What if i gave you a million dollars!!!

[Shane Tesser]

Okay..i got your attention..this is just for fun...however i really wish i could give everyone a million...okay...even if i could...i wouldnt..but its the thought that counts!!!

Lets say you are the owner of a zoo....i give you a million to open a new herp display. Your rules are this. 1) With the money, you have to include the creation of the enclosure and/or display. 2) You can only select ten herps!!! ( It can be a mixed mash of herps..this is imaginary..they dont have to get along!!!)

What ten would you pick..and how would you display these animals? Basically...what would you do?

Tough one i know

[Aaron_S]

Hmmm tough question

I would first purchase a piece of large land and make sure there is a huge pool of water in there for the pair of salt water crocs I would get. I would add some trees fora pair of biak green tree pythons . Now a pair of gila monsters would be cool. and how about we finish off the herp list with a pair of aussie water dragons and a pair of crocodile lizards.

I would then make a nice rock area in the enclosure with a small pond just for the croc lizards. A free flowing river of mice and rats. And for the crocs a flowing river of zebras.Of course crickets for the other lizards. Hmmm some nice plants around the enclosure sure would spiffy things up.It's also an outdoor enclosure.

I think thats it...maybe a koi pond in there too wih working water fall.

[sSNAKESs.com]

Well its really not that hard of a question for me... a garage size cage with metal bars.... as for the livestock... Shane how much of that million would it take to house you in your birthday suit??? LOL!!

PS> Great question / answer though, cant wait to hear what some people will come up with!!

[Brock]

Ok Aaron, you amateur. The obvious answer to this is a dense jungle-type setup with heavily planted bamboo, pothos, ficus pumilia, various colors of hibiscus, eucalyptus, palm, some ficus benjamina and of course some nice large ferns. To top it all off I would add a mild waterfall over some rocks covered in the ficus pumilia leading into a shallow pool with some dwarf coi which leads to a shallow stream throughout the large enclosure. Now of course we must add some sweet smelling, exotic, nice flowers to this to attract bugs to breed and for the herps to eat. I would set up misters to create a fog in the morning and for dew to settle on the leaves for drinking and to even out the warm tempurature with the humidity, and then it would be set to go off in the early evening. I would also get a rain simulator that would go on randomly throughout the day. I would have a few hundred small indian stick bugs and a hundred caterpillars and butterflies to breed in there for the herps to eat. And I would then add an 'under tank heater' (except very large and expensive) to get the moisture to evaporate from the substrate to create good humidity and moderate tempurature.
Now for the herps. I would add 1.2 picasso/sirama/amilobe (whichever you want to call them) panther chameleons; 1.1 hypo orange amazon tree boas; 1.2 hypo red, yellow, and orange crested geckos; and 1.1 komodo dragons just because they are cool and we need a terrestrial herp in there, especially one with dragon in the name. And of course these trios and pairs would breed to sell to experienced and reputable breeders/keepers to help fund the setup and maybe a few would stay in there if it was to bare.
Basically anything that is colorful and will stand out on the rich green foliage would look good in my opinion.


-Brock

[jpaulson]

1. Crocodile
2. Komodo dragon
3. ETB
4. panther chameleon
5. tortoise
6. BCC
7. tokay
8. green anaconda
9. retic
10.uromastyx

For the sake of definition, I am assuming that we will be able to have pairs or more of each. Having only 1 of each would make a small collection, especially for having a mil. to spend.

For the "zoo", it would be placed in my basement. I would convert it to a living vivarium, complete with all regions found across the world--arid for the uro's, swampy for the anaconda, live trees for the cham's, etc. To describe it in detail would take a HUGE post...besides, I have it in my head, would be hard to put it in letters.

My "zoo" would be for all to view, and daily educational classes would be available.

Considering that I would spend my money wisely, I would have enough money left to add:
11.ARP
12.Speckled cobra
13.EDB

MAN, this is HARD!! There are SOO many herps, so little time and money....

[Bryce Masuk]

1.1 maddy tree boa's
1.1 gtp
1.1 etb
1.1 vine snakes
1.1 american gator's
1.1 gator snapping turtles
1.1 croc monitors
1000 discus in the water catfish snakeheads then in the salt water sea snakes salt water fishies coral
1.1 lemur

[damzookeeper]

wow, only 10 herps with a million dollars!! That sucks. lol. Well. I would have to buy a large piece of land, and devide it in 4 sections, all blending into the other. I would start with a very dence rainforest with trees reaching 200 feet high and having all 4 layers of the rainforest, large ferns, exotic fruits and flowers,ect, ect... a small waterfall using water from an actual rainforest this would then blend into a woodland area with small srubs and a small pond, with some leaf litter, rocks and sand. This area would then blend into a small grassland with mulberry trees growing everywhere, this would be for the mice and other food items to breed and grow and finally the fourth setting would be a desert with srubs and cactus, a few cattle skeleton heads for the herps to hide in and some basking rocks and logs to lay on or hide under.
Now for filling the enclosure. Well, Shane, you never said anything about a limit on animals, just herps. heehee. So First I would add a small colony of spider monkeys, and a pair of sloths, a pair of loud mouthed umberlla toos and a pair macaws. I would add a pair of slow loris and a couple dozen sugergliders. I would add 1.2 ferrets and a pair of jaguars. I would add a pair of bearded pigs and a small colony of fruit bats. I would add a few dozen mice (they would produce into hundreds in no time and I could sell some off as feeders) I would add a a couple thousand butter flies, stick bugs, silkworms , ants, and crickets. Then I would be ready to add my final touch to the enclosure and the best part of all. The herps...
For herps I would add 1.1 blue tongue skinks (male leucistic, female normal) , 1.1 bearded dragons (male leucistic, female red sandfire), 1.1 flying dragons (these would be the hardest to acquire) 1.1 red flame crested geckos, and 1.1 rosy boas. And I can't believe I don't have room for some chams in there. lol.
Oh, and maybe I could throw shane with the jaguars for not letting me get more than 10 herps. LOL. Hey, I don't want them eating my bearded pigs!!
Well, that was fun. Look forward to other peoples answers.

[eyespy]

Since it's so few herps but a good deal of money, I think I'd focus on endangered iguanid species and try to buy a nice big patch of land on a tropical island and set up a breeding program.

I would NOT set up much in the way of display areas but would invite people to see a few select examples of Fijian banded iguanas, Grand Caymenensis, and the like set up in large airy enclosures, well-planted with trees and vines, plenty of rocks for belly-warming basking, and fresh running water available at all times.

Most of the animals would live away from the public eye to increase the chances of reproduction but with similar housing.

[Lisa]

Lets see... since we have lots of $ we could easily spend 2 hundred k on the building, which wouldn't buy much, but it would be a start, another 100,000 on the interior. For herps i would go with some Gapogas tortoises, Erpeton tentaculum (Asian Tentacled Snake), An eastern massassauga rattler, a king cobra, a habu, an indian python, a gila monster, a komodo, chamelaon and cause this is imaginary, a basilisk.

[Katt]

What are the ten most endangered herps?

Let's start with a pair of each, use the money to buy the kind of enclosure/land they'd need and that's it.

[Vanan]

I second Katt too. Each environment has to be the ultimate best in technology and setup for each pair of endangered herp.