Every African Animal I Own in One Video!

Añadido: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Today we're taking a trip to Africa where we will be showing you all of our African animals like this beautiful white throat monitor. More on him later.

[00:00:07]We're going to be showing you beautiful tortoises, snakes, and lizards and more.

[00:00:10]So, make sure you stay tuned on this Reparium African safari adventure. Let's go. Starting off with possibly the most famous African reptile there is, the ball python. Right here, I'm holding in my hands an albino ball python with a particular mishap in the egg. It just didn't develop the eyes. And sometimes that happens with these albino ball pythons. It's really interesting because this snake right here breaks a lot of people's fears of ball pythons and snakes in particular. For some reason, when the grandmas that are afraid of snakes see this cutie with no eyes, the fear almost melts away. It's very interesting. So, we like to keep her front and visible because it sparks an intrigue and almost eliminates that fear sense that some people do have. A very popular beginner pet all across the world. Fairly simple to take care of.

[00:01:00]Reaching a maximum feet of about 6 foot.

[00:01:02]This 6 foot of snake is pretty manageable compared to other snakes that you can buy. That's for sure. Ball python. Very simple. You get the name because to be honest, a lot of times it's just spending its time balled up or relatively compact. These are terrestrial animals. So, you don't really have to worry about having an extremely tall cage because odds are they're not really going to use it. They like to burrow and be more so in hides rather than up in the trees more than likely. So there you go. Started off with a beautiful ball python or royal if you're fancy. Next up is this little cutie right here, the African fat tail gecko. Let's get them out. Look at this little cutie right here. Now these guys come from West Africa, places like Cameroon. I love them so much because they resemble a leopard gecko almost identically, but the coloration is quite different with the browns kind of tones.

[00:01:54]These guys have a soft place in my heart, that's for sure. Ground dwelling gecko. And look at this tail right here.

[00:02:00]Almost exactly the same as the leopard gecko where it's going to have the fat storage in there to keep it nice and healthy. And then also if a predator is coming, it can do a tail drop and it just shoots it off like a little missile. Wa, that was crazy. Just kidding. That didn't actually happen.

[00:02:18]Many geckos have that defense. And if the tail does plop off, it will not grow back as beautifully as this is with the ridges and the pattern. It'll probably be more smooth and round and maybe a little uglier. It will not look like the original tail. Luckily, this guy has never dropped his tail. So, you're looking at the original form right there. So, how cool is that? But essentially, what we're looking at right here is Africa's leopard gecko. And next up, Shelly. Of course, these guys are the leopard tortoises, a southern African species of tortoise. And I absolutely love these guys. Although all the leopard tortoises look somewhat the same. Actually, there's not one that looks exactly like the other. Sometimes they're really dark, sometimes they're pretty light. Of course, this is also a species of tortoise that has a really cool bottom of the shell here. These guys can actually float. It is one of the very few species of tortoises that if they end up in water, they are able to float. It is also one, not the fastest, but it is one of the fastest species of tortoises on land, which is still not very fast at all, but faster than some of the others. These are actually the fourth largest species of tortoise in the world, which I will say is pretty crazy because obviously the first is the goalpost, second is the alabra, third is the sata, fourth being these guys is pretty surprising because 30 lbs is big, but that's really not that big. in comparison to the sacata tortoises that are obviously sometimes weighing up to 100 lb and you have the aldabas that are somewhere into the 2 to 300 lb and you have the freaking gaps that are obviously upwards of the 500 to sometimes even close to 1,000 lb. But you can see >> he's pretty heavy.

[00:03:56]>> He is pretty solid. Shelly here, I got the easy works. He's pretty light still.

[00:04:00]>> So this here again is not something you're going to see too often in captivity. This is a file snake and these guys are amazing. We were fortunate enough to get captive born ones years ago as babies and raised them up again. So, we've raised these guys from babies. Still a little bit small, believe it or not. They get bigger than this as adults. They're so unique and so cool. If you look at the body, they have very big scales, but they are very big and very textured, hard scales, not smooth like you see in other ones. And the cool thing too, these guys also, if you look, have kind of a raised spine, and that's the way it's supposed to look. This guy isn't skinny. They actually are almost triangular shape, which makes them very unique. These guys will live a lot of their life underground, believe it or not, in the wild. That's just the way these guys are. Another really cool fact about these is they actually they are not venomous, but they eat venomous snakes.

