DAYTONA BEACH -- Two green baby pythons squirmed in the hands of a couple who looked intent while holding the scaly skinned merchandise.
Pam and Bob Pessel traveled from Jacksonville to buy four snakes. They already keep more than 30 serpents in glass cases in their sunroom, including a tiger rat snake that will reach 20 feet long when fully grown.
To snake lovers like the Pessels, there's always room for a few more.
"We find them calming," said Pam Pessel, 40.
Reptiles writhed, coiled and hunkered in glass cases Saturday at the National Reptile Breeders' Expo, drawing roughly 5,000 humans to the Ocean Center by mid-afternoon. Many people checked out the 700 exhibits out of curiosity, while the more serious buyers traveled from Europe and Japan to get their hands on rare reptilian breeds, particularly snakes.
Organizers and breeders claim this reptile exposition, which is in its 17th year, is the largest in the world. The expo was moved from Orlando to Daytona Beach about five years ago.
A smattering of turtles, lizards and alligators were on display, as were some amphibians and spiders. But the snakes, all nonvenomous, ruled the show.
The snakes varied in price as much as size, color, skin pattern and species.
A bargain hunter might find a common python for a couple hundred bucks. Or a collector in search of an ultra-rare, pedigreed boa could shell out as much as $30,000 -- more than most folks pay for a new car.
Christopher Dammann, 26, stood in an aisle with a fat, 7-foot Burmese python draped over his shoulders. The Orlando man paid $100 for the serpent.
"This guy here is super-relaxed," Dammann said, as the snake curled its head backward and flicked its tongue.
Dammann has a half-dozen snakes at home, though none this large. Each snake expresses a distinct personality without having to speak like a furry or feathered critter.
A Vero Beach woman was an unwilling browser, dragged along by her boyfriend and four children who all have a passion for snakes.
"This is my worst nightmare," Karrie Perry, 32, said. "I hate them! This is 'Fear Factor' for me."
Perry said she kept fighting the vision of all the glass cases toppling and the hundreds of snakes slithering willy-nilly across the floor.
Meanwhile, her daughter, Sarah, 11, thoroughly enjoyed the expo and wished she could have a python for a pet. She said she liked the different patterns on the snakes' skins, and seeing the snakes devour rodents.
"It's so cool to watch," she said.
One dark-haired, green-eyed young woman from Delaware looked as though she were preparing to do a snake dance. Claire Kirby, 17, wore a black, sequined, midriff-baring outfit that, as it turned out, was her belly dancing costume.
"Maybe next year," she said of the snake dance.
Her father, Bill Kirby, 48, a pathologist, has bred and collected snakes for eight years. He displayed a few Aztec boas in the $7,500 range and said there were only 15 in the world.
This snake hobby fits his profession, he said. "I like it as a scientist because I like genetics."
Marc Bailey, 44, hauled 150 snakes from Minnesota. He developed an affinity for snakes and turtles while growing up in southern Louisiana, where reptiles abound.
Bailey turned his hobby into a living 15 years ago, and now sells and breeds snakes full-time. He has come to the expo since 1991.
So why does he like the cold-blooded creatures so much?
"They don't bark," he said.
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