Liana Shoots Elephants!: Snake Farm!

Since I re-prioritized my last 3 months left here on my Fulbright, I have placed photographing reptiles & amphibians at the top of the list! The "big 5" wildlife conservation field is way over crowded and political for me to navigate alone, but no one cares about frogs or lizards! There is a long standing superstitious attitude towards reptiles & amphibians, like in many cultures, and they are actively avoided. Chameleons are particularly loaded with negative connotations since they change colors and with some species, the live births kill the mothers. Also, apparently they are a nightmare if one gets caught in your hair! All the poor froggies and chameleons are seen as pests and bad omens and are generally overlooked in the wildlife conservation field.

Fortunately for me, East Africa is home to some of the most biodiverse montane forests in the world. The Eastern Arc Mountains that stretch from southern Kenya to the central east coast of Tanzania are considered the "Galapagos of Africa". There are over 20 species of Chameleons in Tanzania alone and plenty of frog and lizards that have yet to be properly photographed. Michele Menegon has probably photographed the most species in the Eastern Arc Mountains, his website is amazing: http://www.michelemenegon.it/wildlifegalleries/by-places/galapagos-of-africa/

Last weekend, I went to the snake farm next to Arusha National Park. Although the place is a bit run down and past its hey-day, they still had some very cool snake species that I have ever seen in captivity anywhere. Our tour guide said that all the snakes were venomous, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't true...

Photographing animals in captivity is a very interesting thing to me. A lot of wildlife photographers will try to shoot captive animals like they are in the wild, taking them out of their cages and placing them in a scene that looks more natural. Here's a great little article from Nick Nichols, one of the most renowned National Geographic photographers, about shooting captive animals; http://michaelnicknichols.com/article/captive/

Well, taking all the poisonous snakes out of their tanks to make them look pretty for the camera wasn't really an option, but I don't see the point in trying to fake a natural photograph. These species are in captivity. They live in small tanks that are poorly emulating their natural environment and they will most likely be sold off to some private collector or zoo to continue their captive life somewhere else. But for people like me, who care about reptiles & amphibians, at least we have the chance to see some rarer species that you would be very lucky to see in the wild.

Soon, I'll be going to the Amani Forest Reserve in the Usambara mountains to photograph reptiles & amphibians in their REAL environment! Here's a great article about the Amani Reserve, its history, flora and fauna; http://www.amaninature.org/biodiversity.htm

Egyptian Cobra