He held his head high as strangers stroked his smooth, scaly body. He’d added extra pizazz to his wardrobe that morning with a metallic spiked, red gemmed collar wrapped around his neck. His owner said his style is fierce.
He had residue from the strawberries he ate for dinner on his lips, looking like a scarlet shade of lipstick.
For two hours, he posed on top of a log on the lab tables in the Natural Science Building and let others bask in his presence.
It was not his first Herp Night, nor will it be his last. He was accompanied by some of his brother and sister reptiles and his owner Levi Storks, who is a recent MSU zoology graduate.
Gambi, the stylish bearded dragon, and Storks’s relationship began when a UPS box was delivered to Storks’ doorstep in 2006 — they have been together ever since.
“He was my first real reptile pet. Before him I had some turtles, but that’s what got me started,” Storks said. “(He’s) kind of my founding species for my collection.”
Between him and his roommates, Storks’ basement is filled with 85 reptiles, from geckos and snakes to frogs and salamanders.
During the semi-annual Herp Night, hosted by MSU’s Herpetology Club, Starks brought along a few of the reptiles from his collection that are most “personable to the public,” he said, including Gambi.
Paul Edwards and Jane Meland, both affiliate instructors in the MSU College of Law, brought their 7-year-old daughter, Caroline, to Herp Night to check out the snakes and frogs.
She had an interest in seeing these animals again since the Herpetology Club visited her school during their science night.
“These are animals you don’t get to see. Sometimes you will see them scurry past if you’re on a trail or something, but to see them up close is really neat and I think it’s important for her because she likes them so much,” Edwards said. “This is a really great environment for her to learn about them.”
Caroline said she comes to see the frogs, because they come out in the summer, and the snakes since some are poisonous.
She said she admires the colors, designs and detail of the scales on their bodies. For Starks, nights like these are worth coming back to campus to converse with others who share the same interests in reptiles.
“We get to show off our collections and that’s fun to be a part of,” he said.
