Reptile fever strikes Jakartan pet owners

Reptile fever strikes Jakartan pet owners

By Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): Bintang, a 21-year-old university student, found out that reptiles were good pets after visiting a display by reptile sellers held early in January at Pondok Indah Mall.

Now he has three snakes at home; a 1.5-meter long python, and two little snakes locally called lare angon (striped keel back). He wants to buy more.

None is venomous and their bites only leave tiny marks on the body that will disappear within four days and cause little pain.

"A snake once bit me. It was a little painful," he admitted.

At first he kept his pets secret from his family in case they objected to his new diversion. He was surprised that once they found out, they told him to take good care of the reptiles.

Bintang is among the hordes of Jakartans who have been stricken by reptile fever. The favorite reptile are snakes, the evil seducer that made man sin in the Bible, and is blamed by the World Health Organization for killing 40,000 people a year worldwide.

"The stories have probably caused people to dislike the animals. Actually, they aren't bad. Only ten percent of about 3,000 snake species are venomous," says Chandra Gunawan, the owner of the Exo-Mania reptile and amphibian shop in West Jakarta.

Of course seductive snakes only exist in the Bible.

Also very popular are iguanas, a family of lizard, which feeds on greens and papaya. Exo-Mania has sold 2,000 iguanas over the past two months, compared to 1,500 snakes in the same period. A baby iguana costs Rp 175,000 (US$79.5), while a 1.3 meter adult sell for Rp 5 million.

Like most reptiles and amphibians sold at Exo-Mania, the iguanas are imported from America where they are bred on farms. The sale of wild iguanas is forbidden under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, explains Chandra.

Everyone -- the young, the old, male and female -- buy iguanas. The owners can be seen proudly walking around public places with the exotic animals perched on their shoulders. Adult iguanas, which can remain motionless for hours, adorn many offices around the city.

Also for sale, although less popular, are black tarantulas, various kinds of turtles, lizards and frogs.

Surprising

Few Indonesians understand that reptiles, traditionally treated as pests, can benefit humans. Many Jakartans were bewildered by a Taiwanese group which held a reptile exhibition at the Jakarta Fair during June and July last year. The exhibition was very successful with hundreds of people viewing the lethargic caged reptiles every day.

The following month, Chandra displayed and sold his collection at a fair at Lapangan Banteng in Central Jakarta. He also distributed questionnaires to visitors to find out if they were interested in joining the Indonesian Herpetological Society he wanted to set up.

"The response was really surprising. Over 700 people returned the forms," he says.

Seeing the potential market, he opened Exo-Mania early this year, which has been flooded by visitors every day. There are two other pet shops, one in Kebun Jeruk and the other in Gajah Mada Plaza, where reptiles are included in the list of merchandise.

Reptiles have a few advantages over conventional pets, Chandra argues. They don't smell, make noise and don't take up much room. Snakes don't need to be fed everyday and can survive up to a week on only one Rp 1,000 white rat. They also have a longer life span than most other pets. A python can live for 25 years.

Reptiles don't instinctively develop an intimacy with their owner, unlike the "one-man-dog" relationship. They cannot identify their masters through smell or sound. This is another advantage of having a pet reptile Chandra says.

"Anyone can play with a snake as long as they know how to treat it properly. As for biting, even cats and chickens will bite if treated improperly."

Albino

Due to an instinctive fear of snakes, humans generally fail to see the reptiles as beautiful.

Reptile aficionados have grown in number worldwide and experts have experimented with breeding more exotic reptiles and amphibians.

Albino (from the Latin albus meaning white) snakes, those with pure-white scales, are rare and are therefore in demand. The Reptilian Magazine Vol. 2 No. 4, published in the UK, says in its March 1991 edition that a fifteen-inch albino baby Boa found in the wilds of Columbia was sold for the fantastic price of $25,000.

Albinism is in fact a rare phenomenon in snakes. According to the magazine, people often confuse albinism with amelanism, which is common in reptile breeding.

Amelanism is the absence of melanin (from the Greek melan meaning black) pigments. In snakes, melanin is only one among several pigments that contribute to the reptile's color. The absence of melanin will not yield a purely white snake since other pigments remain.

The Golden Python, which is a beautiful white and yellow, and sold for Rp 15 million at Exo-Mania, is one example of amelanism being mistaken for albinism. Despite the yellow spots, it is popularly called the Albino Burmese Python.

Still, many people still fear reptiles, especially snakes. Some people even faint at the sight of them. An owner like Bintang is wise enough not to take his pets outside their cage.

"They still scare my sister, that's why I never take them out," he says.