Something fun...

[Kara]

This is "One-Eyed Willy" - a snake I acquired fresh out of Indo last month.

He's still in QT & getting settled in, and bless his heart only has one functional eye...I can only imagine what he went through in his wild life. Willy is a bit of a pistol but is settling in well, and will actually take pre-killed rats right off tongs for me now.

It'll be fun to see whether or not his appearance is an inheritable condition!

[Patrick Long]

I am just a sucker for stripes. I love HIM!!!!!!!!

Does he have an eye missing?, or is it just blind?

[Kara]

It's not missing...but it's not pretty...it looks like something might have grabbed him by the head & messed up that eye pretty good. It does seem to have healed up and doesn't seem to give him any trouble, other than the fact that he gets extra pissy if you approach him from the side where he can't see you. I try to stay on his good side (literally) & thus far he's been relatively tolerant, all things considered.

[Patrick Long]

Thats pretty crazy.

And I think if I only had 1 good eye, I wouldnt be the nicest guy on the planet either!

[Kara]

Yep...that's why he gets all the patience in the world to be as uppity as he wants. Really in the grand scheme of things, he's just scared.

When you consider what most larger WC bloods go through from being collected & brought into skinning stations, it's hard to blame them for being super defensive.

[Patrick Long]

Are blood skins really that sought after?, I honestly have no idea.

[Kara]

CITES Export Quotas for 2007 (total for brongersmai, breitensteini & curtus combined)

Live specimens: 3571
Skins & skin products: 49,680

Go to www.cites.org & download some of the export quotas for various years. I think most folks will be shocked at how much easier it is to export dead snakes (or parts of them) than live ones.

[CeraDigital]

Very nice, Kara! Is he a "Hypo" as well?

[Patrick Long]

CITES Export Quotas for 2007 (total for brongersmai, breitensteini & curtus combined)

Live specimens: 3571
Skins & skin products: 49,680

Go to www.cites.org & download some of the export quotas for various years. I think most folks will be shocked at how much easier it is to export dead snakes (or parts of them) than live ones.

OMG im shocked. I didnt know i was this blind to the world

[CeraDigital]

OMG im shocked. I didnt know i was this blind to the world

You should check out other species, man. I think Retics and AfRocks are in the 150,000's+ for skins...