New kid on the block (I mean forum)

[CoralSnake]

Hi all, I recently met Bill Haast and Ray Hunter, at which time Ray told me of this site. I am mostly interested in Elapids of all sorts, but my favorate is the Coral Snake. I was amazed when both Haast and Hunter spoke of having been bitten several times by these docile little creatures, leaving nothing more than a scar on Hunter's hand. I would someday like to get into venom production, but Ray Hunter advises against it, saying the money may not outweigh the risk (I can't tell by looking at Haast's home, and the Miami Serpentarium).
Well, that's a little about me. I'm glad to be a member of such a well run site.

see ya'll
Stano

[TheRedDragon]

Welcome to sSnakeSs CoralSnake! :)

[CoralSnake]

Thanks.

[Dr. Bryan Fry]

Good to meet you Stano.

Haast was an exception for the venom buisiness. He admirably filled a niche that existed during the postwar boom when all things scientific were well funded. He got massive amounts of orders (and cheap non-paperwork hassled snakes from everywhere). Good on em. Now a days you need to combine it with something else (reptile park, breeding, documentary *****, etc.) or have a premium product. I have a lot of time for Peter Mirtschin (Venom Supplies) and Jim Harrison (Kentucky) because they have locality data for their snakes (this is particulalry important because of the tremendous amount of geographic variation in venom composition).

Or you could just study a bit longer, get a Ph.D. and go herping ;-)

Cheers
B