Clyde Peeling's Reptiland opened to the public on July 11, 1964. It is a zoo specialized on reptiles and amphibians, a sort of attraction which has a long history in the American South (usually attached to alligator farms) but is far less common in the northeast (although the biggest reptile zoo in the US is in Rapid City, South Dakota, of all places, so go figure).
Even zoo visitors who never come within one hundred miles of Reptiland will have likely gotten some taste of the Peeling experience based on visits to other facilities. Peeling Productions, attached to the facility, is a company the specialized in the fabrication of high quality zoo habitats for reptiles and amphibians. They are very attractive - and pricey. Working at one zoo, my director and I joked that for the cost of a habitat we were looking at, we could probably send someone down to the Amazon, have them literally hack out a 4' x 4' 4' section of jungle, and bring it back intact to our zoo. Still, the price must not be too daunting to too many zoos, because I feel like I see recognizable Peeling exhibits at facilities ranging from giant urban zoos to tiny local natural centers.
Peeling Productions also provides another unique service - traveling exhibits. These are on loan to museums or zoos for periods of time to provide temporary attractions to drive attendence. Examples include "Reptiles - The Beautiful and the Deadly," "Frogs - A Chorus of Colors," and "Spiders Alive!" There's even a traveling exhibit focused solely on poop. I saw the "Geckos - Tails to Toepads" exhibit over a decade ago when it was hosted by the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC, and absolutely located it. Not only did I see, by far, the most gecko species I've ever encountered (including several that I never saw before and haven't seen since), I found the educational components to be fascinating. The graphics and signage were phenomenal, and there were lots of great interactive devices, such as a computer screen which let visitors "build their own gecko" using features from the diverse species on display. I thought that if this was the traveling show, the real Reptiland must be spectacular.
In truth, I was a little disappointed.
The main building, the Reptile and Amphibian Complex, is about the size of a typical zoo reptile house. It covers about 6500 square feet and houses 50 or so species. Unlike the traveling exhibits (or at least the gecko one, which certainly made an impression on me), the zoo enthusiast won't find many exciting or unusual specimens here. It's a very boilerplate collection that features the stars of many zoo reptile collections, with a bias towards venomous species - king cobra, Gila monster, black mamba - and large constrictors. Amphibians were in very short supply. More surprising to me was that a lot of the exhibits didn't look that spectacular to me - compared to the work that Peeling Productions has done at other zoos. The Panamanian golden frog exhibit at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, for instance, built by Peeling, is a spacious, complex, lushly planted vivarium that houses dozens of the beautiful, critically endangered amphibians. The golden frog exhibit at Reptiland was basically a small glass tank set into the wall with minimal furnishing. Exhibits for venomous species were almost barren, which, I understand, is a technique that a lot of zoos have historically employed for their most venomous snakes, with the idea that too much natural "clutter" poses a threat to the safety of keepers trying to work venomous animals.
I did see a few of the educational interactives that so impressed me in the traveling exhibits, but overall the building struck me as underwhelming. A single bird exhibit inside - featuring great horned owls - struck me as random and out of place. Yes, birds ARE reptiles, from a strict taxonomic perspective, but their inclusion didn't strike me as that well-integrated.
Tour of Reptiland continues tomorrow...
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