I Added a PYTHON into My Giant Rainforest Vivarium

A monster is about to wreak some serious havoc. This is Pandora, my 1,000-gallon cloud rainforest vivarium, attached to Arcadia, my giant tree canopy vivarium, and Hydromeda, my wetlands vivarium. This biodiverse rainforest trifecta of tropical worlds within glass is a grand biological project of mine aimed at studying how ecosystems work in the wild. But I've been waiting over a year for this exact moment. The inhabitants of our rainforest had no idea their lives were about to change forever. Valentino, the time has come. Your patience will finally be rewarded. It's your turn to enter your new kingdom. But little did I know, after adding in this Grand Serpent, a chain of events took place, leading up to a great war of creatures I never saw coming. Welcome to the Season 5 finale of my Ecosystem Vivarium series, where Mother Nature's hidden monsters show me that in the game of life, chaos will always be the ruling ecosystem event, here on the AntsCanada Ant Channel. Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! Valentino stood still, taking in the insane new world all around him. I could not believe he was actually in Orcadia, and officially a member of our rainforest. This is something I promised him I would do over a year ago, and it was just so cool to see him in a new much more natural setting. He's actually a very old snake, perhaps close to maximum age now. He is a Sorong green tree python, named after the Sorong region in New Guinea from which his species comes, characterized by a gorgeous blue stripe on his back, but unfortunately we can't really appreciate that right now due to some unshed skin still sticking to him, caused by an imperfect shed. He gets this every now and then due to humidity issues. You see, in his old tank, I would spray him often and place plants around to hike up the humidity, but he completely and purposely kills off any plants I place into his tank by smothering them to death. He hates plants in his home. In fact, he hates anything that appears to grab or envelop him, considering a somewhat traumatic history you'll learn about soon, and as a result, humidity levels, due to zero plants around him, sometimes aren't enough to achieve a perfect shed. The old stuck skin doesn't hurt him, and the skin eventually falls off naturally after some time, but I knew here in our cloud rainforest, humidity would no longer be a problem and these imperfect sheds would be a thing of the past. As much as I knew he hated all of these plants around, I felt he'd soon get used to them. I just couldn't wait to watch him exploring the rainforest at night when he's fully awake and active. For now, he remained curled up on his branch, but what he didn't know was that his new rainforest kingdom was the battleground for a war against a true monster that would soon rear its black, crazy head. A black-eyed yellow octopus-like creature wriggled free from its slimy keep, its very first experience of open air. It fell onto the drying pile. This was all part of the birthing ritual every one of its siblings had to undergo, before unfolding its limbs and crawling out into the world. And my, what an amazing world it was! What an amazing world this is, the pom-pom crab thought to himself as he took a moment to stare up at all the beautiful fish swimming above him. He too was a newcomer to these lands, and was just in awe at all the colors and sights that there were to see in this watery kingdom. So many gorgeous plants, and even cute flowers exploding forth from my shiny boosie. But he didn't know that something had been missing for the past few days. Drowned insects, which used to be a good food source for the bottom feeders like him, had stopped falling down from the skies above. Something major was happening in the rainforest above the waterline. I dumped a new colony of Dubia roaches into Pandora. These roaches were to replace the Dubia roaches that recently went extinct due to a colony of 11 micro-squirrels which used to live in the rainforest, all of whom I trapped and rehomed. The new colonizer roaches immediately scattered into the shadows of the rainforest. I also added in a new population of crickets, whom the micro-squirrels also caused to go extinct. They, too, ran freely to begin feeding from the forest. Now, I thought this introduction of prey insects would be simple, quiet, and uneventful, but little did I know, it was the start of an ominous chain of events. Some creatures were about to come out of hiding to make a grand reveal. The start of an ecological nightmare. Snap! Our resident sunskink emerged to hunt and feed on the new prey insects, who were busy feeding on the grass below. When suddenly, something below her caught her eye. What? What was she looking at, I wondered. When I spotted it, I couldn't believe my eyes. What? No way! It was a chubby frog! But wait! How is that possible? Eventually, Snap got