12: Snake Discovery

 One year ago, you may not have been familiar with the YouTube Channel, Snake Discovery. Today, you surely are. Snake Discovery has now become a hugely popular YouTube Channel, which has come as somewhat of a surprise for Emily and Ed, the creators of the channel.

On this episode, Dillon interviews the star of most Snake Discovery videos, Emily. During the interview, Emily tells Dillon, that the channel has completely taken on a life of its own, and its current state is not at all what the original intentions for the channel were.

Snake Discovery started out as (and still is) an educational show for schools, libraries, and parties. To her shows, Emily brings live reptiles and amphibians and teaches the audience everything from natural history to the basic care of the animals. At the conclusion of her shows, Emily found she was having to answer the same questions over and over. The Snake Discovery YouTube Channel was originally created to give individuals who attended an educational show a place to have their questions answered by way of video.

Saying the channel has since exploded would be an understatement.

I don’t know this for sure, but I am willing to stick my neck out and say Snake Discovery is the fastest growing reptile-related YouTube Channel in the history of YouTube! Don’t believe me? Here are some of the statistics Dillon shares in the podcast:

Aug 08^th, 2017: 1000 Subscribers

Jun 12^th, 2018: 100 000 Subscribers

Dec 20^th,2018: 845 000 + Subscribers

In the past month or so they have had several days that have had more than 1 million views and more than 12 000 new subscriptions.

If that is not the fastest growing reptile related YouTube Channel than I don’t know what is! During the conversation on the podcast, Emily revealed an unusual goal her and her husband share: never ask anyone to subscribe! Snake Discovery has grown completely organically, no asking for subscriptions, no contests, no clickbait. The success of the channel is being driven by quality content alone.

Snake Discovery releases two videos per week, and the content ranges from care videos to breeding projects (hognose, bull snakes, garter snakes and more!), to unboxing videos and more! Emily and Ed have a very large reptile collection including an American Alligator, turtles, green tree pythons and much more! Many of their animals are rescued.

On the podcast, Dillon and Emily also discussed some major issues currently plaguing the hobby. Mainly industrialized breeding and poor husbandry. Emily addresses the problem by sharing their future plans for Snake Discovery. Emily and Ed and planning on expanding Snake Discovery into a physical location that would allow for observation of their animals in a zoo-like setting as well as provide a place to educate people on proper animal care.

The reptile hobby is always in need of proper role models and positive influencers. Emily and Ed at Snake Discovery fulfill both of those roles quite nicely.