Reptile tent is one of quieter fair exhibits

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

Ty Graven, middle, and Jodi Graven take time out from showing rabbits to look at one of the many snakes on display at the the rescue reptile tent run by Mary Ester Hart. This snake, a Woma python, is endangered in Australia and can grow up to 4 feet long. Its diet consists of rodents, birds and lizards. (Baker City Herald/Kathy Orr)

You can still hear the faint bleating of sheep and squeals of pigs, but the exhibits in this place silently stare.

And hardly move.

“I like quiet things. Nothing in my house makes a sound,” said Mary Esther Hart of Hart’s Reptile World International Reptile Rescue, based in Canby.

She travels around with her educational — and living — exhibits to spread awareness about reptile rescue and adoption.

Most of the rescued reptiles were illegally kept, and others come from drug raids. Recently, also the economy has made it necessary for people to downsize and give up their reptilian pets.

“The couple who had this boa had it for 26 years,” Hart said of the Columbian boa constrictor.

She sees a lot of iguanas — she said just check Craigslist and you’ll see 15 or 20 listed.

“And most of them say ‘will deliver.’ They want to get rid of it that bad,” she said.

Male iguanas can’t be in sight of each other, she said, or they will fight. The reptiles will even attack their own reflection in a mirror.

But if you still want one, she suggests “don’t buy one, rescue one.”

“There are thousands that need rescuing,” she said.

In her travels, Hart can talk with anyone who is thinking of buying or adopting a reptile.

And she has advice on which ones make good pets.

“We want to get a hold of people before they make a bad choice,” she said.

Getting an alligator, for instance, is a long-term commitment because they can live for more than 100 years.

She has adoption rules.

A sign on the alligator exhibit lists 13 adoption requirements.

The first: “no kids.”

The 12th: “emergency escape plan (for you idiot, not the gator.)”

Most of the reptiles — the snakes, tarantula, scorpion and alligator— are kept in glass boxes or cages.

For the more touchy tourists, the Sulcatta tortoises were in an open area where visitors could touch their thick shells.

Though they seem much safer than, say, an alligator, they also have long lives.

“Tortoises can live over 100 years too,” Hart said.

And they grow.

“These are puppies,” she said of the three bigger tortoises that measure about 2 feet. She said they will grow to be 250 to 300 pounds.

(A tortoise, by the way, lives on the land, and a turtle lives in water.)

The main criteria for adopting a tortoise is no dogs.

“Over 25 percent of the turtles we get have been mauled by dogs,” she said.

One of the tortoises she brought has a broken shell — an injury sustained before rescue. She’s still not sure what happened to break off a piece of the super-thick shell.

Another hands-on station was the monitor, which is in the komodo dragon family.

It appeared asleep and totally uninterested in the small hands stroking its leathery skin.

“He’s nocturnal,” Hart said with a smile.

She’s learned, through trial, which of her reptiles can tolerate being on display like this.

“Some like to travel, some not so much,” she said.

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So why, one might wonder, does someone become a rescuer of reptiles?

Standing near the North Pacific rattlesnake she caught around John Day, she gives a quick answer.

“A low tolerance for boredom,” she said. “And I’m allergic to fur.”

And the alligators and crocodiles?

“I need something that makes me focus and concentrate,” she said.

She’s been at this for more than 40 years.

Her organization is a nonprofit, and she said she’d like to relocate, perhaps in Eastern Oregon.

“We’re looking for someone to donate property, or a 50-year lease for a dollar a year,” she said.

The reptile tent will be at the fair through Saturday. And, when touring the tent, look for the date beside the reptile’s name. This is the year the species was given its scientific name.