New snake park for Neo Chorio, ‘Snake George’ shunned
Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 12:56 pm
he contract for a new snake park in Neo Chorio in Paphos was signed on Thursday, according to the local community leader.
Andreas Christodoulou told the Cyprus Mail that the move was a welcome one, and that the new project should take around a year to complete.
“I like snakes and amphibians and this will be something interesting for our village and for visitors to the area. The council voted in favour of the idea and I signed the contract this morning,” he said on Thursday.
He added that Mary Lambrou, the Paphos District Officer, and the construction company were also present and signed the deal.
The project will see the building of a new snake and amphibian park which will get underway soon, at a cost of around €350,000 (including VAT). The venue will include glass-fronted areas for all of the snakes and amphibians which will be housed inside the building, he said.
“This is for the care of the animals and for safety reasons,” he said.
The area will cover around 1170 sq.m and there will be more than 22 species that are found in Cyprus, on display.
The project is co-funded with the European Rural Development Fund, he noted.
The new park will be run by the Cyprus Herpetological Association, (they will also supply the snakes and amphibians), along with the local community council.
“The project has been designed by Dimitris Loukaides, who is also the president of the Cyprus Herpetological Association. There will also be a landscaped area to the back and, along with an information centre, there may be a coffee shop in the future,” he said.
However, not everyone is welcoming the move. A Paphos-based Austrian snake and reptile expert, Hans-Jorg Wiedl, ‘Snake George’, 75, who is well known in the field of herpetology, met the news with sadness and disappointment.
He has been trying to establish a new snake park in Paphos for years, but has been met with brick wall after brick wall, he said. He previously operated a successful venture in Peyia for many years, which saw thousands of locals and tourists visit each year.
“I mentored a young man, Andreas, who has studied in this field and he applied for permission but the ministry of agriculture refused permission, stating instead that they were supporting a venture in Neo Chorio.”
Now this plan has come to fruition, he said.
Wiedl said that over the years his various plans have been scuppered as he believes that the responsible body for approving the permit in Paphos has blocked his every move.
Wiedl has a string of triumphs to his name including rediscovering the Cyprus grass snake, which was believed extinct, and proving that the blunt nosed viper lays eggs and doesn’t give birth to live young as had previously been thought.
Most recently, he found a rare type of dwarf snake that could be a totally new species.
“I am the person people call to remove snakes from their homes and gardens and I am the first person in Cyprus that has fought to protect the reptiles and amphibians, with success. I am sad, angry and disappointed that after all of my efforts, they gave the permission to someone else,” he said.
https://cyprus-mail.com/2018/11/30/new- ... e-shunned/