It may be near the end of the Easter holidays and half term, but I hope everyone has spent their time off wisely, making good memories and eating lots of chocolate.
The New Reptile House
At the beginning of the Easter half term, after two long years, we finally opened the doors to the new Reptile House. It has been fabulous seeing so many of you coming in to hang out with our reptiles. The Reptile House has been incredibly busy and so many of you have told us that you have missed seeing the reptiles and that it has felt like you have waited forever for it to reopen (it felt like forever to us too). It’s been lovely hearing you compliment this new area and the enclosures. As well as seeing how excited you are to visit. With many of you making it your first stop once you’ve come into the park.
Thank you for loving the reptiles as much as we do!
Some unsurprising favourites are the crocodiles, reticulated pythons and Burmese python. But it seems many of you have also really enjoyed seeing our Argus monitors, Havoc and Chaos. So, it only makes sense that I introduce you to them both.
These guys were once in our old Reptile House until they outgrew their enclosures and were moved to larger enclosures that were in an off-show area. So, you may have seen them when visiting the Reptile House in the past.
Havoc and Chaos are quite the characters and yes, their names directly relate to their personalities.
Chaos
Chaos actually earned his name first. He has an incredible prey drive and generally anything that moves is definitely food according to Chaos’ brain. There was once a time where he would fight you as you opened the door to his enclosure because he expected food every single time.
He also used to spend so much time digging to try and find food that he made several holes in his old enclosure. They had to be promptly repaired before he dug his way out! If you ever get the opportunity to watch us keepers feed him (especially when he gets fed mice), you wouldn’t even question his name. He is utter chaos; he causes chaos and therefore he was named Chaos.
Havoc
Havoc got his name as he was very similar to Chaos, just not as intense. Plus, both Argus monitors deserved matching names. Just because Havoc is less intense does not mean he is any less fun to work with.
He also loves chasing after his bugs and he dug holes into (and through) his old enclosures. He also used to hang onto the door so his face was level with yours as you opened it. Which was always a fun shock when trying to change his water bowl in the morning. Havoc is the more vocal Argus monitor. So, he will hiss at us a lot more if we’re working around him or with him.
Havoc is usually the one you’ll see sitting there chilled out when food isn’t about though.
If you ever see us cleaning their enclosure you may see us pop Chaos into a clip box. This is because Chaos is the ‘naughty’ lizard. He’s a biter. So, for our safety, we pop Chaos into a box and release him once we’ve finished cleaning. Havoc is allowed to stay in the enclosure while we clean if he is in a chilled mood. If he matches Chaos’ vibe, then Havoc also goes into a clip box.
However, usually Havoc is quite happy with us cleaning around him and he often just wants to climb into our buckets or follow us around the enclosure, huffing or hissing at us as he does. We do keep a close eye on him and have a snake hook with us in case he decides that we smell tasty.
Next time you’re in the Reptile House, see if you can tell the difference in our Argus monitors based on their personalites.
If you haven’t yet had the chance to visit the new Reptile House then we look forward to seeing you in the future.
