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Published: April 9th 2011
The Scorpion Queen
She came up to my chest in height but was truly a giant in imparting her knowledge of scorpions"Scorpions don't live here except at our zoo. The weather is too hot and not moist enough. You need to go where there is forest like Isan (Northeastern Thailand) near the border of Cambodia. There are scorpion farms there," she patiently told me. "I was told there was a scorpion farm here," I said. "No," she answered with an empathetic smile. The words sunk in slowly as I kept pumping her for information about scorpion farms in general. I had come seeking a scorpion farm at Sri Racha Zoo (just outside Bangkok) in order to get more information about how they are farmed and marketed for an article I was writing. I had been to the crocodile farm in Samut Prakan the day before seeking the same thing and had learned the same. When my friend Yngve said,"I need a beer" after an uninspiring walk through the park, that said it all. No scorpion farm and a bunch of overfed crocodiles made for a very quiet stroll around the Samut Prakan Crocodile farm.
Disappointment settled in like the afternoon haze as I chatted up the most charming but devilishly decorated "Scorpion Queen". She wore a lovely white blouse like shirt,
holding my first scorpion
I know it is hard to see but that is a scorpion between my thumb and forefinger but coated with thirty to forty scorpions. She handled them nonchalantly as she spoke to me, as one might play with a split end in their hair.
Scorpions, for her, seemed nothing more than another accessory that needed to be patiently nurtured. She showed me how to hold them as she skillfully picked them up if they moved off of her shirt onto her other clothing. "Their bite doesn't hurt much," she said while revealing a small scar where one had bit her earlier that morning. "They scared me at first," she said,"but now I am used to them." I too learned quickly how to handle one of them as she placed four or five of them on my shirt.
I had taken a minivan from Victory monument in Bangkok and then local transport to get to the zoo. All in all, I spent about 2 and a half hours traveling to get there and about 800 baht in transport, meals and entrance fees. It was frustrating to not find what I had been seeking but it was helpful nonetheless. I shudder to think that I might become some kind of "bug writer" or "bug expert" but it
Scorpion Nest
They don't farm scorpions but they do feed and keep about five hundred of them on hand like these is still nice to learn more about them.
Crocodile, tigers, elephants, hippos, pigs, and children's rides, the parks/zoos in Samut Prakan and Sri Racha aspire to have it all. Like many that have written about the treatment of animals there, I found much of what they might have been doing to the animals an unsavory aspect of going there. Then again, I wondered, they are making an attempt to domesticate animals. That in itself, could be a good thing, considering the vastly accelerated encroachment of human beings on nearly every natural environment on the planet in the last two centuries. These farms were doing it for profit, but maybe this will lead to more science and social concern for animals in the future. Maybe tigers can one day be bred to be like housecats.........but surely not soon. What is not so sure is whether the tigers I saw were better off than where they came from. I am guessing the answer is not simple and leave it at that until I learn more.
The genetic "essence of tigers" like that of scorpions (and insects in general) I was seeking is probably much like a unicorn....mythical and untouchable. However,
The hand of man
Not sure about this depiction of animals with people but the intrusive godlike hands make more sense than anything. I am a firm believer that someday the supposedly natural genetic "aggressiveness" of tigers can be bred out of them so we don't kill them out of fear. I just hope it won't be too late for them.....and us.
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Helen and Bob
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Scorpians and Zoo
Scorpions must be different in Thailand from those in Central America. We constantly got warned to shake our shoes out before putting them on to remove scorpions, whose bites would stop us from walking and cause poisonous infections. Very interesting photos and text, Zak.