Immersive Ecosystems: Building Living Environments for Reptiles and Tarantulas

In the basement of a Kent home, a tiny rainstorm maintains the humidity of Australian water dragon Irwin’s enclosure. By pushing a button, owner Justin Crooks can summon a misting of water that douses the habitat.

“They’re more arboreal species,” Crooks says of the water dragon. “They’re usually either found underwater completely or high up in a platform, basking, hanging out, hiding. So, when he’s in his full enclosure — when he’s an adult, because these guys get pretty large — a good 50 percent of the bottom of his enclosure will be a filtered aquarium.”

Crooks has assembled an array of carefully constructed habitats to house his extensive reptile and tarantula collection. From lushly planted to arid, the enclosures each contain animals Crooks is passionate about.

“I’m most at peace in the woods or next to a creek, or in a creek or outside flipping stones or flipping logs, or just looking for things. So being able to bring that inside and have it within my space, I think is really cool,” he says. “I also really enjoy being able to build ecosystems and see parts of the world that I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Crooks — who works in environmental health and safety — constructed four of his current habitats to be bioactive, meaning that they have self-sustaining environments with natural waste management.

“You put in living plants, springtails, isopods,” says Crooks. “So, it’s a whole living ecosystem.”

Along with his water dragon, Crooks also owns mourning geckos, a Western hognose snake, a ball python, a leachianus gecko, an Antilles pinktoe tarantula, a Chaco golden knee tarantula, a bearded dragon, a blue-tongued skink, a pumpkin patch tarantula, a Brazilian blue tarantula, a desert rosy boa and more. His menagerie totals 18 — including four snakes, seven lizards and seven tarantulas.

“I have a balance between things that are arboreal, things that are terrestrial and things that are fossorial,” he says. “I like to be able to watch the tarantulas, the fossorial ones that are going underground and creating burrows. I like to watch the arboreal ones as they interact vertically. And same with terrestrial — just using that footprint and seeing where they go and what they do.”

Crooks’ first exotic pet was a bearded dragon he owned in seventh grade. His first current acquisition was Pachamama, the Chaco golden knee tarantula.

“Interestingly, I’ve always found tarantulas to be a little creepy, and I think why I wanted to get one is to learn about them, observe them,” he says. “As you spend time watching them and working with them, you kind of lose that fear and start gaining respect for them. And it really made me appreciate things that I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Crooks extensively researched his animals before acquiring them — a process he enjoys.

“A big draw to keeping animals like this is that you have to understand them,” he says. “You have to do the research.”

Crooks’ ultimate goal, in terms of acquiring lizards, is to get a green tree monitor. Building a habitat for that animal would mean attaining what he calls his “holy grail.”

“I do get a lot of satisfaction and joy from just watching them interact with what I’ve put together for them,” he says. “It’s kind of like living in ‘The Crocodile Hunter’ show, or the ‘Wild Kratts’ or something — being able to exist and watch it in your own home is neat.” //CG