Summary: Jonathan started keeping herps at 13, rapidly filling his parents house with banks of enclosures. He became interested in elapids and after harassing virtually every elapid keeper in QLD, his enthusiasm landed him a job at Venom Supplies in South Australia straight after he graduated high school. He worked with a host of species, from spitting cobras to pygmy copperheads, but mainly concentrated on a collection of 160 Coastal Taipans. A few years later an opportunity arose in QLD to purchase Educational Reptile Displays, the first on Jonathans forays into the business world. ERD is now a thriving education company, and one of few that does not perform birthday parties or school demonstrations – they strictly supply formal education to corporate clients, particularly in the safe and ethical handling of elapids. In 2009, Jonathan purchased Mike Swan Herp Books – Australia's largest bookstore specialising in reptile titles from throughout the world. Herp Books has around 300 titles in stock at any one time and travel to most of the reptile trade expos. Jonathan's main business interest was started in 2011 – Fauna Solutions. FS provides a host of fauna and environmental management work, particularly with reptiles in QLD's brigalow belt.
