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Explore the world of reptiles — cold-blooded, scaly vertebrates including snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodilians, and the tuatara, found across deserts, rainforests, and oceans worldwide.
676 stories
Most people picture deserts or tropical islands when they think about lizards, not the forests and backyards of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Can you own a boa constrictor in Montana? For most private keepers, the answer is yes.
You might assume that owning a snake capable of growing past eight feet long would require mountains of paperwork in Oregon.
A federal agency spent five years deciding whether to ban boa constrictors as pets nationwide, then backed off the idea entirely.
A red-tailed boa constrictor named Kia slipped out of her travel carrier outside a Clark County garage and went missing for days, triggering a search that spread across a local Facebook group and racked up hundreds of shares before she turned up safe near Winchester.
Rhode Island’s exotic animal rules trip up plenty of would-be reptile owners, and boa constrictors sit in an unusually permissive spot compared to species like capybaras or venomous snakes.
Spot a small reptile darting across a fence post or sunbathing on a porch rail in North Carolina, and there’s a good chance it belongs to one of just a handful of species.
Federal wildlife regulators spent years deciding whether to ban the boa constrictor nationwide alongside the Burmese python — then backed off the idea entirely.
Can you own a boa constrictor in Connecticut? For most residents, the answer is yes, though the full picture involves more than a simple yes-or-no.
If you’ve been eyeing a boa constrictor for your next reptile enclosure, you might be surprised to learn that California treats this popular pet snake very differently than it treats larger constrictors like the Burmese python.
Anyone who has sat on a New Orleans porch for more than five minutes has probably watched a small lizard dart across the railing or dodge behind a hanging fern.
A green anole flashing its pink dewlap on a porch rail and a five-foot tegu vanishing into a drainage ditch are both part of daily life for anyone tracking the types of lizards in Central Florida.
Step into any Houston backyard on a warm afternoon and you’re almost guaranteed to spot a lizard darting across a fence rail or freezing mid-stride on a tree trunk.
Idaho already has a boa constrictor living within its borders, and it isn’t the snake most people picture when they ask about keeping one as a pet.
Step onto almost any dock, seawall, or garden path in the Florida Keys and a lizard is probably watching from a few feet away.
A boa constrictor curled up in a Mississippi living room raises fewer legal red flags than a pet raccoon or a backyard fox would.
Oklahoma’s grasslands, rocky canyons, and hardwood forests support a surprisingly varied collection of reptiles, and the types of lizards in Oklahoma range from a spiny, ant-eating specialist to a slender, color-changing tree dweller.
If you’re wondering whether you can own a boa constrictor in Georgia, the short answer surprises a lot of first-time reptile owners: yes, in most cases you can, and you won’t need the same state wild animal license that covers Burmese pythons or Argentine tegus.
If you’re eyeing a boa constrictor as your next pet, New Jersey’s rules are more forgiving than you might expect, but not as simple as a flat yes.
If you’re picturing a Massachusetts snake owner sneaking a boa constrictor past the law, you can put that worry aside.
