Rehabilitating reptiles
Snakes have a bad press in Cyprus. Yiannis Artemi is trying to change all that
Yiannis Artemi has been bitten by snakes, many times. He quite likes it. He sees it as part of his job.
“I have been bitten many times, but not by dangerous snakes. Sometimes I wanted them to bite me, just to see how it feels. Each reptile has a different bite,” says the man who has been collecting snakes for eight years and now has over 70 species of reptiles, ranging from indigenous snakes to anacondas, rattle-snakes and cobras.
Even for Yiannis, however, the time his anaconda bit him was a bite too far.
“The only reptile I regret biting me and will never ever intentionally provoke again is the anaconda. I wanted to experience its bite, but never want to experience that sort of pain again! It has a very strong bite and can inflict a lot of damage. It’s a constrictor so it bites and it folds. It bit me on the arm and my whole arm went numb afterwards.”
Not surprisingly, Yiannis loves reptiles and has built up one of the biggest private reptile collections in Cyprus and recently opened a Reptile Exhibition in the tourist area of Yermasoyia, Limassol.
Before finding this space, he kept the reptiles at his house, where he used to live with his parents. His mother greeted this living arrangement with a fair degree of suspicion and fear.
“My mum refused to come close to them at first, but with time and as they were in her house, she got used to them. It started with her asking questions about the snakes, like what they eat. Or asking what kind of snake it was. And as she learned more, she started touching them, cleaning them, showing them to people who visited our house, and so on,” Yiannis says.
Yiannis argues that it is mostly the fear of the unknown that makes people scared of snakes and that once they have some contact with the reptiles, people feel more comfortable with them. “It’s a lot to do with psychology,” he says.
“I’ve met a lot of people with snake phobias, but once they visited me a couple of times, they got used to them. I have many tricks to get people to overcome their fear. The best way to start is to explain what type of snake it is – if it’s poisonous or not, what it can and cannot do. Then, if they see me holding the snake they feel better about touching it, discovering how it feels to touch a snake. It is purely a matter of getting used to them.”
But, surely, there must be a level of danger associated to handling snakes? “If a snake is not used to human contact, a lot depends on the way you handle the snake. You should know what kind of snake you are dealing with. If it’s poisonous, there are also certain precautions you can take e.g. using hooks or special gloves when touching the animals.
“In general, people should keep in mind that not all snakes are dangerous. Just because a person sees a snake doesn’t mean they should start running, or worse, kill it. The aim of my exhibition is for people to learn, particularly about Cypriot reptiles. I will be very happy if people come here with questions or concerns and we could talk about them.”
His snakes are kept in glass tanks made of laminated glass, which doesn’t break. For years, Yiannis has been asking local and state authorities to provide him with a proper space for his collection. One possibility was for the collection to be housed at the Limassol Zoo. “I had asked authorities in the past, including Limassol and Yermasoyia councils, to help me find space to exhibit the collection, but unfortunately no venue was found.”
Limassol council have said that when they have the proper facilities to host the reptile collection then it could be featured in the zoo. However, the zoo’s future is still undecided and it may be moved to a different site, or the present site may get upgraded.
Although he has dedicated years to studying these reptiles, Yiannis is a firm believer in the knowledge gained by experience. “Learning through experience, through spending time with the animals is the best way. I have also taken some courses abroad – the most notable was a course in Singapore on cobras,” he says.
In terms of future plans, Yiannis is full of ideas about how to spread the word on snakes. These include a guide book for the reptiles featured in his collection and making a documentary on Cypriot reptiles.”
To view Artemi’s collection of Cypriot and exotic reptiles and amphibians, visit the Cyprus Herpetological Centre, Amathountas Avenue, Limassol
(opposite the Four Seasons Hotel).
Tel. 99 107591
