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Snakes: Some of the Most Useful Residents of the Tropics
Which snakes are poisonous?
Which are just happy to see you?
Snakes - Some of Our Most Useful Natural Citizens
Learning about a whole world normally closed to kids' explorative nature - what a wonderful way to encourage cautious curiosity
Understanding Snakes
The world would be a poorer place without snakes. They remove rodents from farms and keep the jungle clean. Even medications - since 1981, snake venin has been used commercially to produce the largest selling anti-hypertensive medication in the world (captopril).
With a keen eye to preserving natural beauty as well, Costa Rica has NOT subjected the magnificent Pacuare River to a hydroelectric dam... Let's keep working to preserve this river.
Conservation and Education: Important Goals of
One of Serendipity's favorite places to stop when we have a few hour extra is Minor's Snake Education Center. Minor realized modern school-educated kids had completely lost touch with natural creatures, and modern kids thought killing all snakes was a good idea. The result, of course, was a surge in rat populations, destroying sugar cane, infesting homes, and other imbalances of nature. So Minor started his self-appointed education efforts.
When Serendipity guests leave this Education Center (really, just a bench outside a shed, with a blackboard), they've had a' first-hand touch, and feel, of animals they most likely will never encounter again in their lives. But they won't forget this one encounter. We hope it will help shade their thinking about protecting environments, of maintaining a balance in nature, as they become the leaders of the generation that has to solve the environmental crisis we are leaving behind.