He asked that this be circulated:

"Hi Chris
Hope you are well and wishing you a successful 2008.
I know a different kind of voting is in the air in the US but this is real important
My friend David Williams, with whom I work on PNG elapids, is in with a chance of winning a holiday for himself and his wife for his humanitarian work to save snakebite victims, often at great personal risk - he received a near fatal taipan bite in December.
I would appreciate if you could just take a look at the website below and possibly give your support to David by voting for him.
He was leading in this competition but has been overtaken by a Pakistani ophthalmologist who registered over 1500 votes in a blink of an eye. Now in second place, but well ahead of third, it looks like a two horse race.
He deserves this prize for his important ground breaking, life-saving, and at times life-threatening research.
If you think this worthy please pass it on to others who you think may also wish to support David.
Perhaps you could ask venomousreptiles.org visitors to vote for David.
Closing date in 31st January and it is slipping away from him.
Best wishes
Mark
David Williams, who runs the PNG Snakebite Project in Port Moresby is trying to win a competition being
run by the Holiday Inn Hotel Chain, as a means of getting some PR for the project, and perhaps winning he
and his wife Rona the honeymoon they haven’t been able to afford since getting married 2 years ago.
Dave’s project suffers badly from under-funding, so he is keen to find any way he can to raise the profile of
snake bite injury in Papua New Guinea. If you don’t mind spending a few minutes casting some votes online
please follow the instructions below:
1 Go to this web site.. http://www.holidayinneverydayheroes.com/readmore.aspx?id=57&page=1
2 At the top right, click on "Register"....using your email address (Each e-mail address can only vote once)
3 Pick a password so you can get back in to vote after your email is validated...use anything!
(An email would be sent to your inbox)
4 Click on the "Complete the registration” button in the email and get taken back to the website
5 Click the view all stories....Go to "David Williams..."LIFE S-S-SAVER"... Click on "read more & vote"
6...Click on 5 medals equals 5 POINTS..(Make a comment if you wish)
7 Click "submit" .. and voila you’re done!!!


Please circulate this to your friends and ask them to vote as well"

Just checking in to let everyone know that i am okay, the bite is still bleeding but recovering. I am off crutches and able to walk on it fine now. i will be returning to work this weekend and do plan to continue caring for Tonca. thanks for all of your support.

~Chris~

Today at the museum was the day that jax herp volunteered and the aquarium opened. There was a large crowd and a lot of fellow herpers there so i figured i would jump on the chance to give a "tonca talk." in the midst of removing the 120lbs alligator snapping turtle form the pond, my foot ended up too close to his head and sure enough, tonca took the oppertunity to demonstrate his power! they have a bite force of 1600psi and to give you an idea of how strong that is, it only takes about 1100psi to break you femur (thickest bone in your body). the thick rubber galoshes were what saved my foot from being torn to shreds. he clamped down with such an emense pressure that the nerve was damaged preventing most of the pain but it is still very sore. tonca had his jaws wrapped around my foot for nearly two minutes as I instructed the volunteers to get rubbing alcohol to get tonca to release, move the visitors out of the exhibit, get the first aid kit and alert my boss. I am trying to keep my foot as still as possible to persuade tonca to loosen his grip, it worked and i was able to yank my ankle out, it had been under his jaws for two minutes by this time.
I cleaned it out with the first aid kit and was brought to the hospital by a good friend of mine whom was helping me take tonca out. i got some pretty odd loks while explaining that a turtle had made that puncture mark on my ankle... I was given a tetnis shot and some gauze but that was about it. All in all, it gives me a new kind of respect and controlled fear of these creatures and I realize the risk that i take everyday with animals. This bite could have severed my achilles tendon. I am very lucky.

Be Safe,
~Chris~

I am no longer able to keep my ball python, Houdini. i will send him off with a friend in a week until I move out to where i can regain possession of him. I plan to go look for indigo snakes soon, they should all be out mating this time of year and it should be easier to find them. There is a new article about indigos and permits in Florida also. The jax herp meetings have been moved to Sundays and the first one of the year was today and it gave a large turn out in comparison to the former dates. I was offered a spot to speak during the may meeting and have not yet decided.

Hope everyone is doing well and I hope that you are keeping your herps warm :-)
~Chris~

I cleaned out the poison dart frogs cage today and discovered a tumor on one of the frogs feet. We are not sure about having it removed, if the operation is more than the frog itself, we will just see how it turns out and perhaps attempt the procedure ourselves. I have been working with the owls and they are making progress, I can hold one of the screech owls with out a glove now and he perches right on my shoulder, he wont do this for anyone else though. Romeo, the southern pine snake was salivating today when i took him out, i will keep an eye on him to make sure that he is not contracting mouth rot (which is what I suspect).

Hope everyone has a happy winter break and enjoys seeing their family over the holidays. :-)

~Chris~

Okay, sorry about the wait, the herps have been dying down because of the cold weather so there has not been much to report on. I am planning on traveling down to St. Augustine and Orlando to see the alligator farms sometime this month. I will be going with my boss to trade in the gators that we have for smaller ones. It should be a lot of fun. Last Wednesday was the Jacksonville Herpetelogical Society meeting, we had our annual gift exchange and holiday party. A few new members showed up however it was rather uneventful. I have been very busy lately so excuse the delayed update.

~Chris~

Chad Minter did some investigating on a picture that repeatedly showed up on the internet, his results are amazing!

I am currently in the lengthy process of obtaining permits for the interstate transportation of the Drymarchon couperi. It is taking a long time because we (my boss, the breeder and I) are forced to do everything through snail mail but it looks like we will be getting a snake in the mail in a short time if everything goes as planed. It is interesting to go through this procedure and see some of the inner workings of the permit system... I will keep everyone updated as to when we get the permit and the snake.

~Chris~

My cooks tree boa finally shed and it was in one piece. this species is notorious for having difficulties with shedding, it had some of its old skin still on it but this shed got rid of everything that had built up over the months. the trick is keeping humidity at a constant %100. There will be a speaker at Jax Herp that is among the top aboreal boa breeders in the world so I am looking forward to asking him about my boa (Jasmine) and how to possibly tame her; she recently pierced my lip leaving several nice puncture marks in a ring that were difficult to explain to my parents (whom still do not know about the snakes that I am keeping). The museum will be getting a gorgeous red-necked Drymarchon couperi from Robert Bruce for a very good price, all we need to do is get the transportation permit and finalize payments. I am really looking forward to getting the snake in, it will be an awesome addition to the collection.

Just figured I would let you guys in on what was going on...
~Chris~

I have been trying to get a hold of someone whom has an eastern indigo snake but it is much more difficult than you might think. It is very difficult to find a breeder. I went through a list of about 20 and i think that I have finally got one that has a fair price. All that is left to do is to negotiate a final price and work on the transportation permits. I am going to leave this up to the museum people, it would bee too much of a hassle for me to want to do it. Elvis is going to be replaced by a nice red chined yearling or so. Not quite full grown but still an impressive animal. we should have it by the end of November and I cannot wait.

~Chris~

Most of you will laugh as I say this but I am terrificly excited to have a ball python! I recently acquired a ball python from the museum because he did not fit in with the collection. I brought the snake home in an over protective cage with two locks on it and my dad let me keep it. grant it I will not be able to keep him (he was named Houdini just out of spite) for very long but it is a start to getting my parents to allow me to keep snakes. Keep in mind they still do not know about the first snake (*snickers*) so for them to let one that they know of into the house is a huge step! Perhaps in the near future I will be keeping many snakes, who knows, I can dream, right?

~Chris~