramaish, lol,..

im confused, how does a foetus get to 20 months without being an 11 month old child?


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## syeph8 (May 17, 2010)

Chris1 said:


> sounds futuramaish, lol,..
> 
> im confused, how does a foetus get to 20 months without being an 11 month old child?


 
i assume 20 week typo.. although possibly subsribes to peter singer's philosophies of the human person (who scarily enough taught ethics to a large population of our doctors)


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## getarealdog (May 22, 2010)

tatt2tony said:


> normal ones, in perpex boxes, i had 1 human head(h.bartle was his name died in 1966) & i had 2 x 20 month old fettuses(unborn baby's) a liver, a kidney... All sorts of body parts, a friend stole them from sydney uni,i payed $100 for them, unfortunily the fedral police took them...


legend!!!


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## AM Pythons (May 22, 2010)

yer sorry 20 weeks old.. i put the head in a friends fridge for a week once, his flatmate moved in the middle of the night without notice.. strange.. but yer they used to sit in my lounge room, ppl used to freak when they relized it was real..lol.. the 'baby's' were used in a fish tank as ornaments, i used to be called the 'show & tell' man at the tattoo shops in newy(15 years ago).. i turned up with a few funny things.. a bengal tiger(full grown & taxidermied) sold that to a tatt shop owner for $150.. a zebra,a polar bear.. heaps of stuff..


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## AM Pythons (May 22, 2010)

i used to be a dirty punk & squated heaps of old buildings, stayed in a place that must have been a museum storage warehouse, it was full of animals(taxidermied) old ww2 tanks,jeeps, but it was all sitting in 6 inches of water..the place was flooded(sad really) so i rang around got a pantec truck & a few vans & moved the lot(anything that wasnt rotting).. most when to friends in sydney.. the rest i sold..


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