Dubai: UAE national Maher Abdulmajid Al-Merqab is making headlines on social media, displaying his rather unfamiliar, not to say strange hobby.
The 35-year-old Emirati featured in a series of photos which showed him so comfortable with a lizard perched on his face, cuddling a crocodile, putting a huge snake round his neck and holding another in his hands.
“I feel enormously happy and comfortable when I find myself living among snakes and other reptiles”, said Al-Merqab, who develop his strange his hobby since his tender age.
He admitted that his strange hobby has put him in a social dilemma, with members of his family, relatives and friends refusing his hobby of co-living with such dangerous animals at home.
“I first started my hobby in 2000 – that is when I was barely seventeen years old – as I was keen on watching animal documentary films and programmes”, he said.
He expanded his collection with passing years, to include other types of reptiles, spiders and scorpions, which annoyed his family.
Despite his family’s refused he decided to start working at Al-Ain zoo on finishing his high school studies – just to be among reptiles and other animals.
He said that his job is so stigmatized that people refuse even to shake hands with him or share meals with him becauses he touches snakes, spiders, scorpions and other species of reptiles.
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