Embark on an amazing field
trip with Dr. Steve Gorzula as he takes you on a fantastic journey through the
bush of Ghana, Africa to learn about and explore ball pythons in their natural
habitat!
Ball or Royal pythons (Python regius) are possibly the
most popular snake species for reptile hobbyists in America. They are an extremely
beautiful species having a wide variety of color and pattern mutations. They are
easy to keep, very docile and rarely bite. They make fantastic pets and are a
great teaching tool for schools. But, where do ball pythons come from? Have you
ever seen pictures or film of them in the wild? No? Then, read on!
In
1997, Dr. Steve Gorzula led a field team to survey ball pythons in Ghana, Africa
and to develop a management plan for their sustainable use. Since submitting their
report to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora), Ghana, Togo, and Benin have exported approximately 1.5 million
ball pythons to the international pet trade, with 85% of them destined to the
USA alone.
Did you know that the international pet trade of ball pythons
was almost shut down? Did you also know that this survey is the reason why you
can now acquire ball pythons today? In this DVD, you will accompany Dr. Steve
Gorzula and his colleagues on an amazing field trip to learn about ball pythons
in their natural habitat. This is "in the trenches" biology at its finest!
You will meet and come face to face with many other wild animal species such as
venomous spitting cobras, African pythons, imperial scorpions, dwarf crocodiles,
African giant rats, "grass cutters", pangolins, and hedgehogs. If you
are a ball python enthusiast, a herpetologist or a person who loves animals then
this is real field biology for you!
You will witness never before seen
footage of the Ewe tribe who consider the ball python to be sacred. You will be
part of their annual ball python festival as you witness their sacred ceremony
first hand. You'll also see and learn the importance of protocol and libation
ceremonies with the local kings and chiefs of villages in Ghana.
Later,
you will join inspections of exporters' installations, and see where your pet
python started its journey. You will share some time with the students at the
University of Kumasi as well. Finally, you will see what happens when you answer
an emergency call from a school where the children were scared about the crocodiles
in the pond across the street. We capture the crocodiles in the night and take
them to the school the next day. The only problem is that we didn't call the school
beforehand to let them know that we were bringing the crocs with us!
Dr.
Steve Gorzula is a biodiversity conservation and natural resources management
specialist. He has more than 30 years experience in environmental and social impacts
of development projects, environmental legislation, river basin management, wildlife
conservation, commercial wildlife management, the Convention on International
Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), ecological inventories, human impacts on
biodiversity, biomedicine, and endemic and protected areas. Of these 30 years,
he has spent 24 living and working in developing countries. Dr. Steve has described
two new genera and 22 new species of reptiles and amphibians. A species of frog
and two species of endemic plants are named after him.
Click
here to read Dr. Steve Gorzulas' official SURVEY OF THE STATUS AND MANAGEMENT
OF THE ROYAL PYTHON (Python regius) IN GHANA report in Adobe PDF format.
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