- You know, a lot of people ask me,
what are the weirdest animals
that we keep here at the Reptarium?
So I figured we'd just do a video
on the 10 weirdest animals that we have at the Reptarium.
And I tell you what, there is nothing more bizarre
than a legless lizard.
This guy is absolutely amazing. His name is Vlad,
he's a European glass lizard
or what they would call a legless lizard.
And yeah, it looks like a snake,
I've talked about it before,
really bizarre evolutionary type of thing
between snakes and lizards, right,
where, you know,
you basically see right in this area
is where the legs would normally have been.
And you could see right here at the end,
that's where it's vented,
so the rest of its tail is that way.
And sometimes they'll do this kind of, spinny thing,
almost like a rotisserie chicken or something like that.
That's their kind of defense mechanism.
And the way you'd really tell these guys between snakes
is a few different things.
Again, that length of the tail number one,
number two, these guys have the little ears,
you see, whoa, you see the little ears on there.
And of course they have eyelids and can blink.
We all know snakes can't blink, right?
They have that ocular cap on them instead of blinking.
And this guy is just so interesting.
So again, a lizard that looks like a snake
definitely makes the top number
when it comes to the most of the unusual animals
that we work with at the zoo.
And the second one I'm gonna show you, and by the way,
these are in no particular order,
not from like the weirdest to the, not weirdest,
all that stuff,
because, honestly, this is definitely bizarre, right?
This of course is, Chopstick,
the two-headed Red-eared Slider.
Now he's about a year and a half old,
they are about a year and a half old, I should say.
And they're absolutely amazing.
Now, polycephaly, two-headed animals, aren't super common.
And they typically don't do that well.
We did have a couple other two-headed turtles
over the years that didn't do that well,
finally, chops, which is doing good.
And once they reach this size,
they are pretty much bulletproof.
They're gonna live an entire life,
which is gonna be probably 25 to 30 years, right,
so Chops, which is gonna be around a while.
Absolutely amazing and wildly cool animals.
Of course, Frilled Dragons are unusual.
There's no doubt about it
because, of course, these big frillies here.
Now, of course, these guys are super tame,
and they really don't frill,
unless you actually put them in front of a Monitor Lizard,
and I'm gonna show you right now.
See he frills right up.
And that's his defense mechanism, right,
and, Elvis, is from the same area
that these guys are from, which is Indonesia.
So Elvis is actually a predator that would eat these guys,
especially when they're young.
So when he sees Elvis, he's just like, oh my gosh,
I'm gonna frill up really big,
look at him, he's opening his mouth and everything.
He's just like, oh, stay away.
And that's that defense mechanism,
making them such an unusual animal.
But the truth is if you get a captive-bred animal,
and you work with it,
like we work with these guys constantly,
they become super tame and really never flare up.
The only time they flare up, again,
is their around something that could potentially eat them,
right, they are absolutely wonderful animals,
and certainly unusual, heavily arboreal animals.
And although they look a little bit like a Bearded Dragon,
the truth is, these guys are from, like,
more tropical areas.
They like higher humidities, arboreal up in the trees.
Whereas Bearded Dragons obviously like it more arid
and they're typically towards the ground, right,
so although they look a lot like a Bearded Dragon,
they are certainly different.
And then, of course, there's these little monkeys here.
Literally monkeys.
They call these Monkey-tail Skinks,
because they have a prehensile tail.
These guys come from the Solomon Islands,
and a very interesting, bizarre, Skink.
I mean, just look at that face,
and just the mannerism, and they're very smart.
They're almost like the sloth of the reptile world.
Because you could see how they move,
they move very deliberate, and very slow.
Now, what's interesting about these guys is that number one,
they will pair for life, right,
so it's pretty cool.
Once a male and female mate,
they'll continue only mating with that animal.
They can actually form a family hierarchy,
which is pretty cool,
and they'll even live with other families.
And they only have one baby at a time.
And what's interesting in this kind of,
kind of family communal setting,
if for some reason they're away,
and the baby needs to be protected,
the other family will protect them,
Such an interesting animal.
And these guys love greens
and oh, oh, oh, oh my gosh,
sharp nail, sharp nail, sharp nail.
They have sharp nails because they climb really well.
And that one got me right in the webbing,
and it sure did hurt.
And they do have a pretty nasty bite too,
but they are unusual and awesome animals.
Michael.
- Hey, hey, our intervention, what's going on.
- We are.
So we have to confront you about some things.
What's the strangest animal in the Reptarium?
- Strangest animal in our Reptarium.
- The strangest animal.
(bell chimes)
- I know exactly that.
- From any and all liability.
