The use of animals in education is not new, nor is the controversy surrounding such use. The effectiveness of educational programs using animals has recently been studied to determine if the learners are learning what the program developers intended and, in the case of wildlife education programs, whether the desired attitudinal shifts are being made.

When live reptiles are used in an educational setting, learning occurs in both the cognitive and affective realms. This provides the opportunity for almost immediate personal growth and development. Besides the facts of reptiles, their classification, behavior and ecology, the learner begins to see how the animal functions as a member of an ecosystem. As information is integrated into the learner's cognitive system, the learner is able to take in more and increasingly complex information.

Personal and interpersonal growth occurs as the learner makes use of the opportunity to overcome fear and resistance to touching the animal. This builds self-confidence and self-esteem that is strengthened through others' recognition of the accomplishment and positive reinforcement of appropriate handling. Cooperation and sharing when interacting with the reptiles are important skills learned by school-aged children. Late childhood and adolescent learners may develop leadership skills through working with others, supervising younger children and interacting with peers and adults in the learning and teaching about reptiles.

The goal of a positive learning encounter is to change the learner's perception of reptiles from one of fearsome predator or mindless non-sentience to the recognition and acceptance of life. the learner comes to understand that, cold-blooded or warm, living things are deserving of respect, both individually, wherever they are encountered, and as an important member species in the maintenance of a health ecosystem.

Selection and Use of Education Animals

Wildlife educators are generally the primary caretakers of the animals they use in their education programs. The animals may have been selected specifically for educational purposes or may have been acquired from other educators, reptile owners or wildlife rehabilitators.

One of the goals of wildlife education is to teach the audience respect for both the individuals used in the program as well as generally for the species or family. The communication of information is both verbal, through the dissemination of facts and clarifying misconceptions, and physical, in the appearance of the animals. This requires that the animals be healthy which in turn requires that the educator knows what each animal needs. The educator must be able to provide the proper housing, environment, diet, and stimulation to keep the education animals healthy. The educator must also know what constitutes normal behavior for the species, both in the wild and in captivity, and to be able to identify abnormal behavior and its causes.

Through such intimate knowledge of the species and individual animals, the educator is able to assess the suitability of an animal for use in education, at what level that animal will be used, and to make day-to-day determinations as to the fitness of any of the animals to be used. The criteria by which education animals are selected are geared to the animal's welfare, the comfort of both the handler and the animal, and the message to be conveyed to the public.

The education animal should be representative of a normal form of the species. One of the goals of reptile education is to teach not only about the reptile itself but how that species lives in its environment, including how it is camouflaged from predator and prey. In the case of indigenous species, normal forms will help the audience identify the species when they see it in their yards, parks or in wild areas. Captive-bred color and pattern morphs are best saved for use in teaching the basics of genetics and heredity or in lectures addressing reptiles as pets rather than where the focus is on creating an awareness of wildlife and conservation. An exception would be the use of a small albino snake, such as a corn or rat snake (Elaphe guttata), in working with severely phobic individuals in any educational setting.

The education animal must be well adapted to captivity. It must also be comfortable with being on view and, in the case of animals to be touched and held, with physical contact with strangers. Not all members of a species may be equally well adapted for educational purposes, and not all education animals may be suited for all educational settings. If the choice is between a representative who is not well adapted or doing without that species for the time being, then the program should do without that species until a well-adapted representative can be obtained or one socialized and habituated to contact or setting type.
The animal must be healthy and in good physical shape; injuries which may have precipitated the reptile's being brought into captivity and which prevents its release should be well healed and no longer painful. While the goal may be to promote care and concern for the species in general, the representative animal should be an object of respect, not pity.

The animal should stimulate learning about some aspect of wildlife or habitat. The animal's story, how it or its parents came to be in captivity, is often useful in illustrating issues and concerns. When possible, use captive-bred or captive-born exotics. This enables communication, on verbal and nonverbal levels, that such animals are being bred, are available (in the case of reptiles suitable as pets), and for many reasons may be preferable to wild-caught members of the same species. When native species are used they should, when possible, be non-releasable animals. It is difficult to teach non-consumptive wildlife uses when the educator's animals are wild-collected native species who were collected for the sake of collection.

The handler should work with, not dominate, the animal; the audience should learn respect, not fear. The audience will learn how to hold the reptile in part by watching how the educator holds and interacts with the animal as it moves about. When both the reptile and the handler are comfortable with their interaction, it helps relax those members of the audience who will, often for the first time, touch or hold the reptile.

Types of Use

More than one animal is brought to an education event to reduce the amount of time the animal is out or being handled. This also provides the flexibility to change an animal from being used to being placed off exhibit without unduly affecting the diversity or quality of the program. For a classroom or lecture, 12 to 15 reptiles are typically included in the program. Exhibitions may include the use of 15 to 20 or more reptiles, with duplicates rotated on and off exhibit to reduce stress or fatigue as necessary.

