In 1995 I, along with some other reptile enthusiasts (Joe Forks,Gerry Salmon, Troy Hibbitts, and others) created a web page for gray-banded kingsnake hobbyists called The Alterna Page. By 1997 one thing led to another and it had morphed into what today is kingsnake.com.

That marks 30 years building and maintaining web communities for reptile hobbyists around the world. That is almost half my life. But all good things eventually must come to an end and after discussing it with our sponsors and staff I have concluded it is time for me to retire to pursue other things in my life, and for kingsnake.com to retire as well.

I want to thank kingsnake.com's primary sponsors, LLLReptile.com and RodentPro.com, along with the staff, Cindy Steinle, Melody Golubski, Mark Kennedy, Gerry Freymann, Dick Bartlett, and Ted Hatfield who volunteered his time looking after our servers. Special thanks go to Christie Keith. It is because of their dedication that kingsnake.com has lasted so long. As well there are literally thousands of other advertisers and community members that made kingsnake.com the place to be for herpetologists and herpetoculturists during its great years, from 1999-2016, when some would say the reptile culture was at it's peak. I met many of these thousands of people at countless reptile expos and consider many of them my friends.

Along the way kingsnake.com pioneered many new things for the reptile community and industry, such as topic/species based message boards (forums), live chat symposiums, reptile blogs, podcasts, and video interviews. Many of the fights in the forums were epic.

Most remembered will be kingsnake.com's classifieds, for many years the Internets most popular reptile and amphibian sales tool. It helped turn a random group of like minded hobbyists into a real industry. At it's peak there were over 2200 active classified accounts.

Officially kingsnake.com will close down on October 31,2025. If you have your pictures on the site, or forum posts or other content that you want to save, please do so now, they will not be available on our systems after October 31. If you have a paid classified or other advertising account your account services will still be functional until October 31, or when your contract runs out if sooner.

If you would like to continue to post classified ads until the close date of October 31,2025 please feel free to register for a free classified account and post away. We will be disconnecting our advertising purchase system this week.
Though we are closing we are not filing bankruptcy. We go out clean, all our debts settled and all our bills paid. And if someone is interested in continuing kingsnake.com's legacy I will entertain offers until October 31

This has been a very hard decision, but it is the right one, and it is the right time. I will miss being an integral part of the reptile hobby and culture.

- Jeff Barringer

Burmese Pythons have still a strong hold on the Everglades. It is a perfect environment for them and with few predators to take on an adult, they have latched on down there since they were released during the hurricanes decades ago. Now scientists are turning to robots to try to track them, more specifically, robot rabbits.

“Our partners have allowed us to trial these things that may sound a little crazy,” says Robert McCleery, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida who’s leading the rabbit project, to the Palm Beach Post. “Working in the Everglades for ten years, you get tired of documenting the problem. You want to address it.”
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In the past, researchers have experimented with placing live rabbits in pens in a bid to attract the invasive serpents in Everglades National Park. The live rabbits were indeed effective at luring the snakes, drawing in about one per week, but caring for and managing the small mammals was labor-intensive. Researchers wondered if robotic rabbits might do the job just as well.

There are a variety of techniques planned to see if this can be more effective. To read more, pop over to Smithsonian Magazine here.