Scary factor makes snakes a tough sell
Invercargill city councillor Lloyd Esler wants snakes added to the mix alongside tuatara and kakapo in the Living Dinosaurs Experience adjacent to the Southland Museum.
However, he admits it’s a tough sell given people are paranoid about snakes.
Councillors agreed on Tuesday night to construct the Living Dinosaurs Experience in the 2019-20 year at a cost of $5 million.
The council will contribute $2.5m through loan funding.
The proposal is to have tuatara and a kakapo chick rearing facility.
Esler, who caught a sea snake when he was a child and still has it preserved in a jar, also wants snakes to be part of the Living Dinosaurs attraction.
He had been floating the idea for several years, without luck.
‘‘People are paranoid about snakes. If they put on four legs and call it a goanna it’s fine, but if it’s got no legs people are terrified.’’
He indicated it would be extremely hard to get snakes into New Zealand anyway.
‘‘There’s the HSNO (Hazardous Substances and New Organisms) Act in New Zealand which means anything you want to bring in you have to jump through all sorts of hoops and snakes aren’t very good at jumping.’’
His vision was for non poisonous snakes, like boa constrictors.
Cr Lindsay Abbott was not so enthused about the Living Dinosaurs Experience, even without snakes.
He wasn’t convinced the public would get to see kakapo chicks every two years, or that the tuatara would be fashionable.
Cr Alex Crackett supported it, saying the Department of Conservation was committed to bringing the kakapo to Invercargill.