A Herpetologist Reveals The 3 ‘Hottest’ Pet Reptiles—And 4 That Have Fallen Out Of Fashion

A recent article published in the academic journal Animals suggests that bearded dragons–a medium-sized Australian lizard known for their distinctive “beard” of spikes under their chin (pictured above)–are the most popular animal in the exotic pet reptile market, followed by ball pythons and leopard geckos.

On the other hand, four reptiles whose popularity has waned over the past decade are green iguanas, Burmese pythons, chameleons and red-eared sliders.

“Reptiles are one of the most popular exotic pets in the world, resulting in a quickly growing billion-dollar pet industry,” says Jose Valdez, the lead author of the research. “Their popularity as pets has made reptiles one of the most common animals in the wildlife trade, with evidence suggesting that over a third of all described reptile species are actively bought and sold around the world.”

Despite the size of the market, tracking the buying and selling of exotic pet reptiles is notoriously hard to do.

“The most common pet reptiles are typically non-threatened, captive-bred, and are domestically obtained, which means they are largely unregulated and unmonitored, resulting in a large portion of the reptile pet trade remaining unknown,” says Valdez.

To understand this largely hidden market, the researchers examined data from Google Trends–using Google search volumes to measure and understand the popularity of pet reptile species over time. They combined this information with survey data, in which they asked 91 reptile enthusiasts to rank the most popular reptiles in the reptile pet market–both now, in the past, and what they anticipated would happen in the future.

While there were some subtle differences between the results of the survey and the Google Trends analysis, both methods returned the same top three reptiles: bearded dragons, ball pythons and leopard geckos.

“This reptile [bearded dragon] has remained popular due to its appearance, personality, manageable size, and docile temperament,” says Valdez. “They are also the most attractive reptile for family and kids as they are relatively easy to handle, omnivorous, eat similar foods as humans, and relatively active during the day.”

Ball pythons, Valdez suggests, are the most popular pet snake due to their docile, low-maintenance disposition, small to medium size and easiness to handle. Leopard geckos are also especially popular due to their hardiness, small size and relative ease of care.

Here are the top ten most searched reptiles according to the Google Trends analysis:

1. Bearded dragon
2. Ball python
3. Leopard gecko
4. Chameleons
5. Corn snake
6. Boa constrictor
7. Green iguana
8. Crested gecko
9. Red-eared slider
10. Kingsnake

Looking to the future, survey respondents thought that blue-tongued skinks, tegus, uromastyx lizards, crested geckos and ball pythons would show the greatest increases in popularity over the decade.

Valdez finds the crested gecko of particular interest, as its popularity has increased three-fold over the past two decades. The crested gecko has the interesting history of having been thought to be extinct for over a century until it was rediscovered in New Caledonia in 1994.

“Google Trends can be a useful tool for determining relative popularity among reptile pets, or other animal groups, with results closely mirroring those obtained through surveys,” says Valdez. “However, unlike surveys, this analysis is quick, quantifiable, and can show what is popular and in-demand not only at the global level but at finer scales. Google Trends can also be a valuable technology for many other applications, especially research areas that may otherwise be difficult to monitor or quantify.”