- Today, we're down here in Virginia.
We're at the Virginia Zoo, meeting up with my friend Dennis.
We're gonna be having a good time.
I tell you what, this place is cool.
Never been here, and you guys know that I love zoos.
So what do you say we go in and have a great time?
And guys, I knew that
we were gonna see some really cool reptiles here,
but I didn't realize we were gonna see
this giant snake right here.
(laughing) That's right, we've made it guys,
the biggest snake in the world.
Well, okay.
Maybe it's not real, but hey, it's pretty darn cool.
So we're at the reptile exhibit,
which is the place that I'm gonna be at, for sure.
There's no doubt about it.
First snake I see when we come in,
of course, is my favorite.
The King Cobra, I mean, wow.
What an absolute beauty.
Love this place.
I mean, it really is cool.
So, I'm excited to see what else
we're gonna see while we're here.
This is a real pleasure.
Tell me a bunch about this,
because I don't know much about this.
This is certainly gonna be the only time,
probably, in my life that I'm gonna handle
this type of animal.
Wow, it's incredible.
- This is a Gray's Monitor.
They're a Philippine lizard, fruit eating monitor.
So they eat a lot of pandanus fruit.
Like, we offer her different figs.
We've actually just started offering Repashy,
which seems to be actually better for her.
We do papaya, but she also eats rodents and eats worms.
And so we just kind of vary it up.
She does fruit once a week.
She does bugs twice a week,
and then one mouse a week.
- Isn't it crazy to think that a monitor's,
that like one of its big diets is fruit?
I mean, it's crazy.
And this is like an animal that, again,
I've heard about forever.
I've never seen one in person
and certainly haven't held one.
So this is, this is unbelievable, guys.
- And this is an adult female.
The adult males are also called banjo lizards,
cause they're so big, and they look like banjos.
They look almost like water monitor size.
But for a lizard, if you feel, you could see it's got
a real prehensile tail, like,
it's made to be in trees.
And if you ever watch videos, you can find videos.
They jump onto these pandanus fruit groups,
of like, it's almost like clusters of grapes, but firmer.
And they just kind of like grab it.
They're super, just, super agile,
just a really neat animal,
but really reactive and really kind of crazy in some ways,
- Yeah. - But really pretty
and really different.
- Oh my gosh. I am in love, man.
I tell you what guys,
this has been a dream day for sure, man, I am loving it.
It's one of the rarest lizards
that I'll probably be ever holding in my entire life.
I love these Smallwood's Anolis, you know,
I've always said that the anoles,
the Anolis genus, is one of the most underrated things.
You know, it's got the Cuban Knight anoles.
You've got the carolinensis,
but you have tons of other ones.
Look at how beautiful these guys are.
I mean, there are dozens of species
of anolis that are incredible,
and people really don't really follow them.
Well, I think that they're absolutely incredible.
Look at how cool those things are.
And this is my buddy, Dennis.
Thank you so much for having us here.
- No problem. - It's amazing,
and you're saying this is one of your favorite snakes here.
- Yeah, this is probably my favorite snake
that we have in the whole place.
- Oh my gosh.
This is, of course, an annulated boa.
You guys see like the Amazon tree boas, cook's tree boas,
this is, like, a very similar animal to this,
but of course, they get a little bit bigger,
much more docile.
As you can see, this animal is puppy dog tame.
That thing is incredible.
And you have a couple of these?
- We have here probably like six of these?
- [Brian] Six of 'em.
- So we have, we have three females over there,
a male and two babies.
- [Brian] Oh, my god,
and you produce the babies? - Mmhm.
- Oh, my god, that is so incredible.
Just look at, it almost looks like a Brazilian rainbow boa,
but in an Amazon tree boa body.
What incredible animal that is.
- [Dennis] And they change color.
- [Brian] Yeah, yeah.
- So you'll come in sometimes, and she'll be like
a really light orange,
and then you'll come in other times,
she'll be almost like brownish.
It's weird how they can do that.
- Yeah, it's almost like a, again,
they do the firing up and firing down,
much like crested geckos and stuff like that,
which is crazy.
But she is definitely fired up right now
and looks beautiful.
One of the things I love about some AZA zoos,
including this one, is that they cohabitate some things.
So what they basically have,
is you have Amazon Basin emerald tree boas,
the annulated boas, and then down here,
you actually have dendrobates auratus,
which is actually the poison dart frogs.
And it's just cool to see those different layers, right?
You've got the frogs down below, annulated boas.
We know that the Amazon Basin emeralds
don't typically move much, so,
you know, you have the movement with the frogs down below,
and then you have these cool display animals up above.
It's something that I really want to maybe one day
incorporate into the repterra for sure.
It's cool, we actually have like a little nursery here
that's on exhibit, I really love this type thing.
You've got all the little babies and stuff like that.
I think we're gonna get a chance
to actually see some little baby shinisaurus,
which are really cool crocodile skinks from China.
