A Gather of Gatherings
What do you call a group of hawks? A kettle. Rattlesnakes? A rhumba. Orangutans? A buffoonery.
Welcome to A Gather of Gatherings, a story-rich, curiosity-fueled podcast exploring the wild and whimsical world of collective nouns. Each episode begins with a single phrase—like a murder of crows—and unfolds into something much bigger: interviews with experts and artists, imagined conversations with historical voices and animals, immersive soundscapes, folklore, poetry, and plenty of animal facts along the way.
From language and literature to nature, culture, and the mysteries of meaning, this podcast is your invitation to wander where words take flight.
Hosted by Kellie Raines—a writer, artist, and lover of linguistic oddities—this show celebrates the poetic strangeness of how we gather, name, and know the world and each other.
A Gather of Gatherings
04: Gatherlings: Full Tour of Save the Snakes — Rattlesnakes, Pythons, and a Green Unicorn
Step inside Save the Snakes in Rancho Cordova, California, for a rare, unfiltered behind-the-scenes tour at Save the Snakes with host Kellie Raines and venomous snake coordinator and expert Amy Brumbaugh. This Gatherlings bonus episode — your companion to A Rhumba of Rattlesnakes — goes beyond rattlesnakes to explore pythons, kingsnakes, gopher snakes, and the stunning “green unicorn” rhino rat snake at Save the Snakes.
You’ll even hear the moment Kellie touches a snake for the first time (spoiler: not slimy!) and the sound of a real rattlesnake in person! Packed with engaging audio and snake characters worth taking the time to get to know, this episode is perfect for wildlife lovers and the snake-curious alike.
Kellie: Welcome to Gatherlings, your bonus experience to A Gather of Gatherings. In our last episode, A Rhumba of Rattlesnakes, we faced the music of the rattle, met a legendary snake named Johnny Cash, the lovely Tesoro, and more. But our visit with Amy Brumbaugh at Save the Snakes was too rich and too delightful to squeeze into just one gathering.
Kellie: That's why in this bonus Gatherlings episode, I'm sharing with you the full unfiltered tour. In the main episode, we focused on the rattlesnakes, but in reality it was a whole serpent festival in there. We're talking an eastern indigo snake named Orlando. Groundzilla, the gopher snake. Athena, the coastal carpet python, she's a goddess, and more. What do you even call a mix like that? A medley of serpents? A negotiation of nope ropes? I'm not sure that I made that one up. I'm sure I didn't. You'll hear me touch a snake for the first time. Spoiler, not slimy. And learn how egg cartons and Capri Sun boxes turn into top-tier snake enrichment.
Kellie: So come on in. The doors and buckets are safely open. Let's go behind the glass and into the world of Save the Snakes with Amy Brumbaugh. So, we're at Save the Snakes in, is it Rancho Cordova or Sacramento?
Amy: Yeah. I think technically Rancho Cordova.
Kellie: Rancho Cordova.
Amy: Yeah.
Kellie: And can you state your name for us?
Amy: My name is Amy Brumbaugh.
Kellie: Amy, you're gonna give me a tour, right?
Amy: Yes.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Yes.
Kellie: Let's start.
Amy: You just walked in the door, and you were greeted by our snake room. So, as people come in, uh, the first thing they see is our lovely snake room. So, these are all of our snake ambassador animals. So, we have a collection of about 25 individual snakes here, and we have many that are non-venomous, and we also have six that are venomous snakes here.
Amy: So, all of the venomous snakes are rattlesnakes. They're all also California natives. So we have four of our northern Pacific rattlesnake, which is a type of rattlesnake that you would find here in Sacramento and in most of Northern California. And then we have our Western Diamondback Rattlesnake who you… we can describe for your listeners, but his name is Johnny Cash.
Kellie: Is he the one that's down here?
Amy: He's the one that's looking at us. He's, he is coiled up. He is resting comfortably right now, but he is looking right at us. He's very alert and aware when there are visitors.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Um, and he's our biggest, so the Western Diamondback is found in the southern part of California.
Amy: And their range extends into Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and down into Mexico. Um, they're really iconic species that you would find in like old
Kellie: Wow. Okay.
