Dakota's hobbies: Snaking, climbing, digging, hiding.

The Shining Serpent.
Many people are fascinated, but also fearful. Snakes have always played a special role for humans. The fear of snakes is innate, babies as young as six months react with stress to snake motifs. It is assumed that this has evolutionary reasons. It makes sense to spot a snake early, as some species are dangerous. Nevertheless, in ancient cultures primarily positive meanings have developed. The snake embodies knowledge and wisdom not only in ancient Greece, Rome or India, but also in Inca mythology and many more. The role as protector and as a connection between the worlds is also found again and again. It is a highly symbolic animal, godlike or with divine attributes. I can well imagine that this inborn fear has contributed significantly to the myth-making. You see this wondrous animal and you automatically feel something. "Where does this feeling come from?" In the past there was no concept of evolution and no scientific connection to instincts as it is possible to understand today. Of course, coupled with the obvious characteristics (kills rodents, legless, skins in one piece) this certainly captures the imagination. We deal with our environment, how we perceive and evaluate it. We recognize patterns and make assumptions. Inevitably we intervene and have to be aware of the consequences in order not to end up harming ourselves. Snakes are important, so are our instincts. But whoever kills a snake takes on a force stronger than oneself. Be it nature, be it God. Only a part of all snake species can be dangerous to humans, but almost any rodent can make you seriously ill. We are somewhere between monkeys playing with sticks and trees growing on our ruins. Snakes have been around for at least 167 million years. Humility.

While Chico the day gecko has already enjoyed much of your attention, this nameless young leopard gecko lady has kept very hidden until now. Along with Chico, she is one of the three geckos I adopted two months ago.

Unfortunately, the previous owner was not in the mental state to offer them species-appropriate accommodation. He kept two leopard geckos in a terrarium together with a day gecko. Actually, his supervisors should have taken care of it, whether that's okay.

The surprise was big, because my friend and I didn't know anything about the leopard geckos. But the good thing is that I have 22 years of experience keeping this species.

At first there was a huge shock because it seemed like only one leopard gecko was alive. Both were in a large sea shell, looking out. But this girl looked like she'd been dead for weeks. To play dead believably, she shut her eyes tight, opened her mouth a little, and contracted her body.

When I got the male out of the sea shell, she authentically fell inside and disappeared. When I first heard a noise, I thought I had just imagined it. Dead geckos don't make sounds!

What a feeling when she suddenly looked alive and beautiful out of the sea shell!

Like all my animals, she is a very beautiful sight. Nothing is known about her age and origin, but she looks to me like a young animal of about one or two years. As soon as I have a few nice photos of the male, I will of course also show him to you. 🥰

I guess you could say Dakota is a bit of a mouse-etarian!🐁

Banana Joe passed away in April. He has lived with me since 2002. At that time I was 16 years old. Banana Joe wasn't seen very often, he kept his wild nature to the end. If you had to grab him, he often responded with a bite and a loud crackle. I just really liked his incorruptible nature about him. All the more enriching were the moments when he showed himself, or when you could hear from the loudly vibrating tail that he was presenting his special advantages to a female. In 2017, he became a father to five girls. His daughter Nameless still lives with me, the other "Banana Shakes" got new owners. Like her father, Nameless is a rather shy animal and she is a beautiful living memory. I really wished that Banana Joe would stay with me for many more years, but he has reached a good age and I am grateful for the time together.

Surrounded by what I love, it's the best place there is.😄

One of my 2016 offspring 🥰

In temperature-dependent sex determination, the sex of the offspring is not determined by chromosomes, but by the temperature in the nest. This makes it easy to breed leopard geckos of the desired sexes.

A few baby photos of my leopard gecko offspring from 2016 😄❤️

They start with a banded pattern, which gradually turns into a dot pattern.

Berenike 😄❤️

If you search pictures of sloth and pizza together, you will find heaps of results. I have no idea why! 😋😇