Kimberly Burge has been an avid animal lover since her earliest memories of childhood. Her passion for reptiles, specifically snakes, started with an encounter with a garter snake in the backyard of her childhood home as a very young child.  Her parents had previously instructed her to not touch a snake, and inform an adult if she should ever come across one.  Standing next to the snake in the grass, she yelled “Snake!”  Her father, upon seeing it was harmless, picked it up and showed it to her, explaining what it was.  That first positive encounter planted a seed that grew into a lifelong fascination and consuming passion.

It wasn’t long before she was coming home with (literally) handfuls of snakes of various types from the local area.  Since she wasn’t allowed to keep them in the house at that time, they were temporarily kept in trash cans to be observed, cared for, and then released.  Her parents helped to instill in her an understanding of the importance of wild populations of animals and how she would adversely affect them if she were to permanently remove animals from the wild.

It wasn't until middle school when she became a Junior Curator at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences that she kept exotic animals as pets.  If there were an animal in need of a home, Kimberly would be the first to volunteer to give it one.  It was during this time that her true passion for reptiles and amphibians was solidified.

Since she was a child, upon seeing them in photographs and being immediately fascinated, she had always wanted "one of those green snakes that has the perfectly looped coils around branches."  If she had only known where that interest would lead.

Two sub-adult green tree pythons became available while she was working in the Living Collections department at the Museum of Natural Sciences. Thanks to the herpetologist at the time, Dave Davenport, she was able to give a home to those two beautiful animals.  There began her insatiable passion for chondros.  She quickly learned that there's no turning back once you have one!

Finding the ChondroForum online, Kimberly was able to meet some well respected breeders and other chondroheads.  Absorbing all the information she could gather, it wasn’t too long afterwards that she really wanted to try her hand at breeding.  It was then that Southern Chondros was born.

Officially in operation since 2005, Southern Chondros has grown to comprise of a collection of a wide variety of chondros, from “entry level” to some of the finest “high end designer” animals.  The continual goal is to produce quality captive born and bred green tree pythons that the discerning collector/breeder will want to add to their collection, while also producing "entry level" chondros for beginner keepers who, wisely, don't want to start out by taking the farm bred route.

Kimberly attended Sweet Briar College in Virginia where she obtained a BS in Biology.  Although herpetology was not a specific study option at SBC, she chose the local herp populations as study subjects for her research and photography.  She has kept close ties with the biology department and occasionally returns as a guest instructor.  Most recently, she was an instructor at the Advanced Training Rally for Virginia Master Naturalists.

Kimberly lives in NC with her Australian born husband, Christian, her German Shepherd, Jet, and a few other critters.  She works as a wildlife conservation educator for the state of North Carolina.  Kimberly is on the Executive Council of the NC Herpetological Society and is actively involved with the society along with being the Chair of the Outreach and Education Committee for NCPARC.  She is also involved with PIJAC and USARK.  Her longtime passion for horseback riding/teaching, spending time with her husband, and getting outside to poke around with her herp stick and camera pretty much takes up the rest of her time.

We hope you enjoy your time visiting this site.  Feel free to contact Kimberly if you have any questions.