Absolutely amazing.
Obviously, that giant kind of cement snake, we saw outside,
you guys know wasn't real.
We know that, obviously.
But this Ethiopian mountain viper
is actually similarly related to it,
which is just absolutely amazing.
Again, you know, the rhino vipers,
you know, gaboon vipers.
They all have that similar look.
Absolutely stunning.
And the Ethiopians are something
that you don't see very often,
a lot of rhinos and gaboons, obviously,
but these guys, you don't see too often.
So it's just an absolute ripper of a snake.
You guys know that I always talk about Mango getting bigger.
Well, this is how large the caiman lizards actually get.
And you notice, again, a very aquatic type of thing.
These guys like water, but they also like to climb.
So, when you're setting up an enclosure,
like I had mentioned,
this will eventually go into Salt and Pepper's enclosure.
But the difference is,
is we'll put all of these kinds of branches in there.
That way they can get up,
they can bask just like these guys are right here,
but also have the water down below to get in,
because they are aquatic lizards as well.
It just gives you an idea of the size
that Mango one day will get.
Back at you guys with Hello Fresh, my friends over there.
We're actually gonna be making pan pork stir fry tacos.
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- The Roti Island snake-necked turtles
that are in here are effectively extinct in the wild.
Babies of these guys will end up being
sent to the Bronx, they'll probably raise them for a while,
and then
they'll rerelease them. - That's awesome.
- [Dennis] That's one of the programs they're working on.
- That's great.
I couldn't be more impressed
with just the exhibits at this zoo.
It's just amazing.
At least, the reptile houses were phenomenal.
And this one is one that I would literally live in,
this is the Siamese crocodile exhibit.
And wow, just look at the size that that has,
it obviously has land, has nice, deep water,
the viewing is incredible.
I mean, plants hanging from the ceiling.
I mean, wow.
This is a dream that one day will come to reality
at my place, 'cause this is, this is phenomenal.
So you guys don't understand what a special moment this is.
I mean a Fiji island iguana.
You guys know I love iguanas, but these are really special,
because there are no private people
that own Fiji iguanas in America.
You can own 'em in Europe, and you can own 'em in Canada,
believe it or not.
But in the United States, it's illegal
to actually have them in captivity if you're not in AZA zoo.
So, the fact that we're able to actually interact
with a Fiji island iguana, I mean,
this is like pinnacle animal.
I mean, one day I pray,
just as much as I want to get a Komodo dragon,
I want to get Fiji island iguanas, so I mean,
just look at the color and pattern of these things.
I mean, un fricking believable,
and I'm in heaven right now, guys.
I mean, I've got a Fiji island iguana in my hands right now.
How frickin awesome is that?
Oh my god, those are so dope, man.
How old are these?
These are little African emperor scorpions.
- [Dennis] Ah, maybe like three months old.
- [Brian] Three months old.
Now you can't get 'em.
So I mean, it's amazing that you guys are breeding 'em.
- Yeah, so we keep them in a colony group of,
we started out with 3.3.
Last year, we let them
just take care of the babies themselves.
And then we found that our success rate was probably,
we probably only produced about 17 babies total
out of the three females.
And this year, we took the female
that was gravid and put her in here,
and we got 12 out of her on her own.
Two year old bog turtle.
- [Brian] Two year old bog turtle.
- If you see their head come out.
It's the smallest turtle in north America.
Wish her head would stick out,
'cause they have this bright yellow flashes
behind their ears that are really cool looking.
- [Brian] Beautiful turtle though.
Take a look at this cute little thing here.
This, of course, is a little crocodile skink.
This is the shinisaurus, absolutely amazing.
So you guys have been breeding these for a bit?
- [Dennis] Yeah, we actually produced his father as well as-
- [Brian] Oh, so this is the second generation.
- Yeah, so this is like
our third litter - One year old.
- That's beautiful, unbelievable.
Just really cool animals.
I mean, they're really something interesting.
So it's nice.
They used to be very common in the pet trade.
Now you hardly ever see 'em.
So it's really cool that zoos like this
are doing a lot of stuff
for the conservation effort, for sure.
This is cool.
- This one too, 'cause you have like,
boys have a lot more color. - Wow.
Look at the boy's color there,
and yeah, they're little feisty monkeys.
There's no doubt about it.
And you definitely, when you do get bit by these guys,
they love to hang on and not let go.
So we'll try not to let anyone get bit,
but wow, that was a beautiful shinisaurus.
Oh my gosh, look at this little basin here.
Unbelievable.
So this came from that big exhibit
we saw out there, right? - Yeah, yep.
- [Brian] Oh my goodness gracious.
- There's its older sister up there.
- Oh, gosh, whew!
I tell you what: Amazon basin emeralds,
you can't get much better than that.
I mean, I fell in love with emerald tree boas
when I was a kid,
that was before people talked about Amazon basins.
