'Nothing but Crickets' shows love to Black Pine animals

For $5 each, donors buy crickets for the residents in the Reptile and Primates habitats. The donor names each cricket after someone who deserves a little pay-back.

On Valentine’s Day, donors can watch live on Facebook as their nemesis namesake is fed live to the lizards in the reptile house or to the kinkajous in the primate house.

To buy crickets, go to Black Pine’s website, https://www.bpsanctuary.org/donate/. Click on the button to Buy a Cricket, choose General Fund and name the cricket in the notes section. Another option is to click on the PayPal link on the same page.

Guest services manager Becky Graves said that response has been good so far. The “Cricket Love” event in 2022 raised $1,000.

“Black Pine Animal Sanctuary has done this in the past, as well as other sanctuaries and zoos,” she said. “It’s who you want to be fed to a reptile.”

The money goes to support the captive-raised exotic animals who will live at the sanctuary “for the rest of their lives.” Graves said many of the animals start out as pets in a home, even they are wild animals. They come to the sanctuary when their owners get tired of feeding and caring for them, grow too large, or exhibit natural behaviors that can’t work in a home.

“A tortoise can live 80 to 100 years,” Graves said. “People don’t think about how long that is. Our serval cats were all from private owners. One owner added a family member and the serval turned on them.”

Celebrities who go on social media to sensationalize their exotic animals also contribute to the misconception that exotic animals are good pets. Exotic animals require temperature and humidity controls in their environment, and need special food to meet nutrition and hydration needs.

“They are never going to be tame,” Graves said.

Some of the consumers for “Cricket Love” are in the reptile house. Beardy the Bearded Dragon is about 7 years old and has been at the sanctuary since 2016. He was a pet.

“Bearded dragons are the most common pet of the exotic lizards,” Graves said. “Beardy loves to be misted.”

Beardy eats one or two crickets at a meal. The leopard geckos in a nearby enclosure have ravenous appetites, eating up to five crickets at a meal.

Trish Nichols, the sanctuary’s executive director, said the depressed economy in 2022 and the reduced income in the winter are the most difficult times for the non-profit organization.

Nichols said details about the 2023 events will be released soon. The sanctuary board is already at work with strategic planning for finishing the lion habitat, rebuilding the tiger habitat, and future upgrades for the Tortoise and Reptile House.