It's easy to see where Alex Petridis' passions lie.

He's sitting at his family's dining room table with a small, Colombian red-tail boa constrictor wrapped around his hand, a typical sight in his home. Behind him is a picture of his hero, the late Steve Irwin, holding a crocodile, and in the living room, an iguana named Iggy sunbathes in warm artificial light.

	Video: Wildlife champion Alex Petridis Accompany high school senior Alex Petridis on a trip through Wolf Creek Narrows in search of salamanders. Click photo for larger image.

Iggy is one of many reptiles the 18-year-old senior at Slippery Rock Area High School has adopted as part of Tasow, an acronym that stands for The Awesome Spirit of Wildlife, a nonprofit organization he founded in 2003. He also has toads, snakes, turtles and lizards living in the refuge that occupies the family room in his home in Worth.

Tasow, which has five members, mostly students from Slippery Rock Area High School, has three functions.

It offers reptile rescue and rehabilitation, with members of the group taking in discarded reptiles or animals injured in the wild. In some cases, they care for the animals and release them back into the wild. In other cases, they find homes for them.

The group also offers interactive education, in which members travel to schools and functions, reptiles in tow.

To reach a larger audience, Tasow also produces wildlife movies. Its first DVD explores the Wolf Creek Narrows, an 125-acre wildlife area near Slippery Rock.

In the movie, Alex leads viewers through the streams and trails of the area and showcases some of the interesting creatures that live there.

He chose Wolf Creek for a couple of reasons.

"It's the one natural area around here that people don't think of too much," he said.

With Slippery Rock Creek, Lake Arthur and Moraine State Park just a stone's throw away, Wolf Creek can be overlooked.

But its size is another reason to focus on the diminutive park, Alex said.

"The small things tell you everything you need to know about the big things," he said. That rings true in the movie, when the crew discovers a tiny spring salamander. The amphibian is referred to as an indicator species, meaning its presence ensures the water is clean. In the movie, Alex is shown discovering one of the salamanders at the top of a spring. Obviously thrilled to see the pink creature, he gently picks it and declares it "one of the most important treasures in the Northeast."

The next DVD project takes the team to Cooperstown, N.Y., where they will film in the Susquehanna River Basin, hoping to show the largest salamander in the United States, called the hellbender, which can grow to more than 2 feet.

Each of the members chip in to fund Tasow projects.

	Post-Gazette Iggy, an iguana, spends time with Alex Petridis, who runs a reptile rescue from his Butler County home as part of a wildlife group he founded. Iggy is one of the reptiles Alex has saved. Click photo for larger image.

Alex has been interested in reptiles and amphibians since he was a child, and he hopes his movies will bring an awareness to these animals to promote conservation.

"We've seen a decline in the species we've studied. Due to global warming and viruses, one of the major problems is loss of habitat," he said.

He knows the answer to protecting the animals will come from the children he visits at schools and camps. "We felt like we had to educate the youth because they're the future heirs of the planet," he said.

"We have a team of reptiles that let the children interact with them. The animals do the educating, we're there to speak for the animals," he said.

He summarized the message he wants to send to children from the creatures: "If you see me in the wild, you don't have to kill me or pick me up or take me home. Just leave me alone. You can watch me."

For more information about Tasow, go to www.tasowfilms.com/index.php.