Hi guys. Fancy seeing you here.
- I got a real one this time.
I think the Ackie monitor is the weirdest animal because of,
- Why?
- First of all, it's a true monitor species,
but it's so small.
He's just, he's so little,
he's a little chubby, we call him Cherry Bomber, Cherry Pop,
because he just pops up out of nowhere.
He's really, really fast,
pretty strong for a small little guy.
Well, his tail is kind of weird too,
because it's kind of like a Uromastyx.
So it's kind of got these sharp points
where your finger can't go one way,
but it'll go down and smooth like a knife,
like a bread knife.
People will make knives out of razor blades don't they?
- In prison.
- Oh, that's a shame. That's a little different.
- So, and you guys know
I wasn't gonna do an unusual animal video
and not talk about my guys, Ben and Jerry.
Of course, Ben, on this side, Jerry, on this side,
another form of polycephaly,
or conjoined twin, two-headed animals.
Much like Chopstick, but of course in snakes,
and for whatever reason,
there's a lot less snakes
that are successful in two-headed animals
than there are turtles.
Not that turtles are common
by any stretch of the imagination.
But two-headed snakes are even more uncommon.
Now less of them are produced,
and less them actually survive, unfortunately,
thankfully Ben and Jerry are four-and-a-half years old now.
And once they hit adult, much like Chopstick,
they typically live a full life.
So a lot of two-headed snakes that have made it this age,
have made it into their mid-twenties.
So with any luck,
we'll still have 20 years left with Ben and Jerry.
Such interesting animals.
And again, when people come into the Reptarium,
they always freak out about it.
They're like, there is no way there's two heads on this.
This is a California king snake.
So this head over here, right here in this Cal-king,
now it's worth maybe a hundred bucks.
The other head,
it's a pretty expensive head to be honest with you.
You know,
it's not that toads and frogs are that unusual,
although they are kind of weird
to be totally honest with you.
But this particular frog, Al, the Marine Toad from Suriname,
one of the largest geographical areas when it comes to the
Marine Toads, this is a pretty amazing animal.
And it certainly is unusual.
Because you would never think a toad,
that you might see in your backyard,
that's, like, this big
that you catch when you were a kid could get this big.
Up to two-pounds, I mean, he's just an absolute beauty.
Hey, Al, what are you doing buddy?
Just a crazy cool animal, absolutely usual.
And again, people freak out every time I take Al out.
And that's why he had to make the top 10
unusual animals here at the Reptarium.
And of course these little glands here,
are his secretion glands.
Now what happens, is a frog's defense mechanism
is the fact that if something's trying to eat it or debar it
it's gonna secrete this milky substance
that actually can kill the predators, right,
and if, one thing, if you take one little taste of that,
that predator is, like, no way, I'm not in.
We've all seen, like,
Gardener Snakes eating toads like this, right,
and they get up to here,
and they get at that milk and secretion in them,
and then they have to spit the toad out.
It's a great adaptation for defense,
when it comes to protecting the toad's life.
There's certainly no weirder animal,
and I never thought I'd own something like this,
Than, Brillo, the armadillo.
Of course he's the six-banded armadillo from South America.
These guys are, so, absolutely crazy.
Of course they're related to anteaters,
which isn't that different
because you can kind of see the face and that long tongue,
kind of looks like an anteater a little bit,
but they're also related to sloth's, believe it or not,
which is something that I think is really weird.
Now there's actually nine-banded armadillos
that come from the Southern part of this country.
And then there are the three-banded armadillos.
And then of course the six-banded armadillos.
These are the largest of all the armadillos,
getting up to 25 pounds.
Now, Brillo himself,
is actually only about four or five pounds.
So he's gonna get quite a bit bigger.
And he is just absolutely wonderful.
Look at that cute little face.
Like I said, I never thought in the world
that I'd ever own an armadillo.
And although it's not a reptile,
it certainly is up there
with some of the weirdest animals that we work with.
Well, you know, it is October, it's Halloween season,
and there are creepy crawlies about, that's right.
And, of course, this is a Brazilian Black Tarantula,
and you guys know that I used to be so freaked out
by tarantulas and bugs as a whole.
And now I really have fallen in love with them,
in particular, Black Beauty, here,
is one of my absolute favorite animals.
He's just cool. Right?
But they are definitely creepy.
And they're definitely unusual.
We have a bunch of different arachnids.
We have scorpions, we have tarantulas, we have cockroaches.
We have all kinds of really cool stuff,
but they are so unusual,
the way they move, the way they are.
But the truth is, is that if you're fearful,
and you're arachno-phobic,
I always tell people,
the thought of holding a tarantula, like Black Beauty,
is way worse than actually holding it.
