The physical laws of our planet apply universally to every living organism, and so it is with reptiles.  

As mankind increases its land consumption for both agrarian and urban uses, the consequence is the reduction of natural habitat which once served as homes for wildlife including those of the reptile clan.  In simple terms, when animals and reptiles lose their ‘feeding range’ they lose their ability to survive, and are forced to attempt to live in areas taken over by humanities’ growth.

From a distance, a reduction in the number of dangerous reptiles may appear to benefit mankind as dangerous reptiles and mankind have been at odds since time began.  But when a little closer look is taken, a different set of facts emerges.  Within the food chain, with no exceptions for any living thing, a fine balance of air, water, plants and animals keeps the environment healthy and ‘in tune’.  

Remove the top predators from any food chain and eventually those that were prey become predators.  Take away the rodent eaters (snakes) and the rodent population explodes.  When the rodent population explodes (most rodents produce a brood of offspring every 6 to 8 weeks) the normal sources of rodent food are insufficient to provide for the increase in rodent population.  Rodents are voracious and to survive, seek food anywhere.  Since mankind often has food which is readily accessible to the rodent population, rodents invade houses, schools, offices, restaurants, factories, dumps and from time to time, rodent diseases occur which can infect mankind with plagues, as the final result.

Remove all the crocodiles from Africa and their prey population will increase.  This results in increasing pressure on the existing food supply.  As with the previous example, being forced to seek food causes animals to come into conflict with mankind.  The elephants in South Africa come to mind.

With reptiles, the net result of habitat destruction on the food chain is doubled. 

This is because of the miserable survival rate that all reptiles suffer after birth.   Less than 2% of all reptiles reach maturity, so along the way the 98% that don’t survive provide a marvelous buffet for their predators.  Kill a large snake (Reticulated Python as an example) – one that produces up to 100 babies each year that average 18” in length and weight about 12 oz at birth - and since only 2 of those baby snakes born each year survive, imagine the number of birds of prey who die because of the 3,000 or so baby snakes that were not born to be consumed!!

As so it is.  Reptiles are an important part of their ecosystem both as predators and prey. 

Over the past decade and to hundreds of thousands of students in the more than 2,000 schools, daycares, camps, community centres, and similar customers for whom Reptilia teaches, we have been able to provide curriculum based lessons which teach about the balance on which our eco system survives.

Reptilia was founded in 1996 to provide curriculum enrichment programs for the education community - not about reptiles - but the requirements of the Life Strands section of the Science and Technology Curriculum of the Province of Ontario, Canada.  This is accomplished by speaking to the ‘Expectations and Outcomes’, which is the term that describes the mandate of the Ontario Provincial Curriculum.