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.