About Us

 Owner

​
Matt grew up in the rural backwoods of Clay County, Florida, where he spent his days playing in the woods and enjoying nature.  With a passion for animals, especially reptiles, he studied everything he could find.  In his teens, he met Henry Kelly and Rick Lewis who helped fuel his passion for venomous reptiles and crocodiles.  After college, Matt went full-time into breeding venomous reptiles, developing contacts all over the world.  He has kept and bred hundreds of different species and traveled the world to study the animals he loves in their natural habitats.

Owner

Growing up a Navy brat, Paula spent most of her young life traveling around the world.  Everywhere they were stationed brought it's own unique outdoor experience which was perfect for an avid hiker, camper, and animal lover.  In the late '90's, the opportunity arose to purchase an existing pet store.  It didn't take long for her to realize that the reptiles and arachnids were her passion. Pairing Paula's business experience with Matthew's extensive reptile knowledge has brought Wild Things to the International reptile powerhouse it is today.

 Manager

Savannah spent most of her childhood in her family's Orange Park, FL Pet Store. Having always been attracted to the unusual, she spent much of her time learning about the different reptiles she worked with. After joining the Wild Things Staff, Savannah has continued that learning and is currently focusing her higher studies on Crocodilian. Along with pursuing work with these "living dinosaurs", she also breeds several varieties of Bearded Dragons and shares her home with her husband, 3 children and a Bengal Cat.

 General Curator

Sam is a classically trained dancer, spending hours every day training and conditioning. Living near the St Johns river she spent her down time relaxing by the calming beauty of the water and all of its natural wildlife. She loved the alligators, lizards and snakes that made the river their home. She wanted to know more about them and their mysterious ways. Her studies led her to keeping pythons and geckos, this led her to the local exotic animal shop (You guessed it, Wild Things). The owners were so impressed with her love for the animals and need to learn everything she could, they brought her on as part of the team.

Abby started her love of reptiles at a young age. Her family encouraged her passion, and she got her first Bearded Dragon at age 5. Then when she was 10, she got her first Ball Python named Snakespear. The love for reptiles and exotic animals grew fast. It all started with a lizard then a python, then 2, then 3 and a gecko here and a monitor there. Once she got her own place, the collection really started to grow. Then it was on to rare Anoles and Tegus. With a love and passion for Exotic animals like that, it is no surprise she ended up on the Wild Things Team.

Katlyn has two passions in life; exotic animals and art. She has worked hard to be successful at both. Her love for animals, especially reptiles, is key to her artwork. Her unique artwork includes many of the animals she works with on a daily basis. Working first hand with the animals she portrays in her paintings, gives her an uncanny ability to capture their true essence, in a way no one else can. You can see many examples of her work here at Wild Things.

Ashlee was born and raised in Illinois where she spent most of her childhood saving toads stuck in the window wells and catching bullfrogs in ponds. That's probably where her nickname "frog girl" came about.

In her later years, she graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor's in forest resources and moved on to Canisius College for a MS in Anthrozoology. Her professional experience ranges from an ecology lab assistant to animal research technician to exotic vet tech and director of a nonprofit wildlife rescue. Her favorite animals will forever be frogs and turtles.

Becky grew up in the woods of Keystone Heights. Her parents both had a love for animals and shared their passion with young Becky. Her Dad kept reptiles and her Mom was a Vet tech and was always bringing home injured wildlife to rehab. As a young woman Becky started keeping and breeding reptiles herself as well as rare breeds of K-9’s and chickens. As her obsession for reptiles grew and grew she started studying with Matt. As Wild Things Exotic Animals expanded there was no doubt Becky was going to be part of the team.  

The WT Line Axanthic crested geckos were produced several years ago at Wild Things Exotic Animals Inc. from a pair of our breeders. We first held back all offspring from the original breeding pair until we could prove we had a true genetic line of Axanthic Crested Geckos. We also crossed out some from the originals to add diversity to our bloodline. In the summer of 2019 we were producing Axanthic crested geckos from visual to visual pairing. The WT Line Axanthic Crested Geckos are a beautiful light gray with remarkably high white accents. When fired up they turn dark while retaining the bright white. 

This was the first WT Line Axanthic produced in 2018

This girl is what we thought just a nice looking girl and added her to the breeding group. Little did we know she held the key to unlocking the WT Axanthic Line gene.