This is not a long story, but it is a good one. Last weekend one of our girlfriends who lives in the cunucu of Jaburibari came face to face with a rattle snake. He stood his grounds, lifted his head, lifted his tail, then started rattling. He was about 95cm long and as thick as a ballpark frank.
She screamed. He was unimpressed. He continue to shake his maracas.
The dogs came around and decided to fold. Though they have no problems going after the occasional boa, their instincts told them not to mess with this one with the fangs.
Then girlfriend scream again. And nothing happened.
She called here, she called there. It was Sunday late afternoon, no one was moving. No one came to her rescue besides Philip Merryweather of Philip’s Animal Garden who tells us he gets calls, demanding rescues all the time. An injure pelican, abandoned puppies, wandering baby goats, garden snakes, Philip is an equal opportunity rescuer.
So Philip picked up the unwelcomed visitor from Jaburibari on Sunday, and on Tuesday we drove to the top of Arikok’s highest peaks and released him. He crawled out of the white detergent bucket resentfully, and slithered away. He did not want anything to do with us! We wished him luck. Phillip wants his to find a mate and procreate because the indigenous rattle snake is critically endangered.
Here we go what I found on line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1eJt8PbVfU
The Aruba Island rattlesnake is one of the rarest rattlesnakes in the world. Its short and stocky looking body has an overall brown color and a lighter brown tail tip and its scaly skin has distinctive pink, blue and brown diamond shaped markings. Males and females are similar in appearance though males are larger in size. The tail creates the rattling noise that gives this snake its name. This species belongs to the family of vipers, and like other vipers it has a V shaped head, and venomous long hollow fangs which fold against the roof of the mouth when they are not being used.
Philip’s Animal Garden, Alto Vista 116, #593 5363, [email protected]