Really, when you saw an Amazon basin back then,
and I'm sure you remember this,
it was just considered like a highway emerald tree,
but it wasn't until a long time later that they realized
that it's actually a locality and completely different,
but wow, this is beautiful, dude.
- The scientific name's different and everything.
- [Brian] Yeah, exactly, it's crazy.
Look at this little Jamaican boa right here.
Unbelievable.
Wow, again,
another one of those animals that you just don't see a lot,
you know, and I just love 'em to death, wow.
Now, what's the genus on these?
They used to be epicrates, right?
- [Dennis] Chilabothrus.
- Yeah, chilabothrus, exactly, yeah.
So a lot of the tree boas, like the, you know,
Brazilians and Jamaicans and Cubans and stuff like that
used to all be in the same genus.
So it's ah, wow, just crazy cool.
Just cool to be handling stuff like this
that you really just never see.
And then, this is one of the babies of the annulated boas.
You saw that the difference between
that like nice, beautiful orange-colored animal,
and then this is just kind of a more grayish animal.
But still, absolutely lovely.
So this is what, about a year old?
- That's almost two,
- Almost two years old, wow.
Tell you what, annulated boas are next level.
I mean, they're super cool.
Something I definitely want to add.
There's no doubt about it,
because I love the Amazon tree boas,
but you know that they get a little bit feisty
and stuff like that.
These guys are just so much more chill
and so much more bigger.
- The terribilis are pretty much the largest
of the dart frogs.
They also are the most toxic, hence their name.
They say that the skin of one of those frogs
can kill 10 adult men
in the wild. - Really?
- Yeah, and so we have gold ones, as well as the green one,
but the gold ones are pretty spectacular.
- [Brian] The gold ones are amazing.
Oh my gosh, look at those.
- They're like metallic gold.
I think it's crazy
to see the difference. - Wow.
- But yeah, they're, they're both pretty fantastic.
And they're probably the best of the dart frogs to show,
them and auratus, just because
they're always out. - Yeah, right, yeah.
- Like, they really could care less about anything else.
They're just always out hanging out.
- [Brian] It's pretty cool that you also have
four different species of the tree monitors,
right? - Right.
- [Brian] So you have, which ones?
Blacks greens, blues and yellows.
- Yep. - And that's awesome.
Have you had success with breeding these at all, or?
- We get eggs out of the greens,
but they like to eat their own eggs
before they even
get out of the nest box. - Really? (laughing)
- So we've not actually, we have a pair of blacks,
but the male black we have
is a little bit too much for the girl,
so we had them together, then we separate them.
The blues we have seem to get along really well,
but we've not had any breeding activity from them yet.
- But it's just cool to see all of those four,
kind of on exhibit right next to each other.
You can go from like cage to cage to cage to cage,
it's really cool, so again, wild, wild exhibit.
So that wraps up the reptile house here.
We're gonna go check on some giant tortoises.
Just kind of walking around zoos always makes me happy.
I could spend every day of my life at a zoo.
I'm not gonna lie to you, I just love it.
I love the big African porcupine,
which are absolutely incredible.
I mean, look at how big that porcupine is,
and I've got a couple quills of these guys
in my office, as a matter of fact.
And they're usually relatively chill,
to be totally honest with you.
A lot of people think that porcupines throw their quills,
and they'll actually shoot them,
and it's not the case at all.
What these guys will do when they're mad
is they'll puff up their quills,
and they'll actually back up into you,
and they'll actually stick 'em with you.
And that's how you get stuck with quills.
But typically, these guys are pretty chill,
as long as you don't find them in the wild,
then it's a different story.
But in zoos, they're usually pretty good to work with.
Take a look at this monster right here, unbelievable.
It's over 500 pounds, about 88 years old.
This is the biggest of their aldabra tortoise.
They have a bunch of females over here.
A couple males also, but this little monkey here,
I just cannot wait until Matilda gets giant,
you know, I mean, she's already big.
She's as big as most of these guys over here.
But I tell you what, this is just absolutely incredible.
It's always just,
it's very humbling to me,
whenever you're around an animal this size,
and an animal that can literally live 200, 250 years.
So again, the longest living land animal in the world.
I mean, it's just, it's unreal to me
that for hundreds of millions of years,
these animals have been around.
And it's just, again, if you're not humbled
sitting next to something like this,
there's something that's wrong with you,
because that is one absolutely amazing experience.
Look at the size of its head.
Just think what this animal will have seen
when it gets to an old age.
Absolutely incredible.
Hey, might be on Mars with Elon Musk.
What an absolutely amazing day at the zoo.
I tell you what, I love zoo so much.
I hope that you guys enjoyed it.
I think we have one more day down here
before we actually head back home.
So who knows what tomorrow will bring?
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Have an absolutely wonderful day, Reptile Army.
Remember, be kind to someone,
and I promise, I'll see you in the next one.