Snakes and geckos and turtles, oh my! The vivarium, located in the Olin Alumni Science Building, houses many animals including bearded dragons, snakes, turtles and geckos. These animals are very friendly and could use some more visitors every once in a while! The vivarium is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, and all you have to do is sign in and you can see the animals and even hold them if you ask a worker.
Lex
The vivarium is home to three bearded dragons, Jack, Joe and Ellie. Biology major and vivarium worker Bailey Lentz said, “Jack eats mealworms and he likes to chase after them with his tongue out. It’s usually pretty funny.” Since Jack has been growing, he was recently moved to a bigger tank, but Joe is the more photogenic of the three. “He likes to pose,” Lentz said. Ellie is the third bearded dragon and looks more similar in appearance to Joe than Jack.
Picasso
There are two geckos in the vivarium, Lex and Mon-Stare. Lex is a leopard gecko. “He’s my favorite,” admitted Lentz. He can usually be found sitting in his tiki house. Mon-Stare is a white-lined gecko and is often stuck to the side of his tank. He is almost done with the process of regrowing his tail. If a gecko feels like they’re stuck and something has a hold of their tail, they can just drop their tail and a new one will grow back. This is often a bad thing because regrowing the tail takes a very long time. Mon-Stare is very squirrely and tries to run away sometimes.
One of the ninja turtles
Seven turtles live in the vivarium in two separate tanks. One tank hosts Dali and Picasso. They are both eastern painted turtles. Dali is about half the size of Picasso. The other tank, referred to as the “ninja turtle tank,” hosts red-eared slider turtle Rafael, common map turtle Leonardo, false map turtle Donatello, western painted turtle Michelangelo and Ouachita map turtle Houdini. Houdini, of course, gets his name because he’s always hiding, and it can be difficult to find him.
Mon-Stare
The vivarium is also home to nine different snakes. Chip is a Kenyan sand boa, and he is the smallest. He is usually hiding under the sand but sometimes shows himself at night, according to biology major and vivarium worker Kelsey Jachino. Severus and Philip are both corn snakes and Rubio is an albino corn snake. “Rubio is my favorite because his color is so pretty,” Jachino said. The most popular animal in the vivarium is a king snake, George. He’s the biggest snake and his diet consists of other smaller snakes. Argentum is a gray rat snake, Joey is a milk snake and Angelica is a bull snake. Precious is a corn snake like Philip and Severus, but is not nearly as nice as them, according to Jachino. Precious’ tank is kept on a high shelf because she does not get along well with others.
One of the ninja turtles
Marcy is the newest member of the vivarium family. She is an alligator skink and was just added around three weeks after this semester started. The Vivarium is trying several new projects this semester. They’ve just recently made a Snapchat account “bvivarium” to help get the students interested in the animals. They’re also looking into rainbow finches to start an aviary, and they are planning on getting fish soon and maybe even frogs. The student workers at the vivarium are hoping to turn it into a place where students can hang out or study. “The sound of the water in the turtle tank is actually really relaxing to study by,” said Lentz.