About Us

Breathitt is the reason the project exists.

At six years old, she decided she wanted to become a reptile veterinarian. She is now seven and runs the project while she attends a Cambridge International college-prep school.

Her Kenyan sand boa, Tom, started the question. She loves Tom, but she usually sees him only when he comes up to eat. If some sand boas naturally spend more time above ground, could that tendency be passed down, the way physical traits are? Tom was our first test animal while we built the camera system.

She asked the question; she is not being asked to run an animal study on her own. Dad is the responsible adult lead for animal care, the experiment, and the data.

The Surface Sand Boa Project gives her a chance to grow up participating in a real long-term animal project rather than waiting until adulthood to begin learning how research works.

Her roles will grow with her.

Today that means animal care, observation, naming snakes, asking questions, learning record keeping, and helping with routine project tasks.

As she gets older, the project can grow with her understanding of genetics, statistics, experimental design, animal medicine, and scientific communication.

Dad handles much of the engineering and technical infrastructure behind the project.

That includes enclosure systems, 3D printing, cameras, software, databases, website development, data processing, automation, and whatever else Breathitt decides her assistant should be doing that week.

Dad brings more than 30 years of experience in technology, web and application development, 17 years of 3D printing and digital fabrication, and recent work in AI and workflow automation. Those skills are being applied here to build the observation, tracking, data, automation, and public reporting systems behind the experiment.

The animal side goes back further. At 16, Dad became a licensed exotic bird breeder, working alongside his parents on husbandry, breeding records, genetics, and selective breeding, including selecting for temperament. The family then ran a Florida-licensed Class III wildlife breeding facility for about 20 years.

His role here is much like his own father’s was: provide the tools, the experience, and the safeguards, and let the young person beside him learn by actually doing.

The project combines animal husbandry with technology because objective behavioral observation becomes far more useful when it can be recorded consistently over long periods.