[00:05:02]Believe it or not, these guys are known to eat cobras and puff adders in the wild. So, honestly, it's a good valuable part of the ecosystem, right? Keeping things in check. Very cool animal. Kind of crazy, but also unique and amazing.

[00:05:17]So, right here we have the blackthroated monitor. That's right. The largest of the rock monitors. This particular subspecies is located from Tanzania.

[00:05:26]That is right. How cool is that? As I mentioned, the largest of the four rock monitors, reaching lengths up to 7 ft, including the tail and weights up to nearly 60 lb. So, that's a fairly decent size monitor. Not quite the largest in the world, but the blackthroat monitor is the largest in Africa. These guys can have a really docile temperament. I remember Waffles. Oh my goodness, Waffles was such a cutie. He was like a puppy dog. My dad loved him so much. I could just give him a little chin scratches and he would just close his eyes and just love it. It's so amazing how smart monitors can be and the black throw monitor is no different than that.

[00:06:05]In the wild, these guys will pretty much get their mouths around anything that they can catch. So, they're not going to be really picky. A bird, rodents, little mammals, it doesn't matter. They're going to catch it and they're going to eat it right up. So, keeping their diet pretty diverse is pretty important here in captivity as well. AJ right here, he's a young buck. So, we still have many years left with him, and we're going to be taking care of them. We're going to be enjoying every single second of it. We still have a couple other monitors from Africa, but AJ, our blackthroat, is the largest. Well, we can't do an African video without our African rock python, right? So, this is machine gun Kelly. She got that name because she used to never shut her mouth and she'd always try to bite us. And as you can see, she is getting massive.

[00:06:51]She's probably a good like 30 lb. But that's the thing with rock pythons is they are the third fourth largest snake in the world. So there's these and the BMS are pretty similar size. So you're still talking 18 ft 200 lb of snake. And I'll tell you what, rock pythons are notorious for having a lot of attitude.

[00:07:10]And I can promise you she's being really really good right now. Normally when we try to maintenance or anything, she's that same old attitude self. But I'm actually surprised at how big she's really being right now. Why does this always happen when we fail? Maybe we need you guys with us all the time.

[00:07:26]These are the longest largest snake in Africa. Uh obviously like the forest cobra is like second longest cuz they also get like 15 16 ft. But obviously python constrictor no venom. But look at that. This is one of my favorite things about big snakes. Look at that caterpillar like motion.

[00:07:50]Undulation. Angelation, however you say it. Caterpillaration.

[00:07:54]Is that a word? I don't know. But she's huge. Remember when we got her? She was like this big, dude. Insane. You know, these guys are insane cuz like they eat analopee reptile. There's pictures of these guys eating Nile monitors and stuff. Anything that they can eat, they're going to try to eat. Obviously, opportunistic hunter. She's just cruising right now. I mean, this is crazy.

[00:08:14]A rock python against a rock. How crazy is that? I also love how light colored their sides are. It's almost like a uh yellowish tan. I don't know. I'm bad at describing colors. I wear the same colors every day. Next up is our Savannah monitors. Look at this little guy. So freaking cool. Now little guy is very serious right now because he is just a little baby. But these guys often get confused for white throat monitors.

[00:08:39]But there is a difference. One being the size. White throats, which we will talk about in a little bit, can reach about 5 to 6 feet, where this guy will top out at four, sometimes even staying closer to that 2 1/2 3ft mark and only reaching about 10 to 14 lb compared to the white throats, which will again we will see in just a minute, which can also weigh quite a bit larger than that 10 lb mark as well. So although they do look similar and some may confuse them, there is a significant difference not only in size but also in where they're located.

