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Posted by Dave Barker on August 13, 1999 at 09:36:20:
In Reply to: Can you tell me why they called it a Borneo Bat-Eater? n/p posted by Rob G. on August 12, 1999 at 11:44:19:
: Once upon a time, there was a man named Hank Molt. He was an animal dealer like no dealer in business today. In the early 1970s, he had a import business the likes of which will never happen again, his occasional price lists were about the best reading there was in herpetoculture. Most of us back then learned many of our scientific names from those lists. He eventually got in trouble (over Fiji Island iguanas, among other things,) disappeared for awhile, and then resurfaced in a smaller business about 1980. In late 1981 he obtained either six or eight hybrid pythons, [once he told me they were from Europe and another time he told me they were from Philadelphia--the one thing for sure about Hank was that you could never be sure about what he told you (still true today, now that he's back in about his fourth herp business reincarnation)]
In any case, in late 1981 he sold a pair of the hybrids to The Shed, then the largest reptile dealership in the country, based in Miami, run by two wild and crazy guys named Louis Porras and Joe Beruducci. Louis was (is) an excellent photographer and he took a great picture of one of the little hybrids, a stunning little snake, they printed up a stack of the photos and on the back they printed a Christmas greeting and at the bottom identified the little snake as the "Borneo Bat Eating Python (Python nykerifagos borneonatis?)." They then sent this out in Christmas envelopes to several hundred of their best customers, including every zoo in the country.
It was a joke, a joke made obvious by the bogus scientific name. But of course, several parties didn't get the joke and really tried to by the "new species." It made a big enough ruckus that later in June 1982 at the International Reptile Breeding Symposium, everyone was still humming about it when Hank Molt showed up with one of the specimens and let everyone handle the little snake. It was a big hit.
I only know where two of the animals went, and they were still alive in 1990 and they were still called Borneo bat-eaters. So the name hung around long enough to still be in use when Bob and Kevin figured out how to breed more.
And that's the story of the Borneo bat-eating python. And by the way.... The old Christmas cards from the Shed are genuine valuable collectors items--if you have one, don't let it get away cheap.
