Mantella Environmental Education

Nosey two-year old Diamond Python while cleaning out recently. These awesome pythons are so curious and perch out in the open, watching their surroundings.

Its taken a long time to get around to finally making this post....but after 10 years of providing environmental education talks, walks, displays and workshops around Ireland north and south, we have decided to hang up our hats with providing interactive animal encounters.

While the pandemic meant that what was shaping up to be a busy year in 2020 ended up being a washout, it forced a change of career which was sitting in the background. Its odd that what is meant for you can sometimes be thrust upon you when you don't take action in good time yourself.

10 years of education work resulted in multiple burn outs every year, and coupled with the emergence of other companies which offer similar services to our own but with dubious ethics and a shaky knowledge base, we have decided to make a break while on a high. A change will do you good, as the saying goes. So it is with a mind full of countless fond memories, unbelievable opportunities and crazy hours of work that we formally announce we are no longer providing our interactive animal encounters visits.

To all those friends and colleagues who provided help and assistance over the years, and to countless fantastic clients who we developed a great relationship with - many thanks for your help in keeping Mantella on the road and going strong for 10 years!

We will be continuing to provide ecological training walks and workshops for the environmental sector, so for those interested in developing their career in this sector, do get in touch to see what we could offer you.

For all interactive animal encounters enquiries, please contact our good friends at www.weecritters.org - Northern Ireland's Premier Interactive Animal Encounters providers!

Black and white photo of one of our Diamond Pythons. These are turning out to show much less yellow than other bloodlines and so we are hoping they develop into nice black and white animals. Incredible to watch these jewels of the snake world grow and do their thing.

After an initial period of maintaining distance, our pair of Salmon Hypo Boas now seem to rather like each other. Wrapped tails means babies are on the cards for later in the year, all being well. It’s been nearly 15 years since we had baby boas being born at Schloss Mantella!

Love this snake. Home bred Tiger Coastal Carpet Python basking. So cool being able to watch these gentle giants hatch out and grow slowly over the years into young adults

Who doesn’t love a wee dinosaur asleep on his basking branch

A throwback to part of one of our displays at the Balmoral Show. Our busiest days of the year but also the most rewarding.

Our adult male German bloodline Jungle Carpet Python tucking into some dinner. This guy loves his food, as you can see he launched out of his enclosure to get it!

Check out that stripe! One of our yearling Palmerston locality Jungle Carpet Pythons.

Apparently today is Blue Monday....so to brighten it up here’s a throwback photo of our Blue-winged Kookaburra who we aptly named The Joker. Did you know that almost all blue colour in the animal kingdom isn’t blue pigment, but caused by tiny reflective surfaces within the fur / feathers / skin / scales that absorbs all other colours and reflects only blue?

Australian Olive Python basking. It’s a shame more people don’t work with this gentle giant among the Aussie pythons. In a World of bold colours and patterns, Olives are a breath of fresh air.