Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina)

Range: Eastern box turtles are found in the wild across the eastern United States, though their numbers are dwindling. They live in a wide variety of habitats, from damp forests to dry grassy fields, and will often venture into shallow water and hibernate when it gets cold. Eastern box turtles are predominantly terrestrial and live in a variety of vegetative areas, including shrubby grasslands, marshy meadows, open woodlands and field forest edges. They are often found near streams or ponds, or areas that have experienced heavy rainfall.

Description: Eastern box turtles have a high, dome-like carapace and a hinged plastron that allows total shell closure. The carapace can be of variable coloration, but is normally found brownish or black and is accompanied by a yellowish or orangish radiating pattern of lines, spots or blotches. The eastern box turtle is small (4.5 to 6 inches shell width, up to eight inch shell length), land turtle with a high, dome-like upper shell ("carapace"). Younger box turtles can be distinguished by their flatter carapaces.

Diet: These turtles are omnivorous and will eat almost anything, including berries, insects, roots, flowers, eggs, and amphibians. Younger turtles tend to be more carnivorous than adults, hunting in ponds and streams for food. As adults, box turtles primarily feed on land.

Lifespan: Staying small in size, most range from 4.5 to 6 inches, but occasionally reach over 7 inches. In captivity, box turtles are known to live over 100 years, but in the wild, often live much shorter lives due to disease and predation.

Green-tree Python (Morelia viridis)

Range: The green tree python lives in Australia and New Guinea, and on the small islands that surround New Guinea. Suitable patches of rainforests can be found scattered throughout the Cape York Peninsula in Australia. Though usually a snake of the trees, the tree python sometimes prowls on the ground as well. Tropical rain forests are the green tree python's native habitat, so captive snakes need a warm and humid environment. Throughout their natural range they seldom experience temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Offer a range of temperatures within the enclosure so the animal can select its ideal temperature.

Description: Juvenile green tree pythons are typically yellow, red or dark brown-black. As they mature, their color changes to the bright green many adults display. Some individuals keep their bright-yellow juvenile colors, and some turn straight to blue. Each color is unique and stunning in its own way. The green tree python averages 4.8-5.0 feet in length but can grow up to seven feet. Adults are bright green with white or yellow underbellies. They have a white or light blue vertical stripe along the body, and white or yellow lips, chin and throat.

Diet: Green tree pythons are nonvenomous, carnivorous reptiles that feed on tree lizards, birds and other small arboreal vertebrates. The adults sometimes leave the trees, feeding on terrestrial rodents as well.

Lifespan: After hatching, they change their colors from the juvenile yellow or maroon to the adult green. On average, it takes six to eight months to change colors. Green tree pythons live for about 20 years.

Grey Rat Snake (Pantherophis spiloides)

Range: An agile climber, the gray rat snake is at home from the ground to the tree tops in many types of hardwood forest and cypress stands, along tree-lined streams and fields, and even around barns and sheds in close proximity to people.It shelters under rocks, logs and other debris as well as in soil cracks. Its distribution extends from central inland New South Wales, north to several isolated populations near Rockhampton in Queensland.

Description: Gray rat snakes are dark to light gray with darker gray or brown blotches. The juveniles of all subspecies resemble the gray rat. The belly is whitish in color near the head and becomes checkered or mottled toward the tail. Average adult size is 36-72 inches, record is 84.25 inches. Juveniles and adults are gray with dark blotches. The belly is sandy-gray with dark square blotches. The underside of the tail typically has 2 dark stripes.

Diet: Gray rat snakes are powerful constrictors that enjoy live reptile food, feeding readily on appropriate-sized mice and rats. They will also take birds, chicks, and even eggs. To witness the snake feed can, in it self, be a treat.

Lifespan: The gray rat snake does well in captivity and is usually easy to keep. Its average lifespan in captivity is 15 years, with one individual reportedly living for 22 years.

Mata Mata Turtle (Chelus fimbriata)

Range: The mata mata inhabits slow moving, black water streams, stagnant pools,marshes, and swamps ranging into northern Bolivia, eastern Peru, Ecuador, eastern Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern and central Brazil.

Description: The mata mata is a South American turtle with a striking appearance. Its carapace, or shell, is rough and knobby, and its long neck has skin fringes, bumps and ridges. The mata mata turtle's large, flat head features a wide mouth and a long, snorkel-like snout.

Diet: Mata mata turtles are carnivores that prey on fish and small invertebrates. In the wild, they like fish, frogs and insects. In captivity, they can be fed minnows, mollies, goldfish, guppies and earthworms.

Lifespan: Exact details for the mata mata turtle life span is not really known, but most documentation shows the turtle's average life is anywhere from 40 to 75 years. Some turtles can live more than 100 years if given the proper care.

Pancake Tortoise (Malacochersus tornieri)

Range: This species dwells in the arid savannas and scrublands of East Africa. They also like kojpe habitat, which consists of rocky outcrops. They are found living is isolated colonies. Pancake tortoises are native to southern Kenya, and northern and eastern Tanzania.