[00:09:12]The Savannah monitor right here it's range starts in subsahara and Africa ranging from Seneagal to East Sudan Sudan. I think I said that weird. It's Sudan eat and south almost to the Congo River and Rift Valley where they do eventually get replaced by the white throw monitor and that's where some of the confusion begins. These guys are also ground dwelling. They'll make little burrows and they'll hang out in the ground right there. So, that's where you're going to find this little cutie, which is probably why they got a name of the species rock monitors cuz they're hanging out in the rocks. Now, since these are a relatively smaller monitor, you know, they're going to feed more so on insects and small mammals because these guys, they can't take down those bigger mammals. I mean, the head it's just even though this is a baby, I mean, even a full grown one isn't all that large. So, it's really going to depend on those insects and things like frogs as well for nutrition in the wild. Last thing besides admiring its little cuteness is that females will actually dig a burrow to lay their eggs in. Now, she can lay up to 40 eggs and then they'll hatch in roughly around 150 days. This is Clint Eastwood named because we have cowboy across the street, which is also a savannah monitor.

[00:10:24]>> Next up, the panther chameleon. Of course, I actually don't know anything about these guys.

[00:10:27]>> Okay, panther chameleons. I This is a male. You can tell by the color because the females are really dull.

[00:10:32]>> Yes.

[00:10:32]>> Right.

[00:10:33]>> Yes. Well, right now he does look a little dull. Just so you guys know, chameleons are not actually like how you guys see in like the movies and the TV shows and stuff like that. They don't just like and change color, but they do get really dark and dull when they aren't necessarily the happiest.

[00:10:47]>> Okay, check out his feet. He's got spllayed feet right here.

[00:10:50]>> M. Sorry, buddy. Yes, >> that's pretty cool. What else do you know about him, Jay?

[00:10:56]>> I also know that uh chameleons are super cool. I do know that they are an invasive species actually. Well, not this type, not panther. Actually, some have been found in Florida right now, but the veil chameleon, which is actually my favorite species of chameleon, is invasive in Florida right now. These guys are super cool. Of course, they have very, very awesome eyeballs that they are able to look all the way behind them. So, if you turn him this way, he actually is able He's looking at me right now, even though And you. He's looking at both of us. Uh they do have that dual split vision, so he can look at me and look at her at the same time, which is a pretty unique adaptation.

[00:11:30]>> And they're native Madagascar.

[00:11:31]>> And honestly, the really interesting thing about chameleons is these guys do have a pretty short lifespan, especially the females. They're laying eggs. They typically only live about 3 to four years after that. And they also only can have about five to six clutches in their whole life just due to the stress that it puts on their bodies. But they do have clutches of about 40 to sometimes 60 eggs. Do you guys remember back in the day when we hatched out all of those little baby chameleons?

[00:11:54]>> You guys had babies?

[00:11:55]>> We did.

[00:11:55]>> Wow.

[00:11:56]>> Jackson.

[00:11:57]>> Jackson chameleons.

[00:11:57]>> Is that live birth?

[00:11:58]>> Yes, >> it was live birth.

[00:12:01]>> Yeah, cuz they were all over the >> They were all over the cage just like crawling.

[00:12:06]>> It was crazy. Yeah, we l just like came in one day and it was like pepper with baby Jackson.

[00:12:12]>> So, the panther chameleon. All right, now we're back to Veranis albigularis or the white throat monitor. Also a part of the rock monitor family. Smaller than the blackthroat but bigger than the savannah. Now this is the guy that can get mixed up with the savannah monitors and you can see why. But you can also see why they're different. They have very similar bone structure on their face and similar pattern but there is clearly that white throat that they have there that is different than the Savannah monitors. So although they are similar when they are next to each other there is the difference that is quite visible. Now something interesting that I found out while doing some research on these guys is that monitor lizards the Latin for them is feris. Now where does feranis come from? It actually comes from the Arabic word warn or warning which then got turned to verandis and then got English translation of monitor.

[00:13:12]So it got me thinking monitor is really more so like warn or warning if we're going back to the roots of verannis. So, that is so fascinating to me because if you're thinking about it, you see a monitor lizard in the wild and say we're a little bit more primal and have a lack of understanding and knowledge of them, you really do want something in your head. Hey, hey, locals guys, this is a warning. You know, we see this guy. Be careful. Monitor yourself because you can get hurt. You know, the thing with the lack of technology and medical development, if you do get bite and lead to infection, I mean, that can be deadly. literally. So, taking it back a step back and thinking about it, breaking it down like that was really fascinating for me to learn. As for mentioned with the Savannah monitor, sticking to southern Africa now getting past that Congo River rift valley area.

