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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.
678 stories
Green iguanas show up in pet store windows across New Jersey, but that doesn’t automatically mean you can bring one home without a second thought.
In April 2024, Waipahu police doing a routine wellness check walked into a house and found something no other state would treat as a felony-level emergency: a three-and-a-half-foot ball python coiled in a dead man’s home.
Turtles look like the easiest pet in the world to bring home, especially if you find a small one crossing a trail or basking on a log near a Maryland creek.
New York treats pythons the way it treats very few other pets: the legality changes depending on the species in the tank, the county you live in, and whether that county happens to be one of the five boroughs.
North Carolina is home to more than 20 native turtle species, yet most of them are illegal to keep as pets.
Spotting an alligator sliding through a bayou or golf course pond is common enough in East and South Texas that most residents barely blink.
Finding a snake near your porch or garden shed in Pennsylvania puts you in a legal gray zone more often than most homeowners realize.
Vermont bans permits for anacondas, restricts most exotic cats, and rarely approves private ownership of wild mammals.
North Carolina is one of only a handful of states with no single statewide law governing private exotic animal ownership, which leaves a lot of gray area for anyone hoping to keep an iguana as a pet.
If you have ever pulled a slow-moving painted turtle off a gravel road in eastern Iowa and wondered whether you could just keep it, you are not alone.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you can own an alligator in Massachusetts after seeing viral videos of pet gators in Florida living rooms, the short answer is no.
If you have been eyeing a ball python or a Burmese python for your next reptile enclosure, Arizona’s desert climate and reptile-friendly reputation might make you assume anything goes.
Iowa is home to nearly 30 species of snakes, yet only one of them, the common garter snake, can be legally killed, caught, or relocated anywhere in the state without a permit.
If you’re picturing a small red-eared slider paddling around a tank in your living room, you’re probably fine legally.
New Mexico bans wolves, crocodiles, and big cats outright, yet the state’s wildlife code never even mentions the word “iguana.” That gap confuses a lot of would-be reptile owners searching for a straight answer on whether you can own an iguana in New Mexico.
Vermont is home to 11 native snake species, and unlike many states, it does not treat snake removal as a simple do-it-yourself matter.
A 17-foot albino Burmese python once slipped out of a home in Meadow Lakes and spent two weeks on the run before its owner found it curled up in the living room.
Ball pythons live in thousands of Ohio homes without a single state permit, yet a slightly larger cousin down the street can trigger felony charges and a surety bond running into six figures.
If you’re picturing a green iguana lounging in a terrarium in Fargo or Bismarck, you’re not alone in wondering whether that’s actually allowed.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you can own an alligator in Indiana, the short answer is yes, but only if you follow a specific state permitting process first.
