Reptiles in St. Augustine Florida

[Sublimeballs]

Well.... I'm going down to Florida under some terrible circumstances. After a 10 year war with cancer my grandmother has passed away this last week(this last month has been very hard on my family). We will be going down to Madison Florida(her former place of residence prior to moving up to NC to be with all of us that moved up from FL) to bury her ashes next to my grandfathers ashes. Growing up we'd all go up to Madison for the hollidays and take trips to st Augustine or Daytona or Tallahassee or where ever we wouldn't usually go(most of us lived in palm beach county). Well were going to spend 2 days in st Augustine as a family afterwards.

Now on to my point... I hoping some members might be able to point me in the direction of some good reptile stores in the area or even better some good parks/swamps to do some herping. I never really spent much time in the area so im hoping someone's already put in the hours of finding good spots. im willing to drive a bit but not too far(as much as id loveto go back home). If not ill probably just go down to a place I know of that I found 11 torts in 6 hours; that was a cool day.


Thanks for reading(I know it's a bit long), and hope someone's got something good for me.

[SnoopySnake]

Unfortunately I can't point you in the direction of any stores or places to go herping, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear about your loss :(

[EL Ziggy]

Grandparents are amazing. I'm very sorry for your loss.

[Sublimeballs]

Thank you for your kind words. She was originally given 3-6 months 10 years ago, aswell as 1 month to live nothing we can do 5 years ago, and probably 4-5 other times all the way til the end when they gave her 24-48 hours and she whent 4 days. She was an incredible woman, who I spent alot of time with throughout my childhood. She has to be the strongest person I've ever known. I was able to be there with her and hold her hand while she passed( which meant the world to her, I was kinda her favorite). Ill miss her tremendously, but find peace knowing her suffering is over.

[sharthun]

Sorry for your loss Sub! Definitely take some time with family and check out the FL wildlife.

[Roman]

First of all, I am sorry for your loss.

I don’t know about any reptile stores, but you could visit the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. It has obviously a large collection of alligators of all sizes, on display as well as in some kind of swamp. There were also two albino alligators when we were there some years ago. What’s most interesting in my opinion is a complete selection of all known crocodilian species – they have them all on display, complete with a really large Crocodylus porosus. They have some komodo dragons and some snakes as well.

As for wildlife, go a little north to the Fort Matanzas National Monument. There is a short nature walk right at the parking area where you might see a lot of the local wildlife (and I am not talking about the state bird of Florida – the mosquito). I found several anoles (I think it was Anolis cristatellus) and a blue tailed skink (might have been the Common Five-lined Skink Plestiodon fasciatus) just following the walkway.

Apart from that, there is a lot of woodland around St. Augustine, but I have no idea how accessible this really is, if it is privately owned or public.

Jacksonville isn’t far from St. Augustine, so you could visit the zoo there as well.

Roman