Description: Hence the name, Pancake tortoises are small and flat with a thin, flexible shell, flat looking much like a pancake. The shell is normally 6 to 7 inches long and an inch or so high. On the legs, they have bigger scales with points that project downward and outward. The plastron (bottom shell) is pale yellow with dark brown seams and light yellow rays, and the head, limbs and tail are yellow-brown.

Diet: These herbivores feed on a variety of fresh and dry grasses, and some fruit in the wild. In captivity they eat a variety of grasses, hay, greens (such as collard, turnip and mustard), along with dandelion, endive, squash, carrots, hibiscus leaves, and many other vegetables and leafy greens.

Lifespan: The pancake tortoise is classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List and listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). It is unknown their exact lifespan in the wild; however, in captivity, they May live as long as 25 years. Currently, there are 500 living in zoos around the world.

Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobatidae)

Dart frogs are amphibians, and they are known by that name (dart) because indigenous people use the frog’s poison for blow darts and arrow poison.  All wild dart frogs secrete toxins through their skin.  However, captive-hatched frogs and wild ones that have been in captivity are not toxic. This is greatly due to diet variances from captivity to the wild.

Color shades vary among frogs within a species. It is the skin that contains the frog's poison. These beautiful colors are warnings to potential predators that the frog is poisonous. Several species of non-poisonous frogs evolved with similar coloring to avoid being eaten.

Range:  Poison Dart frogs live in rainforest habitats in Central and South America. They can be found in trees, as well as under leaves, logs, and rocks on the forest floor. At the Zoo, you can view our Poison Dart Frog collection in the Reptile House in our South American realm.

Description: Various colors, brilliant and bright (blues, greens, yellows, purple, reds). Poison dart frogs are typically small size, from 1/2 to 2 inches long, they are hard to see.

Diet: The frogs eat mostly small insects, including fruit flies, ants, termites, young crickets, and tiny beetles, which are the ones scientists think may be responsible for the frogs' toxicity. 

Lifespan: Healthy dart frogs live one to three years in the wild. However, these frogs typically live for much longer than that in captivity, having been reported to live as long as 25 years.

Rhinoceros Iguana (Cyclura cornuta)

Range: The rhinoceros iguana is a threatened species of lizard in the family Iguanidae that is primarily found on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, shared by the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Rhinoceros Iguanas are most abundant in, but not restricted to, tropical dry and moist lowland forests and shrublands. These tropical dry forests are characterized by xeric, rocky habitats of eroded limestone in coastal terraces and lowlands of mainland Hispaniola and several offshore islands.

Description: They vary in length from 24 to 54 ices and skin colors range from a steely grey to a dark green and even brown. Their name derives from the bony-plated pseudo-horn or outgrowth which resembles the horn of a rhinoceros on the iguana's snout. They are terrestrial, but will climb if they need to reach better fruits or a more suitable sun basking spot, or for overseeing defended areas. Males are territorial, and will defend their territories aggressively. Rhinoceros Iguanas are sexually mature between 5 to 9 years of age.

Diet: Rhinoceros iguanas are mainly herbivores, eating a wide variety of leaves, fruits, flowers, and seeds. They occasionally eat animal food, mainly insects, land crabs, or carrion (especially dead birds and fish). Young iguanas in particular may take insects and other small animals.

Lifespan: Like all Iguanas, Rhino Iguanas are fairly long lived lizards. It is believed that in captivity, a baby Rhino Iguana for sale can live as long as 30 years! Most consider 20 years an average lifespan for the Rhino Iguana.

Rough Green Grass Snake (Opheodrys aestivus)

Range: Rough Green Snakes are found throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey west to central Texas and south throughout Florida. Rough green snakes can be found in a variety of habitats but are most common in open forests and edge habitats. They can be particularly abundant along the margins of wetlands and rivers, where they search overhanging vegetation for insects.

Description: The rough green snake is bright green above and has a yellowish belly, affording it excellent camouflage in green vegetation and making them difficult to see in the wild even though they are relatively common in their habitat. It has keeled dorsal scales, which are arranged in 17 rows at mid-body. Rough green snakes grow to be around 2 to 3 feet long, while smooth green snakes are smaller and shorter, usually maxing out at about 2 feet.

Diet: Rough green snakes feed primarily on insects such as crickets, caterpillars and grasshoppers, though they will also eat snails, spiders and small frogs.

Lifespan: Rough green snakes typically are reported to live up to 15 years. Though most don't survive that long, unless they are living in captivity.

Solomon Island Skink (Corucia zebrata)

Range: The Solomon Islands skink is native to Solomon Islands archipelago, a group of islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean. Only found on the Solomon Islands, the skink is arboreal (tree dwelling) and spends all its time in the canopy. It is often found in the strangler fig tree, a rainforest species.

Description: The Solomon Islands skink has a long, slender body, strong, short legs, and a triangular shaped head with small round eyes. The skink has a strong crushing jaw but the teeth are small and used for eating plant material.

Diet: Solomon Islands skinks are herbivores, feeding on the leaves, flowers, fruit, and growing shoots of several different species of plants.

Lifespan: A well-cared for skink can live 25-30 years. Prehensile-tailed skinks are protected under Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). It is illegal to export them from the Solomon Islands.