The animals may be classed into one of four categories:

1. No contact: animal off exhibit.
2. Minimum contact: animal is looked at, not touched.
3. Moderate contact: animal is looked at and touched.
4. Maximum contact: animal is held by the learners.

The reptiles are routinely classified into one of the four categories. As the animals in the minimum contact category become acclimated to human contact, they may be changed to moderate contact, and perhaps ultimately to being held by learners. Reptiles in the third and fourth contact categories may be temporarily moved down one or more categories depending upon their individual status on any given day. During long events, some reptiles may be taken off exhibit for rest periods as needed.

Some animals may tolerate intermittent contact or exposure, and so are kept off exhibit, brought out at intervals for viewing and, if suitable, touching and then returned to their off-exhibit holding area. For example, the author worked with an alligator who was brought out for fifteen minutes every hour for lecture and touching, then returned to his off-exhibit holding enclosure, kept in a quiet area away from the exhibition, until the next appearance.

Animal Welfare

One of the most common questions asked about education animals, especially reptiles who are not generally known for their sociable natures, is "how do you know they are not stressed all the time?" Working with reptiles is no different from working with mammals or birds. Working with a species over time, and with individual representatives of the species, one learns to recognize normal behaviors and signs of well-being and discomfort. Reptiles appear inscrutable to those who have little or no experience with them. Most, however, are just as expressive as any mammal or bird, communicating through their behavior, posture, appetite, color and other key and subtle indicators. Key indicators of well-being include normal activity, thermoregulation, feeding, elimination, shedding and reproduction for the species.

Reptiles may appear to be unsuitable as education animals to those whose jobs include laboratory research and clinical treatment of these animals, but research indicates that reptiles, like other animals, can and do become habituated to regular human contact. Research also found that there was no change in plasma corticosterone levels and heterophil/lymphocyte ratios in ball pythons (Python regius) and blue-tongued skinks (Tiliqua scincoides) when they were handled as pets would be handled and during veterinary examinations. It was further found that such handling did little to change their post-treatment feeding and activity levels.

MD Kreger makes the salient point that context and habituation are important factors in handling and stress reduction. The effects of regular handling of a lizard or snake kept as a pet or education animal are sure to be greatly different than when the same type of animal is hurriedly selected from a study group or noosed in the wild, a cloacal thermometer thrust in, the animal then quickly slung from a scale and measured several different ways before being released. The author believes that it would not be grossly anthropomorphic to say that such treatment would likely cause stress in a tame, habituated animal of any species, let alone in a wild animal or laboratory research subject handled only when put through it's paces or during invasive or noninvasive measurement and data recording sessions.

A Word For Educators

Educational efforts directed toward children aged 6 to 10 should focus on affective development, emphasizing emotional concern and sympathy for animals. Children aged 10 to 13, with their increased cognitive abilities, are ready to develop a more factual understanding of animals and their environment. High school students are more ecologistic, naturalistic and moralistic in their attitudes, able to take in and assimilate more complex issues. Their increasing ability to deal with abstracts, such as biodiversity and ecosystems, coupled with their greater knowledge about animals and their environment, supports providing increased interactive learning opportunities for this group to deepen and strengthen their knowledge and understanding.

Wildlife education, regardless of the animals used, must be an ongoing, regularly repeated process, increasing in complexity and scope based on stages of child cognitive and affective development. Learning is further enhanced when the animals and their environment are used as a pivotal point on which the curriculum can based. There is a growing body of work that focuses on bringing animals into the classroom and the curriculum to create an integrated learning experience. By use of creative curriculum, media, classroom animals, animal visitors and varied animal encounters, wildlife education will build on the learner's prior experiential and encourage further growth through continued experience and exposure.

Health Risks

Mammals, birds, and reptiles all have the potential for zoonotic transmission of pathogens. Healthy animals, including humans, are generally successful in keeping parasite loads under control through normal immune system functioning. When animals are stressed, either psychologically or environmentally, immunosuppression results as does the risk of illness and cross-infection.

Risks are mitigated by using healthy animals who have been under observation for some time. Fecal and other examinations should be done initially to determine basal levels of organisms in the blood and feces. Regular retesting, along with close observation of the animal, should be done to ensure the animal continues in good health.

Education animals should be clean before being packed up for transport to the educational site. Cleaning and disinfecting supplies, both for the animals, their carriers and the handlers, should be part of the regular gear.

