Winner of the most outstanding Tour guide at the Uganda Tourist Awards 2019, Holly olive Akello who loves being called snake girl is a wild life handler at the CTC Conservation center Uganda.
Akello has become very famous for her close relationships with animals. She has names for them and calls each one by its name.
This 23 year old is very passionate about her job, and despite the larger population of humans being very afraid of snakes, Akello enjoys spending time with snakes, as seen in her adopted nomenclature, Snake girl.
CTC conservation center Uganda, was founded in 2014. The center boasts lions, hyenas, crocodiles, bat-eared foxes, serval cats, African golden cats, African palm civets, snakes, tortoises, chameleons and iguanas. And all of these creatures are placed under the care of Akello.
“I don’t really let fear rule my life and I don’t live my life at that side of fear because I believe that we are supposed to really be free enough and able to freely interact with whatever we can interact with” she says.
“I am not afraid of wildlife because I think if you are able to understand them it becomes so easy for you to work with them and if you have the patience and passion to work with them it makes it so easy to handle wildlife.”
Akello The Snake Girl And Her Animals
According to Africanews.com, the conservation Center is home to some of the world’s deadliest beasts; kept away from most humans in cages and enclosures.
The lions, which were born in captivity in South Africa, were brought to Uganda 4 years ago.
But as with most of the animals the snake girl walks into their enclosure at ease then sits down and play s with them.
The animals can still be unpredictable however, and Akello bears scratch marks on her arms which she describes as; “beautiful” since she believes the animals don’t in tend to harm her.
Lunchtime can be particularly challenging. The lions do not entertain guests at their mealtimes… apart from Akello! After serving the wild cats their bowl of chicken she sits down and talks to them.
However she stresses that it’s essential you know what you’re doing before considering getting close to such creatures.
Checking her out on her Facebook page, where she Chronicles most of her activities, shows that this 23 year old, is fearless, brave, knowledgeable and interesting.