WILMINGTON, N.C.--The world's deadliest snakes are right at home at the Cape Fear Serpentarium in Wilmington.

 

 

 Serpentarium founder, Dean Ripa is happy to step inside the glass enclosure and show just how mad he can make a King Cobra.

 

  "Right now he'd like to bite my foot, so I have to move it somewhere else,“ Ripa said.

 

 The man with a passion for the exotic has traveled the world collecting snakes from thirty countries.

 

  Ripa recalled, "I spent, months and months walking in the jungle before I found my first black headed bushmaster."

 

  In fact, he said his serpentarium is the only place in the world where you can see three different varieties of Bushmasters in captivity.

 

  Visitor Diane Darrow said, "I like to go to zoos; San Diego, Atlanta, Toledo, New York City, Washington, D.C. and this is very impressive.  It really is."

 

  Ripa said, “They can see snakes here they can't see anywhere else .You could go to every zoo in the country and they still won't see all the snakes they can see here."

 

  Visitors get nose to nose with pythons. 

 

  Among the largest is a twenty foot long reticulated python weighing in at 250 pounds.

 

  It is non-venomous, but packs a powerful squeeze.

 

  Ripa and his staff never handle it alone. They've been wrapped-up before.

 

 "It took a third person to get us out of all this mess.  Even so I was in his jaw for 25 minutes trying to get his jaw of my leg!"

 

  There's no doubt Ripa lives dangerously.

 

  He cares for Spectacled Cobras which are responsible for killing the most people in the world.

 

  "India and other parts of southeast Asia about fifty-thousand people are bitten, I mean killed by that snake, many, many more are bitten."

 

  Visitors of all ages receive an education at each display.

 

  Ten year old Emily Mull told us, "The black mamba is one of the deadliest snakes."

 

  She's right.

 

  The Cape Fear Serpentarium  has Black Mambas and more.  It is slightly more than a half tank trip from the Triangle.

 

  Admission is $8, children two and under get in free.