your first reptile encounter

[gozz]

The other day i was thinking about my first reptile encounter, I was 7 years old and we were visiting my mums friends in Townsville There names were John and Kathy Roberts (John passed away around 20 years ago now) i remember going under his house and looking at all the tanks with lizards and snakes in them i was so scared but intrigue by them that later on in our holidays myself and my bro staying at grandads house witch is right next door to the common,we went and caught our own beardies and skinks all of our holidays. It wasnt until my now 15 year old said he wanted a snake that my interest started again so share you stories here cheers Trent

 

[RedBellied]

I was 7 and on camp up in Licola. I went to step off the front deck and i spotted a snake right where i was going to land. Luckily i jumped as i stepped off, onto a large rock a couple of feet away. It took off straight under the cabin. The caretaker came down to "relocate" it. I still to this day don't understand why a shovel is needed to relocate a snake though. lol We were all told to move down the other end of the ground while he was caught. It turned out to be an Easter Brown snake!!!

 

[miley_take]

I was 5, went to a FNQ reptile park and fell for a carpet python and a baby croc :lol: wanted herps ever since

 

[froglet]

I remember the first time i held a python, i was about 9. i had just gone to live in cairns with my dad & they had it at the Pier Market Place so people could get a pic with it (will try & find the pic)

 

[gozz]

Froglet if you can find the pic great. All the old time keepers out there how did you start ? what was your firsr encounter cheers

 

[funcouple]

i was about 8yo when i found a turtle at the local creek. i had it at home for afew day before it vanished. years later i found out that mum got dad to take it back to the creek. lucky i dont talk with my parents now, they would probably let all my snakes and beardies go

 

[Wild_Storm]

I remember my first memory... Our neighbour had two properties and we put the lick out on one and he visited it occassionally. Anyway he turned up in his old Landrover ute (the OLD greyblue ones) and he asked my mom what snake it was that he'd (heroically) killed and bought over... My mom told him he was an idiot and that the rabbits would now move back into the lick shed and wreck it (She was right!!).

It filled the back of his ute. I remember the black part of it's head being almost 2 foot long, and the body looked to be as thick as a little child. Mom reckoned it must have been 20 years old. I reckon it would have been able to eat a yearling dog (Cattle/Dingo size) it was THAT huge. Mom went on to tell us that BHP's don't breed until they are a certain size/age (which I now know is wrong) and after that I was hooked on BHPs.

After that we protected BHP's and Brown Tree Snakes, after the move to the NT, we now also look after (don't allow them to be killed by staff, or run over by vehicles on the Station)Olives, Childrens, the odd Water, and any other Pythons we come across.

 

[gozz]

nice ones guys, keep em commin

 

[Riley]

i cant remember lol!

 

[Wrasse]

Many memories of a lot of snakes in a place I lived and not sure which is the first. One of two I distinctly remember though was at a public pool and some guy fell asleep on the lawn by the pool. He woke to feel a weight on his back and somehow discovered a snake had slid up under his T Shirt and had promptly settled in to sleep.
Panic ensued and I remember a large beach umbrella being erected over him and a hose being played on him, all in an effort to cool him and the snake down and cause the snake to become uncomfortable and move, which it did.
It was a Dugite and was 'relocated' with a shovel, (much like the shovel RedBellied remembers no doubt).

 

[Mavrick]

I know I saw a water python in a creek up in the Territory while walking along the stream with friends and family, thought it was amazing. I may have held reptiles at the TWP before that, but I don't remember it, that encounter stands out as my first. I know we got a snake a few years after it, mum and I stared at that python for ages just sitting in a shallow pool off the side of the creek.

 

[Rocket]

Don't know how long ago but I was attacked by a really pissed off Shingleback.

 

[gozz]

Don't know how long ago but I was attacked by a really pissed off Shingleback.

lol they can bite hard
anyone else ?

 

[Ned_fisch]

I was 4-5 years old. Me and my sister were under the house playing Nintendo 64 and then a snake came from under the fridge, not like we knew what is was at the time, a very large snake.. My sister and I were fighting over who had to run past it to get the father. In the end, I had to. My dad came down with a Pillow case and a golf club (not to kill the snake). In the end he didn't need to use any of it as he knew what is was. A Coastal carpet, must of been around 2.5m.
He put it in a Esky with mesh on top and we let it go across the road from his work the next morning as it was all bush.

 

[redbellybite]

I started out around 6 yrs old where my brother who was a yr younger then me ,caught little garden skinks..we use to make them bite our noses and ears ..I had a pair of skink earings ,hanging down off my lobes and running into see NANNA who freaked out ..then as an 8 year old my uncle had caught and jarred a redbelly in metho and gave me the jar ... i loved playing with it,wore it as a bangle ,wishing it was alive, had it for a few years but mum got jack of it and threw it out ...

 

[Kyro]

I was about 8 yrs old & running through the bush at Yellow Rock when I fell over a log & landed next to a bearded dragon. Of course he carried on a treat dropped his beard flattened out & did the funny side step thing beardies do when feeling threatened & I thought he was the funniest thing i'd ever seen in my life. At the time I thought it was a frilly & I dragged my big brother all the way back to where i'd seen him but it had gone by then. I spent the next few weeks searching for that lizard but never found it again. I guess thats my most memorable moment of reptiles as a child & definately where my interest started. About 12 months after that I bought home a tiger snake in a bucket which escaped in the house & I was banned from touching any reptiles after that

 

[Bugsy]

I was catching lizards and bugs and things before i could even talk...Everyone called me the wizard man cause i couldnt say lizard properly...So my first reptile experience was probably when i was 2-3 yrs old.

 

[diamond_man]

i was 6 or 7 years old down at healsville sanctuary in melbourne. the keeper came over to me and draped this huge python over my shoulder, my mum went running for the hills but i thought it was the coolest thing ever... the only thing i never knew was what species... probably a diamond or something.

 

[aliveandkicking]

The first I can remember........ I was about 5 i guess. My little bro and I were playing with the dogs in the house paddock, watching a mob of cattle being mustered. After the were driven past us a black snake come out of the long grass on the shoulder of the road. I told my brother to shoot off and find dad. He came out and gave it shovel treatment. After that he threw the body onto the back of the ute so I could have a good look at it. I was truly amazed by this thing, playing with it (yes, I know, playing with a dead snake)
until the nerves gave one last twitch. I was so scared I fell off the back of the ute and ran to tell dad the snake was still alive. Gave him a good laugh too.


This was about 25 years ago. Been hooked since.

 

[channi]

As kids my brother, sister and I used to play with blueys and other little skinks around the garden, then we went on a trip to canarvan gorge when I was around 7 and we saw a green tree snake, I was sold. It wasn't until my sister had a kids party with a group who brought reptiles for the kids to see, though that I realized that I could keep reptiles of my very own