When Robert Morse was a small boy growing up in Brookville, he spent most of his time at a creek behind his family's home, collecting frogs, snakes, tadpoles and any other creature he could get his tiny hands on.

"My parents gave me an aquarium that I could put them in, but they would only let me keep them for 24 hours and then I'd have to let them go," Morse said.

Now Morse, an economics major at the University of Maryland, has an African pyxie frog, an African bull frog that's the size of a dinner plate and an Australian bearded dragon lizard. He also works with reptiles and fish at a local pet store.

One of Morse's favorite events of the year takes place this weekend as the annual Mid-Atlantic Reptile Show (MARS) slithers into the Maryland State Fairgrounds, in Timonium.

More than 170 vendor tables will be set up in the fairground's 4-H Hall. Books, food, cages and other supplies will be displayed, but about 75 percent of the tables will feature brilliantly colored snakes, frogs, lizards and turtles from around the world.

"I love the show. It is so awesome," Morse said. "I once saw an amazing green anaconda snake there."

This is the 16th year that breeders of reptiles and amphibians -- tarantulas were added two years ago -- have brought their various species to sell and have on display for the 6,000 people expected to attend.

"Our vendors and breeders come from all over and the people who come to the show are from young couples and college students to families with children who are looking for a pet," said Holli Friedland, MARS program director.

National reputation

MARS is one of the most respected shows of its kind, and has a national reputation of displaying healthy exotic reptiles and amphibians during its two-day event.

"MARS is in the top five in this country and it is unique because it was one of the first, if not the first, to only allow captive-born animals for sale," said Sean Stewart, owner of Herpetologic, a reptile and amphibian breeding facility in Ellicott City.

This year, Stewart will have neo-tropical frogs and arboreal pythons and boas for sale at MARS, with prices ranging from $50 to $400 for the frogs. The snakes will start at $1,500. He said that over the years he has displayed several first-of-a-kind species at the show.

"We have offered the first captive-bred specimens of at least three species of poison dart frogs, and we've also sold rare colors of green tree pythons, including blues, yellows and black," Stewart said.

For Morse, the rare colors displayed at MARS are a major part of the excitement.

"The breeders have so many new and crazy color variations every year," Morse said.

Many of the species displayed at MARS cannot ordinarily be seen in zoos or pet stores, which is why the show attracts so many people.

"We'll have, for example, bald pythons, that can cost you several thousand dollars, being sold here, and mutations of those with all kinds of crazy patterns. Some will be completely white that are purposely bred, so you won't see them in the wild or a zoo," said Friedland, who owns several tarantulas, snakes and lizards herself. "Many of the unusual species that you will see here are too expensive for retailers to take care of. They have temperature and humidity requirements and can be finicky eaters."

The six-foot-long green tree python would fit in the high-maintenance category. Found only in such humid, tropical regions as New Guinea, the snake is also endangered in its native lands, as are many of the species that can be seen at MARS.

"The green tree pythons will be our focus this year in our seminars," Friedland said. "They're really popular now but they're not for beginners because of their size, the care they require -- and, although they are not poisonous, they have long teeth and will hurt if they bite."

Poison control

Maryland law prohibits the displaying of venomous animals, but that won't keep breeders from showing off their colorful poison dart frogs.

"Poisonous dart frogs are only poisonous in the wild due to what they eat, but in captivity, they are harmless," Friedland said. "In captivity, we feed them fruit flies and bugs and not ants, which is what makes them poisonous in the wild."

Which is one of the reasons all of the species at MARS are captive-bred. Another, Friedland said, is that the wild species are not as healthy, due to parasites in their systems. It's also often hard to get them to eat.

Veterinarians and officials from the National Aquarium and other area zoos, not connected with MARS, police the area throughout the show to make sure that none of the species are wild.

"They know what tell-tale signs to look for, and if they see any animal that's unhealthy or looks wild, they take them off the table," Friedland said. "We've had to kick people out before, and other vendors will tell on them too, but having wild animals has not been a big issue for us. We have a national reputation of having clean animals."

That reputation is what Ben Eiben, who works for Herpetologic part-time, said has kept him and his friends coming back to MARS over the past four years.

"When I lived in Atlanta and worked as an amphibian specialist for the Botanical Gardens, I went to some small shows there, but they were not comparable to MARS," Eiben said. "In Atlanta, the animals were not all captive and the traders had wild animals they'd collected from their home countries. They were exotic reptiles but they were not in good condition as they are at MARS."

Morse agreed and said, "The others are a tenth of the size of MARS and I don't like the wild stuff some of them have."

Morse also likes the prices at MARS, which can range from $15 for a corn snake or gecko to $7,000 for an exotic boa.

Admission to MARS is $13 for a two-day adult pass or $9 for a one-day pass. Children and those over 65 years old pay $7 for a two-day admission pass. Hours for the show on both days are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Proceeds from the show go toward buying rain forest land for endangered species whose habitats have been destroyed or are threatened. So far, Friedland said, the show's organizers have purchased 2,845 acres of land, mainly in Costa Rica.

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