Youngsters visit Reptile Isle at Ocean Shores Library
Published 1:30 am Friday, June 26, 2026
Cold and light rain didn’t deter 80 people, parents and children, from visiting Reptile Isle at the Ocean Shores Public Library on Thursday.
Don “The Reptile King” Riggs brought his interactive, family-friendly show to delight and educate the crowd at Ocean Shores Public Library’s first event of its Summer Reading Program.
Riggs kicked things off with an albino Burmese python and continued with a brother-and-sister pair of baby tortoises named Ping and Pong, a rare gecko, a young alligator named Later, a blue-tongued skink, and concluded the show with an extremely rare black dragon lizard named Toothless, whose namesake is the character from the popular film How to Train Your Dragon. Riggs and his daughter gave attendees a close-up, personal look at the animals and allowed many kids and their parents to touch them. Photo opportunities were abundant.
He says the people of Ocean Shores and the Ocean Shores Public Library staff are the reasons why he brings these animals to the seaside town.
“The people are the biggest reason for coming out to this library, but we do shows all over the United States. Big, small, medium-sized, all over,” Riggs said. “We try to bridge that gap with the show, between keeping the adults entertained and the kids entertained at the same time, while sneaking in some good education. And if I do that, I think I did my job.”
The affable Riggs, whose wife Sylvia serves as DJ and sound engineer, blends comedy, pop culture and education during the show.
“I have kids that are in that age group. So they’ve been working with these animals since they were born. That’s where a lot of that comes from, because I’m sitting at home watching Toothless with my kids. That’s kind of where that was actually born,” Riggs said. “Just like the music. Same thing. Nobody wants to sit in a science class anymore. They don’t. So if you can make it a little reptile rock and roll show, then kids and adults will actually pay attention, and, as I said, sneak the education in the back door, and the animals are the ones who are ultimately gonna be better off for it.”
Riggs says that conservation is the true mission behind Reptile Isle.
“When you’re in another country, a lot of people do not realize until you’ve been to those other countries, how few of these animals are actually left in the countries in which they hail from. It is super important because the next generation of young ones is gonna be the ones who write the final chapter on whether these animals are alive or dead,” Riggs said. “I worked with Steve Irwin for about five years before he passed away, and just like he said, if I can make you fall in love with the animals, you’ll help me save them.”
The next event in the Ocean Shores Public Library’s Kids Summer Reading Program is Magical Marvelous Seeds, which will be held on Thursday, July 2, at 2 p.m. Kids will learn how seeds explode to life to create everything from beautiful flowers to delicious fruit. The event is sponsored by Garden by the Sea and the Master Gardeners of Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties.