distracted by a nearby cricket. But going back to the chubby frog, this frog was a mystery, because I had actually captured and released two long-time chubby frogs, named Beyonce and Jay-Z, back into the wild weeks ago. Who then was this? After going back in my memory bank, I do remember at one point, early last year, spotting this tiny frog in the vivarium. Do you guys remember this? I thought it was a tiny frog species. Then a few months later, I spotted this frog, which some of you said was a toad, and then we never saw it again for a year. I assumed it had died or something. Well, turns out, it was still alive! The tiny frog species from early last year, and that small toad we spotted, was in fact a chubby frog! It blew my mind to think that there were creatures like this frog, who managed to live in secret, hidden within our rainforest, undiscovered for so long. I went in and seized it. As cool as it was to find, it would have to be released back into the wild, as well, as I felt these chubby frogs were in part responsible for the extinction of a few previous ant species in our vivarium, as these frogs specialize in eating ants, termites, and small insects. Now, AC Family, this all happened a week ago, and I never thought anything of it, but I was soon about to learn that the removal of this last chubby frog was the ecosystem event a certain monster was waiting for, a monster that also had been laying low since last year, secretly hiding and growing in the shadows of our forest, to emerge at just the right time. The newly born marbled praying mantises were eager to explore the world beyond their egg sac. More and more, the egg sac released soft, slimy babies, to begin the drying process until they were hard enough to crawl away. These babies were tiny, about a cm long, and surprisingly quick. Their anatomy was quite awesome, pretty much like tiny versions of their adult form, just wingless. I tested to see how visual they were, but it seemed as though they weren't reactive to my finger waving around. As adults, these praying mantises have excellent vision, but like adult praying mantises, I could see their intelligence was supreme. Oh, looks like this one didn't dry too well, and it looks like I see mites attached to it. Poor kiddo. I wonder how newborns get mites, though. A sibling came up to it, and I held my breath. I know cannibalism is very high with mantises. The sibling eventually moved on, so my plan for these mantises was to release them into Arcadia. I spun the Wheel of Gaia this week, and it landed on new arboreal species, and these mantises are indeed classified as arboreal, living in shrubs and trees, so it was perfect, but I didn't want to release the newly hatched mantises just yet, as it looked like the egg sac was still spitting out babies, and I wanted to wait until all were out and properly dried, just to give them the best chance. I would hate for some ants to find them and start collecting them as they were hatching. Little did I know, this fear was a prophecy, and these baby mantises were about to face a monster of dark proportions. All seemed peaceful in Pandora. A Polyrhachis ant was exploring the leaves. I was happy to see this species here, because I mostly have seen them foraging the wetlands in Hydromeda, but it stopped and began to smell the air, as if it knew danger was looming. Also, one of my favourites, a flash of dark blue caught my eye. Ah, the Sapphire Royals, our colony of blue ants, were out foraging for food. Here on these vine leaves, they were licking up dried honeydew squirted out by the plant insects. What's so cool about these blue ants, is the degree of blue depends on the amount of lighting that shines on them, which means the blue we see is not the actual colour of their exoskeleton, but is due to the light reflected off them. They are a dream species for sure! I spotted some movement in the leaf litter. It was a bagworm! These cool caterpillars collect pieces of debris and use their silk to glue it to other pieces of collected debris, its environment, to create a cool protective casing. It measured this piece, but nope, it was too big. Along came an Asian bullet ant, who could smell a caterpillar in the area, but couldn't for the life of it find it anywhere. Looks like the camo really worked! It's truly hard for a predator to find you when you look and smell like the environment. These bagworms will eventually turn into a cocoon and become a moth. They've lived for several generations now in our forest, and I was happy to see them still doing their thing, collecting debris from the forest floor, to turn into their neat portable homes. A cool beetle emerged and began to climb the driftwood, when suddenly an Asian bullet ant came along to inspect it. It froze completely still for its life, until the ant got distracted by a tiny earwig and went off to chase it. It was then that I spotted a tiny canopy crab, watching as a diminutive