Amy: So anytime you think of like John Wayne movies, there's a rattlesnake with his tail buzzing. It's likely a western Diamondback rattlesnake.
So it's an iconic kind of Hollywood standard.
Amy: Definitely, yes. Iconic Hollywood snake species.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Um, and Johnny Cash is kind of a local, uh, celebrity. He was kept as a pet for nine years. In Folsom.
Kellie: People keep rattlesnakes as pets.
Amy: Uh, they do. Yeah.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Some, some people do. It would… it wouldn't be my preferred thing to do to keep a rattlesnake as a pet.
Amy: There's uh, definitely a lot of risk involved.
Kellie: Yeah.
Amy: So. some of our animals here were former pets and their owners could no longer care for them.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Um, and so we took them in, gave them a forever home and now they help… help us to teach people about snakes and about snake safety. So, I have a rattlesnake in a bucket here to show you if you would like to see.
Kellie: I would love to see one. Let me get my camera ready, if that's okay.
Amy: Of course. Um, so I will just, we're gonna wanna keep as much distance as possible, um, from the bucket about three feet is probably good.
Kellie: Is this good for me?
Amy: Yeah, you're totally good there.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Um, this is Tesoro who's in the bucket here.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: And you'll notice that I am using my safety gear, so I've got gaiters to protect my feet and I'm going to be using tools to open the bucket and to maneuver the snake.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: So, we never touch rattlesnakes with our hands here.
Kellie: Never.
Amy: Never, ever. Um, not when we're working with them, bringing 'em outta the buckets and such.
Amy: In certain scenarios, if you're doing like medical procedures.
Kellie: Yeah.
Amy: You might do a procedure called tubing, which is different procedure, which we're not gonna do today.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: That would be the only time I would put my hands on tubing.
Kellie: No tubing. Okay.
Amy: No tubing today.
Kellie: And what is the snake's name?
Amy: The snake's name is Tesoro.
Kellie: Tesoro.
Amy: Mm-hmm. Means treasure.
Kellie: Treasure.
Amy: So.
Kellie: Oh my goodness.
Amy: I've got her in the bucket there. Tesoro's a little bit on the shy side.
Kellie: That's okay. I'm good with Tesoro being shy. I'm totally fine with that.
Amy: There it is.
Kellie: Holy moly. That is musical. That is a dance.
Amy: Sorry, sweet girl.
Kellie: Oh, my lord. No way. No way. No way. No, no.
Amy: There she is.
Kellie: No, no, no way. Hi you, beautiful, beautiful. So beautiful.
Amy: You can see she's calmed down a little bit now.
Kellie: Oh, sure.
Amy: She's not rattling anymore. She's very alert, but I'm just gonna put her back into her house. You're welcome to…
Kellie: I think that's a great idea.
Amy: You can take a… you can come around the corner taking photos.
Amy: Just right back in here, little lady. There you go, sweetness. Put the tail in, baby. There we go.
Kellie: What? You are like a magician.
Amy: I'm just gonna lock her back up so she's all safe and sound. Tesoro. There we go.
Kellie: Tesora? Tesoro?
Amy: Uh, Tesoro. T-E-S-O-R-O.
Kellie: Hi. I'm sorry, baby.
Amy: Did you get some photos?
Kellie: I got some great photos.
Amy: Oh, good.
Kellie: And some great audio.
Amy: Yeah.
Kellie: Oh, my goodness.
Amy: Yeah. Now that's a sound.
Kellie: Do you ever get tired of that sound?
Amy: No. No. I don't, I don't think I ever get tired of that sound. I also never feel fully complacent around that sound.
Kellie: Yeah.
Amy: Um, so one thing that's, that's extremely important to myself and us as an organization is safety. And so, there are certain safety procedures we follow with every single interaction with a rattlesnake. Um, and so. We're, we never wanna be complacent because. You run the risk of making a mistake if you become complacent or you're rushing, or
Kellie: For sure.
Amy: You skip a step.
Amy: So safety is number one priority with, with these animals.
Kellie: So as she's rattling, is she just saying, “Hey, you're bothering me. Get away.”
Amy: She's scared.
Kellie: She's scared.
Kellie: Yeah.
Amy: She's scared. She's one of our more shy rattlesnakes.
Kellie: Oh, bless her heart.