[00:14:06]Then we transition into the white throat monitor here. We're talking northwards to Angola, Zambia, and Mosmb beek area is where you will find these guys in the wild. Now, we showed the first largest rock monitor of Africa. Now the white throw holds the silver medal at second largest rock monitor. Now that second place is for the length of the monitor, but typically when it comes to weight, these guys can actually be more heavybodied than the blackthroat monitor, which is interesting to think about.

[00:14:37]>> You like to eat buffets. Maybe you're American. And next up, one of my favorite species of chameleons.

[00:14:43]Actually, it's a little bit of a tossup, but never mind that. This here is the Parson's chameleon. This is our girl Sally aka Muffin and she is absolutely beautiful. Of course, this is the largest species of chameleon there is.

[00:14:56]And these guys are the creme deella creme of chameleon. Now, you can find these guys in Madagascar as well. Muffin here is only about 2 years old. So, she's still a little bit on the smaller size. She's going to get almost double this size actually when she's done growing, which is still pretty pretty huge. Again, you guys can see her coloration. She does naturally already have that dark on the top. She doesn't normally have these lines, but because she's out moving around right now, you guys can see that coloring is just a little bit different. Actually, if you guys rewind just a little bit to when we bought her out, she actually wasn't even this vibrant green or that yellowish right now. So, again, beautiful species.

[00:15:31]These guys of course can eat really, really large things like the huge cockroaches and things like that that they find in the water. And of course, as you guys know, or maybe you don't know, the chameleons have a pretty awesome prehensile tail. As you see as she's walking around Melissa right now, she's actually using that prehensile tail almost just like as a way to keep her balance so she doesn't fall or anything like that. But I will tell you the grip strength on this very specific chameleon.

[00:15:52]>> That's hurt a little >> is bad. That's why she's holding not me.

[00:15:55]>> Okay. So, what's your favorite chameleon?

[00:15:57]>> The Miller's chameleon, of course.

[00:15:59]Absolutely gorgeous. One day we'll have one. You know somebody, drop it in the comments. All right. Next up is our boy Bradloaf, our dumerals boa. Now, this guy comes from Madagascar.

[00:16:13]How cool is that? I love these African animals that have the deep chocolatey colors. This guy has almost the same pattern as that African fat tail that we were showing you off earlier. Now, these boas have a similar length to a maxed out ball python, reaching usually around 6 and 1/2 ft with the largest reported at 8 1/2 ft.Oop.

[00:16:33]So, these guys are ground boas. So, they are also terrestrial, meaning that they spend most of the time on the ground and not the aoreal like some of the other boas and stuff from other videos that we have showed off in the past. So, dumeral boas, just like our boy bread loaf right here, will stick to western and southwestern parts of Madagascar in semi-arid forest. How cool is that?

[00:16:54]Their habitats they hang out in consists of loose leaves, rocks, and dirt. And you can see how they would camouflage so well in leaf litter, dusty, dirty, rocky areas. I mean, me, if I was walking, I'd probably just walk right past it. I mean, you can just kind of tell that would be an amazing camouflage in that sort of terrain. Personally, straying away from the facts, just going straight personal level, I love this guy so much.

[00:17:22]Just off of the beauty, the something about the pattern is so majestic to me.

[00:17:27]It's simple. It's beautiful. The earthy tones speak to my soul. I love just the colors. And then if you get a closer look at his eyes right here, they he has a Oh, buddy. I think I still got 25 years till I need that checkup. Speaking of tails, males usually have longer yet skinnier tails compared to the females where the females will overall be a bigger weight than the male. Back to those eyeballs. Look at that. You can see literally the pattern from his face transcends into his eyeball. The stripe goes across his face across his eyeball, but then at the top he's got a beautiful gray kind of sparkly eyeball right there. Again, same thing. Just so freaking beautiful. His name is Breadloaf and we adore him.

