Former Fremonter provides education about reptiles

She talks about the beautiful colors of a ball python and having one, named Dorian, curl up on the couch with her and fall asleep while she’s watching television. She appreciates the uniqueness of the colorful sailfin dragon, which can run across the surface of water.

“There’s nothing else that looks like them (sailfin dragons) on the planet,” the former Fremonter said.

A reptile keeper at Henry Doorly Zoo, Martinez also has her own business, Snakes on a Plain. She breeds reptiles in captivity as pets to help keep them from be taken out of the wild—possibly harming eco systems—and imported to the United States.

In October, she plans to provide reptile education during a community event at Care Corps’ LifeHouse in Fremont.

Martinez said her interest in reptiles probably began with her desire to work with dinosaurs when she was a little girl. That evolved into working with reptiles or, as she calls them, living dinosaurs.

“My parents are really good about not fearmongering or rubbing their fears off on us (she and her sister, Kelsey),” Martinez added.

While her mother, Erica, is a little uneasy around snakes, she’d let her daughters catch a garter snake, keep it outside for a couple days and then release it.

“She didn’t really show any of her uneasiness, which I think really helped me not be afraid of reptiles—like I know a lot of people are,” Martinez said. “We kept a bunch of different kinds of pets from salamanders and newts to your typical dogs and cats.”

Martinez highlights the reptiles’ positive aspects.

“I think they have an amazing beauty that I think a lot of people don’t see, because they’re more concerned about the animal potentially harming them,” Martinez said.

Martinez works to form a trust with the reptiles.

“They’re the most forgiving animals I’ve ever worked with,” Martinez said. “They’re extremely tolerant.”

From a reptile’s perspective, a human holding it is a giant predator, which could potentially hurt it at any time.

“Yet they let us restrain them, touch them, hold them maybe in uncomfortable positions for a little bit of time,” Martinez said. “They don’t get overstimulated quickly. From my experience, they’re much less likely to lash out than cats.”

Martinez enjoys forming a bond and nurturing reptiles, seeing them go from being uneasy and even fearful to trusting and, in some cases, seeking out attention from humans.

After graduating from Fremont High School in 2013, Martinez studied biology at Midland University for a year. She then transferred to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she’s in the fisheries and wildlife program with an emphasis in zoo animal care and conservation biology.

She’s attended UNL for several years and continues to take a class or two per semester.

Two years ago, Martinez began working in the reptile department in the Desert Dome and Kingdoms of the Night at the Omaha zoo.

“It’s an incredible experience to work at the best zoo in the country, if not the world,” she said.

The job provides an opportunity for her to work with species she wouldn’t be able to work with anywhere else and to educate visitors.

Martinez said she gets lots of experience at the zoo, where she feeds the reptiles and amphibians. She cleans cages and helps train the animals.

“We don’t want to force them to do something—like in the ‘Crocodile Hunter’ you’ll see (the late) Steve Irwin jump on the back of a crocodile and tie its mouth shut,” she said. “We try to refrain from restraining them and we try to give our animals the option to perform a task or voluntarily put themselves in a position where we can administer medicine or give them a checkup or draw blood—so we can safely do that.”

A veterinarian will draw the blood, but trainers need to make sure the animal is in a safe area so it doesn’t hurt the vet, the trainers or itself.

Trainings might include using a target like a ball on a stick and asking the animal to follow that target to a specific location or position.

“We do this a lot with our larger Monitor lizards and our crocodilians,” she said.

Crocodilians are animals like crocodiles, alligators and caimans, which are similar to alligators.

“We also vocally call out and say ‘touch,’ before we lay hands on them, because we don’t want them to be surprised,” she said.

Martinez added that trainers must be cautious when working with these animals, but each one has its own personality.

“Once you get to know their personalities and their mannerisms, it’s a lot easier to have these interactions with them,” Martinez said, adding, “I’m still getting to know all of our alligators.”

The length of time it takes to know animals depends on how often a trainer works with them.

“It’s one of the more exciting things I get to do is helping train the crocodilians,” she said, adding, “Almost every animal at the zoo has some form of training.”

One thing she tries to do whenever possible is educate zoo guests. Keepers provide talks with an ambassador animal. Martinez usually does this with a snake, turtle or tortoise.

Around 2016, Martinez started her Snakes on the Plain business, breeding and selling exotic reptiles – pythons, dwarf boa constrictors, viper boas and sailfin dragons.

The business began after she got her first ball python, a male named Dorian.

“I fell in love with him and so I started getting more and I was amazed by all the different patterns and colors that, specifically, ball pythons could come in,” she said.

Martinez said Dorian has curled up around her arm while she’s studying or fallen asleep on couch while she’s watching TV. She doesn’t worry about him biting her. He’s never tried.

“Ball pythons, specifically, are absolute sweethearts and he’s no exception,” Martinez said, adding that many say they have a puppy dog face. “He’s a really good, relaxed companion.”

Because of their temperament, patterns and colors, ball pythons are popular pets.

“Ball pythons are renowned to be very docile,” Martinez said. “They’re called ball pythons, because instead of biting, most of the time they roll up in a ball when they get scared.”

Martinez said she’s working toward producing Sonoran boas, a breed of dwarf boas, which stay relatively small compared to common boas. They’re more active and inquisitive than ball pythons.

Viper boas are a species of dwarf boa and nonvenomous. They evolve to look like the venomous death adder to fool predators into not eating them, she said.

Sailfin dragons are Martinez’s favorite reptile species. They are five species and the largest lizards related to iguanas. Some sailfins get over 5 feet long. They can have all types of colors from mottled black, green and cyan to jet black with gold speckles. Males have a big fin on their tail.

“They extremely personable—if raised right – and they become part of the family,” Martinez said. “They will do little head bob dances to try to communicate with you. In my experience, it’s one of the only reptiles I feel like, most of the time, they genuinely enjoy being around humans. They’re not just being tolerant, it’s enjoyment.”

Martinez likes to breed Sonoran and viper boas and sailfin dragons to help slow the importation of these wild-caught animals. Also, if these animals begin having trouble in the wild, there’s a separate population in captivity whose offspring potentially could be released into the wild in the future.

She hopes to conserve these animals and inspire others to do the same.

Martinez wants to continue educating people about them adding: “That’s one of my favorite things.”