Get in touch
Most questions are answered further down this page. Email reaches us fastest for anything else. If your message fits one of the forms below it will get to the right person quicker, because each one carries the details we would otherwise have to write back and ask you for.
Questions we get most often
If your answer is here you do not need to write to us at all. If it is not, the forms below go to a person.
Can I visit the zoo?
Not yet. The zoo is pre-opening, which means the collection exists and the building does not. There is no public address to visit, and we would rather say that plainly than take bookings for a door that is not there.
What runs today is education. The animals go out to schools, libraries, community groups and events across the valley, so the zoo reaches people before it opens.
Do you come out to schools and groups?
Yes, and it is the main thing the zoo does right now. Sessions are built around live animals and cover adaptation, habitat, invasive species and the pet trade.
Send the booking form with your group size, age range and a few possible dates. You will get a straight answer, including a no if the date does not work.
What does a programme cost?
Tell us about your group and we will give you a real answer. This is a nonprofit rather than a business, so the question is what your group needs and what the zoo can cover, not a price list.
Session lengths, maximum group sizes and how far we travel are still being settled, and they go on the education page once they are fixed.
Are you actually a registered nonprofit?
Yes. Las Vegas Reptile Zoo is recognised by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organisation under EIN 33-2811809, and that number is printed on every page of this site.
You do not have to take our word for it. Put the EIN into the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search and it confirms us independently. What we have published and what we have not is set out on the transparency page.
Is my donation tax deductible, and where does it go?
Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law, and your receipt carries the EIN so you can file it. We are not your tax adviser, so if a gift is large enough for the treatment to matter, check with somebody who is.
The money goes into enclosures, veterinary care, feed, heating and the building that will hold all of it. Donations are processed by Zeffy, which takes no cut, so the full amount reaches the zoo.
Can I sponsor a specific animal?
Yes, and it is the version most people understand fastest. Sponsorship covers one named animal's food, heating, veterinary care and enclosure for a year. You get that animal's updates, and your name goes on its page rather than into a list.
Pick an animal, or see the sponsorship levels.
Do you sell animals?
No. Nothing here is for sale and nothing here is going anywhere. Every animal in the collection is a permanent resident, and that is the whole difference between this and a shop.
I cannot keep my reptile any more. Will you take it?
Ask us before you rehome it anywhere else. We cannot take every animal, because space and quarantine are real limits, but we will tell you honestly and point you at somebody who can if we cannot.
Use the rehoming form and tell us what the animal is and how it has been kept.
I found a reptile in my yard. What do I do?
Start on the Found a Reptile page, and do it before you move the animal. Some Nevada species are protected by law, including the Mojave desert tortoise and the Gila monster, and handling one without authorisation is an offence whatever your intentions.
That page also lists the agencies actually authorised to help, which for a native animal is usually who you want rather than us.
Do you keep venomous animals, and can I hold them?
The collection includes a Gila monster, which is venomous and protected by Nevada law. Animals like that are handled by staff only and are never passed around.
Where an animal is handled at a programme it happens under staff direction, and nobody ever has to touch anything. Every session works just as well watching, and we would far rather somebody watched than felt pushed.
Can I volunteer, or donate materials?
Yes to both. The zoo needs enclosures, timber, lighting, transport and hands more than it needs most things. Tell us what you have and we will tell you honestly whether we need it.
Use the volunteer form.
I am press, or writing about the zoo.
Email [email protected] rather than messaging on social media, and say what your deadline is. Photographs, animal details and anything you need verifying can be arranged.
What are you writing about?
Book a presentation
Tell us your group size, age range and two or three possible dates and you will get a real answer, including a no if we cannot staff it.
Rehome an animal to us
If you own a reptile you can no longer care for, or you have found one nobody is claiming, this form asks the things we need to know before we can answer.
Sponsorship and supply
Sponsoring an animal, offering materials or trade work, or setting up a corporate partnership.
Collaborations
Filming, photography and content work with the collection.
This is probably not us
For native Nevada wildlife, including desert tortoises, there are agencies with the permits and the authority. Start there rather than here.
Phone, email and social
Phone
This reaches Joe directly. It is a small organisation, so if he is with the animals or running a session you may get voicemail. Leave one and it gets returned.
This is the address that reaches the organisation directly. For press, grants or anything requiring documentation, use it rather than social media.
Social
Instagram · Facebook · YouTube · Twitch
The animals turn up on Instagram first. Messages there are read, though email is faster for anything that needs an actual answer.
Mailing address
We have not published a mailing address yet. It goes up here once the registered address is confirmed, and it is the one thing on this page still missing.
Phone and email both reach us today, and our EIN is on the transparency page if you need to verify the organisation before getting in touch.
We answer, including when the answer is no
The most common message we get is somebody offering us an animal we do not have room for. Saying so plainly, and pointing at somebody who might, is more useful than silence, and it is what we try to do every time.
If you have written and not heard back within a week, write again. Small organisations lose messages, and we would rather you chased us than assumed we were not interested.