springtail passed by, and that's when I spotted it. The crickets and red ants knew something was very wrong. Black crazy ants! The Dark Horde! A young cricket did its best to duck away from the ants. The crab could tell something was very wrong today. It was time to dip. A baby cricket hopped onto the crab's claw. An Asian bullet ant was rushing away with its kill before it could be stolen. The ants needed to collect as much food as they could now, for a full-scale invasion was taking place. The baby cricket hopped off, thanking the crab for the safe transport. It was also time for the crab to go into hiding immediately. AC Family, the Dark Horde was back! These are black crazy ants, an invasive species that I've been dealing with on and off since the beginning of our forest's creation. They snuck into the tank via plant decor, and have been impossible to completely exterminate. They swept the floor of all the food they could find. Now the thing about these invasive ants, is they're not so much a nuisance when their numbers are low, but these colonies grow extremely fast, and when they get to peak numbers, they become an ecological disaster, a monster, as they sweep through the forest, competing with all native species, and even killing more life than an ecosystem can handle. I watched in horror, as they seized a young cricket, having gassed it to unconsciousness. Using blasts of formic acid, which the ants shoot out, the cricket was intoxicated and still breathing, as five black crazy ants carried it to take home. But more crazy ants were on the way, as they were also wafting the air with the I found food pheromone. I knew this scene all too well. I believe the removal of the last chubby frog gave the Dark Horde, who had been secretly strengthening in numbers over the past few months, the go signal to launch their full-on invasion of the forest. I completely hadn't noticed them much at all, but today they were just suddenly everywhere. I worried about our other ants, and as you guys are about to see, the Dark Horde is an insane force when strong like this. A mass swarm of black crazy ants were gathering now, all thrilled about the cricket they captured, a cricket that should have been food to other species in the forest. I watched in horror, as the Dark Horde which would feed their mighty supercolony. This was the triumphant return of the Dark Horde. They needed to be stopped. The mantises were still continuing to hatch and dry at the drying pile. They were so fun to watch, and strangely, all together like this, they kind of reminded me of weaver ants, in a way, which would make sense that they would do so well out in nature, seeing as most creatures would not want to mess with a swarm of weaver ants. Now, as I looked closer at the drying pile, I began to worry that perhaps due to the position and spot of the egg sac in relation to the ground, that the babies were also hatching below the surface and causing a traffic jam or issues. Perhaps it was hindering the speed at which the babies were emerging. I needed to move the egg sac higher above the soil level, but there was just one issue. A tonne of babies were hanging out along the top. I couldn't just remove this paper towel lining, as they would surely all flee and escape. I had to do this very delicately and strategically. I opened a thin slit at the corner of the container, and using a sugar stirrer, helped reposition the egg sac a bit higher above the soil, and began to uncover the babies that were drying below the soil. There were so many babies beneath that were drying. Doing this really helped as I began to watch the swarm of mantises emerging a lot easier now from the egg sac. Watch how cool it looks as the babies emerge. I couldn't even see the holes from which they came out, which meant the egg sac had some sort of flap or valve system to ensure the safety of the babies inside. It was then that I spotted mites hanging out at the areas where the baby mantises were emerging. Aha! So this is where the parasites were managing to attach. How interesting! I knew the hatching process for these mantises was almost done and soon would be placed into our forest. Valentino stood still, staring at the black ants crawling in a trail up and down the driftwood. He recognized these ants, as sometimes he would see them in his old tank, but man, there sure were a lot of them up here, and they smelled weird. When you're as big as him, you can't really feel how menacing these ants are, but when you're an ant, it's a completely different story. Down in Pandora, the war against the natives had begun. An acrobat ant from the chromatoblasters stood guard. Protect the cows! a sister shouted, spreading word of the invasion. This vine network was a chromatoblaster highway, and under no circumstances were any other ants allowed to travel on it. Just below them, the dark horde was boiling up from the hallelujah tree stump. Along a nearby vine was