If there is a possibility that the audience has handled substances that may be harmful to the education animals, they should be instructed to thoroughly wash their hands before handling the reptiles. They should also be instructed to wash their hands before handling or putting their hands near the reptiles if they have been handling animals that may be considered prey by the reptiles. Learners should also be instructed to wash their hands after handling the reptiles, with the point made that thorough hand-washing should be done after handling any animal.

To keep zoonotic risk in perspective, it may be necessary to point out to concerned parents and teachers that of some 240 infectious zoonotic diseases, 65 are transmitted by dogs and 39 by cats. There are 110 million pet dogs and cats in the United States. The chances, then, of contracting feline and canine hookworm, roundworm, and feline toxoplasmosis are higher than contracting host-specific parasites and Salmonella from the far less common pet and education reptiles. Those individuals at high risk for contracting reptile salmonellosis are also at high risk for contracting Salmonella from eating poorly cooked poultry and for contracting other zoonotic diseases from other animals. If there are members of a lecture audience who are in the high risk category (pregnant women, newborns, toddlers, immunosuppressed, and frail elderly) the educator may make a blanket cautionary statement advising the risks and what can be done to mitigate the risks. In other settings, where the contact is more one-on-one, such cautions may be discussed on an as-needed basis as well as being conspicuously posted.

A first aid kit should also be part of the regular gear, including alcohol that may be used to detach a reptile that has become clamped to some part of the handler or educator.

Dealing with Fear

Reptiles are often feared by people. Their reasons may be based on an early negative experience, acquired from their parents who themselves are fearful, or due to the belief that all reptiles, especially snakes, are inherently dangerous, unpredictable, and, more often than not, venomous.

Fear can and should be addressed when working with any age group. This can be done matter-of-factly by stating that no one has to touch any of the animals. If someone is particularly phobic in their response, they can be gently told that they are free to move as far away as they need to feel comfortable. In some groups, especially in classroom settings, the individuals who admit to their fears are often teased. This behavior should be stopped and can be done so by saying that it is okay to be afraid. At this point, it is helpful for the educator or handler to admit to a personal fear themselves and unobtrusively get the attention of the teacher or group leader to get a non-verbal cue from them, or to urge them, verbally or non-verbally, to participate in the discussion. It is often helpful for the educator to find out if the teachers or leaders are themselves afraid of any of the reptiles before the program begins, and to ascertain whether the teacher or leader may be drawn in and would be willing to hold or touch the animal if deemed beneficial.

Quite often, once people accept their fear and knows that their fear is acceptable to others, their initial aversion will abate. After watching everyone else touch or handle the reptiles without incident, they are often able to encourage themselves to reach out and, however briefly, touch one of the animals. Such overcoming of fear should be acknowledged and praised, not enough so that they are embarrassed by their earlier fear, but enough so that the encounter becomes a positive learning and growth experience.

When meeting fearful parents who nonetheless let their children explore by touching and holding reptiles, the author has found it beneficial to quietly praise the parents for overcoming their fear enough to not impart it to their children. These adults often overcome their own anxieties when they see their offspring's guided interaction with the animals and soon touch the animals themselves.

Another way to mitigate fear is to not abruptly spring new animals on the audience. When giving an organized lecture or program, the author starts off with lizards, moving to chelonians before finishing with snakes, with this order of progression announced at the start of the program. When providing exhibits, the snakes are placed at one end of the area, with the chelonians in between the snakes and the lizards; when possible, the snakes are arranged according to size to ease the transition for those nervous around large boids. When a separate chelonian area is set aside, the area between the snakes and lizards is filled with artifacts, books, and educational materials. This enables those individuals who are fearful of certain animals to still enjoy and learn from the rest of the program or exhibit.

Conclusion

When early humans hunted with spear and club, animals, especially the large and potentially dangerous ones, were respected and feared. The earliest images that exist today are of such animals carved or painted on cave walls. Subtle changes in the human-animal relationship began to appear as animals were domesticated and weaponry improved hunter kill ability. No longer mysterious or brutal, humans began to no longer fear or revere the animals. As cultures became increasingly isolated from nature, became self-sufficient through breeding food animals and growing, rather than gathering, plants, lore and respect was lost. Successive generations became desensitized to animals, with any reference to an animal's thoughts or feelings or any concern for their basic welfare, dismissed. With reptiles, this distance and disdain is reinforced through such acts as excluding reptiles from protection under animal welfare laws and approved public displays of cruelty such as rattlesnake roundups.

Wildlife educators who use reptiles, either solely or as part of a larger group of animal representatives, have a great opportunity to help individuals overcome fears and learn facts to replace myths. By using reptiles who are secondary and tertiary consumers, the educator is uniquely placed to reach both up and down the food chain, to pluck all the threads within the energy web. One of the best subjective experiences for an educator is to see the sparking of the imagination and growing respect in a learner, and to help the learner to truly see a reptile for the first time.