Saving Snakes initiative, reptile conservation in East Africa

1. Hands on reptile
conservation in Kenya.
By Royjan Taylor - Director, Bio-Ken Snake Farm, Watamu.
#SavingSnakes

2. WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO SAVE...
FUZZY, SWEET, ADORABLE , LOVELY ...ETC..

3. WHAT WE WANT PEOPLE TO SAVE...
Bio-Ken

4. Do you like saving snakes?
• I do
• If you do too,
please support us
and Like our
Facebook Page
Bio-Ken

5. THE MJINGA FORMULA
NO SNAKES = NO SNAKEBITE
Why not kill all our
snakes?

6. RATS
- Rats have litters of 6-12
young, which are born
21-23 days after mating.
- They reach reproductive
maturity in about 3
months.
- The average female has
4-6 litters per year. -
-With an average life span
of 18 months, one pair
can produce a colony of
2,000 rats in a year.
black-rat.jpg

7. HOW BAD IS THE
RAT BREEDING PROBLEM
It is estimated that
Worldwide, 3.5
million rats are
born every day.

8. WHAT DO ALL THESE RATS EAT
It's estimated that total
crop losses caused by
rodents, mostly rats,
each year would be
enough to feed 200
million people, nearly as
many as the population
of Indonesia.

9. THE BLACK RAT Rattus rattus
also known as the sewerage rat, ship rat, the roof rat,
the rice field rat, and the bamboo rat.
- In Pakistan, rats consume several
million tons of stored wheat grain
annually.
- In Bangladesh losses of grain stored
inside houses are estimated at
US$620 million a year, in houses
only.
- In India, rats outnumber humans ten-fold.

10. AND IN AFRICA?
Africa also suffers.
In Tanzania, rats can eat more than 80% of the
planted maize seeds in an area. During bad
years rats have wiped out hundreds of square
kilometres of maize, the country's staple crop,
destroying 50% of the crop or more.
All the African countries suffer like this including
many parts of Kenya.
- We need more data

11. RATS - THEY ARE VERY REAL
EVEN AT HOME
Everyone has
problems
with Rats.
- EAT OUR FOOD
- CARRY DISEASES

12. RATS AND DISEASES
Rats also pose severe health risks. Food
contamination is just the beginning.
It was the black rat of East Asia that brought
the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) to Europe,
killing a third of the population.
Plague is still a problem throughout the world
today, with annual outbreaks in parts of
Africa that kill hundreds of people.

13. Saving Snakes
THEREFORE..
Why not kill
ONLY OUR VENOMOUS
snakes?

14. Saving Snakes

15. Speckled Sand Snake

16. Speckled Sand Snake
Psammophis punctulatus

17. Speckled Sand Snake
Psammophis punctulatus trivirgatus

18. SMALL SNAKES = SMALL FOOD,
RELATIVE TO SIZE OF SNAKE
GALANA

19. THE VENOMOUS SNAKES
ARE NATURES RAT EATING MACHINES

20. THE REALITY
WHAT WE ARE SEEING

21. WHILE THIS IS WHAT WE WANT TO SEE…
SOME ENTHUSIASM

22. SOME GET VERY ENTHUSIASTIC

23. WHILE SOME GET TOO
ENTHUSIASTIC

24. WE DON'T WANT TO SEE THIS
ANY MORE - THE PANGA JOB

25. AND WHAT WE WANT TO SEE
KINDNESS AND COMPASSION

36. Venomous Snakes -
Released in an appropriate place

37. Saving Snakes
with KWS
What we want to
happen...
Saving snakes from being
killed...
Continued KWS
involvement

38. Saving Snakes
with KWS

39. Saving Snakes
NOT JUST SNAKES
Related.......
Local Ocean Trust:Watamu Turtle Watch
TORTOISES
LIZARDS
CROCS
FROGS

40. Saving Snakes
Our Goals, and How to Get Involved
Please help to spread the word:
• Saving Snakes on our Blog
• Follow us via Social Media... Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube
Link from your website to ours...
Typical Costs Include:
• Snake finders fee
• Return transport of snake handler to scene
• Reptile care and husbandry
Bio-Ken Watamu has saved over 1,500 snakes in the last 8 years....
A good start but a tiny percentage of the amount that are needlessly killed in our
region.

41. WISH LIST
PARTNERS
Regional Saving Snakes partners who have access to transport, and funds
required to carry out the work of Saving Snakes.
Partners have been identified in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. We are
currently sourcing more 'outreach' partners.
SPONSORSHIP
Donations, both financial and in kind.
We are looking for sponsors to join us in this conservation
campaign, and are working on a number of sponsorship
packages, from Title Sponsor, through to adopting
reptiles, and other ways to contribute.

42. SAVING SNAKES
THE INITIATIVE
Bio-Ken's 'Savings Snakes' conservation
initiative aims to reduce the number of
snakes needlessly killed. The program has
been running for many years in Watamu.
We hope to expand Saving Snakes to cover the
Sub-Saharan region within 5 years through
education, awareness and sponsor
partnerships.

43. EDUCATION - THE WAY TO GO
LEWA W. C. Bio-Ken

44. THANK YOU
KAKAMEGA

45. KAKAMEGA

46. SOMETHING TO THINK
ABOUT