Hartbeespoort Snake & Animal Park Visit to WHPS

by Sean Sweetlove
(Gr. 5T)

On Thursday the 26th June we were privileged to have the Hartbeespoort Snake & Animal Park come to visit our school with some exciting animals. There were two ladies that came to tell us about the animals.

The first animal was a yellow rat snake. The lady came around to show us the snake and we even got to touch it! Then she came around again and let a few boys hold it. The lady told us that it had 64 teeth in its mouth! All our jaws dropped at that moment. We couldn’t believe that a 2 metre long snake could have 64 teeth in its mouth. I wouldn’t like to have my hand in that mouth even though it isn’t venomous but kills its prey by constriction.

The second animal was a naughty little monkey. We all gasped when we saw it because it was so small. She said that she was very nervous because she was scared and cold. She let her go and tried to get her to walk around but she kept on trying to hold on to the lady’s leg. Eventually after a lot of struggling the monkey finally came to play. She started by running around and jumping on boys she liked. One time she ran around me and did a little dropping on me, eew! Besides that she was very cute.

Next we were thrilled to see two 3 week old wild dog puppies! They were so cute one hadn’t even opened its eyes. One was a boy and one was a girl. We heard them squeaking and the lady said that they were communicating. She also said that when they came in we would instantly smell them, but honestly I didn’t really smell them.

The last animal was definitely not the least; it was a lion cub!!!! It came in and was making a reaowww sound. The lady told us if he tried to come and jump on you, we should just push him away. We were also told to only touch him on the back, never on the face. Some boys got lucky and got to touch him on the back. He was very mischievous and was biting the lady’s hair and pulling and tugging on her leg. The best part, however, was his little baby roar. It was a very exciting day. The highlight of the day (I think most people will agree) was the naughty lion cub.