Hamm Germany Reptile Show

Tom

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A friend invited me to come along to see and experience this world famous European spectacle. I'm sure glad he did. It wasn't all that different than the big shows here, but it was worth the trip to see it. I have lots of pics to show, so I will have to break this up into four posts.

My ticket to get in:
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Here is the little brochure they hand out at the door. I have no idea what any of it says…
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The line to get in. There were two additional lines going the other direction. I was told that 10,000 people from all over Europe attend this show. We met some really nice guys from Ukraine in line. They were looking for Pumilio frogs:
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This is where the lines all converged into a big free-for-all with everyone waiting for the doors to open. I think I could count the number of people who weren't smoking on one hand:
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Here is what the inside of the entrance looked like:
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The show was spread out over many large rooms, tents and halls. Here is a graphic in the brochure that shows the layout:
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One of the show areas. This room was some sort of arena/auditorium:
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Crowd shot:
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Some of the rooms were actually tents:
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More to come...
 

wellington

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Big show there. Wish ours in Illinois was that big. As for the carts, Germans know how to do it right :D. I hate when people bring babies or dogs to places they shouldn't be.
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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Tom
You really made miss Germany and it's people . They are very neat and organized and friendly people . No pushing , no loud people . I'll bet it was a great show !
 

Tom

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Another hall:
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This is the famous/infamous "Hot Room" where all the venomous snakes are for sale. It was eery being surrounded by hundreds of deadly animals that were contained by nothing more than little plastic deli cups and clear tape…
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Some of my pics are not great and this is why. There were signs all over the place saying no pics… and apparently we were supposed to watch out for pick pockets too… I just had to sneak my pics or act like I didn't know we weren't supposed to take them. Several people sternly told me no photos, but I was not deterred. I'm not one to follow pointless rules blindly. I asked each individual vendor for permission to photograph their animals, but the wider show pics were just me misbehaving. :) I'm American for goodness sake. We're rebellious. We never do what were told...
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One big difference between shows in the US and this show was the number and variety of invertebrates. These cool looking beetles are one example:
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Each animal on display is required to have a little sign with all this info on it:
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There were quite a few tortoises spread throughout the show, like this radiata:
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The only leopards I found were of the "regular" variety.
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Typical dry raised sulcata:
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Tom

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They had several vendors selling the highly desirable Fiji Iguanas that all the powers-that-be over here don't want us to have…
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Giant snails. They offered at least two species that I saw:
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Unfortunately, the European shows are going the same way as the American shows. LOTS and LOTS of ball pythons of every morph you could think of. I thought about doing a whole post with 20 pics of ball python booths, but that would just take time. I think everyone gets the point. Half the show was ball pythons, leopards geckos and bearded dragons, just like here at home:
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A pic to show how some of the tables were organized:
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They had these grasshoppers for sale as feeders and I thought they were pretty cool looking:
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And another different species:
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Lots of hermanni:
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Tom

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One vendor's display:
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Star tortoise for sale:
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Assorted torts for sale:
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This guy had an albino sulcata for sale:
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Found one Chersina:
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Melleri is my favorite chameleon species and they had several captive bred ones for sale.
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Another species of interest for me, the red "Ackie":
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Lots of pretty panthers too:
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Neal

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So...no Somalian or Ethiopian leopards huh?
 

Tom

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Here is one of the few BTS I found. I was having trouble discerning the species so the vendor pulled out his phone and showed me the parents.
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Neat looking parents, but I'm afraid they are hybrids. This is a pic of the pic on his phone:
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More stars. Elegans seem to be pretty popular over there:
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This guy had really nice, healthy looking tortoises. This radiata was a good example:
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In addition to the Fiji Iguanas, they also had Tonga Iguanas, which I had never seen in person:
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Tonga Iguana:
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And I'll finish out my show pics with this very attractive Woma:
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Tom

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So...no Somalian or Ethiopian leopards huh?

Nope. Lots of inquiries resulted in zilch, nada, nothing. I've got some people looking, but no dice yet.

I'm working on brining in some Western Hermanni, but it requires lots of paperwork, time and effort. Not sure if I can make it happen.
 

Yvonne G

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ew-w-w it makes my skin crawl just thinking of all those people together in the same spot. No way I could do that. I go to the grocery store when I know it's not going to be crowded.

Thanks for sharing your trip pictures with us. The little manouria baby was so cute.
 

Tom

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ew-w-w it makes my skin crawl just thinking of all those people together in the same spot. No way I could do that. I go to the grocery store when I know it's not going to be crowded.

Thanks for sharing your trip pictures with us. The little manouria baby was so cute.


It was horribly crowded in some places. It was hard to get through some of the aisles.

There was only one manouria at the whole show. I was told that most people don't bring the "good stuff" to the show, but that its a good place to make contacts.
 

Tom

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It was horribly crowded in some places. It was hard to get through some of the aisles.

There was only one manouria at the whole show, which surprised me since they would be easier to keep in their climate than ours. I was told that most people don't bring the "good stuff" to the show, but that its a good place to make contacts.
 
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Kleinmann_Fan

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Great thread, and photo's!
I'm in the UK, but still have never attended Hamm, it's something I want to do at least once.
I've always been wary of trying to take any photos at the UK shows, as people always assume you're some animals rights nut, trying to compile some type of evidence.

John
 

Tom

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Great photos! You got a lot for having it be prohibited!

Yep. Because that's how I do things. Rules need to make sense if they want people to follow them. Who ever heard of a reptile show where you couldn't take pics to share with fellow reptile lovers? Sheesh. That's crazy talk!
 

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