Bangkok: Dusit Zoo and Snake Farm

Dusit Zoo

We both love wildlife, and as we travel it is becoming clear that its our main interest in all the places we visit. The Lonely Planet guide book didn't rate the Bangkok zoo very well, but we went anyway, and it was actually quite good.



Not 100% sure what this is, maybe a mega-guinea pig? Whatever it is, it is the size of a meduim dog and very cute - according to Princess!



The ever-regal tiger. We both love the big kitties, wish we could give them pats and cuddles... Dusit Zoo had lots of tigers, lions and other big cats.



This is a black leopard. Though not visible in the small picture, he still has leopard spots faintly visible in his coat.



I think these are iguanas. There are so many reptiles over here its hard to know, and I didn't take a photo with the label - duh! The zoo had all sorts of other animals - Parrots, macaques, monkeys, orang-utans, zebras, turtles, pandas.

We also met another GIBBON! He was also very cute, but behind bars so we couldn't play with him. He did reach his little hand out between the bars to hold hands though which was very sweet. Gibbons really seem to like contact with humans. That's lucky because we like contact with them too!

We had a fun day wandering around looking at all the animals we had never seen before. Every Zoo we have visited is a little different, so it's interesting to compare them. Singapore Zoo is still number 1 though!

SNAKE FARM

We also visited a snake farm, run by the red cross society. These people know and love snakes, and it is a professional and humane site. As explained to us, they have 2 purposes: to collect venom to make the anti-venom needed all over the country, and EDUCATION.



They have all the varieties of snake found in Thailand, including these Burmese Pythons.



In the open-air cages, the enclosures are like little igloos for the snakes.



This organisation collects venom by milking snakes. Their head is held as in the picture, and their gland (behind their ear) is milked - the venom comes out of their 2 teeth, like a syringe!

Before the live show, we sat through a slide show talking about snakes, showing how horses are used to produce anti-venom. The horses are infected, and their immune system makes the antibodies, which are then separated out of the blood. We assume/hope that the horses are not actually affected by the venom!



As the snakes don't get to kill much (no venom) they are force fed to keep them alive. They won't eat food that isn't moving, so the handlers actually stuff them with food! This snake got several large portions of chicken stuffed into his mouth with long tweezers. We were amazed at the volume he had without even
exploding!



Here is our second go at snake handling, and we felt much more comfortable this time. The people definitely knew what they were doing, and the building behind us has all the anti-venom we could need, should something go wrong...