Hello all. This is Michael Perret, an American volunteer at Herpaworld. ive been in the philippines since october 2, 2006, working as a volunteer a big, private reptile zoo, conservation, rescue and breeding center in puerto galera, oriental mindoro, philippines. im still here. i work 63 hours in 6 days every week. its hard work, but rewarding.
there are over 1000 animals here at the zoo, almost all reptiles, and from more than 120 species. some are common, but others are extremely rare in captivity and the wild. i started a LOOONG post yesterday with many more details, but I lost my internet and the post before it was submitted, which ticked me off quite a bit. so this post has minimal details and I will explain more later.

we have soo many species here, many of the snakes and other reptiles are native to the philippines or at least southeast asia, but we do have tons of species from all over the world. many are endangered and mario, the german owner (and a great guy), can keep them because although he recieves no financial sepport from the government, he works closely with them. any time a shipment of smuggled reptiles gets confiscated in the philippines they call mario and ask him to take them in.

the greatest number of snakes here are philippine cobras (3 species plus philippine king cobras) and philippine arboreal pit vipers (tons of species/subspecies)...we also have all kinds of water monitors, tree monitors, and different crocodilians. although ive taken a million pics here, im going to be lazy and put up mostly pics that mario took. all the photos are of animals owned by herpaworld. i know all the scientific names (and most of the common names), but some of these species are rare and cool (and im lazy) so I will let everyone try to guess the species first. ill tell you later...


the vast majority of snakes at the zoo are venomous species and ALL are hot, no venomoid snakes here. because we have so many venomous species here, we dont keep any antivenins (except for Naja philippinensis) because we'd have to keep so many. the simple rule is: "don't get bitten by the venomous snakes, or youre probably going to die." i work mostly with the non-wenomous snakes and other reptiles, but have hard the opportunity to change an occasional bothrops or tropidolaemus box. it is intense actually. mostly im just watching the hot handling and learning (or hook handling the insanely mean wc philippine boiga dendrophila myself). normally I stick to the boids, colubrids and things.

later, i will tell you a little about our breeding programs, which are rather impressive in some aspects. there is one monitor here that we are the ONLY people to have bred healthy babies in captivity in the world! two years in a row. and groups of them were sold to zoos in cali and texas...

im still here at herpaworld in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines after 7 months volunteering. Everything is going well here. Sometimes running a reptile zoo in the Philippines is complicated but I think we are on the right track. here is the link to the website and we've made tons of updates lately with pics and all sorts of general species info and caresheets for all sorts of venomous and non-venomous snakes and other reptiles from around the world!

we do a lot of special things here, for example, we are the only people in the world who have EVER bred Varanus olivaceus in captivity and we've had two successful clutches. we sold groups of olivaceous babies in 2006 to the American Zoo Assoc.

we also were the first people in the world to ever breed Parias mcgregori in captivity and have had many healthy clutches. we have more individual mcgregor's in captivity here at the zoo than everywhere else in captivity in the world combined.

we have successfully bred Varanus prasinus in captivity.

we actually have more different species of reptiles here at the Paradise Reptile Zoo than any other collection in Asia!
we are basically a zoo, rescue and conservation center and also breed many reptiles, but we dont sell any animals on the site so I think a direct link to the site is ok with the management! CHECK it OUT. its so much easier for me to link you to the pics than put them up myself!

im quite excited because in the end of may we will be receiving a shipment of snakes from germanythat mario, my boss, the owner of herpaworld, already has in his collection overseas. Its especially cool for me because im the non-vemomous guy here at the zoo and many of the snakes we are getting will be constrictors. i will update what new snakes we get when they arrive!

but you all seriously need to check out all the pics on the website!

so, i'll link just a few pics from the website... if you will, a little "guess the species," scientific name
these snakes are all owned by Herpaworld and almost all are members of breeding groups or juvies of future breeding groups!

please note that all photos included are under copyright, even those without watermark.

1 Naja samarensis


2 Naja philippinensis



3 Trimeresurus trigonocephalus


4 Parias mcgregori

5 Bothrops diporus


6 Atheris squamigera


7 Agkistrodon taylori (Mexican water moccassin)


8 Crotalus mitchellii stephensi


9 Cryptelytrops purpureomaculatus


10 Crotalus vegrandis


11
more to come!!!!! start guessing!!!

Wow that sounds like an awesome job! Those are also Great photos!

Awesome pics....welcome to HC Network!

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Warmest Regards from Lyn

welcome to HC! great pics thanks for posting them!

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Professional Pet Sitting/Dog Walking
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yes i am a she ^_^

~My Babies~

1 Rosy Boa (male) Chaos
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Fantastic! Great pictures

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Yes my name is D... Yes as in the letter... No i wont tell you what it stands for!!!

someone asked me today how I ended up working at Herpaworld all the way over here in the Philippines, so I figured I would explain briefly to y'all as well!

All my family is back in the US. i grew up in Camden, a tourist town on the coast of Maine. After I graduated, i knew I wanted to travel, i knew I wanted to work in ecotourism and I knew I wanted to work with animals. i also knew that I could afford to work for about a year as a volunteer somewhere as long as it was in a foreing country where living is cheap...

so I searched the web for reptile breeding centers in Southeast Asia and herpaworld was the only place with a decent website. i got in touch with mario, the german owner here and we decided after talking that I would come over and volunteer. i planned to stay for 2 months at first...if I didnt like it, id hope on the plane back home after 2 months. but if I did like it I would continue extending my tourist visa every 2 months for up to 1 year. and then I could come back to the USA or stay longer! ive been here for 7 months now and im loving it. i am the only volunteer here but we are always looking for new volunteers. If I can get a paid position before my year here is over than I will probably stay longer, if not I will head home!

There was also the question of my snake collection. I sold most of the snakes, gave a couple retics and lizards away, and my parents are keeping my 5 het and poss dhet boa constrictor imperator's until I return home!

SIMPLE REALLY, you just need to be an adventurous, pro-active person, do your research and go for it. It only costs me about $300 a month to live like a king here in the Philippines, including my apartment, all the food for me and my girlfriend, entertainment, gas for the motorbike I bought, and all other expenses (i even pay for my own food and housing to volunteer here 63 hours a week, yes!)

welcome. great photos.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.