a herd of scale insects, whom the chromatoblasters were standing strong protecting. These scale insects suck plant juices from the vine and excrete honeydew, a valuable asset. I watched as the chromatoblasters fended off the black crazy ants, who tried their best to push in to claim their cattle. The acrobat ants stood in threat pose, ready to spray formic acid on any intruder, while other ants patrolled the area for enemies. The scene was super tense. The black crazy ants had speed on their side, but weren't quite able to push the acrobat ants to retreat from their cows. But then I looked at this juncture, where the two ant lines were really crossing. The Great Bridge, which led up to Orcadia. This was a long established highway for the chromatoblasters to bring them up to the canopy. I could see the chromatoblasters traveling on top, making sure other chromatoblasters used the bridge, but they had no idea that below the dark horde were the trolls beneath the bridge, establishing their own highway upside down. At this location, the dark horde and chromatoblasters were coming face to face in order to use the Great Bridge to the treetops. Back off! This is our bridge, threatened an acrobat ant, but the dark horde were not afraid. Both these species were fast and both sprayed formic acid. I followed the trail of ants up to Orcadia. In Orcadia, the war between the dark horde and chromatoblasters was at its peak. I watched as the ants were at full war with the acrobat ants, taking on groupings of Black Crazy Ants swirling all around them. I also noticed the dark horde chastising the Blue Ants, who only wanted to drink juices from the tree. No! Leave my Sapphire Royals alone! The Blue Ants were much bigger than the Black Crazy Ants, so they didn't seem too concerned, but the Black Crazy Ants were becoming a nuisance fast. The dark horde wanted these juices to themselves. Tensions were certainly heightening. Every time a Blue Ant had to run through a mass of Black Crazy Ants and got sprayed with formic acid, it went off to an unoccupied area to thoroughly clean itself. The Blue Ants loved the juices dripping from this mangle pit, which I place in every day to offer the ants carbs. They found success at actually feeding directly on the mangle pit, which the Black Crazy Ants for some reason didn't enjoy doing. Perhaps being so thin and flimsy, they were afraid of sticking to the fruit. The Black Crazy Ants were determined to claim this huge source of sugar, theirs, and continued to harass the Blue Ants at every opportunity. When each Blue Ant was full, it made its way back to the nest in the driftwood. I was so worried the dark horde would soon outcompete the Blue Ants and cause their extinction, and even find and break into their nest to kill them off. Thankfully, that hadn't happened yet, and right now it looked as though the Sapphire Royals were doing an OK job of dealing with the invaders. But I didn't know how long this would last until the Sapphire Royals would be completely overwhelmed. I was praying that our rainforest ecosystem had some kind of method to solve this ecological threat. Night fell in the rainforest, and Valentino was awake and had unraveled his body to begin exploring his new surroundings. There were so many ants everywhere. When I checked up on him late at night, I couldn't seem to find him in Arcadia. Hmm, where did he go? I went down to Pandora and couldn't believe my eyes. Well hello, Valentino! He was twirled around the upper vines of Pandora. He continued to check this area out as it seemed to intrigue him. Perhaps he found the architecture new and interesting, as he'd only known the dimensions of his old tank, but after having passed down through the glass bridge, a portal into this other vast world really tripped him out. It was actually really special seeing him in our rainforest like this, seeing him coiled around in the vines. For the first time, I felt he was experiencing somewhat more of a naturalistic habitat, one much more appropriate for him. I remember when I first got him over a decade ago, when he was just a young snake. I had picked him up at the airport, and he arrived with a very bad upper respiratory infection, which I brought up to the breeder when I found out. He said he was probably stressed during the transport, he failed to eat, and wasn't doing well at all, and the vet told me he had a 10% chance of survival, but I refused to give up on him, and after an entire three weeks of force feeding him, so scary by the way, and administering some oral meds, he actually beat the odds and survived. He's my miracle snake, and he taught me that you can't give up on life, even when the odds are against you. Only thing though is, he developed a fear of humans, especially human hands, due to his traumatic recovery, so for his entire life, I've respected his fear by not touching him and just watching him behind glass. Anyway, with animals, my love