Amy: Um, she tends to spend more of her time kind of hiding away in her little hides that we offer them.
Amy: Some of the rattlesnakes that we have hardly ever rattle.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Dorado here.
Kellie: Dorado?
Amy: He, he rarely rattles. Um.
Kellie: Oh, he's a tiny little guy.
Amy: Yeah, he is. Uh, he's actually pretty big. He's big enough. He's bigger than Tesoro that you saw there. He is just, you can only see his face there. And then we have Mr. Cool down here.
Amy: He's another one who's a little bit on the shy side.
Kellie: His name's Mr. Cool?
Amy: Mr. Cool. He's from Cool, California.
Kellie: I love that. That's so fitting.
Amy: Dorado was found in the El Dorado Hills area.
Kellie: Oh, I love that.
Amy: And then we have Lucky Strike, who, she was out earlier, but she's hiding now.
Kellie: I feel ya, Lucky Strike.
Amy: She's under her little egg carton there.
Kellie: I love the decorations that they all have in their little, what do you call them? Like pods or.
Amy: Yeah, so these, we call 'em enclosures. These are all vision, style. Vision was the brand, the company. And they graciously actually donated all of these to us.
Kellie: Oh, wow.
Amy: Um, which is great.
Amy: And so, everything that we've got inside of their enclosures, we call that enrichment.
Kellie: Enrichment. Okay.
Amy: Yeah. So, it's… We give them things that they can use to hide in things that maybe have interesting textures. We don't want them to get bored or feel insecure.
Kellie: For sure.
Kellie: I, and I love that how creative is, there's like an egg carton.
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Kellie: And I love, is that Sierra Nevada Pale Ale?
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Kellie: I love that. There's some Capri sun boxes of stuff like that.
Amy: Yeah. So, we just, a lot of us just like keep boxes that we gather, you know, at home and we'll bring them in different size boxes for different size snakes. I don't know if you can see.
Amy: We've got a corn dog box up here for this snake.
Kellie: Oh. What kind of snake is that up there with a corn dog?
Amy: That's an eastern indigo snake.
Kellie: Eastern indigo.
Amy: This is another eastern indigo snake. So, same species. Um, he's a little bit easier to see though. His name is Orlando.
Kellie: Orlando. You're so pretty.
Amy: Yeah. He's a gorgeous snake.
Amy: This is one of my favorite snake species. They're, um, native to Florida. They are endangered and they're a snake eating snake.
Kellie: So, they're like the hero snakes? Kind of.
Amy: Well.
Kellie: Maybe.
Amy: Depends on how you feel about snakes, I guess. Um, but they, they do sometimes prey on rattlesnakes, which is something that they have in common.
Kellie: Oh, okay.
Amy: With our California kingsnakes.
Kellie: It's okay if I follow you?
Amy: Absolutely.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: I am sure Tesoro would prefer it. She was like, get away.
Kellie: Sorry, Tesoro.
Amy: So, we have a California kingsnake in here, which is, as the name suggests, a California native.
Kellie: Now is this a venomous one?
Amy: No.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: California kingsnakes are non-venomous.
Amy: Hey, sweetheart. They're another one that is a snake-eating snake. And the scientific term for that is Ophiophagus.
Kellie: Oh, my goodness. How beautiful are you? Let me take a picture.
Amy: Indy, hold. Hold still. Her name is Indy.
Kellie: Indy. Yeah. Hello, Indy. You are so beautiful. Pretty girl. Oh, my goodness.
Amy: There we go.
Kellie: Thank you. Hi.
Amy: Yeah, so this is an iconic California species. They're pretty broad distribution in California.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: So, you might find these in Sacramento. I grew up in the Bay Area.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Uh, running around, finding them all over the place there. And if you have one of these in your yard, this is a good snake to have around if you're nervous about rattlesnakes.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Because they do prey on rattlesnakes.
Kellie: Even like the bigger ones is that like a size.
Amy: So, they are, they are. Uh, gape-limited.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: So, they can only eat things so big.
Kellie: Oh, gotcha.
Amy: Snakes can't truly unhinge their jaw like it shows in cartoons, you know, where you have a little tiny snake.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: And then a huge outline of like an elephant, and then.
Kellie: That's not happening.
