And yet even major zoos display cornsnakes, ball pythons and kingsnakes... Depending on the country and the store, some pet shops also sell large python / anaconda species as well as venomous snakes.
I think people are often fond of tortoises and turtles, including oddities such as the Fly River turtle. Lizards are a mixed bunch, but many people seem to like geckos (perhaps having met them on holiday) and tiny, brightly coloured day geckos attract attention, and then chameleons are always interesting too.
Bearded lizards and green iguanas are quite popular as well, given their numbers in the international exotic pet trade...
As a reptile enthusiast, most of my zoo visits are actually based on the zoos reptile collection and there are very few zoos with decent reptile collections in the UK at the moment which is disappointing. I'm sure not many people go to zoos for the reptiles but I know that lots of people consider them a highlight of a zoo visit because of how diverse and interesting reptiles really are.
I certainly agree the public don’t go to zoos just to see reptiles, although it is a major part of the experience. Small pythons and corn snakes are normally education exhibits, I wouldn’t like to use a mamba or cobra for education purposes, lol. I wasn’t aware you could keep a dangerous snake in a private collection and wasn’t aware of Hamm and Houlten.
In the UK, you must have a Dangerous Wild Animal licence to keep any dangerous animal as a private person. DEFRA publishes a list of the species covered by the Dangerous Wild Animals Act.
I am not surprised you need a Dangerous Wild Animal Licence. I also imagine there are al to more compulsory conditions to be met too. I also would guess DEFRA are very strict who gets a licence and not any Joe Bloggs could get one, for obvious reasons. Can we view the DEFRA applications to see who has what and where?
The licences are issued by local councils, following the guidelines set by DEFRA, so councils' websites may have some information, but there is not much information available nationally. The latest national survey was conducted by the Born Free people (good friend of ZooChat of course ) EXOTIC PETS ON THE RISE IN BRITAIN
This might not exactly be what you are looking for, but it gives you a rough idea of the distribution: With 5 different types of viper London borough with most dangerous pets in city
I visited a few days ago (05/08/21) and made a species list of the reptile house, as i thought quite a few people on here would be interested. On the inside 'island' going anticlockwise: Black-headed python, Mindanao water monitor, Jamaican boa, Dumeril's boa, Reticulated python, Rio Fuerte beaded lizard, Jungle carpet python, Emerald tree boa, Inland taipan, Educational display: UV lizard, Exhibit empty, Sidewinder, Pueblan milksnake, Black-headed python, Black-headed python (not a typo), Greek spur-thigh tortoise, Western diamondback rattlesnake, Educational display: turtle nests, Gidgee spiny-tailed skink, Educational display: anti-venom, Central American bushmaster On the outside (again anticlockwise): Roti Island snake-necked turtle, Black spotted turtle, Educational display: turtle shells, Big headed turtle, Lau banded iguana, Corn snake, Gidgee spiny-tailed skink, Tokay gecko, Tokay gecko (not a typo), Turquoise dwarf gecko, Spiny hill turtle, Fiji banded iguana, Chinese crocodile lizard, Emerald monitor, Blue tree monitor, Round Island skink, Caiman lizard, Roti Island snake-necked turtle, Philippine crocodile, Gila monster, Chinese giant salamander, Dumeril's salamander, Emerald spotted newt, Aquatic caecillian, Blue poison dart frog, Emerald tree boa, White's tree frog, African bullfrog, Lake Oku clawed frog, Exhibit boarded over, Tadpoles, Sardinian brook salamander, Various semi-offshow exhibits. Tadpoles: Mallorcan midwife toad, Common midwife toad, Iberian midwife toad Also, there was a small terrarium built into the side of the aquarium building, past the toilets, that housed two species of caecillian (one of which was congo, can't remember the other) If visiting in the summer holidays, i would advise going as soon as the zoo opens, or do what i did and go at around 5:30, at which point there was only me and one other person in there! Hope this was helpful to some and not too long to read
I'd add to this advice that if you want to see all of the mentioned species, you better hurry, as two might leave soon...
That is a really nice collection. It's going to be really disappointing when the collection is downsized but we can hope that as many species are moved into other UK zoos as possible. Personally I'd love to see Twycross zoo build a reptile house as their current reptile collection has to be one of the worst in the UK for a zoo of their size.
ZTL lists the reptile collection at Twycross as: African spurred tortoise, Horsfield's tortoise, leopard tortoise, pancake tortoise, Aldabra giant tortoise, Bell's hingeback tortoise, European pond turtle, red-eared slider Central bearded dragon, Chinese crocodile lizard, Sahara mastigure Boa constrictor, corn snake Surprisingly, Twycross has more species of tortoises (6) than of lizards (3) and snakes (2) combined
The bearded dragons, Spiny-tailed lizards (mastigure) and 4 of their tortoise species were in the explorer zone which has closed while the zoo develop it into a new area so whether any of the specieseill still be at the zoo afterwards I don't know.
Getting back to London, the new reptile/amphibian house looks great, it's just a shame they couldn't squeeze a few more enclosures out of new space. The old reptile house could make a decent new aquarium if the structure was up for it and they had the funds!
I see the Vietnamese Mossy Frogs are now gone and replaced with an Emerald Python, which is a duplicate display of the ones opposite the crocodile.
For the reptile fans in London / the UK: as mentioned above in August, I'd recommend a visit early this week, as some animals are going to leave the UK soon for good. *wink*
I can remember visiting the zoo as a kid and when I was a volunteer there in the early 1980’s that the reptile house was full, both with exhibits and visitors. The exhibits all seemed to be well crafted and filled/arranged to meet the herps requirements including the one that was part of the outside wall (terrapins of some description). I seem to remember Mississippi alligators too.
