Posting by Caroline Seitz

Jennifer and I had a great time visiting with some old friends and colleagues at the National Zoological Park (NZP) in Washington DC.

First, we went to see the legendary Janis Gerrits, Senior Keeper at the Reptile Discovery Center (RDC).  Janis is a former Reptiles Alive keeper who left us in 2003 to join the NZP team.   The Zoo is very lucky to have Janis – she is a top notch reptile keeper.  She has an amazing ability to know an animal’s needs.

Here she is demonstrating target training with a monitor lizard.

Why bother training a monitor lizard at a zoo?

Monitors are very intelligent animals that need something to do.  By training an animal at the zoo, it makes their life more comfortable and interesting.  The monitor in this video has become at pro at target training thanks to Janis’s expertise in training reptiles.

Speaking of monitor lizards, we couldn’t visit the zoo without saying hello to Murphy the Komodo Dragon!

What a handsome lizard he is, and big!  I was amazed as how calm he was around Janis.  (You can see Murphy’s head behind the glass of this picture of  Janis.)

Komodo dragon

We were very impressed with what Janis has accomplished at the National Zoo.  The animals were all healthy and their enclosures were super clean and well designed.  The enclosures had real live plants in them and very cool rock work.  The animals all had nice comfy places to hide while allowing the public to still see them.

Iguana eats a yummie lunch

After spending the morning hanging out with Janis and all the awesome animals at the RDC, we headed down to the Bird House to meet up with the renowned former Reptiles Alive Wildlife Educator and Keeper – Reade Harbitter.

Reade at the NZP Bird House

Reade left Reptiles Alive to become a full time Bird Keeper at NZP about 2 years ago.  Although we specialize in reptiles, both me and Jen love birds too.  She introduced us to some of her favorite feathered friends, including a toucan, some rheas, and lots of other exotic and strange birds.

As we were leaving the zoo, a car pulling out of the parking lot started honking.  I looked over and saw my friend and colleague Debbie Grupenhoff!  Debbie and I used to work together at the Reston Animal Park way, way back.  I had not seen her in years and I was so surprised!  Debbie said she is now working at the zoo’s commissary.  That is so cool – a professional chef for the animals!

What a fantastic day we had.  Thank you Janis and Reade for the tours.

The zoo is a great way to get close to nature in the big city.  Tell us about your trip to the zoo!

Eastern Glass Lizard or Legless Lizard

Ophisaurus ventralis

Show Name: “Ophisaurus”

Hissstory: Zoo Transfer.

eastern glass lizard

Zoo Diet: Ophisaurus munches on crickets, roaches, earthworms, and superworms.

Natural Diet: Glass lizards enjoy insects, larvae, spiders, arthropods, small snakes and lizards. They especially love grasshoppers.

Size: Legless Lizards can grow 24 – 36 inches long.

Range: Southeastern United States as far north as southeastern Virginia.

Habitat: Legless lizards like to hide in sandy soil in pine forests and hard wood pine mix forests.

Lifespan: These small lizards can live over 10 years.

Reproduction: A female will lay 8-17 eggs from June to August. She will coil around the eggs, but not protect them. They will take two months to hatch.

Conservation: Virginia classified the Eastern Glass Lizard as an “Endangered Species.” They are only found in one small part of Virginia and require special protection.

Cool Facts: The Eastern Glass Lizard is a lizard – not a snake! This lizard has no legs, but does have eyelids and ears that snakes do not have. This lizard also has the ability to detach its long tail in case of attack. The tail will re-generate as long as the lizard finds food and stays healthy.

Green Iguana

Iguana iguana

Show Names: “Godzilla” and “Carlos Santana”

Hisstory: Carlos was originally an unwanted pet. Godzilla aka Fritz is leasing a room with us as his owner, our curator Jennifer, feels he has better lodging at Reptiles Alive for the moment.

Zoo Diet: Huge variety of greens, fruit, grasses, commercial diet, and veggies.

Natural Diet: Leaves, flowers, and fruit.

Range: Central and South America. Introduced into Florida.

Habitat: In the trees of the lower levels of the rain forest canopy.

Size: These huge lizards grow 5-7 feet long from nose to tail and can weigh up to 18 pounds.

Lifespan: Often lives over 20 years.

Reproduction: A female will lay 12-40 eggs buried in the forest floor.The eggs take 90-120 days to incubate. Babies spend the first part of their life near the rain forest floor and under story. They will climb up to the canopy as they grow bigger.

Conservation: Loss of habitat, hunted as food, and the pet trade.

You should know: Iguanas are commonly kept as pets, most iguanas either die from improper conditions or are abandoned when they get large. Many pet stores buy animals bred in “puppy mill” conditions, and sell them for low prices to unsuspecting buyers and without the proper equipment. (Proper iguana housing costs over 500 dollars.) Iguanas have sharp teeth, a strong bite, sharp claws, and do NOT make good pets, especially for children. Thousands are euthanized annualy because proper homes cannot be found for them.