Amy: No.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: They've got lots of bones in there.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Ribs and backbones that got like 200 to 400 vertebrae, so they can only eat things about as big as the biggest part of their body.
Kellie: So, the cartoons are lying to us.
Amy: The cartoons are, yeah. Sadly, lying to us. Um, but most of the rattlesnakes around here are relatively small, two to four feet on average.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: And these kingsnakes can get pretty big as well.
Kellie: Wow.
Amy: Up to about five feet. Indy's kind of on the smaller side.
Kellie: How old is Indy?
Amy: Indy is an adult. So, with a lot of our snakes, we don't know their exact age.
Kellie: Gotcha.
Amy: 'Cause of their background. Um, but Indy is, I could double check it for you, but I believe at least 10 years old.
Amy: Definitely an adult.
Kellie: So beautiful. Let me take another picture. Indy, you are gorgeous.
Amy: Excuse you.
Kellie: Hi, Indy.
Amy: Here we go.
Kellie: Thank you, girl.
Amy: Yeah.
Amy: Do you wanna touch her?
Kellie: Can I?
Amy: Yeah.
Kellie: Oh, that's so smooth.
Amy: Were you expecting smooth or slimy?
Kellie: I was expecting a little more slimy
Amy: Uhhuh. Yeah.
Kellie: They're not wet. They're not?
Amy: No. They actually don't have any, um, sweat glands.
Kellie: Got goosebumps. It's so cool.
Amy: They can't produce really any, like, sweat or secrete any kind of slime. Um, they're very, very smooth and dry and feels cold, right?
Kellie: Very, yeah. Very smooth, very sleek. Almost like stone.
Amy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, these kind of scales, they're not keeled. So, they're very, very smooth scales.
Kellie: What is keeled mean?
Amy: So, with keeled scales, if you are able to look at Johnny's scales there, you see how they look kind of pokey?
Kellie: Yeah.
Amy: So, each scale has a ridge running right down the center of it. So, like a keel of a ship.
Kellie: Oh, okay.
Amy: And it gives him a very prickly appearance.
Kellie: Well, you are a rattlesnake, a little prickly, huh?
Amy: But not only rattlesnakes have keeled scales. There's another snake I'll show you. Poor Tesoro.
Kellie: Poor, I'm sorry, baby.
Amy: She'll be okay.
Kellie: I appreciate though. I'll give you a shout out on the podcast.
Amy: Oh yes. She's like, I will shout too. So I have another really cool California native here.
Amy: Hello, sir.
Kellie: This is not venomous?
Amy: No, no. If I'm opening it with my hands, it's not venomous
Kellie: Good clue.
Amy: That was, that was the only venomous snake that I, that I was gonna.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Show and tell today.
Kellie: Venomous snakes are now enclosed.
Amy: Yes. They're all locked and closed. Hi, Mr. Man, can you come here, Sir? Yeah. One of those safety precautions that I was talking about is we never open a rattlesnake or a venomous snake enclosure with our hands.
Amy: We always keep our distance and use our tools to open.
Kellie: Smart.
Amy: Mr. Man.
Kellie: And everything's locked up and.
Amy: Everything is locked. Yeah. They're all secure. Hi Mr.
Kellie: Is that his name? Mr. Man?
Amy: Oh no. His name is actually Groundzilla.
Kellie: Groundzilla!
Amy: Yeah. GZ for short. I of course have nicknames for all of them individually.
Kellie: Groundzilla.
Amy: Yeah. Isn't he gorgeous?
Kellie: Oh, Groundzilla. Hello my friend. You are so pretty.
Amy: He's also one of our oldest ambassadors.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: He's estimate about 20 to 25 years old.
Kellie: And remind me, what kind of snake is he?
Amy: Oh, he's a gopher snake.
Kellie: A gopher snake.
Amy: Yeah. So not venomous.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Not at all dangerous to people, but very frequently confused for a rattlesnake.
Amy: And you can kind of see why, right? He's got
Kellie: Patterns.
Amy: Blotches. Yeah. So, we call these blotches on the back, and the rattlesnakes also have blotches. Gopher snake does have slightly keeled scales, so if you feel his scales. Yeah, yeah.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: See how it feels a little bit more bumpy than.
