SKIN IN THE GAME
The New Yorker|February 26, 2024
Inside the frenzied business of designer ball pythons.
REBECCA GIGGS
SKIN IN THE GAME

On a fall day in Gainesville, Georgia, Justin Kobylka, the forty-two-year-old owner of Kinova Reptiles, was preparing to cut open two clutches of snake eggs. He was hoping to hit upon some valuable, beautiful reptiles. Kobylka is a breeder of designer ball pythons-one-of-a-kind, captive-bred snakes whose skin features colors and patterns not usually found in nature. "I think of myself as an explorer," he told me. Nicking an egg with a pair of surgical scissors, he exposed a live hatchling in its goo. "Even when they haven't yet touched air, you can sometimes see the tongue going," he said, making a flicking gesture with his thumb and fingertip.

We were standing in a six-thousand-square-foot climate-controlled outbuilding that housed some two thousand pythons, which were kept in individual plastic trays slotted into tall metal racks. The space, which cost nearly a million dollars to build and outfit, was immaculate and well lit, with corner-mounted industrial fans and glossy floors. A vague odor of musk and Clorox was all that hinted at the daily chores of snake husbandry.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 26, 2024 من The New Yorker.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 26, 2024 من The New Yorker.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

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