Conservation of reptiles is something I’m passionate about. Whether it’s radio tracking fox snakes in Lake County, Illinois, being involved with Eastern Massasauga conservation through captive breeding, helping to raise awareness for the endangered Atlantic Bushmaster, Lachesis muta rhombeata, or my continuing efforts with the Guatemalan Beaded Lizard, I am passionately involved with trying to make a small difference in this world. I will regularly update this area with some of my recent findings. Wednesday, April 16: Dr. Michael Corn from the College of Lake County has been studying a population of western fox snakes in Lake County, Illinois. Though once common, this harmless constrictor has seen its population plummet due to habitat destruction and human encroachment. Dr. Corn and I are conducting a radio telemetry project where we are tracking 6-8 snakes to better understand their movement patterns and habitat preference. This is a well publicized population because they den/brumate in a basement of an old house where people currently live. Unfortunately, the house is up for sale and could be purchased by developers who will most likely demolish the home to build a shopping mall. If this happens, we may have lost our last healthy population of fox snakes in the county. This site is an old cattail marsh that is shaped like a soup bowl with forested areas surrounding it along with old farm fields and private homes. One of the things we are trying to determine is to see if we can possibly move the hibernaculum to a new area - one that is safe from human harm. That’s a risky proposition and one that has, to our knowledge, never been successfully accomplished. I put a picture of me radio tracking one of our fox snakes. More to come!

Welcome to RobCarmichaelReptiles.com

I eat, sleep and breath reptiles; It’s my hobby, my profession, and my passion. I’ve dedicated my life to learning about them, understanding their husbandry needs, studying them in the wild, and supporting conservation of threatened and endangered species. If you are a serious hobbyist, zoo/museum/nature center, or a professional breeder looking for husbandry information, latest research, or, high quality reptiles for your home, or, public exhibit, you have come to the right place! This site is a work in progress and much still needs to be done. Due to my full time job as Curator of the Wildlife Discovery Center, my field research (radio telemetry project involving Western Fox Snakes) and putting my family first and foremost, there’s not a lot of time leftover but I hope to do much more with this site in the coming months.

Although I am a curator of a reptile facility (that includes working with venomous species on a daily basis), at home, I continue my enjoyment of working with reptiles by captive breeding a number of species. This web page is simply a mechanism to allow me and my family to enjoy working with reptiles and providing you with all kinds of important and interesting information along with offering high quality, captive bred herps for the serious hobbyist, professional or zoological institution.

In addition to serving as Curator of the WDC, I also teach Environmental Biology at the College of Lake County. Right now, my primary field research involves the Western Fox Snake of Lake County. Dr. Michael Corn and myself are radio tracking a group of fox snakes to get some baseline data on movements/home range, preferred habitat, seasonal movements, and other important natural history information that will assist us in developing a conservation management plan.

The good Lord has blessed with me with a wonderful career working with reptiles and having my family enjoy it with me is the greatest experience I can think of. My wife, Toni, is an 8th grade Science teacher at West Oak Middle School in Mundelein, Illinois. Her classroom is filled with herps which the students love and she recently helped develop an old, degraded courtyard at the school into a mini prairie wetland complete with pond and much more (it was recently designated as a “Certified Wildlife Habitat” by the National Wildlife Federation and the resident population of blanding’s turtles that live in this courtyard successfully bred and produced hatchlings!). My daughters are reptile entrepreneurs as they recently began their own reptile business called “Irish Twin Reptiles”. This company focuses on providing quality, entertaining and educational reptile programs (great for birthday parties!). Enjoy this site and please don’t hesitate to contact us!

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