Once you hold it, you're like, wow,
that's actually pretty cool.
It's so light. You can barely feel it.
It's like holding a cotton ball,
to be totally honest with you.
And it's just a wonderful animal.
And the more I learn about tarantulas,
the more I fall in love with them,
but they are definitely unusual little critters.
Hey, welcome back. Welcome back. I have a question for you.
- I did get kicked out of the casino in Vegas. That's true.
- I know, you're in a horrible spot.
So now that you're back, we have a question for you.
What's the strangest reptile at the zoo?
- Oooh, am I gonna have to tell you about it?
Because I know a really strange one,
but I don't really know anything about it.
- You can make it up.
- Follow me.
Let's go guys, right this way, come on guys.
All right guys.
This, I think, is the strangest animal we have.
Oh, why is he mad right now?
He actually has never tried to bite me and he just did.
- No he didn't.
- Yes he did, look at him.
What's wrong with him.
- You cornered him.
- Okay, we'll get him out for you, Mike.
- There you go.
- Now he's good?
- Yeah.
So this is, John, also known as Jonathan.
He's a vinegaroon.
Am I talking to the wrong camera?
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Okay.
So this is John. He's a vinegaroon.
Also known as a Whiptail Scorpion.
- The one from Harry Potter?
- I have never seen Harry Potter.
It's not like the one from Harry Potter though.
And it's just a really weird animal
because it looks like a scorpion, right?
But it's really a spider.
Well, it's called a vinegaroon
because they actually secrete the substance
that's some percent vinegar and some percent acid.
So to some small things like ants, worms,
maybe small roaches it's lethal.
Dead.
But to us, it's nothing.
It just makes your hands stink like, vinegar.
- I would say this one
actually falls into the not only unusual,
but absolutely adorable category.
Of course that's the hognose snake.
This is, Peppa, the hognose snake.
And that little tiny pug nose
is why these guys are called hog nose.
And I just think it's amazing.
Now they'll actually use that nose
to dig in dirt and actually burrow down
because these guys are completely groundhogs.
You're never going to see these guys up in the trees
or anything like that.
They are just so weird, and so cute.
And, of course,
one of their most interesting defense mechanisms,
is that as a baby, even in captive-bred,
some of them will actually flip over
and they'll actually stick their tongue out,
open their mouth and act like they're dead.
And they'll even secrete a little bit of musk.
It's a foul smell.
So that way, when a predator is coming up to try to eat it,
they flip over, they stick their tongue out.
They got this musky kind of almost dead smell to them.
And the preyer thinks, like, I don't want to eat that,
that some rotting flesh, I'm walking away.
And then of course,
when the predator goes away,
it goes right back up, and it's so cute to see it,
it doesn't happen that often.
But when we do see it, it's absolutely incredible.
So hog nose are definitely one of the most unusual snakes
we work with here at the Reptarium.
I picked this little monkey,
because I think his face is just so cute.
And they're just so weird.
This is an Egyptian Uromastyx.
And there's a bunch of things
that are interesting about these animals.
Not only the fact
that their face looks almost like a frog face,
but they also have this really spiky tail.
That's interesting,
because what they're gonna do in the wild
is they're gonna push themself into a crevice.
This is gonna kind of lock them in place with their claws,
and that way if a predator ever tries to pull them out,
they can't actually get out.
The other thing is,
this is the largest of the Uromastyx species,
getting up to 36 inches.
And what's really interesting about it
is you would think that this would be like a bug eater,
like all the other lizards that are like this,
but the truth is they're mainly vegetarians,
and believe it or not, they eat a lot of seeds in captivity.
So we'll actually keep them on a seed mix,
and they'll eat that seed bedding,
and we also give them lots of mixed veggies
and stuff like that.
It's just kind of weird, right,
because we wouldn't think an animal like this
would eat that, right?
Whoa, whoa, he's a little feisty monkey.
Literally,
these guys get up to 120 to 130 degrees in their cage.
So he is hot to the touch.
I mean, whoa,
it's almost like a nice little heat pack on you,
you know what I mean?
Absolutely wonderful animals.
And definitely certainly unusual.
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed
the top 10 most unusual reptiles and animals,
I guess, here at the Reptarium.
Let me know in the comments,
number one, which one you think is the most unusual,
and number two, did I miss something?
Should I put something else in here?
What is the top 10
weirdest animals in the world do you guys think?
I'd love to read you guys in the comments.
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Have an absolutely wonderful day reptile army.
Remember be kind to someone,
and I promise I'll see ya in the next one.