Like many businesses and individuals, we are suffering also - with cancelled bookings and the like.

Please DO NOT COME if you are sick or have recently travelled overseas, interstate or come into contact with anyone with the virus.

IF NEW RESTRICTIONS ALLOW IT, PLEASE DO COME - our snake avoidance dog training is one on one, just you and 2 trainers – outdoors and with minimum human contact.

Our snake handler courses, weather permitting, are now conducted outdoors with a reduced number of trainees being present - training from our Mahogany Creek location with social distancing and enhanced hygiene protocols in place.

Maybe have a think – we all need to do something surely in the coming months – otherwise providing I don’t get the COVID-19, it’s reading books, Netflix, home décor and gardening for the foreseeable future.

A recent study has discovered another amazing function of the canine nose - that of thermal heat detection. With coldness of the nose making the dog rhinarium particularly sensitive to radiating heat. The study found that dogs were able to pick out objects that are warmer than the surrounding temperature, detecting even weak thermal radiation. And they suggest it is the nose, rather than any other part of the body, assisting the dog. They may not be able to detect warmer objects at a distance, but for shorter distances being able to sense heat from prey could help canines hunt even when their other senses are obscured. For more information see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60439-y

Bats are responsible for harbouring the terrible Cornavirus that causes COVID-19 that now affects and/or infects us all. In fact, bats are major vectors of similar zoonotic viral diseases such as Ebola, SARS, Hendra and Australian Bat Lyssavirus. Bat related viruses tend to harbour RNA type rather than DNA type viruses.

He was very popular in his day and is still ranked as one of the 5 best presidents ever. He championed the ‘square deal’ promising the average citizen fairness and a better quality of life. He achieved this by breaking up some powerful business interests, notably amongst the railroad companies, and improving by law the quality and purity of food and water that could be sold to the public by ensuring labelling was accurate and legally adhered to. He made conservation a top priority and established many national parks, forests and monuments. He was apparently most proud of his conservation efforts and extensively used presidential executive orders to preserve 150 million acres of forestry. Congress trying to curtail these orders passed a new bill that would prevent further use of executive orders in this way. But before signing that bill into law he used further executive orders to establish another 21 forest reserves in 31 states.

In many ways he was well in advance of the times as he regarded the natural world as a vital resource. During his lifetime he established the United States Forest Service, the first 51 bird reserves, four game reserves and 150 national forests. In total he placed under public protection approximately 230,000,000 acres of land (930,000km²). Not bad – shame current world leaders cannot do more of the same.

Special offer price $120 (usually $165)

(one of each hook size, regular and medium)

Only $132 (usually $165).

The first thing I have discovered is that viruses are not even living things (probably) it depends a bit on who you ask (or google). Viruses cannot reproduce by themselves; they can only survive and replicate once inside a living organisms’ cells. So many scientists conclude they are non-living. They consist of usually either RNA or DNA genetic material surrounded by a protective covering called a capsid that is made up of protein. But because they evolve through natural selection, carry genetic material and can reproduce, other scientists conclude that they are indeed a life form. So almost alive but also not quite dead.

Viruses are a type of microbe; millions of types of microbes inhabit our planet and many of them live within our bodies and are very useful if not vital to our bodily functions. They are absolutely tiny, much smaller than bacteria and other germy things. You need an electron microscope to see them. Alongside viruses’ other microbes are bacteria, fungi, amoebas and archaea. Most again are present in our bodies and we get along fine with them!

Viruses were first discovered in 1892 by Dmitri Ivanovsky and Martinus Beijerinck who were looking at infected tobacco plants. Beijerinck devised a super fine filter that would remove all bacteria from the liquidised infected tobacco leaves. They found that this filtered material injected would reinfect healthy plants. Beijerinck at first called this finely filtered infectious mass contagium vivum fluidum (soluble living germ) but then he changed that to the Latin word for poison or toxin - virus. Thus, a new science the study of viruses - Virology - was born.

Viruses are abundant and crucial to life. One litre of sea water may contain one hundred million viruses. Which at the time astonished the student who found this out, as they hadn’t really expected to find any at all living in saltwater. The entire world and our bodies and well everything it would seem is awash with viruses. They can even emerge viable from 30,000-year-old permafrost – so they are survivalists and very patient miniscule things. Whilst there are millions of types of virus only about 5,000 have been described in detail – they can infect all living plants and animals including bacteria and archaea.

Most dangerous is the Marburg virus - 90% fatality rate

SARS-CoV-2 which is the name given to the current virus - COVID-19 is the disease caused by it. Mortality 4% to 8% – apparently. Recently found to have passed from human to a tiger in a zoo in Ohio. So very much zoonotic, passing between animals and humans.

Flu – caused by the influenza virus. Many different strains and they can change each year.

One thing for certain about viruses is that the ones most deadly to humans derive from poor hygiene, close proximity and cross contamination between humans and other animal species notably birds, bats and pigs. We need to ensure that live animal wildlife markets such as the one in China from whence this virus purportedly arose are either shut down and/or on a global level, we need to see huge improvements in animal husbandry and welfare. As a human species we need to move away from traditional medicine practises involving exotic species to mitigate against the next viral outbreak. According to the experts it is always a matter of not if but when. The medieval mindset that thinks dried pangolin scales, powdered tiger penis or fresh civet cat meat - is good for you may condemn mankind to a never-ending cycle of pandemics. Rant over – see you all soon – hopefully.