language isn't really touch, but rather acts of service and gifts. His entire life he lived in a tank, which online sources indicated was an appropriate size for his species, and obviously considering his age, it's worked quite well for him, but ever since moving from my apartment to the new current ant house and building our rainforest vivaria, I always wanted him to experience life in a much more grand kingdom. I was so happy that I could finally give him this gift of a natural space and the fruits of my hard labour. He decided to stop exploring and wrap himself at this spot up in the vines. It was a great vantage point for him to watch all the action happening on the rainforest floor below. For instance, Shortcake, our resident strawberry pac-man frog, who lay in ambush directly below him. Food was all around tonight, and she was waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce on an unsuspecting insect. When a cricket wandered close enough, she lunged and BAM! Eaten. The thought of whether or not Valentino would find her a tasty treat, crossed my mind, but a part of me said no. Valentino also spotted other frogs out hunting tonight. A male tree frog was awake and staring at a target. Could he catch the cricket? And ah! Guess not. This tree frog was still largely inexperienced and super small. It was then that I realized that this was actually a new frog, one of the first generation, born in our rainforest's wetlands. The oldest froglets were now medium-sized frogs. How neat! I wondered how many others were around. They still had some growing to do, but I couldn't wait for them to start breeding again next year to continue the tree frog population in our forest. This here is a female. She was asleep, and again, I wondered if Valentino was open to eating frog meat. I guess only time would tell. In the morning, I looked into Pandora. Valentino was no longer in the spot he was at the night before. I eventually found him here on the side of the driftwood, wrapped around this thick branch. He looked pretty cozy here, but I wasn't sure if he liked his new home. I think he preferred his old familiar home, and I knew it would take some time for him to adjust to all the strange sights and smells, and seeing other species of animals all around him, he would periodically wake up startled by the sudden sight or smell of creatures coming close, like crickets whom he had never before seen. Inside, I knew this place would be better for him. The humidity would be better for his skin, which was an issue in his old home. I also didn't want him to die not knowing what it was like to live in a spacious kingdom like this. I did, however, decide that if he continued to show signs of not liking this new home, I would move him back to his old tank. Speaking of the other animals, I looked around and spotted Shortcake still alive and in the same spot. As for the tree frogs, it looks like the female decided to leave the vicinity and travelled all the way to Hydromeda to sleep for the day. Now where was Snap? Perhaps he'd be emerging from wherever he was sleeping underground later on in the day. But speaking of emerging, checking up on the mantises, I could see from the drying pile that there was not much movement here now. Now was the time to introduce the mantises into our forest. I placed the container into the foliage of Orcadia and proceeded to remove the lid. I placed the paper towel lining onto the leaves nearby, and just like that, the mantises were in. At first, the mantises were bewildered and looked around like a society of aliens in a vast new world they had never before seen. If they weren't so visually inclined directly after their birth, they sure were now. They looked around in amazement, and even spotted a blue ant scurrying by. Oh the colours! It was incredible to watch them collect and process all this visual and sensual data around them. They were just so cute! Some began to drink from the puddles of fresh water collecting around the leaves of the canopy. Many crawled up to the very ends of the branches, again totally reminding me of weaver ants. Only these little guys could jump. I just couldn't wait for them to start finding prey in the forest. There were a tonne of little insects around for them to eat. It was then that an idea came to me. A crazy one. What if these newborn mantises had a taste for ants, specifically black crazy ants? Perhaps this was the natural solution we were looking for to help eradicate the Dark Horde? This was a long shot, AC Family, but I had a plan. I looked here at the paper towel. This was where we would be able to clearly see if my plan would work. I placed a pre-killed superworm onto the paper towel. My plan was to lure in some black crazy ants to this single area, where the mantises will be able to see them and hopefully go in for the kill. It only took a few moments before a black crazy ant appeared on the scene. The mantises were instantly zeroed