Okay, I know, this post is not about dogs, but, it is cool anyway!

A couple of months ago my class at the Deering Estate was supposed to go to the Everglades but something went wrong with the paperwork so we are going next week. We still had class and my teacher decided to teach us about genetics using snakes. Yes, SNAKES! LIVE SNAKES!

We did Punnett (Dihybrid Cross) Squares. We learned about Alleles, genotypes, phenotypes, dominant traits, and heterozygus genes. To demonstrate breeding outcomes he used a regular hognose “Ms. Piggy” snake and an albino hognose to show us the different color patterns. We had to imagine what the babies would look like if they bred with one another. He said that at least 25% of the babies would resemble the albino and the other 75% would resemble the regular hognose “Ms. Piggy”.

At the end of class my teacher let us hold a few of the animals they have in the classroom. I held the Bearded Dragon Lizard, Abe, and the Boa Constrictor, who is unnamed. I will have to think of one for her.