My name is John Dunbar, I have been an exotic animal enthusiast for almost 30 years. Since I acquired my first pet snake I became completely fascinated by reptiles which led to an adventurous journey of travelling around the world including South America, India, Indonesia, South East Asia, Europe, and North Africa, to observe and study snakes and other reptiles and exotic bugs in the wild.

An expedition in 2007 to the swamps of Venezuela to catch giant anacondas inspired me to go back to education, and at 28 years of age I decided to undertake a Bachelor’s degree in Biological & Biomedical Sciences at Maynooth University. I later worked as an assistant herpetologist in the Centre for Snakebite Research & Interventions at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where I was involved in the care of over 450 venomous snakes which we extracted venom from to be used for biomedical research into next generation Snakebite antivenoms. Following this I pursued a PhD in the Venom Systems & Proteomics lab in the Zoology department at the University of Galway where I studied spider venom. After completing my PhD research I received a two-year Postdoctoral research fellowship by the Irish Research Council to study scorpions in Morocco.

Now my goal is to open up a zoo in the Irish midlands of Co Longford that will specialise in some of our native, and exotic, species of bugs and reptiles. This will be Ireland’s most centrally located zoological tourist attraction that will provide the opportunity to educate about the fascinating lives of some of the world’s most weird and wonderful creatures.