in on the ant and visually followed it around. Whoa! Touched a mantis there, but the ant was lightening fast. It stopped to clean itself. All the ant knew was that it found the colony's next biggest meal. I don't even think it noticed the mantises. It began to move again, and the mantises were perked. Oh! One is going in for the kill! Oh! Go, go, go, go! Ah! The ant was just too fast, and the mantises too new at this. The ant decided it was time to call the Horde. One of the mantises leaned in and began to feed from the superworm guts. Bro, where did that black thing go? Yeah, I'm hungry! I'll go look for it! The black crazy ant headed straight for its colony, and my heart began to race. I really hoped this would work. The Dark Horde needed to be stopped, and these mantises to me were the perfect natural retaliation against the invasion. Soon, two black crazy ants came, then three, plus a red ant. The red ant enjoyed a taste of the superworm guts, and would soon be calling its colony to claim the prize, as well. This mantis tried to strike, but it seemed too apprehensive, and now the crazy ant entered crazy mode and began to do something totally unexpected. Before I knew it, all mantises had cleared the area. Oh man! They're fumigating the area with formic acid! The mantises with their sensitive exoskeletons were repelled and refused to get close. As more Dark Horde members arrived on the scene, I began to realize that I had better do something immediately to remove the superworm before the Horde arrives. I removed it and the paper towel. As the Dark Horde began to file in, I realized that I may have made a pretty grave mistake. The Dark Horde was on its way, and the mantises were everywhere. Before long, a swarm of hungry Dark Horde members were swarming the foliage, searching for the promised meal. In the ant world, they don't call the original scout a liar if the promised meal disappears, but they do still comb the area, just in case the meal had been moved somehow. Even red ants were now arriving through the Dark Horde stampede. Thankfully, the mantises stayed far from the swarm. As for the superworm, I decided to place it next to a red ant nest hole. I might as well give it to the good guys. A few minutes later, plenty of red ants were on the scene to claim the gift that fell from the skies, but I soon noticed Black Crazy Ants also arriving, and soon, it was a full-on battle for the superworm. At first, the Black Crazy Ants were outnumbered, but the strengths of the Black Crazy Ants are speed, quick arrival time, and overwhelming numbers, and soon, I watched as the Dark Horde began to slowly arrive in droves to claim their superworm, and the red ants could do nothing about it. The Dark Horde used formic acid spray to fend off the red ants, and the red ants, having stingers, could not get close enough to use them. In the ant world, missile weapons beat melee. The Dark Horde had won this local battle against the red ants, but now, their next target were the mantises. I noticed a jumping spider had managed to capture a mantis and was feeding. This is fine, the spider is native, but what wasn't fine, was the swarm of ants that had discovered the drying pile of mantises. No! This was free food. The mantises struggled to move, but were still soft. I went in with a stick. Some Black Crazy Ants had seized this mantis, and I went in to try to free it. Let it go! In desperation, I picked up the container and proceeded to brush away and squish as many Black Crazy Ants as I could. I then took the container and placed it into hydromeda where the few stray Black Crazy Ants would be harmless, without the rest of its colony who were way too far to cause any harm. The remaining mantises could now dry and emerge safely into hydromeda. I went into the driftwood with my probe camera. A huge mass of Dark Horde was here. Like a foreign alien, I infiltrated the Dark Horde's lair to spy on them. Tons of ants, queens, larvae, eggs, and even a seized red ant being held hostage. I also checked the other hole. Lots of ants here, too. It was time. A giant hand of the Creator of Worlds went in to suck up the Black Crazy Ants. Some might call this an unnatural ecological event, an act of saving grace that would never happen in nature, but after thinking about things, I realized that intervening like this is not only needed but is consistent with nature. You see, I was thinking about the purpose of human beings on the planet, and last night, it dawned on me. If we see planet Earth like a huge organism, a living and complex body, with every species, every life form on the planet having evolved a purpose towards the perpetuation of life, kind of like the individual cells of the body, then why did we humans evolve? Hominids with an intelligent brain capable of technological capabilities, why would planet Earth produce creatures like us? What is our purpose in her body? I then considered that perhaps the