Kellie: Yeah.
Amy: Indy's, which were very smooth. And if you look real closely at some of those scales, you can see the ridge right down the center.
Kellie: Thank you, Groundzilla.
Amy: Mm-hmm. Beautiful boy, you're sweet.
Kellie: You're so handsome.
Amy: The gopher snakes are also another way to identify them from rattlesnakes. They are a little bit more glossy, shiny in appearance. Yeah. The rattlesnake can kind of have like a dullish appearance in their finish. Um, and the gopher snake has a more slender face and head.
Amy: The rattlesnake has a more of a triangular shaped head, well-defined neck. Finally, the Gopher Snake. Has a very, very pointy tail and no rattle.
Kellie: Oh, look at that. Groundzilla, you are so cool.
Amy: He is awesome. Very, very gentle snake. One of our ambassadors. So.
Kellie: Is he popular with the people who meet him?
Amy: Yeah, he's very popular.
Amy: We have, uh, four gopher snakes here. So, these four are all gopher snakes.
Kellie: When you do events and outreach and stuff, do you typically take a certain kind of snake?
Amy: Yeah, it's, um, so they all take turns. We wanna make sure that they don't get like, too much, uh, exposure.
Kellie: Gotcha.
Amy: Snakes generally are shy animals and while these snakes are more comfortable with people than like their wild counterparts, we still wanna make sure that they get rest between events and things like that.
Kellie: For sure.
Amy: So that's why we have so many, like we have four gopher snakes. We can take turns who goes out. We also keep in mind like what's going on with their life, um, whether or not we're gonna take 'em out.
Amy: So, snakes will shed their skin and when they shed their skin, um, they shed it all in one piece. And so, we like to give them a break when they're in that process of shedding so that.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: They're not getting picked up. 'Cause you know, imagine trying to crawl out of your own skin. And I just feel like that would feel kind of weird and icky.
Amy: Their eyes typically go his look cloudy all the time 'cause he is old and he has cataracts. But when a snake is about to shed, its eyes will kind of cloud over. And that is the, uh, they're producing like a lymph fluid to help them to assist with sliding out of that skin.
Kellie: Oh, how fascinating.
Amy: And because the eyes are not, they do not have eyelids, so you'll never see a snake blink
Kellie: constantly open
Amy: or wink. They're constantly open. So that's a scale also that covers the eye for protection.
Kellie: So, they sleep with their eyes open?
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Kellie: Wow.
Amy: Yeah. That.
Kellie: So.
Amy: That snake and Harry Potter never could have winked at him.
Kellie: I love that. Um, so when they're doing their little tongues out, like
Amy: mm-hmm.
Kellie: They're constantly doing, are they smelling? Are they just getting sensory of the environment?
Amy: Yes. Yeah. So, it's olfactory.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: So it is, it is tied to the sense of smell, but it's specialized sense of smell. And so, they have a forked tongue.
Kellie: Mm-hmm.
Amy: As you can see. And they have a organ in the roof of their mouth called the Jacobson's organ. And when they flick the tongue out, they're collecting little tiny scent particles out of the air, and they bring the tongue into the mouth.
Amy: It flicks into the Jacobson's organ, has a direct line to the brain, and it gives them information about what it is they're smelling. It also gives them directional information, which is why the tongue is forked.
Kellie: Wow.
Amy: So, concentrations of scent will be higher on the left fork. That means the scent came from the left.
Kellie: That is so cool.
Amy: Isn't that cool? So that helps them to locate their prey. Um, it helps them to find other snakes, water, danger, all kinds of things.
Kellie: So, the forked tongue is like a GPS for snake?
Amy: Yeah, pretty much.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Yeah.
Kellie: Wow. Mist- Groundzilla.
Amy: Groundzilla GZ for short.
Kellie: GZ. GZ.
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Kellie: Hey, GZ.
Amy: The oldest, one of the oldest ambassador animals that we have here.
Amy: About 20 to 25 years old.
Kellie: Wow. That is how, how long do snakes live on the average?
Amy: Um, it, it depends. In human care, they can live quite a bit longer. Twenties, 30s is not uncommon for a snake in good health and human care.
Kellie: Mm-hmm.
