THUNDER BAY -- It's not suffocating when snakes coil around their prey. The pressure simulates blood clots all over the body and causes cardiac arrest. At its most effective, it can even cause the heart to burst.
Not many people know that fact because it's a pretty recent discovery but everyone knows it who went to Little Ray's Reptile Zoo on Saturday.
The traveling education program including live alligators, owls, parrots, turtles, tarantulas and even a kangaroo thrilled its audience at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grounds with facts like snake constriction, some of which are so new that children aren't yet learning them in school.
"Sometimes teachers are super up-to-date on it and it's awesome and then other times, it might not be their area of expertise," said wildlife educator Dawson Watson.
"Teachers come from all sorts of different backgrounds and they're the most important people for teaching young children but because there's so much to know and so much to teach, they just don't always know everything."
These biologists want youth to know that just because a snake breaks hearts for a living doesn't mean it's the bad guy in the jungle. Sometimes, the animals we fear the most are the same ones who most need conservation.
"People like the cute and furry thigns already," said Del, the co-owner of Hands-On Exotics, a Toronto-based sanctuary for exotic pets and retired working animals.
"The scary things like reptiles, unless people have a personal relationship with them or attachment to them, they're not going to care about their conservation as much or their sustainability in the wild."
Little Ray's Reptile Zoo's show will continue through Sunday.
