Day Trip to Luray Zoo

Since we were nearby to Luray, we decided to visit the Luray Zoo and Reptile Jungle. It's a smallish zoo, consisting of mostly rescued animals. We were greeted in the parking lot with a warning that was a bit concerning. We were glad that we had money to pay the admission price!


The kids liked the entrance to the zoo, which looked like big alligator jaws.


Inside, there were very many interesting reptiles, including a very large alligator turtle, an amazing selection of snakes, and these bearded lizards which I named "The Three Stooges":


The outdoor portion of the zoo featured some very cool animals. We especially enjoyed the monkeys.


And the petting zoo was a favorite of the littles.


The Alligator feeding was especially groovey. The zoo owner, Mr. Mark Kilby explained to us that he doesn't approve of the foolishness of jumping on crocodilians, tying their mouths shut, wrapping them up, and all that jazz that is sometimes seen on certain nature shows. Mr. Kilby just calmy approaches his alligators, and presents the food, and gulp, the alligators chomp it down.


After the alligator feeding, Mr. Kilby was kind enough to sit down with Cole and talk.


One of the questions Cole asked was, "So, were you considering Steve Irwin when you said that you didn't jump on your animals like some other people?" Mr. Kilby spoke very respectfully of Mr. Irwin, and yet with every bit as much conviction for the conservation of animals, explained why he believed Mr. Irwin was wrong in his tactics and antics. "My animals trust me, and if I grabbed my snakes by the tail and held them up and yelled stuff, they would never trust me again." He also talked about the time Steve Irwin came to the Luray Zoo, and borrowed some of Mr. Kilby's snakes for filming (under the condition that he would not act crazy with the snakes). We found Mr. Kilby to be a very knowledgeable and kind man.

Later, he got out some of his snakes to show us, including a Copperhead, a Diamondback rattlesnake, and a Cobra!


During the snake show, Mr. Kilby made an interesting point (I'm going on memory here): The most common venomous snake in Virginia, is the Copperhead. The Copperhead has killed 6 people in Virginia since 1948. That's SIX -- two of which were religious snake handlers who did not seek medical attention due to their delusional thinking. The other four deaths were intoxicated males that were bitten between the fingers and the elbow ("I know I'm a little drunk y'all, but I'll be dipped if'n I can't pick up that there snake!"). Snakes are generally hated, and killed with a shovel when seen. A far more deadly animal -- that has killed thousands of people, many of them elderly ladies, infants and other young children, is greatly loved and kept as pets -- the dog. The dog kills babies and old ladies, and the Copperhead takes care of nuts and drunks, and we love the dog but hate the snake, because one is "creepy" and the other is cute. Hmm...

We had a great visit to the Luray Zoo, and everyone had a really good time.