Amy: Um, in the wild it tends to be shorter. They have more, they have more dangers, more threats in the wild, um, and more potential for diseases and things like that.
Amy: Predation, diseases.
Kellie: Gotcha. Do you ever, do you any of your snakes ever hang out together?
Amy: Oh, that's a good question. So, we… we do not have the snakes hang out together. Um, there are some snakes that are social in the wild, um, and they're, and they will spend time in very close proximity with each other, especially during like the winter time when they're in brumation, which is like a form of hibernation.
Amy: Um, oftentimes animals like rattlesnakes will cohabitate over the winter in like communal dens or burrows. However, in this environment, these are, this is not a natural environment. We don't want any potential mating between animals.
Kellie: Gotcha.
Amy: Um, and we also have animals who are snake-eating snakes, so they all stay separate from each other.
Kellie: That makes snake, makes snakes, makes sense.
Amy: Yeah. Yeah. So, we… we keep 'em all separate. They… they do go on events together, but we'll carry them in individual, um, travel containers. So, a travel container might be a bucket like this.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Um, we'll usually have them bagged in just like a pillowcase.
Kellie: Oh, okay.
Amy: Pillowcase in a bucket and then they're ready to go. So, one of our goals as an organization is to have our snake conservation center, which is here, be a hub where people can come and learn about snakes and see them in person. And have that kind of one-on-one personal interaction, which we believe really helps to foster a sense of empowerment as well as kind of like wanting to care for these animals in the wild as well.
Kellie: For sure. I mean, I've got goosebumps just seeing, uh, what is his name again?
Amy: That's Orlando.
Kellie: Orlando. Just seeing Orlando and Johnny Cash, who I'm like, kind of partial to just 'cause, that's so cool. But I.
Amy: He's very cool.
Kellie: I came in here going, they know they're important and I know they're beautiful, but. You, I think, develop a reverence for them when you meet them in person.
Amy: I agree. Yeah. I think that meeting an animal like a snake, which is such an iconic animal, um, also such a feared animal, um, for many reasons.
Kellie: Yeah.
Amy: Um, seeing them in person and seeing how they behave when they're not being shown rattling, striking, biting in a movie. Um, kind of give you a better sense of how they really are as animals.
Kellie: Yeah. And he's just super active.
Amy: He is.
Kellie: He's a little, he looks like a showoff. I don't know. Is Orlando a show off?
Amy: He is. He's very intelligent and very curious. One thing that's fun about being around these animals, uh, for a long period of time is getting to know their individual personalities. We have a couple more snakes in the other room
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: That are deserved to be mentioned. These are all non-venomous animals here. So, this room in here is our training room.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: Um, and where we will host like talks and events and things like that. But we have Athena here who is a coastal carpet python. So, this is an exotic python species native to Australia.
Kellie: Wow. What is her name again?
Amy: Athena.
Kellie: Athena.
Amy: Like the Goddess.
Kellie: You're a goddess.
Amy: Yes. So, she's very popular. She is one of our longest. At probably about seven or eight feet long, but her and Johnny Cash are probably pretty close in length.
Kellie: And I noticed, do each of these, uh, container enclosures have, like whether it's non-venomous?
Amy: They do.
Kellie: Tag.
Amy: So the kind of orangey color is non-venomous and then the red is venomous red is, is usually associated with venom.
Kellie: Hi Athena. Now can they sense us on the outside of the class?
Amy: Oh yeah, absolutely. She can both see, smell, and hear us.
Kellie: I am a friend, not a foe.
Amy: Yeah, she's very sweet. She's very, she's very outgoing.
Amy: She goes to a lot of events, um, meets lots of people at our various events and is usually very, very popular.
Kellie: Now, is her skin keeled? Is that what it is?
Amy: Um, hers is not so hers. As you can see, those overlapping scales are really smooth. Um, being a python, she's a constrictor. So, the way that they eat is they will very quickly grab hold of their food and then rapidly wrap their body around the body of the prey and squeeze.
Kellie: Squeeze.
Amy: So that constriction is what stops the heart.
Kellie: You are a warrior and a and a lovely creature.
Amy: Yes. She's very beautiful. We have another one over here who's, uh, this is a very gregarious snake. She is. Medusa.
Kellie: Medusa.
