Community

Bridgeport vet students building reptile rooms

BRIDGEPORT - Bridgeport High School students at Taylor Watson's Veterinary class are getting practical experience in caring for animals, starting with building habitats for some scaly young friends.

Watson is making the most of her class. She showed off several enclosures her students have completed. They are now ready to house recently born snakes.

"They are learning lots of husbandry, which is just the way you take care of an animal," she said. "They researched what biome the animals live in, and from doing so, they have constructed their enclosures in a way that basically pulls from what they have researched."

Piper, a ball python, was making herself at home. She was able to climb and bask in the heat lamp.

The veterinary class is hosted in the newly-opened multipurpose "Bridge" facility, which has made it possible to offer more hands-on labs and learning opportunities in fields including engineering science and technology, health science and College Credit Plus.

Watson's students looked into different types of animals and their needs, and planned the enclosures accordingly.

"They started from the ground up."

The projects called for equipment like silicone caulking guns and spray foam. They caulked dirt into the background to get the texture a snake would have in its environment. They included live plants and even "caves" in the habitats for the snakes to den. Next, moss will be installed for water retention to benefit the more humid species.

Watson said the bioactive enclosures will also include isopods, or bugs that help keep the habitat clean.

"In learning how to build the enclosures, they were learning how to use tools they'd never used before," she said. "They basically designed the habitat to be both fancy on the eye and safe for the animals on paper first."

There are four enclosures completed and a fifth one in the works. They will house ball pythons, corn snakes and hawk nose snakes. A fish tank will soon be ready as well. When the snakes start growing, they will be moved to larger tanks. During winter, the snakes will be in the classroom for students to take care of. In summer, Watson will keep the animals in her home.

Watson was impressed by how well her students worked as a team to finish the enclosures.

Elizabeth Liddle, a junior, was eager to take on the project.

“I was pretty excited because I also have a pet snake myself," she said. "We put more depth to it. More hides. More climbing spots. Honestly I thought we made it more homey for them."

She recalled the extensive research that went into designing the enclosures.

"If you don't do your research, then you can mess up and potentially hurt the animal," she said.

They are able to adjust the habitat to match the needs of whatever species they are working with.

"I want to learn more about it, especially how we can take care of snakes, make sure the environment's well," she said. "It we need to do anything better, we can change that up."

Junior Samantha Swiger talked about some of the challenges, such as calculating the proper ultraviolet bulb needed and the level of humidity.

"It definitely took a lot of studying to do," she said. "It can be hard, but it was really fun to do. Ms. Watson made it really fun."

The project was eye-opening for Samantha, who did not have much experience caring for snakes.

"There was a lot to learn about it, for example the colors. Snakes can be very picky about their colors. It's their home so you don't want to make them uncomfortable, so you want to stick to natural colors like greens and browns."

She plans to study zoology and possibly pursue a veterinary degree, and the experiences in the Bridge will serve her well in these goals.

"This is a great class."

Senior Adalie Regoli said an interesting part was "personalizing" the enclosures.

"We did some research based on the things ball pythons normally do, their enrichment and what they get enjoyment out of," she said. In Piper's case, since ball pythons enjoy water the students incorporated a small "bathing pool."

"There's also multiple places for her to hide or climb up to reach the heat better," she said. "We tried to make it as natural as we could."

This is also Adalie's first time working with snakes. She found the experience with the young ball python incredible.

"I actually didn't like snakes before I came into this class. I was terrified of them, and now I love her."