Snake Detective

Narrator: Snake expert Gerry Martin is an Indian herpetologist with a talent for
uncovering clues.

Gerry Martin: Hello?

Narrator: When a new challenge arises, Gerry’s always eager to jump at the chance.
This call for help comes from over 2,200 kilometers away. A wealthy sheikh in the
Sultanate of Oman has a snake park in need of rescue.

Martin: So you say you’ve lost all the snakes? How many snakes was that? Over a
hundred and forty?

Narrator: Gerry’s amazed, but he is more concerned with something else: What’s
killing the snakes? And more importantly, how can it be stopped?

Martin: OK, so you’re planning on getting some new snakes?

Narrator: The sheikh wants to reopen the park in two weeks. If Gerry’s going to solve
the mystery, he needs to act fast before the new snakes suffer the same misfortune.
It’s time for a visit to Oman

Martin: Hello, Mr. Suleimani.

Mr. Suleimani: Welcome to Oman. How are you?

Martin: I’m doing good . . .

Narrator: Sheikh Amer al-Suleimani loved the idea of financing a snake park to
educate the people of his country about wildlife . . . but he didn’t fully appreciate
how difficult it would be to create a reptile reserve in the desert. The snake park
originally housed over 140 snakes from all around the world. But after just a few
months, only one snake is still alive.

Martin: This one’s beautiful.

Suleimani: What do you think of this guy?

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Martin: It’s lovely. It’s an albino python.

Narrator: While the sheikh finances the project, it’s Muhammad al-Harthy, the
general manager of the park, who handles the snakes.

Muhammad al-Harthy, Snake Park General Manager: From four years old, I was
start playing with the snake. Even in school, people used to call me “snake.” It’s my
favorite business when I was young.

Narrator: Muhammad hired two so-called snake experts from Southeast Asia to help
set up the park. But they weren’t what they appeared to be at all.

Martin: Everything they did was wrong. It was painfully wrong. They used to grab the
snakes with nooses, stuff food down their throats, everything that you could possibly
do if you wanted to kill a snake.

Narrator: After questioning the witnesses, Gerry’s next priority is to inspect the
scene of the crime. Clue number one is the extremely hot sun and the heat in the
desert.

Martin A hundred and six degrees, that’s way too much. No snake will live in that.

Narrator: Clue number two is found in the glass enclosures where the snakes lived.

Martin: OK. To start with, you never want any electric wiring anywhere here. It’s just
too dangerous for snakes.

Narrator: Clue number three lies just beneath Gerry’s feet as he inspects the units.

Martin: The sand is way too fine, it’s just like dust, and that’s not good. Infections
just swell out of it.

Narrator: It’s no surprise that the snakes didn’t make it in this environment.

Martin: From speaking with the park staff and looking at these enclosures, the
enclosures played a big role in the cause of death for all these snakes here. So we’re
going to have to change this and then change the way they’ve been dealing with the

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snakes because they were taught wrong. And that should be fine. We can get new
snakes and keep them happy and alive. Some places where the tin roof has come off
the wall, so there’s a gap there.

Narrator: Now that Gerry’s highlighted the problems and solved the case, it’s time
for action. First on the list is to restore and rebuild the park—Gerry and Muhammad
are off to shop for materials and supplies. Gerry buys plants and trees to make the
living environments more appropriate. He also buys a special type of carpet-like
material that will protect the snakes from the heat of the external environment.

Martin: You have a pet store here, no?

Narrator: The next step is finding the correct foods for the snakes. And Gerry knows
what’s number one on the menu for most of them . . . mice!

Martin: Happy snakes!

Narrator: At last they arrive back at the snake park.

Martin: We were just where everything we need to redo the enclosures right now.
Plants, food, rocks, matting, foam—just about everything that we could possibly
need to make this a good place for snakes.

Narrator: Two days later, Gerry hears the word that the snake shipment has reached
Oman.

Martin: We have the snakes.

Narrator: The snakes may have arrived, but Gerry has no idea whether or not all of
them have survived their journey. The wooden boxes need to be opened fast to
make sure the new arrivals are alive and well. Gerry starts to work on unpacking the
shipment, which includes a dangerous green mamba. Africa’s green mamba is one of
the most venomous snakes in the world, and unfortunately, the shipment doesn’t
come with antivenom.

Martin: The mamba’s a snake that scares me. And there’s four of them in this bag.
You always want to keep in mind to hold the snake bag above the knot. You never
want to grab it by there or rest it on your lap or sling it over your shoulder. So many

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snake handlers—good snake handlers—have actually gotten bitten that way. You
never take a snake for granted. Yep, they’re fast snakes! The mambas are incredibly
fast snakes, probably the most feared snakes in the world. And rightly so. They can
move so fast, and they’re so slender. It’s amazing. This snake could kill me . . . but,
she’s not going to.

Narrator: Gerry quickly moves the reptile over to its new home. There’s an
uncomfortable moment but all goes safely.

Martin: I was tired, but now with these snakes, I’m just feeling alive again.

Narrator: In just a few hours, Gerry safely places two dozen deadly snakes into their
new enclosures. He manages to do so without a single bite. Muhammad, however,
isn’t so lucky.

Al-Harthy: He just bite me.

Martin: Yeah?

Narrator: Luckily, the snake is harmless.

Al-Harthy: Just to release the pain of snake. It’s OK.

Narrator: To an Indian herpetologist who grew up with cobras, the most exciting
snake is actually a fairly common one from the western part of the U.S. and
Mexico . . .

Martin: Oh!

Narrator: a rattlesnake.

Martin: I do not believe this. Oh I do not believe this. I have never heard the rattle of
a live rattlesnake before. OK, OK, OK, calm down. Easy does it. Who would imagine I
would come to Oman and then see a rattlesnake here? Lock it up real good. We
don’t want rattlesnakes getting loose in Oman! Well, it’s 4:30 in the morning. We’ve
put all the snakes in their enclosures and tomorrow we have to see that they’ve
settled in well. We start handling them tomorrow?

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Al-Harthy: Yeah.

Martin: You and I can work with them and show you what has to be fed to what and
how to play with them and how to deal with them.

Al-Harthy: I’ll try to see if maybe we can feed them.

Martin: First we get some sleep.

Narrator: The two men spend the next two weeks working hard, cleaning, training
and preparing for the opening day of the park. At last the big day arrives and the
doors are opened as the first new visitors enter. For the sheikh, asking Gerry to
intervene in the park was money well spent because now the snake park is operating
again—this time correctly. As for Muhammad, he has acquired new skills and now
has new snakes to look after. Having learned so much from Gerry, he’s enjoying his
chance to teach others about snakes.

Al-Harthy: I like them. That’s why they like me.

Martin: The most important things that snake parks achieve is actually giving people
a firsthand experience with snakes. And that includes letting them hold a snake now
and then to debunk the myths that they’re slimy and they’re aggressive and all they
really want to do is harm us. But you can’t really tell a person that unless they
actually experience that for themselves.

Narrator: Thanks to Gerry Martin, visitors to Oman’s first snake park are finally
getting a chance to see and touch snakes for themselves. It looks like the snake
detective has solved this case successfully.

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