Uncharted Wild LLC

This stuff is straight evil. DO NOT USE AI, ESPECIALLY IF YOU CALL YOURSELF AN “EDUCATOR”!! I’ve seen so many individuals or groups claiming to be environmental/wildlife educators using ai for their posters and promo things, especially reptile expos. Using AI to answer your questions or make silly, dumb photos of you to post for likes is a huge part of the problem. Anyone against these data centers (including the big one they’re trying to build right here in Albany) needs to stop using any form of gen AI because it is catastrophic for the animal, nature, and communities suffering around these monstrosities being built. It uses up water, dries out the land to practically being unusable, and will kill entire ecosystems and leave an arid nothingland behind.

We've confirmed the proposed data center adjacent to Nashville Zoo may be much larger than initially presented.

The planning documents reference a second building that could exceed 202,000 square feet (3x larger than the first) with a 40-megawatt capacity, along with an electrical substation. Combined, that's up to 50 megawatts of power capacity, enough to power up to 50,000 homes.

Because of these concerns, Nashville Zoo has taken its first legal step. Our Land Use Attorney and former Metro Codes Director, Bill Herbert, has filed a zoning appeal seeking to overturn the permits approved for the project.

Please continue contacting Metro Nashville Council Members and Mayor O'Connell and encourage them to support BL2026-1391.

We also ask our community to attend the Planning Commission Public Hearing on Thursday, June 11 at 4 p.m. at 700 President Ronald Reagan Way and speak in support of Council Member Rollin Horton's BL2026-1391.

We need to do everything we can to stop this data center from being built next to Nashville Zoo. Why does a project of this scale need to be located directly adjacent to some of the most endangered animals in the world? Until those questions are fully answered and the impacts are understood, we must continue speaking up. The potential consequences are too significant, and any damage could be irreversible.

Doing assemblies for elementary schools this week and having kids ask at all of them where Norman is because so many kids remember so many of the animals’ names like Butters, Maui, Pepper. So I explained he isn’t with us anymore and that’s okay, he lived to a good old age and clearly made a lasting impression on so many of them.

Also had a student ask what my worst animal accident at a show was so I got to share the story of a young Norman sitting on my head and pooping right down my hair and shoulder.

(This is how he liked to lay for petting time with his head tucked into his blankies 😂)

I’m very sorry to share that yesterday, Norman, the big legend himself, traveled over the rainbow bridge. I first got Norman from someone just north of NYC as he was outgrowing the setup they had in their apartment in summer 2014 and he has been the star of our program ever since. For the last few years he’s slowly been declining, as all senior animals inevitably do, and made it to 14 years old! Norman was by far the calmest, “friendliest” big lizard I’ve ever worked with. Elementary school kids could swarm him and pet him all down his back and the big man would just lay their chill as could be looking around and occasionally licking their feet and legs (eliciting excited shrieks). He was a testament to how educators can help influence the public to not be as afraid of reptiles, and it’s been my honor to educate tens of thousands of people alongside him for the first decade of Uncharted Wild’s existence.

Many say reptiles are dumb, primitive, don’t care about affection, or aren’t as rewarding of a pet as dogs/cats because you can’t bond with them, and Norman for sure proved those assumptions wrong. I’ll miss the days of watching him wander around my yard, lay on the table for kids to meet, climb up onto my couch to fall asleep on my legs, but I’ll always have those memories. It’s never fun making these types of posts, and I don’t do them for all of my animals, but for this old icon of our program and for how often I’m asked about him, I thought I should let the people that loved seeing him know. If anyone has any pictures of him from shows they’ve seen him at over the years, I’d love to see them!

We’re at the Capital District Reptile Expo all day today in Albany, hope to see you there!

Been having a busy week Nursing Home Week so far showing off some cool critters to folks!

This Sunday all day we’ll be at the Capital District Reptile Expo in Albany in the education room! We’ll be bringing a whole crew of reptiles and other critters for you to come meet, by far the most amount of animals we take to a show all year. Hope to see you there!

Very sad to share that this week we had to say goodbye to Medusa our 22 year old carpet python. She was one of my very first surrenders that I took in (ten years ago) and has been one of the staple large snakes in our programs ever since. She started slowing down last fall and an x-ray showed she was developing what our vet called was essentially “snake arthritis”. She hasn’t been to programs for more than half a year now but she was such a big part of the show and so many kids remembered her name and ask about her that I thought I should share. Never fun making these kinds of posts (obviously) and I don’t for every animal but she was such a gentle old gal and so good with the kids that I wanted to make a little remembrance post for her.

Yesterday I got to help someone on a months long journey of conquering arachnophobia hit a major milestone, seeing a tarantula up close and even holding it! If you would like to overcome any specific animal fears whether they be spiders, snakes, bugs, even birds, we’re available for one on one sessions like this! (Or if you just want an excuse to meet and play with a critter)