planet produced us, a species of immense brain and technological power, to be her personal agent of well-being, like a bodyguard or a doctor. If we see a threat or problem, it's our job to fix things and problem-solve using our highly advanced methods and technologies. The way I see it, maybe our evolution is one of planet Earth's greatest ecosystem events, where the planet produced a species to help protect and nurture the biosphere, using immense brain power and technology, and so I decided to fulfill my niche and purpose in the ecosystem, by going in with my vacuum, something I've done in the past to weaken the Dark Horde. I know the vacuuming won't completely eliminate the Dark Horde from the tank, but it helped weaken them in the past, and doing this will surely give our rainforest natives a chance to better compete with them. Later that day, I spotted the nomads, feasting on a dead cricket, no Dark Horde anywhere in sight. They had found the prize and successfully claimed it theirs, and lo and behold, a few days after that, the termites had returned to the Hallelujah tree stump to repair their tunnels and reclaim their stump, where trails of black crazy ants were once seen. This, to me, was a sign from our rainforest, that she was on the mend, and that the future was definitely looking great for all its creatures. As for Valentino, he continued to stay in this same spot for the first few days and nights. I guess he found this to be the most like his old home, but slowly and surely, I began to catch him wandering further from his comfort zone. He looked marvelous in the branches at night. He also was happy to explore the lower areas of the rainforest floor. I could tell he was warming up to his new kingdom. And then one morning, I spotted this! Talangias had fallen from above in Hydromeda, and beside it, skin! In fact, I could see the casted-off snake skin everywhere in Hydromeda. Valentino had been here, and I guess the humidity from the water truly helped the remaining skin flake off Valentino. I was thrilled to see this! It was awesome to know that Valentino managed to make his way all the way to Hydromeda in the night, but in the end, he always returned here, to his favourite spot to sleep. Based on his position, I could see he was completely at ease now, fast asleep in what has become his official bedroom, but not without some customization, of course. See the flattened plants? He killed them. Alright, Valentino, that's ok. And look, guys, with the old skin falling off now, you can now see his gorgeous blue dorsal line. See what I mean? What a pretty boy! I also felt like this new more natural home was a positive change, as I began to spot him doing things I've never seen him do before, like tail luring. Check it out! In the evening, he would wriggle the end of his tail, to mimic a wriggling worm in hopes to attract prey. How neat! I guess having all these creatures around him, has woken up some long-buried instincts. Over time, I monitored the larger animals. The female tree frog came back to Pandora and was moisturizing in the mist. Shortcake was still there getting fatter, and indeed, Snap also emerged to bask. Just as I suspected, Valentino didn't seem to want to eat them. See those heat pits under his lips? Those are infrared sensors for locating mostly warm-blooded animals. The micro squirrels and quails were more his jam, both of which were removed from our forest, but I had some really cool plans as to what Valentino will be eating, which I will get to in a bit. But speaking of Snap and removing animals from our forest, as is the rule in this project, all predators must be cycled out for sustainability purposes. AC Family, some of you might not like this, but Snap was a big girl now, and I decided that it was time to give her the ultimate gift to thank her for teaching us so much during her time with us. It was her turn to move on to her next home. Now she was born in our forest, so I couldn't release her into the wild like I did with her parents. Instead, I released her into my giant home aviary where she could live the rest of her life in a vast, naturalistically designed space, along with my songbirds and her old friends, the quails. I also felt Snap was the one who ate our last praying mantis we placed in, and I really wanted to give our new mantises a better shot at establishing, seeing as this was our fourth or fifth attempt now at introducing mantises into our forest, so moving Snap out only made sense. I've come to realize that I'm not just the observer of this rainforest world within glass, but indeed an inescapable and participating member of it. I still have to make some of the sometimes tough decisions along the way, to ensure our forest continues to thrive. I didn't mind this, of course, because after all, my love languages are acts of service and gifts, and love seems to be at the heart of every great event. Now as for what Valentino will be eating…