What a TOADALLY awesome year this has been at Reptiles Alive LLC! A year full of great shows, great clients, and great RA team members!
From October 2013 through September 2014, we presented 790 education programs – exactly the same number as last year! (How weird is that?) Our audience reach was up from last year to approximately 61,400 people who enjoyed our shows. We returned to present at many of the same schools, events, and libraries that we visit every year such as The Fairfax, Loudoun, and Montgomery County and DC Public Libraries, Doodlehopper 4 Kids, National Harbor and so many more great places and events. We also enjoyed meeting new folks at new events including the Fredericksburg Pet Expo, The Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington’s Eye Run, The Historic Henrico Theater, and at all the schools, scouts, and private parties that had us for the first time this year. So much fun and herpetological education going on!
We would not be able to present so many great programs without our invaluable team of wildlife educators. Rockin’ReptileRachel performed the most with 373 shows reaching approximately 29,200 people. Coming in second was CobraCaroline with 180 shows reaching 19,200 people. TuataraTony presented 137 shows reaching 6,050 people and SidewinderStephen presented 100 shows and reached 7,000 people.
Of course, there is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes both in our office and our animal care. SidewinderStephen has become an accomplished animal keeper here at RA. He is an expert at managing our animal collection and has gotten to know each of our animals as individuals. When asked if he has a favorite RA animal, he says “That’s a really hard question! I guess if I have to pick it would be Splash (our water monitor lizard) or Hannah (our savanna monitor lizard.) They seem to have such great personalities.”
New animals we added to our permanent collection this year are:
2 Australian Green Treefrogs Litoria caerulea – donated to us as unwanted pets
2 Eastern Rat Snakes Pantherophis alleghaniensis – one was an unwanted pet left at a vet clinic and one was found inside a school building!
1 Leopard Gecko Eublepharis macularius – donated to us as an unwanted pet
1 Argentine Horned Frog Ceratophrys ornata – received as a captive bred froglet 🙂
Transferred or Deceased Animals:
1 Copes Gray Treefrog Hyla chrysocelis – died due to unknown causes
1 Eastern King Snake Lampropeltis getula getula – transferred to a nature center
1 Marbled Salamander Ambystoma opacum – died due to unknown causes
1 White Lined Gecko Geckko vittatus – transferred to a naturalist
1 Yellow Spotted Amazon River Turtle Podocnemis unifilis – died due to a systemic bacterial infection that did not respond to medical treatment (we miss you Podoc!)
Reptiles Alive! LLC | 2014 | Animal Inventory | |||
African Spurred Tortoise | 1 | Geochelone sulcata | |||
American Alligator | 2 | Alligator missipiensis | |||
American Toad | 2 | Anaxyrus americanus | |||
Argentine Horned Frog | 1 | Ceratophres ornata | |||
Australian Green Treefrog | 4 | Litoria caerulea | |||
Ball Python | 1 | Python regius | |||
Bearded Dragon | 2 | Pogona vitticeps | |||
Blue Tongue Skink | 3 | Teliqua scincoides | |||
Boa Constrictor | 4 | Boa constrictor constrictor | |||
Bull Frog | 2 | Rana catesbeiana | |||
Burmese Python | 1 | Python molurus bivittatus | |||
California King Snake | 2 | Lampropeltis getula californiae | |||
Central Asian Tortoise | 1 | Testudo horsefieldi | |||
Crested Gecko | 1 | Rhacodactylus ciliatus | |||
Corn Snake | 2 | Pantherophis guttatus | |||
Earthworm | 25+ | Eisenia fetida | |||
Eastern Box Turtle | 1 | Terrapene carolina carolina | |||
Eastern Rat Snake | 3 | Pantherophis obsoletus | |||
Eastern Snapping Turtle | 1 | Chelydra serpintena serpentina | |||
Garden Slug | 5 | Limax maximus | |||
Green Iguana | 2 | Iguana iguana | |||
Haitian Brown Tarantula | 1 | Phormictophis cancerides | |||
Haitian Cockroach | 25 + | Blaberus sp. | |||
Honduran Milk Snake | 2 | Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis | |||
House Cricket | 1000 | Acheta domestica | |||
Kenyan Sand Boa | 1 | Eryx colubrinus loveridgei | |||
Leopard Gecko | 2 | Eublepharis macularius | |||
Leopard Tortoise | 1 | Geochelone pardalis | |||
Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches | 25+ | Gromphadorina portentosa | |||
Malagasy Giant Hognose Snake | 1 | Leioheterodon madagascarensis | |||
Marbled Salamander | 1 | Ambystoma opacum | |||
Mealworm | 1000 | Tenebrio molitar | |||
Nelson’s Milksnake | 1 | Lampropeltis triangulum nelsonii | |||
Northern Diamondback Terrapin | 1 | Malaclemys terrapin | |||
Pacific Gopher Snake | 1 | Pituophis catenifer catenifer | |||
Prehensile-tailed Skink | 1 | Corucia zebrata | |||
Savannah Monitor Lizard | 1 | Varanus exanthematicus | |||
Spiny Softshell Turtle | 1 | Apalone spinifera | |||
Spotted Salamander | 1 | Ambystoma maculatum | |||
Spotted Turtle | 1 | Clemmys guttata | |||
Sudan Plated Lizard | 1 | Gerrhosaurus major | |||
Tegu Lizard | 2 | Tupinambis teguixin | |||
Uromastyx Lizard | 1 | Uromastyx acanthurus | |||
Water Monitor Lizard | 1 | Varanus salvator | |||
Western Hognose Snake | 1 | Heterodon nasicus |