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Edisto Island Serpentarium

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I am always searching for new places to explore here in South Carolina and I came by this great place, Edisto Island Serpentarium. This is a great place to visit for kids of all ages. Edisto Island, one of the barrier islands off the coast of South Carolina is so beautiful to visit any time of the year.

The Edisto Island Serpentarium is one of the few nearby attractions if you are camping in the nearby Edisto Island State Park. It is a curious and unusual place. You enter through a little gift store/museum exhibit, and proceed to an outdoor wooden amphitheater, where a docent/ranger/scientist demonstrates the various kinds of snakes. We thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, especially my husband.

After the presentation ended, we were free to wander through the grounds. The alligators were dozing ominously in a dried-out sort of prairie. They looked like manufactured exhibits, until the ranger climbed up a sort of platform holding plastic baggies full of chicken parts. He flung them to the alligators, who raced forward and chomped them down. Who knew these sleepy creatures could run so fast?

Every exhibit was very well-maintained and had a useful placard next to it, giving every detail you could wonder about the snake inside. There’s a huge variety, and most of them I’d never seen before at the zoo we frequent, which is pretty large (Riverbanks in Columbia). One of my favorite parts about this was the newspaper clippings in the back of the room about famous snake-wranglers who’d been bitten over 150 times and injected themselves with venom, etc. Framed letters on the wall chronicling the establishment of the serpentarium really brought it all together too. We eventually wandered outside and took in the Snake exhibits.

Serpentarium is home to 19 Adult American alligators housed in two separate ponds. They also have a large variety of turtles. Box turtles, red-eared sliders, diamondback terrapins, soft-shelled turtles and common snapping turtles are all displayed in a natural habitat for your viewing pleasure.  This habitat also houses two huge Alligator snapping turtles, Bubba and Shelly, don’t you just love their names..  Right beside the habitat for the water turtles you may enjoy watching Joe Turtle and Spike, their African Spur-Thigh Tortoises.

We had a great time visiting the Serpentarium!  I highly recommend this attraction for both adults and children. Whether you adore reptiles, or just want to be reminded what a thrill feels like outside of a movie theater, the Serpentarium will be a couple of hours well spent.

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jheylo

Friday 17th of May 2013

That snakes creeps me up hehhehe

Sofia

Friday 17th of May 2013

Not a big fan of reptiles...but I can still remember the day when I tried to take a baby alligator home!! I was only 2...

Anna at Mama Writes

Friday 17th of May 2013

My daughter would love visiting this place!! She loves watching the snake at the zoo in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone...

Nicole @ One Punky Mama

Friday 17th of May 2013

Wow, that looks awesome. My boys would go nuts!

Sarah Bailey

Friday 17th of May 2013

Oh wow this looks like an amazing place - I'm not sure if I could be slightly scared though :( x

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