{"id":276197,"date":"2026-04-20T01:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T01:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/276197\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T01:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T01:26:10","slug":"families-explore-thousands-of-reptiles-at-sacramento-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/276197\/","title":{"rendered":"Families explore thousands of reptiles at Sacramento show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crowds returned to the Cal Expo Pavilion on Sunday to get an up close look at thousands of cold-blooded creatures at the 28th annual Sacramento Reptile Show.<\/p>\n

More than 3,000 reptiles, including turtles, geckos, Komodo dragons, snakes and lizards, were on display during the two-day weekend event.<\/p>\n

The pavilion buzzed with activity as animal educators, conservationists, breeders and vendors filled the space. Families and enthusiasts moved from table to table, admiring animals and asking questions.<\/p>\n

Event organizer Jeremy Epstein said the expo is designed to spark curiosity, especially among younger visitors.<\/p>\n

\"Event Event organizer Jeremy Epstein tells visitors about a snake during the Sacramento Reptile Show at Cal Expo in Sacramento on Sunday, April 19, 2026. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

\u201cWe give kids the opportunity to learn about them,\u201d he explained. \u201cWhen you get a child on something, on proper care, on understanding the native environment, and they keep coming back because it grows as part of their interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

For beginners, Epstein said the show featured reptiles that are easier to care for, such as bearded dragons, corn snakes and leopard geckos.<\/p>\n

For many families, the experience was as much about building confidence as it was about learning.<\/p>\n

Sarah Johnson said vendors helped her child overcome fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter was nervous at first,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut a vendor took the time to explain everything and made her feel comfortable enough to pet a snake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epstein said children more easily overcame fear because of their age.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re young, and they don\u2019t have any built in fears or misconceptions,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we educate the kids on proper care, how to find the right animals, and also how that we ought to just be involved in the community, we create advocates for long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 19, 2026 at 3:15 PM.<\/p>\n

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Nicole Buss<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Nicole Buss is The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Roseville\/Placer County watchdog reporter. She previously covered Placer County at Gold Country Media. Buss grew up in Lincoln and is a graduate of Sierra College and Arizona State University.\n <\/p>\n


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Hannah Ruhoff<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Hannah Ruhoff is the assistant visuals editor at The Sacramento Bee. Previously, she was a visual journalist at another McClatchy property, the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. She is an Ohio University alumna and native of Shaker Heights, Ohio.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crowds returned to the Cal Expo Pavilion on Sunday to get an up close look at thousands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-276197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}