[00:18:20]>> And speaking of African snakes, how about an African house snake? This one here is actually what you would call a black morph. They're really cool. Solid black patternless belly on them. Now, we've worked with other ones in the past. These are ones that we work with now. They're a very small animal, which is really cool. They stay relatively on the small side. This is a big adult female. They could get a little bit larger than that, but obviously they're pretty small, so these guys will eat on small items like small mice, sometimes maybe even fuzzy mice. Sometimes in the wild, these guys would maybe eat like anolles or other little lizards and stuff like that. You can see they are a very cute, pretty docile. Sometimes, like anything, you can find a feisty one. But these guys have been in the pet trade for quite some time and honestly are a fan favorite of a lot. But if black isn't your style, I've got another type to show you. Now, I'm going to show you something here that you're probably not going to see very often. There's not very many of these in the country. Brian was one of the few who brought these in years ago. This is an Aurora house snake. Now, these guys are very cool.

[00:19:26]Obviously look very different. If you compare these to some of the other ones that are available, they're very, very different. Almost look like a completely different snake in the same family, just different scientific names. These guys are very unique and really cool. Again, adults will get a little bit bigger than this, but look at that really cool olivey color. I mean, I love it. This is my color palette. I love a good green and this one is a really nice green with those yellow stripes almost orangey and that cute little head. Oh my gosh, these guys are amazing. Now, we have yet to produce these. I don't know if this is the year. If not, hopefully maybe next year. They've been a really slow grower because again, in the wild, these guys are going to feed mainly as babies on like little anolles, little lizards, stuff like that. Those things are not as very common to have if you're keeping an animal in captivity. So, it's been a slow grow, but we finally got them to the size to where they might be breedable. But yeah, these guys are very unique, very cool, and come from the amazing South Africa. Next up here, we have the Sudan plated lizard. They get that name. It's very simple. Look at the back right there. It is like plated armor. It almost looks like armor that's similar to the samuris and kind of what they used on those classic timeless designs. One of my favorite things about their plates is that it feels like wood.

[00:20:49]It is legit armor. A lot of reptile scales, you know, you'll feel it. It might feel a little soft. It might feel a little flexible. These guys literally feel like they are wearing wooden armor.

[00:21:01]I personally think they need to mine some more and get some diamond armor, but wood will do in the early game.

[00:21:07]Sudan plated lizards. They are coming in in areas like Kenya, Mosamb beek, and Tanzania. They're going to be in airy rocket kind of areas similar to the enclosure that we have set up right here. They're fast little buggers. They can just zip off and get into little crevices and whatnot and they'll just jam themselves in there with that tail.

[00:21:27]They got spiky tail similar to euromastics and bearded dragons and stuff where they can do the reverse thing, shove themselves in a crack and it's hard to get them out because they got this spiky little tail right there.

[00:21:37]Super cool. They are crazy to grab, but once you get them, they truly are adorable. They have never bit me, but they surely make it seem like they don't want to be held until you actually hold them out. As you see, zero pressure whatsoever. I have them open hand and he is just chillaxed. Definitely one of my favorite and cutest lizards. They are omnivorous, meaning that they will eat fruit, veg, and then of course insects, bigger meat like mammals and stuff. I mean, maybe smaller ones, but they are mostly going to be eating insects here at the Reparium. You can visit Dan Skipper and Rico if you visit Legacy Aquarium in Udica, Michigan. Speaking of cockroaches, the Madagascar hissing cockroach, absolutely one of my favorite things on this planet. I mean, I'm talking about favorite things on the planet. And oh, I didn't see you standing here. Just just joking. Of course, these guys come from Madagascar, which is obviously in Africa. These guys are really cool. They can get up to about four to four and a half inches in length. When they have babies, they'll have sometimes live births, of course.

[00:22:37]Somewhere between 15 and 30 babies at a time. That's a lot, right? And since we're talking about having babies, let's point out some of the differences between males and females. Melissa, would you like to show the people a male?

[00:22:48]>> Sure. This is a male right here. You can tell by these little nodules on his head.

[00:22:53]>> Nice. See, I taught her that. Yeah, that's good.

[00:22:56]>> And then, um, this would be a female cuz it's nice and smooth right there.