Cool Facts: Iguanas have a big flap of skin under their chin called a dewlap. The lizards communicate to each other by opening their dewlap and bobbing their head up and down. When threatened, iguanas can whip their spiky tail like a dinosaur. If that doesn’t work, they will leap out of the tall trees and dive into a river below. Iguanas are fantastic swimmers.

Leopard Gecko

Eublepharis macularis

Show Name: “Larry”

Hisssstory: Larry came to live at Reptiles Alive in April of 2004.  He was already about 5 years old when his owner decided he didn’t want a gecko as a pet anymore.

Zoo Diet: Larry loves crickets and meal worms.

Natural Diet: In the wild, leopard geckos will eat just about any moving creature that is smaller than themselves, including: insects, spiders, snails, and scorpions.

Range: Northwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India.

Habitat: Leopard geckos live in some of the hottest, driest deserts on earth, so they spend much of their time in cool underground burrows.

Size: Leopard geckos can grow 6 to 8 inches long.

Lifespan: Leopard geckos can live 10-20 years or more.

Reproduction: Mating takes place during the rainy season. A female will lay two eggs at a time, but can lay several clutches a year. She can even store sperm from one mating for later.

Cool Facts: Leopard geckos store fat in their tail so they can survive for months without food or water.  Camels, another desert creature that stores fat (in their hump), have a similar survival strategy.

Nile Monitor

Varanus niloticus

Show Name: “Logan”

Hissstory: On September 2, 2000, a person having breakfast looked out their window and saw a “Komodo Dragon” hanging on their bird feeder.  He called the Wildlife Center of Virginia and explained the situation.  The Wildlife Center was able to capture the dragon, which turned out to be an escaped or abandoned African Nile monitor lizard.  The Wildlife Center called us, and we agreed to provide the monitor lizard with a home.

Zoo Diet: Logan loves to eat dead mice, roaches, crickets, and sometimes, cooked chicken eggs.

Natural Diet: These huge, carnivorous lizards eat just about anything!  Insects, eggs (including crocodile eggs), snakes, rodents, other lizards, birds, and even baby crocodiles can all be dinner for a Nile monitor lizards.

Range: Most of Africa including northern Egypt to Sudan and south to South Africa.

Habitat: If there is a river or lake or other water source, and you are in Africa, you are probably in Nile monitor habitat.

Size: Nile monitors are one of the largest lizards in the world.  They can grow 5-7 feet long. The record is 8 feet long.

Life span: Monitors can live over 20 years.

Reproduction: Nile monitors lay 10-60 eggs in a nest they dug in the ground. They especially like making nests inside of termite mounds. The eggs will incubate around 9-10 months. When they hatch, Baby monitors are only 6-8 inches long, but they will grow to 20 inches in a year.

Conservation: Threats include habitat loss,  and poaching for bush meat and the skin trade. Nile monitors are protected under CITES Appendix II.

There are several large populations of these lizards throughout Florida. People illegally released them into the wild after they were no longer wanted as pets. Nile monitors eat nearly any animal, making them a threat to native American wildlife. There are no natural predators for them in the United States. Current evidence suggests that total eradication of this species from Florida is no longer feasible and the population may be spreading!

Cool Facts: Scientists have found out recently that female Nile monitors often come back to their nests when the babies are beginning to hatch. She will help the babies by gently digging the eggs and hatchlings out of the ground.

Sudan Plated Lizard

Gerrhosaurus major

Show Name: “Major Gary”

Hisssstory: We rescued Major Gary in September 2001 when he became unwanted by his owner.

Zoo Diet: Gary devours crickets, mealworms, superworms, roaches, earthworms, greens, vegetables, and fruit.

Natural Diet: Wild plated’s love insects, especially termites, and vegetation.

Range: Africa

Habitat: Semi-arid grasslands around rock piles and especially in and around termite mounds.

Size: Grows 16 to 28 inches.

Lifespan: Plated lizards can live over 20 years.

Reproduction: Plated lizards lay 2-6 eggs that hatch in three to four months. They will often lay eggs in termite mounds where the temperature stays around 85 degrees.

Conservation: Plated lizards are often captured in the wild and then sold as pets, and sadly, most wild pets do not survive.

Cool Facts: Plated lizards are covered in large scales called osteoderms - scales that have bone in them.  Crocodiles and alligators have similar scales.  Osteoderms protect them from the harsh environment and enemies, kind of like a knight wearing armor.  Plated lizards also have huge ears. Can you seem them in the picture above?

Prehensile Tail Skink, Solomon Island Skink, or Monkey Tail Skink

Corucia zebrata

Show Name: “Mortimer”

Hissstory: Mortimer belonged to a former Reptiles Alive animal keeper who left for another job and left Morty here  in May 2002.

Zoo Diet: Greens, vegetables, and fruit.

Natural Diet: New leaves, epiphytes, blossoms, and fruit.

Range: Solomon Islands near Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Habitat: The canopy of old-growth tropical rainforest.

Size: Prehensile tailed skinks are one of the largest skink species in the world!  They can grow 18-24 inches long, most of which is tail.

