Be afraid....
....be very afraid...
20 Orange St., Wilmington, NC
910 762-1669
Call for Hours
For the absolute best place to see the most venomous snakes of our world you must see the Cape Fear Serpentarium. Owner Dean Ripa has put together a large collection of these fascinating reptiles including; Gaboon Vipers, Tropical Rattlers, King Cobras. Black Mambas, Green Mambas, Rhinoceros Vipers, Death Adders, Fer-de-lance, Taipan, and the world's largest collection of rare and deadly Bushmasters.
I have never met anyone more knowledgeable in their trade than Dean Ripa. Dean has collected snakes in the distant backwaters of 35 countries. His many field captures include: king cobras, spitting cobras, forest cobras, mambas, kraits, gaboon and rhinoceros vipers, terciopelos, fer-de-lances, numerous other lance-head species, all three species of bushmasters and dozens of others. Deans work has not been without hazard. He has survived an amazing four envenomings by bushmasters, making him "the most bushmaster bitten person of all time". This is the more remarkable when one considers that bushmaster bite has been shown to kill an estimated 80 percent of its victims even with antivenin treatment. In "The Bushmasters (Genus Lachesis Daudin 1803), Morphology in Evolution and Behavior," the author provides an intimate, first hand look at what it's like to nearly die from bushmaster bite, and challenges our preconceptions of what the venom of this "most lethal of all vipers" does to the human system. For a fascinating trip that you will remember for a lifetime, visit the Cape Fear Serpentarium.
