Snakes, reptiles amaze audience
TONY Harrison says he's not scared of snakes anymore.
After 18 years as a snake catcher and reptile awareness advocate, Mr Taylor has suffered every possible injury that a reptile can inflict.
He presented one of his shows to an amazed audience of over a hundred children and some 50 parents at the Lennox Head Public Library today.
"A croc broke my arm in two places, then a big goanna that I was showing off with scratched my leg and needed multiple stitches. An Eastern Brown nearly killed me, and in the early days a Red Belly Black bit me and send me to hospital", explains the reptile expert.
With so much experience under his belt, he started Reptile Relocation and Awareness a decade ago, to promote correct information about Australian reptiles among children.
His aim is to save the lives of the reptile and the human exposed to it.
Mr Harrison explained that the most common error that humans make about snakes is misjudging it by size or colour.
"An Eastern Brown just hatched out of the egg is four inches long, and it is as venomous as an eight-foot one. Little ones are more fiery, and their venom is as strong as adult ones", he explained.
He added that "brown snakes don't have to be brown, black snakes don't have to be black and Green Tree snakes don't have to be green. I have a channel in YouTube called goldcoastsnakeshows where I show Eastern Brown snakes that are bright orange, grey, chocolate brown, white, bright orange".
