Last week I paid a visit to one of the most beautiful and exotic zoo in the world. Razer was supporting Ilsa, a four-year old Diamondback with a $5,000.00 donation and Razerguy was on hand to present the check and kiss all the baby snakes.

Presentation of Cheque to the Singapore Zoological Gardens.

(Robert and Clyde the Python)

First off, I must tell you that I like snakes and have no fear of them. I actually wanted to hold Ilsa provided a trainer was nearby with a hypo of anti-venom at the ready. As you can see by the photos, I was relegated to holding a very large and non-venomous Python I named Clyde. Clyde has just eaten a cow or something like that and was rather a heavy load. I learned from the Singapore officials that their trainers keep all of the predatory snakes in their natural state. That is with their fangs and never milked. That meant that my new best friend was fully loaded and overdue to spread her milk my way.

Most zoos have an adoption program for their animals. The money goes for feeding and health care for wild animals in captivity. Usually snakes never see this kind of support. The more visible or cute the animal, such as monkeys, pandas and koalas, the more likely the bulk of financial support will be. Since Razer has used snakes as our logo and names for all our mice since 1999, it only made sense to adopt a snake. The Diamondback being our most recent mouse is the obvious choice here, and besides, the tsetse fly was already taken.

If any of you ever have a chance to visit Singapore a Singapore zoo side trip is a must. The zoo is located within a tropical rain forest, so the habitat is one of the most natural in the world. The zoo is large and close physical access to exotic animals is the best I’ve ever seen.

(Hamming it up for the camera)

Note the photo of me along side one of the many orangutan (I’m the one on the right) that you can almost touch.

While I have no fear of snakes, my hopes are that we will never adopt a tarantula. Spiders and I are not as close. Any animal or insect with more than four legs is not a consideration for adoption. We all wish Ilsa a long and healthy life. Razer will be back next year to adopt yet another exotic zoo resident. It’s a great program and we are proud to be a part of the funding.