Amy: And she's right down here under the log there if you can see.
Kellie: Oh, there she is.
Amy: So she's a dwarf reticulated python.
Kellie: How pretty.
Amy: Another exotic species. Uh, the reticulated python is one of the longest snakes in the world. Up at about 30 feet. Dwarf reticulated python get maybe 11 feet long.
Kellie: Wow.
Amy: She is another former pet. Um, spent a lot of time apparently, uh, hanging out with her former owner, just like watching TV, chilling on the couch, so, she's really comfortable with people and also comes out and does a lot of events and is very popular.
Kellie: So, is she really big like this one? Is that why she's got such a big enclosure or
Amy: She's more long, uh, than she is wide around, but yes, she has a potential to get up to about 11 feet long, so we want to give her room to
Kellie: Wow.
Amy: Yeah. The longest snake I've ever met was probably, eight feet long or so. It was another coastal carpet python. I have worked in facilities where they had anacondas, but I didn't work directly with the anaconda.
Kellie: Okay.
Amy: So, I can't count that one.
Kellie: You were anaconda adjacent?
Amy: Yeah, it was anaconda adjacent. And then the last of our little ambassador buddies is this really beautiful and interesting looking and I can bring him out because he is just so, so cool.
Kellie: He is a completely different color.
Amy: Pardon me, sir. The color and the pattern often relates to how they live. Sir, can you come here please?
Amy: You're all wrapped around your vine.
Kellie: It's like it's a rainy day. I am chilling.
Amy: So, this is an arboreal snake, meaning they spend most of their time up in the trees, and so he's green so that he can blend in with the vines and the leaves. This is.
Kellie: What is his name?
Amy: His name is Osma. And Osma is a rhino rat snake.
Kellie: I was gonna ask, is that because of the pointy thing on the end of his head?
Amy: Yep. They're also known as the green unicorn. Got a nice little proboscis there, so it's just an extension of the scales, so it's, he doesn't love it, but it's just an extension of the scales, so it's, soft. So, it wouldn't really help them with any kind of like burrowing or anything like that.
Amy: Uh, scientists aren't a hundred percent sure why they have it. It may help them to look more like the vines or the leaves. As you can see, he blends in really well.
Kellie: The stem or, yeah.
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Kellie: The tip of a leaf.
Kellie: How fascinating.
Amy: Very beautiful snake.
Kellie: Very petite too.
Amy: Yeah, he is a little bit on the smaller side.
Amy: Alright sir.
Kellie: But you are just as fierce my friend.
Amy: He is just as beautiful. Interesting thing about these snakes is when they're born, when they're hatched, I should say, this species, they're more terrestrial, so they're like a grayish color when they're hatched, and then as they age, they're. Their kind of life habits change.
Amy: They become more arboreal, and when they hit maturity at around two years old, they transition from that grayish color to green.
Kellie: So, it's kind of like a camouflage?
Amy: Mm-hmm.
Kellie: Technique thing.
Amy: Yeah. As you can see in here, he is surrounded by all of this green. Imagine him in a rainforest. It would potentially be very difficult to see him.
Kellie: He's so, so stately too.
Amy: Yes, he's
Kellie: He's very proud. He looks very proud.
Amy: It's a beautiful snake.
Kellie: Thank you for your snake tour.
Amy: Yeah, absolutely. So, these are. These are all of our ambassadors who aid us in, in our mission to help educate people in our community here.
Kellie: That was my full tour of Save the Snakes with the amazing Amy Brumbaugh. She has the coolest job ever at Save the Snakes, and they're doing such important work, and I am still not over touching Indy for the first time and meeting my very first rattlesnake. That I know of. Hmm. You just never really know who or what is lurking under the rocks, warming their rattles.
Kellie: Stay curious. Stay cool and collected, and maybe say hello to a snake from a safe distance if it's the rattling kind. And stay tuned for GatherStrands. The creative thread of A Gather of Gatherings where we will weave together poetic musings, original storytelling, and a few other surprises. Don't forget to follow A Gather of Gatherings wherever you get your podcasts and linger. And visit GatherOfGatherings.com for show notes, photos, and more bonus content.
Kellie: Until next time, Gatherers, what's your favorite collective noun? Go on. I'm listening.
