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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.
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Finding a snake coiled near your porch in Montana raises an immediate question: can you scoop it up and move it yourself, or does the law require something more formal?
Wondering whether you can own a turtle in Oklahoma? The short answer is yes, but the rules shift depending on the species, where the turtle came from, and whether you’re buying, selling, or pulling one out of a pond yourself.
Georgia’s swamps, marshes, and coastal waterways support one of the densest alligator populations in the country, with wildlife officials estimating roughly 200,000 to 250,000 alligators statewide.
If you have ever spotted a box turtle crossing a Mississippi backroad or eyed a red-eared slider at a pet store, you have probably wondered whether you can legally take one home.
If you’re weighing whether to bring an iguana into your Montana home, the short answer might surprise you: state law treats these lizards far more leniently than it treats many native mammals.
Alaska has no native turtles of any kind, yet thousands of Alaskans keep them as pets.
If you’re picturing a ball python curled up in a terrarium in Salt Lake City or a Burmese python enclosure in a Provo garage, you might be surprised to learn that Utah doesn’t ban most pythons outright.
You can own a python in Rhode Island without breaking any law, and for most pet snakes you will not even need a permit to do it.
Connecticut is home to 14 native snake species, and state wildlife officials treat nearly all of them as protected under some form of regulation.
Snake removal laws in Kansas catch a lot of homeowners off guard.
If you’re picturing a green iguana basking under a heat lamp in your Burlington apartment, you’re not alone in wondering whether that’s actually allowed.
If you have ever spotted a green iguana sunning itself on a Florida seawall and wondered whether you could bring one home, the honest answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no.
Nebraska has one of the more relaxed exotic-pet frameworks in the Midwest, which surprises a lot of people shopping for their first reptile.
If you’re picturing a red-eared slider basking under a heat lamp in Cheyenne or a snapping turtle pulled from a farm pond near Casper, the short answer to can you own a turtle in Wyoming is yes — but the details depend heavily on which species you’re talking about.
Finding a snake curled up near your porch or basement door raises an immediate question: can you legally handle it yourself, or does Ohio law require you to call someone? The answer depends heavily on which of the state’s snake species you’re looking at.
If a wood turtle wanders across your driveway in the Upper Peninsula, picking it up and keeping it in a tank is a criminal violation — even though the red-eared slider sitting in a bucket at your local pet store is perfectly legal to bring home.
Florida is home to an estimated 1.3 million alligators, so it’s no surprise that residents occasionally wonder whether one of these reptiles could legally live in their backyard.
If you have ever spotted an alligator sliding into a Lowcountry marsh and wondered whether you could legally keep one at home, the short answer is no — not without running into a wall of state and federal paperwork.
Arkansas banned five of the world’s largest python species from being bred, sold, or imported back in 2020, yet thousands of Arkansans still legally keep ball pythons in glass terrariums across the state.
If you’re picturing a ball python curled up in a terrarium in Portland or Bangor, the short answer is that Maine allows it.