Lifespan: Prehensile tailed skinks can live over 25 years.

Reproduction: Unlike most lizards, prehensile tailed skinks bear live young and even care for their babies!  They become very protective of the one or two large baby skinks for about a year after giving birth.

Conservation: Prehensile tailed skinks are sometimes eaten by indigenous people, but their biggest problems are the pet trade and habitat destruction.  They are now listed as CITES Appendix II and are  no longer legally imported for the pet trade.

Cool Facts: Prehensile tailed skinks are nocturnal – they come out at night and sleep in the day.  Because of their funny faces and nightime habits, they are sometimes referred to as “Island Gnomes” or ghosts, by the people who live in the Solomon Islands.

Schneider’s Skink

Novoeumeces schneideri

Show Name: “Schneider”

Hissstory: Schneider came to live at Reptiles Alive on June 23, 2003 as an unwanted pet.

Zoo Diet: Schneider LOVES to eat superworms, but we also feed him: mealworms, earthworms, roaches, greens, vegetables, and fruit.

Natural Diet: Schneider’s skinks are omnivores, so they eat both meat and plants.  Insects, vegetation, grasses, fruit, berries can all be a part of their diet.

Range: Northwestern Africa to western Asia.

Habitat: Dry grasslands, rocky steppes, semi-desert, and oasis.

Size: Grows 13 – 18 inches.

Lifespan: Lives over 20 years.

Reproduction: Females lay 3-20 eggs under moist sand and coil around them for the 6 weeks of incubation

Conservation: Most Schneider’s skinks found in the pet trade are still wild caught. This means they have been kidnapped out of the wild and sold to pet stores. Many are shipped to the United States in horrible conditions.

Cool Facts: Like many lizards, they can break off their tail when danger threatens. Nerves in the tail will cause it to wiggle on the ground for several minutes after detaching, giving the lizard time to escape. With enough food and time, the lizard can usually grow the tail back. The tail however, does not grow back as long or as flexible as it once was. This makes it more difficult for the lizard to escape in the future.

Tokay Gecko

Gecko gecko

Show Name: Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon

Hissstory: We received Freddy as an unwanted pet on April 29, 2005.

Zoo Diet: Crickets, mealworms, earthworms, roaches, and dead mice.

Natural Diet: Anything that moves and is smaller than the gecko.  Tokays will eat birds, snakes, other lizards, insects, frogs – you name and they will eat it!

Range: Tokay geckos naturally occur in Southeast Asia and Malaysia, but they have been Introduced in Florida, Hawaii and many other tropical places around the world.

Habitat: The understory and canopy of tropical rainforests. They can also be found living in cities and even inside of homes in tropical areas.

Size: Tokays can grow to 8 – 10 inches – that is a BIG gecko!

Reproduction: Tokays lay 2-3 sticky eggs in the crevices of tree bark and rocks.

Lifespan: Can live over 50 years.

Conservation: Tokay geckos are important in controlling pests such as cockroaches and locusts.  However, they can also eat small birds, mammals, frogs, and other reptiles, which makes them a potentially damaging invasive species in locations where they have been introduced – such as Hawaii.

Cool Facts: Tokay geckos get their name from the loud “Tow-kay” call they make. Like most geckos, Tokays can walk vertically or even upside down on nearly any surface,  including glass.   They do this by using microscopic scales in the shape of hooks on the bottom of their feet. These scales grab on to microscopic imperfections found on every surface. Scientists are studying gecko feet in order to develop super strong tape, and maybe even gloves and shoes you could wear to walk up a wall.  Just like Spider-man – or GECKO MAN!

Tegu

Tupinambis teguixin

Show Name: “Tupinambis”

Hissstory: Tupinambis was an unwanted pet that came to live at Reptiles Alive in 2005.

Zoo Diet: We feed him mostly dead mice, but he also gets some fruit, eggs and occsionally, a giant cockroach.

Natural Diet: Tegus are opportunistic omnivores, which means they eat almost anything!  Fruit, insects, invertebrates, eggs, small mammals, snakes, fish, and carrion could all be eaten by a hungry tegu.

Range: Northern South America, including the Amazon Rainforest.

Habitat: The forest floor of tropical rainforests where they spend a lot of time hiding in burrows.

Size: Adults reach between 3 and 4 feet in length and usually weigh about 8 pounds.

Lifespan: Can live 10-20 years.

Reproduction: Females will lay 30 – 50 eggs which hatch in about three months. Hatchlings are a beautiful jade green. This color fades as they age.

Conservation: Some people hunt these lizards for their meat and skin. Other tegus are captured for the pet trade and many tegus you might find in a pet store are wild caught.  Tegus do not make good pets.  In south Florida, unwanted pet tegus have been released into the wild and are now becoming a problem species.  Never release unwanted pets into the wild – you never know what damage can occur.

Cool Facts: Tegu scales are round in shape making the animal feel like it is covered in beads. Tegus fill the same ecological niche as monitor lizards do in the Old World, (monitors don’t live in the Americas).