Contact this guy for some smoking enclosures.

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Posted by Rob Carmichael on May 09, 2003 at 08:10:10:

In Reply to: Contact this guy for some smoking enclosures. posted by Thomas j on May 08, 2003 at 09:43:54:

Thanks for that excellent lead! I heard about this place and how cool it was. Even though we are going with Habitat Systems for all of our displays, I will call this place to get some ideas on actual cage set up...could be just the ticket. Thanks!

:There is a place in Wilminton North Carolina called Cape Fear Serpentarium it has some of the best enclosures that you will find.They had something on Discovery Channel about it.The telephone number is (252) 762-1669. Talk to Scott. He is very helpful and can probally get you alot of pics.Scott can give you the name and number of the man who done the enclosures there. They told me the guy use to do sets for movies. They have alot of bushmasters,cobras,gaboon vipers. My favorite is the 23 ft 250lb retic and the enclosure it is in. It has a gaint door where you can step in and get the animals and do maintainence. It reminds me of a cave. The only way you can tell it is a cage is by the glass front. It has a pond in it and the water circulates to keep the water clean and provide humidity.There is probally 75 to 80 enclosures there and all are top notch.I hope this helps.

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::As some of you know, I direct a successful and fast growing wildlife center that features MANY herps and raptors (my second favorite animal of all time). Our focus is on education but we also engage in captive breeding, rescues/rehab, outreach, youth herpetology trips/summer camps (the best part of my job is in leading junior and senior high kids on herpetology excursions...two more weeks until my first trip!), and field research (I'm working with massasaugas).

::We are somewhere in between a nature center (that usually features native herps) and a zoo (the difference being that people get REAL close encounters with truly exotic species such as various boas, pythons, monitors and even venomous herps under very controlled conditions).

::Recently, I was able to make a case towards obtaining funds from our city (approximately $450,000) to restore an old farm that sits on 600 acres of the finest black soil, tall grass savanna in the U.S....what an opportunity this is. Now, we are working closely with Habitat Systems in designing a public display that will surely knock the public's socks off when they come in. Although our first phase will give us approximately the same amount of room we currently have (one large exhibit area, a classroom, and office area), the outdoor setting is what really makes this place special.

::So here is where I need people's help (for those who are interested): We are going with very naturalistic displays and at first, we were going to go with laminated picture backgrounds, however, we have since learned that this won't be of the quality that we were expecting. So, we are going to go with fiberglass artwork to create rocks, boulders, trees, snags, vines, etc. HS is requesting for me to send him some nice pics of the types of trees, snags, rocks, etc. that we want to recreate as they can do just about anything that we want. If anyone knows any good web sites that depicts herps in natural settings please forward them on to me...we are under the gun on this project as we hope to have our grand opening in September (everyone's invited!). I have found some nice ones but with more people keeping an eye out for high quality pics will increase our chance to find just the right image. If you come across any, please forward the websites/pics to:
::carmichr@cityoflakeforest.com

::MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE!
::Rob Carmichael, Director/Curator of the Wildlife Discovery Center
::City of Lake Forest, Parks & Recreation (Illinois)

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