Entebbe’s Reptiles Village has been on my list of places to visit for ages.
Chameleon, Reptiles Village Entebbe. Close-up of one of the world’s most fascinating creatures!
When I suggested to the team that we all have a day out together at the Reptiles Village in Entebbe, organised by Nature Uganda, we were equally split down the middle: two for, two against. Enid’s words were in fact “No way, I’m not giving up my Saturday to see snakes!”
After the office was repainted, I noticed that she put back the posters of birds, butterflies and mammals – but not the one of the snakes. Patrick is equally averse to snakes – I remember his look of disgust when we walked past the enormous python at UWEC (a.k.a. Entebbe Zoo). To be fair though, last year a cousin of theirs was killed by a notorious Puff Adder out in the bush towards Tanzania; he was dead within a few hours.
It’s run by a Ugandan who is passionate about snakes in particular and reptiles in general. All the animals he rescues are native to Uganda. He rescues reptiles that are in danger of being killed by humans, and tries his best to ‘sensitise’ people (as we seem to be doing with elephants, dogs, birds, you name it)…
The message is generally: “you don’t have to kill it – it’s unlikely to harm you unless provoked and there are measures to deal with elephants, dogs, birds” [complete as appropriate]. Today at Reptiles Village, I couldn’t stop myself telling people off. I was tired, I wasn’t very gentle, I just said “stop doing that.”
Each reptile has a story. The Monitor Lizard only has one claw on its left paw, as a result of the fight he had with the humans who wanted to use his skin to make a drum. The shell of one of the Leopard Tortoises seems to have melted, where it was rescued from a fire. “I hear they are very good for traditional medicine,” one lady said. “Some people eat them,” someone else said.
Monitor Lizard and baby crocs – cute – at this size!
If you turn a tortoise upside down, it will panic and wee itself. If it does this too often it will become dehydrated and eventually die. I didn’t know this myself until last year. I bought a tortoise from some boys down one of the back roads in Muyenga (I shouldn’t have, I realise now). Anyway the tortoise (who didn’t hang around long enough to get a name) tumbled over a step and overturned. I turned him the right way up – and he did the most enormous turd (a sure sign he was scared!)
Being on today’s trip reminds me how much people need to be sensitised. These are not even your average Ugandans; these are people with a proven interest in conservation, and yet they were letting the kids pull leaves off the young saplings and getting too close to the animals. It was a fun and interesting day out but it just reminds me how much work there is to do in conservation in Uganda.
The lady guide was very informative but admitted she won’t hold a snake! We were lucky enough to have a HERPS (herpetology / reptile) specialist, Mathias, on our group. He was a mine of information.
Watching us without moving. An African Rock Python, Reptiles Village, Entebbe
Like a sentry on duty, the first snake we saw was the Forest Cobra, head up and in aggressive mood. Reptiles Village Entebbe
The three metre (?) long African Rock Python is a constrictor. Apparently this is the only snake large enough to consider eating a human but attacks are very rare, although their long teeth can inflict painful wounds. These beasts are often found in caves.
We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw a small manky-looking puppy curled up asleep in the same cage. “Breakfast,” we asked? Twenty minutes later it had gone, nowhere to be seen! The snake hadn’t moved though so we can’t blame him…
Jackson’s Chameleons at Reptiles Village, Entebbe
Holding the pretty Von Hohnel’s Chameleon was a highlight of the day. Its black tongue is coiled tightly like a spring enabling, it to PING into action and trap insects half a metre away! Its eyes are hilarious, constantly rotating, one looking forward and down while the other looks backwards and up! “How does the brain process all that information?!” Erik asked.
Everyone loved the Twig Snake. It was the thickness of a twig, brown and only a foot long. Amazingly, however, this tiny little snake can give you a nasty death, poisoning you over the course of a week.
Death by other snake bites can be much quicker, especially if you’re in a remote area without access to the anti-venom injections, which is most likely. To put this in perspective though – assuming you’ve had the courage to read this far – only 10% of the snakes in Uganda are venomous. You’d be incredibly unlucky to meet one of that 10% and if you were to get bitten, they don’t necessarily release their poison either. I do love seeing Ugandans interacting positively with reptiles. (There seems to be so much fear around them, even though most are harmless).
Frankly I’ve hardly seen any snakes in my first two and a half years living in Uganda: two dead grey ones in the road and a couple of harmless Grass Snakes in our compound.
I had to wait a year before I saw a decent snake: and there it was stretched across the whole length of the road ahead of us, an enormous black snake (not a Black Mamba, they’re actually grey), on the road to Uganda Wildlife Authority campsite in Ishasha. It was a beauty!
Thank you for the reassurance at the end…especially for Lizziema?!
You – and a VSO friend Helen who’s about to come back on a visit and who has a real phobia.
Excellent article, thanks for taking my place on the NU bus and glad you enjoyed the herps! They certainly get a bad press, the South African Guys iam with are very dissapointed the only snake seen so far is a dead Rock Python- minus his head!!!
I loved it and want to go again! The place could do with a bit more information though, but with two guides it was really easy to ask lots of questions.
You’ll have to get your visitors to go to Entebbe then if they want to say they’ve seen a live Ugandan snake! hssssssssss…
Wow,Charlotte,this is really kind of you.i like the write up on our Saturday event.
And as always,NatureUganda is always there to serve you.
Thanks Sandra, glad you like the article. I spent the whole w/end reading up about snakes and chameleons! I put a shorter version of the article on Uganda Conservation Foundation’s Facebook page too – feel free to become a Fan 🙂
Thanks for organising Saurday’s trip, I loved it!
i like it this article,
so danger snake
thanks for sharing about reptiles
Reptile live food
WoW! What an experience – great photos of your close encounters.
just a shame the glass was between me and the snakes – hopefully next time we get to hold the python too!
Wow! Didn’t know you had such a lovely blog Cha! Lovely narrative of the experience at the snake village. I loved the excursion…t’was a day well spent.
Glad you like my blog Erik 🙂 we must all have another day out. Where next? Ngamba Island?
in july 2012 the animals were sick. I saw a poor Felix scared and wounded, a poor Potto and other monkeys without hiding place. the boys at the entrance scareds the animals with a bar for move them… the animals are captured from the wild… this is not conservation, this is a zoo, a circus. this is not education, it’s a business.
Hi CHS tx for your comment but which zoo are you refering to? They do not keep primates at the Reptiles Village in Entebbe and I don’t believe there is a Potto at UWEC either. Animals are well looked after at both places. All the animals at both institutions have been rescued: from poachers and bushmeat smugglers, and from people who were scared or ignorant and wanted to kill the animals. As for being businesses, both institutions really struggle to find the money to operate. Receipts from visitors are what keeps them going – and help educate people (kids in particular) about the natural world.
You’ve forgotten the one that jumped off the roof and nearly came into the doorless pit latrine when I was in a very squatty position.
Oh no I haven’t Ma! That was a CLASSIC safari moment – I’m saving that story for the book!
You’re writing a book! It would be great if I had a custom snake book!
I’m writing a book… but it’s not about snakes… I might be able to connect you with someone who is writing about Uganda’s snakes and other reptiles though…?
The last time I was at Reptile Village, the Gaboon Vipers were in a chicken wire cage instead of glass. My nephew was quite little and poked his fingers inside to try pull himself closer. He was fine, but I almost died from fright.
OMG I can imagine your fright!
Yikes, a Gaboon Viper is a serious creature!
I must revisit Reptile Village. Does it look much different from my photos?
Greetings from Kibale Forest: home to Forest Cobra, Jameson’s Mamba and the fabulously pretty Rhinocerous Viper.