[00:23:00]>> Nice job. And actually, since we're talking about this female, see if I can get this girl off. This female here, if you guys can see just how plump she is, she actually is probably going to be laying babies here pretty soon. Make sure you guys don't tell Lori that, though. Uh, these guys, they typically have a gestation period of about 45 to 60 days, and then we should be seeing babies here soon. As you guys can tell, actually, let me grab a baby out for you.

[00:23:22]>> Babies are a little too fast for me. The babies are normally pretty quick, but you guys can see even as babies, they come out looking just like a little hissing cockroach already. Just the mini version. As you guys know, I love hissing cockroaches. These guys to me are not feeders. But a lot of people do use them as feeder insects, which is fine. It's fine. I get it. Everybody's got to eat.

[00:23:40]>> Hey, Jake, you got a roach behind your ear.

[00:23:45]>> Ew. What is wrong with you?

[00:23:47]>> What the How did that How did you do?

[00:23:51]That's crazy. I know that we're doing a video about Africa right now, but speaking of cockroaches, the cave cockroaches are having babies in here.

[00:23:58]And we have been so successful. Let me show you guys. These ones look like they they bury a lot more than the hissers.

[00:24:05]>> So much more, which is pretty interesting cuz they are Oh god, I'm letting them out.

[00:24:09]>> Oh my gosh. Jeez.

[00:24:11]>> Don't show that to Lord. These guys here, this is a young one. You don't know if it's a male or female or not until it grows up and gets his wings.

[00:24:18]Again, I just love the cockroaches. You got something behind your ears.

[00:24:21]>> No. Stop. Oh, okay.

[00:24:23]>> Next up here is the Angolan pythons. One of my dad's favorites. He had a special place in his heart for the Angolan python. These guys come from southern Angola and northern.

[00:24:35]That is a hard country to remember.

[00:24:41]That's all, folks.

[00:24:42]>> You can read it for yourself. A couple cool things. These guys are terrestrial, similarly to the ball python. So, not only do they look like them, but they also kind of act like them. Dural, meaning they are active during the day.

[00:24:52]That's why when I opened this cage, this guy came flying out. He was like, "Hey, what's going on?" Because unlike other reptiles that are nocturnal, these guys are dural. So, they have a similar sleep cycle to us. I love the ball pythones head. I mean, just something about that ball python or and golden python head is just so adorable. And that's why I think one of the reasons why ball pythons became great pets is because they're just so flipping cute. It is insane. I know my dad worked for a long time to be able to actually source these. They were on his bucket list, but things kind of happened in past. So when they gave up an opportunity to actually add a couple of angle pythons to the reparium, he jumped on that opportunity and he was very very happy to have them. So, I am extremely pleased that they are still around and doing very well here at Legacy Aquarium and the Reparium.

[00:25:46]>> He's so cute.

[00:25:47]>> He is cute. Did I kiss him?

[00:25:50]>> Almost touched my lips. All right, guys.

[00:25:52]Next up, we got Son of Sam. Of course, this is the African bullfrog, also known as a pixie frog. These guys are some of my absolute favorite frogs. If you guys remember back in the day, I wasn't really a big frog or toad guy. I will say they have grown on me. Oh, the pixie frog here actually can weigh up to 4 to 6 lb, which is absolutely huge. We haven't weighed this guy, but we probably should. He's probably right at like 3 and 12 lb. Now, in the wild, they actually can live up to 20 to 30 years, which is pretty impressive. Also, for a frog, when these guys have babies, they actually lay eggs upwards of the hundreds, sometimes even into the thousands. So, think about that. It's a thousand of these guys all over the place. They also have really huge teeth, some on the top, some on the bottom, and they love to eat whatever comes by.

[00:26:33]These guys are known to eat any small game. That's rodents, that's smaller frogs, small birds, whatever they can find. Of course, they're an ambush predator. So, they will basically wait and as soon as something comes by, they just pow ambush him. Pixie frog.

[00:26:46]>> Do you want to kiss him and see what happens?

[00:26:51]>> Oh my god.

[00:26:57]Hope you guys enjoyed today's video. If you did, there's a playlist that you can watch all kinds of videos. You can also hit that subscription button. It would mean a lot to me. Also, hit that like button while you're down there. Have a wonderful day, reptile army. Remember, be kind to someone. And I promise I'll see you in the next