Children and adults are coming less and less often in contact with terrarium inhabitants such as spiders, snakes, lizards and other fascinating animals from the desert or rainforest regions. There are fewer and fewer wonderful animals like this in specialist shops and zoos. Visitors expect to find a wide variety of different animals in animal parks and zoos, but here too, reptiles tend to be scarce.
That’s why we are especially pleased that from 19-22 April 2019 the Terrarienkreis Kiel von 1998 e.V. club is organising, setting up and supervising an extensive exhibition in the Tierpark Gettorf, as it does every year around this time.
The aim is to teach visitors to the zoo how to keep and care for reptiles, but also how to treat them responsibly. This counteracts people's fears and prejudices about terrarium animals and in many cases even wins their enthusiasm. After all, lots of allergy sufferers and single households want a pet despite the limitations their personal situation may entail. Impressed by this concept, JBL has been supporting the association in its project for many years.
In this five-part series we’ll give detailed reports about the exhibition, the animals and our experiences. To highlight our cooperation with the Terrarienkreis Kiel (TKK), we have included the club members’ reports in journal form unedited to this post. We are always delighted to cooperate with passionate people, especially in this increasingly shrinking hobby segment.
Below you will find the original report by Philipp Kirchhoff and his team from Terrarienkreis Kiel:
The setup (Thursday, 18 April 2019)
The setup of this year's TKK Easter exhibition in Tierpark Gettorf was carried out smoothly with a lot of elbow grease, as a total of 9 tables had to be buried in the Tropical Hall in order to minimize the vibrations for the animals. This year eight of our terrariums, stored in the animal park, and one aquarium were needed. The remaining terrariums and their inhabitants were brought along from people’s homes. After unpacking the products sponsored by JBL, such as Substrato and various accessories ( Acessórios , ) this was immediately used.
The terrariums were filled with JBL TerraBark , equipped with spotlights such as " JBL ReptilDesert UV Light " and " JBL ReptilHeat ", with thermometers and hygrometers ( JBL TerraControl ), water bowls ( JBL ReptilBar CINZENTO ) and decorative plants.
During the setup in great weather a lot of visitors had asked for snakes and the like, but these didn't arrive until Good Friday. A total of 19 terrariums were accommodated in the Paradise Hall and 18 terrariums in the Tropical Hall. It should also be mentioned that this year we deliberately placed our focus on insects as they are becoming more and more popular. Of course, with the current insect decline, it was also very important for us to sensitise people for these fascinating animals. At this point we would like to thank Nikolas Linke for the photos taken during the setup day and Good Friday. After all, we had to work and had no time to take pictures.
