New zoo opens in SLO County, and it’s all about the reptiles. Take a look inside
A new zoo has opened in San Luis Obispo County, and this one focuses on reptiles and doubles as a store.
Andrew Barton loves reptiles. Growing up in Louisiana, he would catch turtles, fish and snakes in the bayou.
He calls his love a curse, because it drove him to open BK’s Reptiles and Zoo in Grover Beach on May 22.
“It just stuck with me,” Barton told The Tribune. “Now here I am. I had to build this place instead of living a normal life at a computer.”
The business operates as both a reptile store and zoo complete with feeding experiences. The store is at the front of the shop, selling betta fish, scorpions, lizards and everything for their habitats.
The zoo is in the back and boasts more than 30 reptiles and amphibians, including a 13-foot-long reticulated python, black-throated monitor lizard, African bullfrog and rhino iguana live.
Charlotte Hight visited the store on Friday morning to purchase a scorpion, and told The Tribune she “had to have it,” because she has plenty of other reptiles at home.
“I have a colony of hissing cockroaches. I have about 50 of them,” she said. “I have a giant Vietnamese centipede, his name’s Slim Jim, and then I have five different species of tarantulas.”
Hight plans to name her new scorpion Levi from the show “Attack on Titan,” because he looks “small and lethal.”
A turtle-feeding station is to the right of the zoo entrance, where four species of turtles swim in their pond sanctuary. For $5, visitors can buy a cup of live worms to feed to the turtles, who come from the Turtle and Tortoise Rescue in Arroyo Grande.
Two other feeding experiences are found at BK’s Reptiles and Zoo: tortoises for $5 and lorikeets for $6.99, who feed off a mix of eucalyptus nectar and can climb all over the visitors in their enclosure.
“One of the employees, I had everybody go into the lorikeet area,” Barton said. “She couldn’t stop laughing, she was full of excitement, and that does something to people. We’ve had people go in there and cry their eyes out when the birds land on them too. We’ve had it all.”
Barton will frequently take out the friendly reptiles from their enclosures when a crowd gathers in the zoo, and he’ll will let kids put the back of lizards for the full immersive visit.
“We’ve got a guy, he’s mostly the reptile guru guy, so he’ll come back here if he’s cleaning or if he’s feeding,” he said. “He’ll pull the animals out and let the kids watch the snake eat.”
Barton said he plans to also provide party services in the next two months, showing off a Burmese python, king snake, bearded dragon, leopard gecko and other reptiles.
A summer camp for “junior zookeepers” is also planned for the end of July and will include visits to local tide pools, the Central Coast Aquarium and cleanings and feedings of the reptiles every day, although Barton is “still working on that.
“Some hands-on experience where they can feed and take care of these critters and get some experience with that, and maybe do a presentation at the end on a certain animal they want,” he said.
For more information
BK’s Reptiles and Zoo at 1566 W. Grand Ave. in Grover Beach is open on Monday and Wednesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets for the zoo are $9.99 for kids and $12.99 for adults. For more information, visit the website at bksreptilezoo.com.
