Over the past few years, we've seen several new aquariums open across the US - but now for something completely different, we have a brand new reptile zoo opening this year in Florida. Their goal is to be nothing short of the world's largest reptile and amphibian collection.
Welcome to Iguanaland in Punta Gora
There are tons of reptile zoos across the country, many of them in south, many of them, to put it kindly, kind of scummy and skeezy. Reptile and amphibian exhibitors aren't regulated by USDA, so standards of their care are considerably looser. There are only a few really top-notch reptile zoos in the US: Clyde Peeling's Reptiland in Pennsylvania and Reptile Gardens in South Dakota (currently the biggest in the world) come to mind among them.
It will be interesting to see what this Iguanaland place ends up being like when it opens. The presence (and seeming emphasis) on color-morphs of common pet trade species does initially turn me off a bit. That being said, the owner seems very knowledgeable about endangered Caribbean rock iguanas and committed to their conservation. In the reptile world, the lines between conservation and commercialism have always tended to be more than a little blurred.
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