Gus Ben David is an Island institution. For 30 years he has directed Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. Anyone walking the trails gets a sense of a wild place that is tended by loving hands. The open grassland is mowed at strategic times of year. Waterfowl find refuge in the small duck pond at the far end of the property.

It takes a warm-blooded naturalist to run a den of cold-blooded creatures. Gus and Shane Ben David’s World of Reptiles is now in its third year. These are the animals that will never be friendly, but they do get along. They range in size from a 21-foot, 230-pound reticulated python down to a bullfrog from Cape Cod.