Ready for off – the setup is complete ( Hands On Terraristics: Easter Exhibition in the Animal Park Part 1/5 ). 19 terrariums in the Paradise Hall and 18 terrariums in the Tropical Hall have been set up and the animals have moved in.
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 pets move in and the exhibition starts (Friday, 19 April 2019)
Wow... what a start!
When we arrived at the Tierpark Gettorf with our animals around 9 o'clock, it was already quite full and the weather was fantastic. Royal pythons, Madagascar boas, corn snakes, Honduras milk snakes, bearded dragons, blue-tongued skink, leopard geckos, crested gecko, river cooter and Mississippi map turtle had not yet moved into their temporary homes, the terrariums with tarantulas, insects, South American horned frogs and African giant snails were not yet in their designated places and the visitors had already begun to ask to interact with the animals.
The visitors had to be patient, because the animals had to acclimatise first. There was one sad incident before we arrived at the animal park: our stag beetle lady Jutta had unfortunately passed away. It seems that her "husband" Günter had been a bit too pushy during the last few days. We set to answering the visitor queries as we set up the table designs.
Looking back over the last 10 years, none of the club members present could remember seeing such a flood of visitors on the 1st exhibition day. Unfortunately, a lot of visitors were not able to enter the park at all. The queue at the cash desks stretched over the whole parking lot right up to the street. Right from day 1 we recognised some “usual suspects” who were back to see snakes and tarantulas.
Our tarantula ladies Laura (Mexican flame knee tarantula) and Isolde (Mexican red knee tarantula) were in great demand. At times, both king pythons were in action in the Tropical Hall to allow the visitors to interact with a snake. In the Hall of Paradise the situation was the same for the corn snakes and the Honduras milk snakes.
The insects turned out to be a highlight. This year we had "small" hand plate sized African giant snails and they were a great hit. At the end of this record day we were all exhausted, but highly satisfied and hugely motivated for day 2.
